Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

As mentioned in my previous entry, I made cupcakes this afternoon. Per Papa's suggestion, I made something not chocolate-flavored: VANILLA! Even the frosting was vanilla-flavored. I know it's redundant, but what can I do? He bought me the ingredients for the cupcakes. I'm planning to make a new set tomorrow or on Sunday because I found new cupcake recipes.

The vanilla cupcake recipe I used was from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chockylit, but it originally came from Martha Stewart. I love how the cupcakes turned out. They have a smooth texture plus most of them were saved from the usual cracks. I finally got the technique to spare them from cracking!

As for the frosting, I used a yellow food color to add some color to the cupcakes. I had a hard time frosting the cupcakes because the buttercream kept on melting. I had to cool both the icing and cupcakes inside the refrigerator for easy frosting.

My sister brought her camera with her, so I was left with my 2mp-cellphone camera. As expected, the pictures I took were not great.

Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stick butter
• 1 c sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 c milk

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 175degrees Celsius.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
• In a separate bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat in vanilla.
• Add flour mixture and milk alternately, beginning and ending with flour mixture.
• Divide batter evenly amg cupcake liners, about three-quarters full each. Bake for 20 minutes.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2-3 c powdered sugar

Directions:

• Beat the butter at medium speed until creamy.
• Add the milk, vanilla extract, and 2 c of powdered sugar and beat at low speed, occasionally stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, until light and fluffy. Add more powdered sugar to arrive at the consistency and sweetness you like.
  

The first group of cupcakes after coming out of the oven

My pathetic attempt to frost the cupcakes. I will use a different decorating tip next time.

Inside the refrigerator