perfect vanilla cupcakes

I have been on the lookout for the perfect cupcake for at least 3 years. Most recipes are either too spongy, too dry, too crumbly, or simply flavorless.

Not this one. This one is flawless. Light, but dense, tons of flavor (probably from the cream and vanilla!) and risen to perfection. Pair it with salted buttercream, and you've got one delicious dessert!

If there is one made-from-scratch cake recipe you are going to try, this should be it. I promise it won't disappoint.

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes: Adapted from A Sweet Spoonful

1 cup whole milk (or 3/4 skim plus 1/4 cream)

4 large egg whites

3 tsp pure vanilla extract

3 cups sifted cake flour

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 sticks butter, cut into pieces, room temperature

3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 F and line pan with cupcake wrappers.

In a bowl, mix 1/4 cup of the milk with the egg whites and vanilla extract. Set aside. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Slowly add the butter and the remaining 3/4 cup of milk until blended, then beat at medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the egg white mixture in 3 additions, beating the batter on medium speed for 20 seconds after each addition.

In another bowl, using either a hand-held mixer or the stand mixer, beat the cream until soft peaks form. Stir 1/3 of the whipped cream into the batter, then fold in the rest with a spatula. Using an ice cream scoop (best tip ever for uniform cupcakes) fill the cupcake liners. Bake for 19-24 minutes, or until they spring back when lightly touched. Let cupcakes cool on a wire rack completely. Makes about 36 cupcakes.

*To make the cute decorations on top, just heat one part water with two parts sugar until golden, and drizzle over a greased piece of parchment paper. Carefully remove after cooling and poke in top!

Halloween Ideas

Isn't halloween fun? :) Here are a few fun crafts and recipes that I've found while looking at blogs over the past month.

I love halloween trees. They seem so easy to make and would be great centerpieces! This one is from Martha Stewart. I think they show you how to make the little pumpkins and cats, too.

There are TONS of halloween cupcake ideas out there, but these are my favorites this year. It's surprisingly easy to make decorations out of melted chocolate, and I'm sure you can find these little spiders at any craft store. These were found on Country Living.

My friend Brooke got me hooked on halloween wreaths. Her blog has so many great ideas... click here to see them (and most of them have tutorials!). This is another of my favorites because it looks a little bit spider-like but still elegant. It was also found on Country Living.

Caramel apples are my favorite thing about fall. We have an apple tree outside our apartment, so we've been making tons of them! These beautiful apples are what inspired the craft, and the website they come from has the BEST caramel recipe. It sticks to the apples and is really easy to make. Click here to get the recipe.

I thought this was a great craft idea. I hate when halloween decorations just look like cheap clutter, and this one definitely does not! This was posted by Becky Higgins on Eighteen 25.

I saw this cute idea on foodgawker today from Jelly Shot Test Kitchen. I love halloween treats!

Happy halloween!

The Cupcakes I Will Never Make

I love cupcakes. All kinds. So it figures that I would marry someone who doesn't particularly like any cupcakes, and who HATES cupcakes with any type of fruit or vegetable in them.

I'm sure I will find some excuse to make these fruity treats during our lifetime together (there will be plenty of relief society/primary parties that call for festive cupcakes, right?), but for now I am posting the cupcakes are being put on hold. Hopefully you can make them and tell me how wonderful they are. :)

These are strawberry cupcakes with strawberry cream cheese frosting... and the best part? They are semi-homemade! Yep... made with a box cake mix and some strawberry jello. The recipe (and more pictures) are from Stupendous Treats. I recently re-discovered Haagen Dazs's strawberry ice cream, so I REALLY want to try these!

Peaches and Cream cupcakes from Cupcake Project. I'm afraid of these turning out like muffins with frosting on top, but maybe if they were made with angel food cake and whipped cream frosting... mmm!

Aren't these cute? I loved these in the summer when I was little. It's amazing enough that they look like the popsicle, but they taste like it too! (Or so I imagine from the recipe.)

Pistachio cupcakes. These might only sound good to me (which I conclude after countless attempts to buy pistachio pudding in the grocery store while my siblings or friends would tell me it was "so disgusting"). The interesting thing about this recipe is that it uses Dream Whip in the frosting! I've never worked with Dream Whip, but I'm told I am missing out on something great. It's definitely worth a shot.

I can't imagine what Orange Cupcakes would taste like. At all. Citrus into a bread product seems hard to do, but I'm sure I would love them! They look especially cute for a Halloween theme. (Side note: how did the author of My Baking Addiction get the frosting to look like that? Are there XXL frosting tips out there that I'm not aware of?)

Pineapple and Coconut Cupcakes sound genius. My mom used to make a wonderful pineapple upside-down cake when I was little and I imagine these taste similar.

These Zucchini Spice Cupcakes can be found in the Martha Stewart Cupcake book. Zucchini bread is awesome, so I don't see how these could go wrong.

Okay these are getting closer to something Dan would like, but they still have fruit in them. Bananas and chocolate are perfect together. One of my favorite treats in high school was Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory chocolate-dipped bananas. Eating them in cupcake form would just be that much better! The recipe can be found on the Love and Olive Oil blog.

Well, happy baking everyone. Let me know if you try any of these! In the meantime, I'll try to convert my fruit-in-baked-goods hating husband and join in on the fun.

New Look!

Ta Da! A new look.

And a new direction. I simply don't have enough time to bake while I'm in school, but no posts= really lame blog. So, I'm going to post my favorite finds from other blogs regularly, and throw in my own creations from time to time. How does that sound?

Today's post: Little girl cakes. I'm FAR away from having my own baby girl, but I thought these were such cute ideas. The aloha cupcakes are from Bakerella, where she gives a tutorial on how to make them.

I love this "ribbon candy" frosting. This photo actually comes from a featured table on Amy Atlas's website-- and if you don't know who she is, I highly recommend checking out the site. I love the gorgeous dessert tables she makes!

Triangle banners are apparently all the rage right now for kid party decorating, and this one looks simple and classy.

More cakes to come... happy decorating!

Tami's Wedding Cake

WHY do I love baking so much? After pouring cup after cup of batter into pans and waiting hours for all of the layers to be done, and after getting flour and powdered sugar and cream cheese all over my clothes and hair... you would think I would be sick of cake. But I'm not! I would gladly start it all up again tomorrow morning if given the chance. Seriously. This is so funny to me but I'm glad I have found something I'm so passionate about! I can't wait to do Becca's wedding in a couple of weeks. This cake was vanilla with raspberry filling and cream cheese frosting. I loved it. Tami and I definitely have similar taste preferences when it comes to dessert. Can I tell you a secret though? This cake was flavored with vanilla, almond, and lemon. I totally messed up one of the layers and put PEPPERMINT in instead of lemon! Haha I couldn't believe it but when I tasted it afterwards it wasn't half bad, so I went with it. I'm sure some people were very confused if they were lucky enough to get one of the random minty pieces, but I actually thought it was a nice addition! Who knows... maybe I have created a new favorite. Just don't tell Tam Tam.

Tami also wanted 250 cupcakes in varying flavors to go along with her cake (she had a dessert bar for her reception), so I got to decorate all of the cupcakes on Friday with one of my best friends. Luckily I didn't have to do it all alone-- Tami's sisters and cousin offered to bake a lot of them. We had chocolate, pumpkin, oreo, vanilla, and coconut. I should have taken more pictures before the crowd showed up, but here is one:

I've never had Oreo cupcakes before so I had to just invent a random Oreo recipe. It's not hard and they turned out to be my favorite flavor!

Oreo Cupcakes

1 white cake mix

1 small box vanilla instant pudding

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup water

1/2 cup oil

4 eggs

5 Tbs cocoa powder

6-8 Oreo cookies, crushed

Mix all ingredients well. Fill cupcakes 2/3 full (I found that the perfect amount was 2 Tbs plus 1 tsp.... or one ice cream scoop in my case). Place in a 350 degree oven for 12-15 minutes or until the cupcakes spring back when lightly touched.

We served these with Oreo cream cheese frosting and a mini Oreo placed on top.

Tami's Wedding Shower

Today marks a very important moment in my life... THE MOMENT I BECAME FRIENDS WITH FONDANT! Or at least acquaintances. Bottom line is, I'm not afraid anymore! I'm so proud of myself. This is like riding the X roller coaster at Knott's Berry Farm for me. The first time I ran into fondant was when I tried making my own (which turned into a dry mess that kept shrinking back into a little ball and refused to be cooperative). I know that Wilton's fondant tastes bitter and frankly would ruin any cake it covers, but at least I had fun with it and at least I know the consistency I should be looking for if I ever tackle the homemade version again.

These cupcakes are not coming with a recipe today because they are just a plain old white cake batter with (big surprise...) cream cheese frosting.

I am so frustrated when it comes to frosting right now. I know how to do cream cheese, Italian buttercream, and chocolate. But what does a girl choose for an outdoor wedding cake? Buttercream is heavenly but will ooze all over the cake if left on its own for more than five minutes. Chocolate = groom's cake = big no no. Cream cheese might work but I'm still hesitant because of the heat. The middle of August just doesn't give me a lot of options! The one that I have had recommended countless times is the Wilton one. I'm not a fan. It has shortening in it and I absolutely hate the filmy feel in my mouth after I eat frosting like that. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be extremely grateful!

Happy 24th of July. Yay for pioneers!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Alright... these are my favorite cupcakes hands down. The pumpkin makes them super moist and the cream cheese frosting is the perfect topper for these little cakes. Definitely a winner.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

1 white cake mix

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/3 cup water

15 oz. pumpkin

3 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

Mix together and bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes (or until the center bounces back when lightly touched). These were a hit with cream cheese frosting and nutmeg sprinkles on top.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 sticks butter

8 oz cream cheese

4-5 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Cream together and pipe on cupcakes. I used a # 1M tip from Wilton in this picture. Note: When piping, make sure to hold the tip directly above the cupcake. I started out at an angle and the frosting didn't look as pretty.