Etcetera

yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and a raspberry

Yesterday I spent just about all day making 3 dozen yellow cake cupcakes. I wanted to make them both to photograph and for my sisters birthday tomorrow & valentines day. I’ve never actually made cupcakes before but it was super easy and pretty fun.

I used the smitten kitchen ‘best birthday cake’ recipe with a few alterations. I also cheated and bought the frosting.

(http://smittenkitchen.com/2009/07/best-birthday-cake/)

4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon table salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups milk & 2 tablespoons white vinegar (to make buttermilk)

Preheat oven to 350°F. Mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy (I don’t have an electric mixer, so this part took forever).

add vanilla extract and eggs one at a time. Then, take 2 tablespoons vinegar and pour into a liquid measuring cup. Fill the remainder with 2 cups milk and let it sit for 5 minutes and voilà! You have Buttermilk without having to buy some. Pour your buttermilk into the mixture and stir until blended.

combine with flour mixture slowly so it isn’t too hard to stir, then line cupcake tray with paper liners and fill a little over halfway.

Bake for about 20 - 25 minutes, or until a light golden color. Poke a toothpick into the center of one of the cakes and make sure it comes out clean, if it does they are done! Like I said this recipe made about 3 dozen cupcakes, so I needed two containers of frosting to cover all of them :)