Rapunzel Party: Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

I decided to make cupcakes from scratch for my daughter's party this year. I have never done this before..so I read a lot online and decided to go with reliable Martha Stewart for my recipes and go with a classic vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting.

VANILLA CUPCAKES

(from Martha Stewart)

3 cups ALL PURPOSE FLOUR

1 1/2 tsp BAKING POWDER

3/4 tsp SALT

1 1/2 sticks softened UNSALTED BUTTER

1 1/2 cups SUGAR

4 large EGGS

2 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT

1 1/4 cups MILK

STEP 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside. Put butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well. Add vanilla. Reduce speed to medium. Mix in 3 batches of flour mixture, alternating with 2 batches of milk. Raise speed to medium-high; mix until thoroughly blended, 10 to 20 seconds.

STEP 2: Spoon 1/4 cup batter into each muffin cup. Bake until a cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Let cool in tin on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tin; let cool completely. Line tin with muffin cups; repeat process with remaining batter.

 

FLUFFY VANILLA BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

(from Martha Stewart)

I cut the original recipe in half and still had enough to frost 24 cupcakes with a #12 circle tip.

2 stick softened UNSALTED BUTTER

3 cups POWDERED SUGAR

1/4 tsp VANILLA EXTRACT

1 pinch of SALT

STEP 1: Put butter in bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to medium; add sugar 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well, about 5 minutes total. Add vanilla and salt. Raise speed to medium-high; beat until smooth, about 1 minute more.

STEP 2: Fill icing bag with choice of decorator tip and icing and frost cupcake in a spiral motion, starting at the outer edge and working your way into the center to create a point.

(Note: If you use a larger tip than I did...you may need to make more icing to be able to frost 24 cupcakes.)

I didn't have time to make royal icing flowers for the tops...so silk flowers to the rescue! Ha! I "blinged" them up by adding little rhinestones to the centers.

 

The End

:)

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