Some days ago I told you that I would publish my favourite vanilla cupcakes recipe. I found it accidently on European blog „Cake Journal“ while searching for tutorials for fondant figures. When I saw it I forgot about fondant. Actually, I hate fondant, because it does not want to do what I want it to do. I decided to think about the gum paste decorations later.
You will see that this recipe is pretty easy and fast. As there are lots of possibilities to decorate the tiny cakes, I will give you the basic cake recipe in the following directions. Ideas for toppings and decorations will follow soon.
Vanilla cupcake dough – basic
(makes about 16 cupcakes)
225 g (1 5/8 cup – 8 oz) all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
125 g (1/2 cup – 4 oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
175 g (7/8 cup – 6 oz) white sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
3 large eggs, room temperature
80 ml (1/3 cup) whipping cream, room temperature
Preheat the oven to 170° C (325° F). Oil a muffin pan or lay out with paper molds.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl.Set aside until needed.
In another bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, until fluffy and white. Add vanilla. Add one egg at a time and whisk in between until fully incorporated. Now add the dry ingredients while you continue to mix. Stir in the whipping cream. Do not overbeat.
Fill the dough into the molds until they are 2/3 full. Bake about 30 minutes or until a toothpicker comes out clean. Let the muffins cool completely, top with your favourite frosting and decorate them as you like
Recipe from http://cakejournal.com/recipes/classic-vanilla-cupcake-recipe/
I’m so sorry I did not post anything the last 10 days. I was just… busy and tired. But believe me, I baked a lot and you will receive further information this week. However, many things have happened so far and one important of them was my boyfriends 18th birthday. 18. Hard to believe for me. Now he can drive his car without a parent, buy any kind of alcohol, sign all his documents on his own etc. Well, not THAT impressive to me :P. But it is a birthday, still, so why not just celebrate? According to this occasion, I prepared treats as a dessert for the parties, which made me super happy, of course :). The following pictures will show you the result of my work.
The first party was just a small one and besides, my cake was not the only one. So I decided to make a tiny heart cake using the idea of I am baker. A mini cake with a even smaller heart inside – challenge accepted.
http://iambaker.net/heart-cake-tutorial/
The second party included more guests, so I made two things:
A rainbow cake, which was originally made by Whisk kid, but I used the cake recipe of Love and Olive Oil. Between the layers I put less buttercream frosting and decorated it with beaten heavy cream and cake crumbs. It was definitely worth the hard work – seeing all the people watch the colourful layers shining under the white cream… Which made them want a piece at once.
http://www.whisk-kid.com/2009/08/say-it-with-cake.html
I wanted the other treat to fit the rainbow cake in some way, so I made colourfil muffins with the same cookie crumbs on top of their frosting. I will share the recipe for the vanilla dough with you later this week, as these are my go-to vanilla cupcakes.
Please keep patient, new posts are coming soon.
Cake Pops have finally become popular in Europe. Last January or February I tried to make this treat for the first time. I was stunned. It was so delicious. I prepared the first cake pops in my life together with my brother, because it was his idea to try them. Thanks to him many people around me have learned to love these sweets so early – who knows, I might have waited for months until making them. By now I only got positive reputation concerning this creation and some people have asked for the recipe… So I want to share this with you, because I changed it a bit. I always prapare the cake by myself using a recipe from Chefkoch.de. And the „real“ frosting which is used in all recipes is way too sweet for me and pretty much for the most German tongues. So I use my own frosting to make people fat, because they can’t get enough and eat loads of pops, lol.
These cuties I decorated together with two friends of mine. They were served as a dessert at our final class party last week. They are simply chocolaty and colourful, good preconditions to become a hit :).
Cake Pops European Style
(makes about 50 pops)
cake:
250 g (2 sticks + 1 tbsp) butter, room temperature
200g (1 cup – 1 tbsp) sugar
4 eggs
300 g (2 1/2 cups) all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
frosting:
200g (7 oz) cream cheese
60 g (2 oz) butter
80 g (¾ cup) powdered sugar
½ tsp. Vanilla extract
icing:
400 g (14 oz) chocolate – use your favourite, it doesn’t matter if it is white or dark
50 lollipop sticks
optional:
1 package smarties
sprinkles
Whisk together the flour baking powder and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Set aside. Preheat oven to 180° C (350° F).
Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl, until the mixture becomes light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and stir until fully incorporated. Now add the dry ingredients and stir until the dough is smooth.
Transfer the mixture into an oiled pan – I always use my round 26 cm (10 inch) pan but a 22 cm x 12 cm (9´´ x 5´´) pan or a round 22 cm (9´´) pan works as well – and bake about 25 minutes until a toothpicker comes out clean.
Let the cake cool completely, then remove the hard edges. Now crumble the cake into a large bowl. This you can do easily with the help of a grater.
Prepare the frosting. For this, place the butter into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 25 seconds. Add the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla extract and stir until the frosting is smooth.
Combine the crumbles and the frosting and stir until you get a dough-like mixture by using your hands. Form little balls with a diameter of about 3 cm (1 inch) out of the mass. Place them in the freezer for about 15 minutes or in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
Cut the smarties into halves. Prepare a bowl with sprinkles. Chop the chocolate and melt it in your microwave or using the water bath method. Place a layer of parchment paper onto a large rectangular cake pan.
Dip in each lollipop stick into the melted chocolate first, then place into the truffle ball. Dip in the pops into the chocolate and put them into the pan. Place the smartie halves in a circle on the pops and spread some sprinkles on top.
Original recipe from Bakerella
http://www.bakerella.com/
