Vanilla Cupcakes

I have been asked a number of times to share my cupcake recipe and while many think it is some deep dark secret, the truth is that I give it out to anyone who asks. I've never been one bit precious about my recipes or techniques and to be honest I really do think that this is one of the best recipes out there so you are all more than welcome to it. They really are so simple to make.

Ingredients

Cupcake batter

150g of self raising flour (sieved)

125g of soft margarine (room temperature)

125g of caster sugar

2 large eggs (room temperature)

Vanilla buttercream

100g of softened butter (room temperature)

225g of icing sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Method

Cupcake batter

1. Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl and beat them together on a low speed until just blended. 

TIP: Take care not to over mix. You want your ingredients to be well combined but if you beat them for too long you will end up with dense cupcakes instead of light and fluffy

2. Place 12 cupcake cases in a cupcake tray. 

3. Spoon your batter into the cases. It is important to try and make sure that your cases all have an equal amount of batter in them so that you don't have some cupcakes under cooked and some over cooked. Around 1 tablespoon should do it. If you are experienced you can do this by eye but if not then try to use an ice cream scoop to ensure uniformity. They should be around two thirds full.

4. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees or 170 degrees for a fan over and bake for 15 minutes on the middle shelf.

TIP: My oven gets what I call 'hotspots' and so after thirteen minutes I tend to open my oven and turn the tray around 180 degrees for the last two minutes for a more even bake.

5. When golden brown and a toothpick comes out from the centre of a cupcake clean, they are ready. Remove them from the oven and do not leave them sitting in the baking tray tray or they will over bake. Take them out and put them on a wire tray.

Icing

Now to ice them.

I have also been asked been asked for this buttercream recipe countless times and it is also so simple to do. All it takes is a little bit of patience.

Combine all your ingredients together in your mixing bowl and beat on high for around 10 minutes  (yes 10 minutes!)until your mixture is almost white in colour. Less experienced bakers tend to stop beating too soon and you really don't get the same lightness of texture if you do that. 

Add your water sparingly. A lot of recipes for buttercream will advise milk or cream to slacken your mixture but milk and cream go off so they shorten the lifespan of your buttercream considerably and they bring very little to the table in terms of flavour in my opinion. Warm water is a much better option.

 If you find that you have been a little heavy handed with your water and your buttercream has gone too slack, just pop it into the fridge for half an hour (or longer if needed), take it out and beat it and again and it should be perfect.

 Now I have disposable piping bags which are perfect for icing your cupcakes but really that is all just for appearances. You can take a tablespoon and scoop a dollop of mixture on to your cupcakes and they will taste just as nice. If, like me though, you have the tools then piped buttercream really does look nice so go for it.

The nozzle I use is the Ateco brand and the no is 844. It has a sort of star tip on it but any nozzle with a star tip will do.

Cut the tip from at the top of your bag and place your nozzle inside your piping bag.

Fill your bag with your buttercream.

Now squeeze and twist your bag  in a circular motion at the same time to pipe the buttercream onto your cupcake. I will post a video of this at a future date.

And that is it. Hope you enjoy them!