From Cupcake Kit by Elinor Klivans, makes 12 medium cupcakes
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola or corn oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
Frosting:
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
Cupcakes:
1. Mix the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat the egg, egg yolk and sugar until thickened and lightened to a cream color, about 2 minutes. (If you’re using an electric mixer, it should be on medium speed.)
3. Mix in the oil and vanilla (on low speed) until blended.
4. Mix in the sour cream until no white streaks remain.
5. Mix in the flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter is smooth. If you want to add in any other flavorings or ingredients, it can be done now.
6. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes.
Frosting:
1. In a large bowl, beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla (on low speed) until smooth and thoroughly blended, about 1 minute.
2. Add the powdered sugar, mixing until smooth, about 1 minute, then beat on medium speed for 1 minute to lighten it further.
Notes:
My baking adventures began when I was 10 with Betty Crocker mixes. The cake box approach lasted for about, um, a little under 20 years. Yes, I don’t think I’ve ever made cupcakes from scratch until now. But when I got a surprise gift of a cupcake kit from my mom during her recent visit to Madrid, I was inspired to give it a try. This is mainly due to the fantastic mini recipe book in the kit. Generally I find such recipes to only be included because they’re an expected component of the kit or as after thoughts, rather than written as quality publications. I was pleasantly surprised with this one – scanning over the “cupcake basics” at the beginning of the book, I was surprised to learn that there are nuances to cupcakes and that there is a right and a wrong way to make them. I was immediately inspired to make some according to the standards of the book.
For instance, I learned that batters that use oil for the shortening usually call for a thorough beating of the eggs with the sugar to develop the cupcake’s texture. When the eggs and sugar are sufficiently beaten, the mixture will look thick and fluffy. Once the eggs and sugar are thoroughly beaten, the purpose of the remained of the mixing is to blend the ingredients just to incorporate them. On the other hand, batters that use softened butter develop the cupcake’s structure from beating the butter and sugar, followed by the eggs.
There are several recipes in the book, but I decided to start with the simplest one to get the basics down. I like how the recipe explains the signs that you should look for when beating the eggs and sugar – thick and creamy colored. Here in Spain, egg yokes are a bright orange and so I noted that it does take a couple of minutes to lighten the color to cream.
Instead of sour cream I could only find creme fraiche, which is basically a thickened sour cream and quite nice.
The batter turned out to be a nice thick consistency, and the cupcakes indeed turned out fluffy and rich in vanilla. (Sidenote: I brought my cupcake pan from home and when I tried to slide it in the oven, I realized that my oven was too small! I had to settle for tilting the pan a bit, so the cupcakes had a kind of windblown look! But they seemed to cook evenly nonetheless.)
I added some lemon zest to the cream cheese frosting and that was a wise move. It added a subtle but fresh accent to the frosting. I also added some finely chopped walnuts on top for a little crunch. Yum yum!
(I also need to work on my frosting skills… next time!)
Saboreado 