So we come to the reason for this blog's existence and as you may have guessed from the name... it is cupcakes. Specific cupcakes.
The other Sunday the baking bug bit me again and I decided on cupcakes. I had used my gran's secret recipe prior, which is similar to "Angel food cake" I think, in that it's made mostly by beating the hell out of some eggs and then adding a whiff of other ingredients. This time I felt like something more substantial (and less complicated) and decided to try the Butter Cake recipe in my ancient "Kook en Geniet".
They came out pure awesomeness, if I do say myself.
Butter Cake
125g Butter/Margerine
375ml Sugar
5ml Vanilla Essence
3 Eggs
625ml Flour
20ml Baking Powder
2.5ml Salt
200ml Milk
- Beat the butter and gradually add the sugar. Beat until light and creamy. Add the vanilla essence.
- Add the eggs one for one and beat very well after each addition.
- Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together and gradually add it and the milk to the butter mixture, alternating between the two. Beat until everything's mixed well and it has a velvety appearance (hey, that's what the book says). Don't stir, beat, cause you're trying to get air in, not out.
- Fill cupcake cups to about... half to two thirds full.
- Bake for 15-20 min at 180C (350F). If you stick a toothpick into one, it should come out clean.
I however, decided to get a bit creative and before putting them into the oven, I swirled some food colouring into each with a toothpick. While this looked absolutely awesome when they came out, unfortunately the colouring doesn't go deep enough into the batter (or I didn't get it deep enough anyway). This meant that the marble effect was mostly covered by the icing.
For the icing I simply beat some butter and then gradually added icing sugar until it tasted like I wanted it to.
They were meant to be blue and pink, however, the local supermarket was inconsiderate enough not to have blue food colouring (the nerve!).
On a final note, I'll definitely use this recipe again. The only downside I can see to it is the extreme detriment it could have to one's weight.
