Vanilla Cupcakes & Frosting

I have tried several vanilla cupcake recipes, and this Perfect Vanilla Cupcake is my favorite so far.  There wasn't any butter in it, surprised, but it was moist and tender and flavorful.

I also tried the Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake from The Cupcake Project, which is quite tedious.  It uses all three types of fat: oil, butter, and sour cream, a little of each, instead of just 1/2 cup of oil from the recipe below.  Yet, I still think the cupcakes below taste better.



1¼   cups (125g) cake flour
1¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
2 large eggs
¾ cup sugar
1½   tsp pure vanilla extract
½   cup oil
½ cup buttermilk

Makes 17 cupcakes using the large cookie scoop for each cupcake.

Bake at 350F for 12 - 14 minutes.

I kept baking these cupcakes using convection oven at 325F (12 minutes) and the cupcakes that were closest to the fan were lopsided, yet I couldn't remember using regular oven next time.

Mix dry ingredients.

Beat eggs.  Add sugar.  Add vanilla extract.  Add oil.

Add half of flour mixture.  Add half of buttermilk.  

Add other half of flour mixture.  Add other half of buttermilk.

Batter is very runny and it's okay.  Don't top off the cupcakes.  Fill only half full.

I also like the frosting below for vanilla cupcakes.  I love cream cheese frosting, but it's usually too runny to pipe on cupcakes.  The  Cream Cheese Frosting recipe from Cook's Illustrated adds buttermilk powder to help thicken the frosting and provide the tanginess.  It's perfect for carrot cake, but still a bit heavy for vanilla cupcake.  The frosting recipe below, also from Natasha's Kitchen blog, uses whipped cream for the airiness.

1½  cups cold heavy whipping cream

8-oz package cream cheese, softened at room temp

1½  cups powdered sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

Whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract until well mixed.

Fold whipped cream into cream cheese.

Frosts 20-25 cupcakes.