Today my friend Holly is filling in for me while I am in Las Vegas on vacation with my family.
I’ve known Holly and have been reading her blog for a few years now and truly enjoy her stories about family life with her husband and two kids in Edmonton, Alberta. Holly is one of the sweetest and kindest persons that you’ll meet on the Internet and you should definitely check out her blog scattered-words.net and follow her on Twitter@scattered_words.
Holly shares an easy, tried and tested (and pre-schoolers-approved!) recipe for vanilla cupcakes. Who doesn’t like cupcakes?
First and foremost, let me say that I am no expert when it comes to baking. I watch a couple of shows on the Food Network every now and then, and last year I was inspired to purchase a Groupon for an online cooking course (that I never completed!) – but that’s the extent of my “qualifications” to be sharing a recipe. The Truth: Until May of this year, every cake and cupcake I have ever made has come out of a box.
In May, I volunteered to bring cupcakes to my son’s preschool to celebrate his birthday. I didn’t want to look like a fool in front of the Pinterest moms so I knew I needed to up my game.
After an evening of scouring the Internet, this is what I found:
https://deliciouslysprinkled.com/vanilla-cupcakes/
It looked simple enough, and I already had all of the ingredients on hand, so I decided to give it a try!
Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter (softened)
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
½ cup sour cream
Frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter (softened)
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
Sprinkles if desired
Directions:
To make the cupcakes:
Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners. Set aside. In a medium bowl, mix flour baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, using an electric or stand mixer on medium speed, beat eggs and sugar until light and creamy (about 2 minutes). Add the butter and vanilla extract and beat on low until well blended (about 1 minute). Add the dry ingredients and beat on low until blended. Don’t overmix! (If you do your cupcakes will not be light and fluffy. Trust me, I’ve done it!) Add the sour cream and beat until smooth.
Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ of the way full with cupcake batter. The original recipe states that it will make 12 cupcakes but I usually make 18 slightly smaller cupcakes. My kids really don’t need any extra sugar! Bake approximately 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool before frosting.
To make the frosting:
Mix softened butter on medium speed with an electric or stand mixer for 30 seconds or until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar, heavy whipping cream and vanilla extract. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 minutes. Add more cream if needed for spreading consistency. Frost and decorate!
They were so amazing that four kids actually cried because I only brought enough for everyone to have one. Okay, so I’m sure some kids would probably cry just because it was a cupcake, never mind how fantastic it was, but still. I consider that a rave review!
