Hello, Cupcake!
Back in Vermont, my friends Zachary and Clark have been baking up sweets for their summertime feasts:
One of our favorite homemade treats in the summer is cupcakes. Yes, we could make them anytime, but they somehow just seem to go with summer and picnics and outdoor living. We've tried many recipes over the years, but nothing really grabbed us. Then we tried this one.
We weigh our words carefully here in Vermont, so when we say these are the best cupcakes you will ever eat, we mean it. Just make sure you use the very best vanilla extract, preferably Tahitian. The other elements of success in this recipe are in the details: weighing the flour and sugar, using cake flour instead of all-purpose, and lightening the batter with separately whipped egg whites.
Zachary and Clark told me you had to be a vanilla fan to enjoy these cupcakes, but my chocoholic daughter can't resist them. Sometimes we make them with chocolate frosting, but even when we make them with vanilla icing as they are here, they're the bomb! Try them yourself and let us know if you think you have a better cupcake recipe!
Classic Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients:Have ready at room temperature:
6-1/8 ounces cake flour
1-1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
2 large egg whites
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F; place cupcake papers in pans. Sift together first group of ingredients.
2. Add extracts to milk.
3. Cream butter alone until creamy and smooth, about 45 seconds. Add sugar in steady stream; beat at medium speed until very light in color and texture (2-3 minutes). Add egg yolks one at a time; continue beating until mixture is fluffy. Add flour mixture and alternate with milk mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture.4. Beat egg whites to almost-stiff peaks; fold into batter.
5. Fill cups with 1-3/4 inch cookie scoop (amount in scoop should be slightly heaping). Bake 21 to 23 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Let cool on rack 10 to15 minutes, then remove from pan.
Makes 18 cupcakes.
--Tracy Schneider
LinC on August 03, 2010 at 05:33 AM
As a courtesy, you should include cup measurements instead of just weight measurements in the recipes you post on this blog. Not all of us have kitchen scales. It looks like a great recipe, but I can't make it.
CABAL RMT on February 11, 2011 at 10:48 PM
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