I have always loved Valentines day. Yes it may be commercial, and yes it may just be some money making scheme blah blah, but I adore that we have dedicated a day to expressing our love for one another.
In our overly busy lives we can sometimes get caught up with the chaos and forget to stop, breath, and remind those very special people in our lives that it is because of them that we are who we are.
So, in the wise words of Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite "Build her a cake or something" and get romance tasting as good as it should!
Perfect
Vanilla Cupcakes
Yields- 15-16
cupcakes
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups
cake flour
1 1/4
teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
1/2 teaspoon
salt
2 eggs
3/4 cup
sugar
1 1/2
teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable
oil
1/2 cup
buttermilk
Method
- Preheat oven
to 180 C
- In a medium
bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together
with whisk, and set aside.
- In the bowl
of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and
continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil,
beat.
- Reduce mixer
speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add
half of the milk, then the rest of the flour and the rest of the milk.
Beat until just combined.
- The batter
will be thin. Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with
paper liners. Fill liners about 2/3 full.
- Bake
cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.
- Cool in pan
1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling
on a wire rack.
- Once cool
ice with your favourite icing – I used the vanilla cream cheese with berry.
I topped my
cupcakes with fondant roses, sugar crystals and a little glitter.
Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
½ cup butter (set at room temp about 10
minutes, but should still be cool)
200g cream cheese (directly from fridge)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 – 5 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons good quality raspberry jam
Method
-
Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add cream cheese and
blend until fully combined and smooth, about 30 seconds.
-
Add vanilla extract and icing sugar and blend on low speed until combined.
Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
-
Add in the raspberry jam. Depending on your local weather you may need to add
more icing sugar. Start with 4 cups, but as I stay in very humid Durban I usually
have to use 5 cups of icing sugar as the butter and cream cheese get quite
melty…
- If you like, add a few drops of pink food
colouring to emphasize the look of the berry icing.
- Beat until fluffy (about 1 minute).
Use at once or keep refrigerated. (This frosting will keep well in the
refrigerator for several days, but you may need to re-beat it for the best
texture.)