If you are new to baking, or feel you need a few tips,
do read this recipe all the way through before actually trying it out in your kitchen.
Basic Cupcakes (non-vegan)
Ingredients
* 1 cup milk
* 4 cups flour (cake flour will give you better results than all-purpose white flour)
* 5 teaspoons baking powder
* 2/3 cup butter
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs Feel free to go organic on any product here. For these cupcakes to be vegan, you would need to substitute the eggs, milk and butter appropriately.
Note that there is no vanilla or any other flavoring in this base recipe. If you add any, understand that a liquid flavoring (extracts) adds liquid and can make a batter too thin; a dry flavoring (cocoa powder) will soak up fluids and make make the batter thick and doughy.
Substituting a liquid sweetener (agave syrup, honey) will also change the liquid to dry ratio. It is better to use a recipe designed for these sweeteners than to try to adjust one designed for a dry sweetener.
Instructions
1. Cream* the butter and sugar. *This means mix these ingredients until they are light and fluffy, the color of the butter is paler than at the start, and the sugar crystals are as dissolved as you can get them. It will work with the sugar not completely dissolved, but the texture won't be as good as it could be.
2. Add the eggs well beaten (yolks broken, both parts of the egg uniformly mixed together), then the milk.
3. Add flour sifted* with baking powder and stir thoroughly.*Again, sifting is not strictly necessary, but doing so will give you a much better texture. Also, adding the powdered ingredients a bit at a time to an electric mixer will reduce the chances of the flour being kicked up into your face!
4. Bake in buttered and floured cup tins* in a hot oven for about 25 minutes.*This is where paper or foil cups are usually added to the tin. The pleated cups, which come in endless festive and seasonal designs and colors, make a colorful contribution to any cupcake-eating event. They also make the cakes truly portable, and help softer varieties stay together during travel and storage.
If you butter and flour the tin well enough, and/or if the tin is any kind of non-stick, you could skip this step. I don't guarantee good removal results, though.
5. When done (in inserted piece of dry spaghetti, skewer, toothpick or knife comes out clean), remove pan from oven and set on a heat-proof surface to cool (wire rack, unused cook-top, trivets, etc). Once the cupcakes are completely cool, they can be covered with any kind of frosting or topping. Unless your topping recipe states that you are to put the topping on while the cakes are hot,
let the cupcakes cool before topping them! Icings and toppings placed on hot cake will melt, slide off, wilt or soak into the cakes. Yuck!
Please feel free to leave any advice, tips etc. here.
Related link: All about
Flour on JoyofBaking.com![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
