Sprinkles on Cupcakes are Pretty

It has been brought to my attention that I have neglected this blog again. Hahaha story of my life though, right?

I made some cupcakes to satisfy you hungry vultures.

Some cute little vanilla cupcakes with a super creamy delish vanilla frosting and of course sprinkles. You know me and my sprinkles.

Look at these cute little things. LOOK AT THEM.

Oh yah this is also the tastiest vanilla cupcake recipe, the only one you will ever need again. It also transforms into a lovely cake should you bake it in a cake pan. It absorbs syrups so delightfully, but don’t use it for stacking with heavy buttercreams because it is super light and fluffy and can’t really handle being more than 3 layers unless you plan on eating cold cake. Mmmm, fridge temperature buttercream….

The batter tastes like cake mix! So full of delicious sugar and vanilla and buttermilk. My favourite things of course.

Vanilla Cupcakes

1 1/4 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

Alright now friends, preheat that oven of yours to a lovely 350F. Then line some muffin pans (lol accidentally wrote pants at first, but changed it because I didn’t think you would find that nearly as funny as I do) with some liners. You’ll need about 15 large sized ones. Now set that aside.

In a mixing bowl, whip the sugar and eggs together until they are light and fluffy and thick. With the mixer still on, slowly drizzle in the oil and the vanilla until it’s all incorporated. Yes that’s right my child! We are making an emulsion. A delicious sugary emulsion. Sometimes I pretend I’m making a sweet mayonnaise and then I get grossed out but also intrigued at the same time.

Now sift all your dry ingredients together, and dump them in the bowl. Then turn on the mixer on low and pour in the buttermilk rather quickly while mixing. It’s a pretty thin batter, so don’t be alarmed.

Now taste your batter. ISN’T IT DELICIOUS?! Okay try not to eat too much of it, you have to scoop the batter into your prepared pans now. Pop those babies into your oven for about 15-18 minutes, until they’re lightly golden brown and spring back when gently pressed in the centre. Let those puppies cool until your buttercream of choice is ready!

Okay. Let’s talk frosting here. Buttercream. Icing. Fluffy shit to top your cupcakes with and smooth the sides of your layer cakes. For these cupcakes I used a cooked flour frosting style buttercream. Keep in mind there isn’t really too much difference between the technical-wechnical terms frosting and buttercream, although I tend to call american/canadian buttercream (butter or shortening and icing sugar) frostings, and meringue buttercreams, well, buttercream. Icing I generally use for a thinner, more loose style thing. Thicker than glaze, but not thick enough to hold its shape. Get it?

This particular frosting has so many names. Some people call it a mousseline, which technically it really isn’t, but the method is fairly similar as long as we’re talking about a real mousseline cream and not RLB’s shitty name for meringue buttercreams. A true mousseline being pastry cream with butter whipped into it, so rich and delicious and part of my favourite cake of all time, the Fraisier. God I love the French. I need to go back to France and eat everything. Some call this a german buttercream, some call it flour frosting, some call it cooked frosting. Whatever the hell you want to call it, it’s pretty yummy. Fluffier and less heavy feeling than your typical meringue buttercreams. Almost like whipped cream, but with more body and richness. OOoooohhh, aahhhhh, yummy.

Cooked Flour Buttercream

5 tablespoons flour
1 cup of whole milk
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of butter, room temp
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt

In a pot, combine the sugar and flour and whisk in the milk until lump free. Cook this mixture over medium-high heat until thickened and boiling. Transfer to a stand mixer and whip the the whisk on medium-high until it’s cooled down. Then throw in your butter and vanilla and salt and whip whip whip until that shit all comes together in a delicious thick and fluffy buttercream of sorts.

Now you can pipe onto your little lovely cupcakes. And cover with sprinkles. Then eat.