I whipped up some birthday cupcakes for my friend's very, very and I mean very belated birthday dinner (her birthday was in early November, oops). I wanted to attempt to recreate these cupcakes she raved about that my sister made several years ago: white cupcakes with raspberry buttercream frosting. This dessert had me at butter-cream, so I was up for the challenge. I ended up going with a vanilla cupcake recipe I found on browneyedbaker.com and a raspberry frosting recipe on food.com. These were easy as pie to make (sidenote: pie isn't that easy to make phrase coiner!) You basically throw all the cupcake ingredients in a bowl, blend, done, and same thing for the frosting. Even a lightly trained monkey can make these.
Vanilla Cupcakes with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting
Yield: Makes 12 servings
Ingredients – Cupcakes
1½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), room temperature
½ cup sour cream
1 large egg, room temperature
2 large egg yolks, room temperature
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Ingredients – Frosting
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 -8 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam
milk (if needed)
Directions – Cupcakes
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin/cupcake tin with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of standing mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add butter, sour cream, egg and egg yolks, and vanilla; beat at medium speed until smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down sides of bowl with rubber spatula and mix by hand until smooth and no flour pockets remain. Pro Tip: Just use a regular mixer, no need to get fancy with this.
3. Divide batter evenly among cups of prepared tin. Bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Pro Tip: Always start with the lower time range to avoid overcooking. Mine took 20 mins on the nose.
4. Remove the cupcakes from tin and transfer to wire rack; cool cupcakes to room temperature before frosting.
Directions – Frosting
1. Cream butter and jam until well incorporated, about 2 minutes.
3. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency. Note: I used about 4 cups.
4. If frosting gets too thick you can add a little milk to thin it out.