I have been having tons of fun baking up these mini batches of cupcakes. I’m just not very good about posting every day, haha. I will give you the mini recipes for the stuff that actually turned out well. If it still needs work, I will hold off until its perfect so you don’t have a whole bunch of not-quite-right recipes.
Day 3 (Thursday): Vanilla Cupcakes with Honey Cream Cheese frosting.
Once again the vanilla recipe came out too spongy and dense. After this, I decided to ditch this version of the vanilla and try a new one altogether the next time I try vanilla. They honey cream cheese frosting was actually really good, though. I wasn’t sure Jeremy would like it, but he did!
Honey Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 oz. cream cheese
1 1/2 tsp butter
2 tsp honey
6 -8 Tbsp powdered sugar (I think I used 6)
I warm up the butter and cream cheese a little before mixing everything together, because it makes it easier to stir them without it being super sticky to the whisk. Just whisk and frost! 🙂
Day 4 (Friday): Lemon Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream frosting.
Oh my freaking goodness, this frosting is so good! I slathered the cupcakes with it, and then licked the bowl clean! This recipe would be so easy to just substitute other berries or fruits in, also. The lemon cupcake wasn’t quite as lemon-y as I had hoped (probably because I didn’t use any lemon zest like I usually do with lemon cupcakes), but much better texture-wise than the previous couple batches of plain vanilla.
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting: Mini batch
2 Tbsp butter
7 Tbsp powdered sugar
1 Tbsp pureed strawberries
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
Just puree the strawberries, then mix everything together. Delicious!!
Day 5 (Saturday): Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting.
Saturday we had some friends over – Jeremy’s sister and her husband, and another couple that live a few houses down from us. We decided that instead of a mini-batch, I would bake a full batch. So I went back to my old trusty vanilla-nilla recipe, but with the strawberry buttercream frosting I had tried out Friday. Unfortunately for me, I mis-read the strawberry frosting recipe, and accidentally added twice as much strawberry puree as I should have. It didn’t taste bad or anything, but the texture of the frosting got all chunky-looking and weird… For a full batch, follow these directions (this will be the right amount of strawberry!)
Vanilla-nilla Cupcakes: Full batch (made about 20 cupcakes)
1 package (8 oz.) cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1-1/4 cups sugar
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
1/4 cup corn oil
1/4 cup milk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. Using mixer, mix together cream cheese, butter, sugar, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated. Next, beat in oil. Add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with milk in two parts. Fill cupcake liners 1/2 – 2/3 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Strawberry Frosting: Full batch (will probably make way more frosting than you need)
1 cup butter
3-1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup pureed strawberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
If you need more strawberry flavor, use a strawberry extract rather than just adding more strawberry puree, to keep the consistency correct. Refrigerate for 5-10 minutes to stiffen frosting a little.
Day 6 (Sunday): Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting – SMALL batch
I decided that I wanted to try scaling down the vanilla recipe from the day before, plus I wanted to re-try that strawberry buttercream recipe and make sure that the doubled amount of strawberries was indeed the reason I messed it up the day before, so I did the same type of cupcakes, but in a small batch. They turned out great!
Vanilla Cupcakes: mini batch
1 oz. cream cheese
1 Tbsp butter
2-1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg white 1 Tbsp oil (without the yolk, the consistency is too spongy. try substituting oil instead)
1/2 Tbsp oil (in addition to the change made in previous step)
1/2 Tbsp milk
4 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Day 7 (Monday): Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting.
These cupcakes came out tasting like brownies. So good! And the peanut butter frosting tasted just like peanut butter, but much creamier and smoother — perfect, but definitely go light on the frosting so it doesn’t overwhelm the cupcake.
Chocolate Cupcakes: mini batch
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp melted chocolate chips
3 Tbsp flour
1-1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1-1/2 Tbsp milk
Bake at 325 degrees F for 12-15 minutes or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean.
Creamy Peanut Butter Frosting: mini batch
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp peanut butter (creamy – I used Lara Scudder’s)
1 tsp milk (may need a smidge more)
4 Tbsp powdered sugar
Day 8 (Wednesday – yes I know I skipped Tuesday, I didn’t end up making cupcakes that day because I was just too tired): Angelfood Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting.
Nope, nope, nope. Angelfood cupcakes turned out AWFUL. Little molten lava bowls, not even fit to attempt to fix. It was a total disaster, and this is exactly why I’m glad I’m only making mini batches, because if I had made an entire batch of these, I just might have cried.
Day 9: Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting.
Yum! Love lemon, and these were so good! The lemon cream cheese frosting was perfect! Yay! The one change I made from last time was to ditch the egg white in the cupcake recipe, and try oil instead. So happy I did that! They were light and fluffy. Just a LITTLE too crumbly, but I think that just means back off the oil a smidge.
Lemon Cupcakes: mini batch
2 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp oil (try 2 tsp instead)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
6 Tbsp flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tsp lemon juice (for a bigger lemony punch, try adding 1-2 tsp lemon zest as well)
2 Tbsp milk
Bake at 325 degrees F for 18-20 minutes.
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting: mini batch
1 oz. cream cheese
1/2 Tbsp butter
1 tsp lemon juice
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
8 Tbsp powdered sugar
Clover & Blueberry 