Baking Project

Earlier on I had given a recipe for cupcake, the ingredient was :

The cupcakes made using this recipe is really delicious, it’s moist and had a full butter flavour. However, there are times when I made this recipe, I encountered problems with the cupcakes not sticking to the cupcake paper/ liners. This is quite frustrating sometimes. The cupcakes came out nice and fluffy, but after it is cool, the papers start slipping off. I have tried to reduce the butter content and the oven temperature, but I still get this problem now and again.

So, today I tried a different recipe. I got this from Wilton’s website. It’s a basic yellow cupcake recipe.

• 3 cups sifted cake flour ( I use all purpose)
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup butter or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 Pure Vanilla Extract (vanilla essence also can..)
  
• 1 1/4 cups milk

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease bottom of two 8-inch round cake pans and line with waxed paper or parchment paper.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
4. Cream sugar and butter together until light.
5. Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed.
6. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition.
7. Continue beating one minute.
8. Pour into prepared pan.
9. Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.
10. Cool 10 minutes in pan on rack; remove and cool completely before decorating.

The cupcakes do rise a bit, so I only put about 3/4 full coz I didn’t want a high dome shape. I’m happy with the results. The colour is slightly pale due to the low butter content. I must admit it doesn’t taste as rich and moist as my first recipe. But if you are making a big batch, this recipe is really reliable. The cupcake liners doesn’t come off easily and the texture is quite firm (doesn’t shrink once it is cooled). Perfect for decorating. Since I’m baking a lot of cupcakes for my classes, I think I will stick to this recipe from now on.

Anyway, if you have any tips on baking cupcakes, I would love to hear from you. I bought an electric oven recently, and am still in a trial and error mode, to figure out the right temperature and so on. I find that baking cupcakes in the electric oven takes longer than my gas oven. I wish I had bought a gas oven instead . I guess both have its pro and cons.

I’m off to Sungai Petani tomorrow, that’s like a 4 to 5 hours drive from KL… will be there until this Thursday, to accompany my hubby on his outstation duties. I will miss my cake decorating but I’m really looking forward to having the Mee Udang at Sg. Dua ! Dieting to see my students on Friday the 6th.

Here’s the basic recipe I used :

3 eggs

1 cup butter (softened)

3/4 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup of milk

1 1/2 cup of self-raising floor (sifted) If you don’t have self-raising, see here for substitute.

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method

First, preheat oven to 160 C and arrange all the cupcakes paper in the cupcake pan. Beat the eggs lightly, then add butter and sugar. Mix until it turns light and all fluffy. Then add the milk & vanilla alternating with the flour. Beat for a further 2 minutes (do not overbeat). Pour into the cupcake not more than 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes or so.