Vanilla cupcakes
30 mins plus cooling
Not Too Tricky
makes 24
About the recipe
If you need a quick, easy and super-reliable cupcake recipe, look no further. I’ve kept things quite simple here, but feel free to replace the vanilla in the buttercream with a squeeze of citrus and top with a fine grating of zest, or pimp with a little natural food colouring to jazz them up, if you like.
Ingredients
225g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
225g golden caster sugar
4 large free-range eggs
1 vanilla pod
225g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
VANILLA BUTTERCREAM
250g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
400g icing sugar
optional: 1 splash of milk
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC/325ºF/gas 3.
- Line two 12-hole cupcake trays with paper cases.
- In a food processor or by hand, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- One-by one, crack in the eggs, making sure you beat each one in before adding the next.
- Split the vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds, then add half the seeds to the mixture (save the remaining for the buttercream).
- Sift in the flour and baking powder, then pulse until just combined or gently fold together by hand.
- Using two teaspoons, divide the mixture evenly between the paper cases.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden, cooked through and an inserted skewer comes out clean of cake mixture.
- Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.
- To make the buttercream, beat the butter for a couple of minutes until light, then mix in the remaining vanilla seeds.
- Gradually sift in the icing sugar until smooth, loosening with a splash of milk, if needed.
- Either spoon into a piping bag and pipe over the cooled cupcakes or rustically spread over the icing using a spatula, then enjoy.
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