Spring menus are meant to be easy. Better to be outside, not toiling away for hours in the kitchen when we get home from work or released for the weekend. This is the week I aim to embrace spring trees around the city and beyond before wind and rain bring them down.
Ha ha ha, said the busy worker bees. Green grass means GO.
Well then, pack some of these.
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes
Picnic-perfect, road trip ready, these fluffy tops match the petals outside.
What are you waiting for?
Makes 30 mini cakes.
What you need:
CAKES:
- 2 cups cake and pastry flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- ¾ cup milk
ICING:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3½ cups icing sugar
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk
What you do:
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Spray mini-muffin pans with baking spray. Even better, use muffin liners that size.
- Cream butter and sugar for 4 minutes in a mixer until fluffy.
- Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
- Add vanilla to butter/sugar mix, then eggs one at a time. Mix well after each.
- Reduce mixer speed and add dry ingredients and milk, alternating each, ending with flour. Combine until just blended after scraping down the bowl as necessary.
- Spoon into muffin tins, filling only two-thirds of the way.
- Bake 12-15 minutes until the tops are lightly golden and a tester comes out clean.
- Cool on a rack for 5 minutes, remove from pan, and let cool completely before frosting.
- For the icing: Cream butter and add icing sugar, one cup at a time. Add salt and vanilla. Blend well. Add one tablespoon of milk at a time, blending after each, until the icing is creamy. For stiffer icing, add more icing sugar. For creamier icing, add more milk.
- Decorate with a piping bag.
They are best to eat on the day they are made but will keep for two days under a cake dome.
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