This is the vanilla cupcake recipe I used to make the "Tower of Cupcakes" at Alex and Kyle's 2019 summer outdoor Wedding Shower. The cupcakes were iced with pale pink piped roses, using a Wilton icing recipe that withstands heat and humidity (see below). Baked in sturdy baking paper cups, no cupcake pans were needed and the cupcakes stood up well displayed on a 3-tiered stand.
I used the cupcake recipe again for my socially-distanced October 2020 birthday. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we decided not to celebrate with birthday cake to avoid possible germ-spreading.
This cupcake tastes a little like pound cake, buttery and with a firm enough texture to support a generous mound of piped icing.
Cored before icing, these cupcakes can be filled with fruit puree or a ganache. Use a cupcake corer to easily make a neat indentation in the cupcakes for filling. I did not fill the cupcakes for the outdoor party, although I did to make the apricot-filled cupcakes (see the following recipe.)
The recipe is from the May 2003 issue of Style at Home magazine, and was called "Ta Da! Cupcakes." The recipe specified using floppy paper cupcake liners in a cupcake pan. Following the original instructions, I filled each liner to the top with batter and the cupcakes rose into "mushroom tops" that spread over the pan and merged. I had to sever the cupcake tops with a knife, which left them too crumbly to frost nicely. But the cupcakes tasted good. So I made another batch of batter and used the larger sturdy paper baking cups filled three-quarters full of batter. These baked into perfectly rounded tops.
If you do use the shorter, thinner paper cupcake liners in a muffin baking pan, use an ice cream scoop to fill the liners. Fill each liner with one level ice cream scoop of batter per cupcake. Fill the liners only 3/4 full.
Lauren said, "Why do you have to find that ice cream scoop? It's just a glorified spoon." But fill a scooper with batter, level with a straight edge, dispense the same amount of batter for each cupcake, and they will all bake evenly in the same amount of time.
If you are baking in liners in muffin tins and have empty spaces left in the pan, put a little water in the empty ones so the pan doesn't warp and heat is absorbed evenly. This may be unnecessary if you have very good quality pans.
The original recipe says to bake the cupcakes in liners in muffin tins, in a 325 degree F. regular oven for 25-30 minutes.
Using paper baking cups on an aluminum baking sheet, at 325 degrees F convection heat for 30 minutes, gave me a perfectly baked result.
Celebration Vanilla Cupcakes
Makes 18-20 cupcakes.
All ingredients should be at room temperature.
- 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) butter
- 2 cups (500 mL) white granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs
- 1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) real vanilla extract
- 3 cups (750 mL) white all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp (5 mL) baking powder
- 1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda
- 1/2 tsp (2 mL) table salt
- 1 cup (250 mL) buttermilk (OR 1 cup milk (homogenized or 2%) plus 1 Tbsp white vinegar, mixed together)
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Place greased and floured paper baking cups on a baking sheet. OR place paper cupcake liners in a muffin/cupcake pan, if using.
- If using a stainless steel stand mixer bowl, warm it by rinsing it in hot water and drying it before use.
- If using milk and vinegar instead of buttermilk, mix it together now and set aside for 5 minutes.
- Using electric stand mixer, beat 1-1/2 cups room temperature butter while gradually adding 2 cups sugar, then mix about 5 minutes, until the butter mixture it is light and fluffy and looks a little whiter in colour.
- Break 5 large eggs into a separate bowl and whisk the eggs together with 1-1/2 tsps. vanilla.
- Add the egg and vanilla mixture to the butter mixture in 5 additions, scraping down the sides of the mixer bowl after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, sift together 3 cups all-purpose flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 1/2 tsp. salt.
- Stir thoroughly.
- Add flour mixture to butter mixture in mixing bowl alternately with buttermilk, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of buttermilk (or milk and vinegar mixture.) Mix just until combined.
- Fill liners 3/4 full, with an equal amount of batter.
- Bake in 325 degree F oven for 25-30 minutes until tops are golden and toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. If using the larger, sturdy paper cupcake liners on a baking sheet, baking in a 325 degree F on convection setting for 30 minutes worked for me.
- Wait 10 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan or baking sheet to cool on a cooling rack.
- Let cool completely before icing.
Vanilla Buttercream Icing
- 1 cup butter, at room temperature
- 6 cups (1.5L) icing sugar
- 4 tsp (2 ML) vanilla
- 6-8 Tbsp (75 to 125 mL) milk
- food colouring (optional)
- sprinkles (optional)
- Using whipping attachment, beat butter till fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add 4 cups of the icing sugar, a cup at a time, beating after each addition and scraping bowl.
- Beat in vanilla, 3 Tbsp of the milk, and remaining sugar.
- Gradually beat in remaining milk until icing is smooth and desired consistency. A fluffy buttercream will usually need 10 minutes total beating time.
- Tint with a few drops of food colouring if desired.
- Spread over cupcakes with an icing spatula and decorate with sprinkles.
Piped Icing (Cupcake Roses)
This is the recipe I used for the Tower of Cupcakes.
It is a Wilton icing recipe. The piped icing stayed fresh and pretty even outside on a hot summer day. I used a Wilton 1M piping tip to ice each cupcake top with a rose-like swirl and a Wilton #67 leaf piping tip to add a leaf.
To use a disposable icing bag, insert the piping tip into the bag and score where you need to cut the tip of the bag with scissors. Remove the tip, cut the bag where scored, then re-insert the tip and push the narrow end of the piping tip out of the opening. Spoon prepared icing into the bag.
To make a "rose" using the 1M piping tip, hold the top of the piping bag with one hand while your other hand squeezes the piping bag with even pressure. Start from the exterior of the cupcake and decrease pressure a little as you swirl the icing onto the cupcake in a clockwise motion, so that the outer edges of the "rose" are higher than the center.
After all the cupcakes are iced, mix and tint extra icing to pipe a pale green leaf on each with the #67 piping tip (practise squeezing a leaf first on parchment paper.)
It's adding the leaf that makes the icing look like a rose. Otherwise, you will have a professional-looking swirled icing that you can tint in any color with a couple drops of food-coloring.
Makes 3 cups icing
Ingredients should be at room temperature.
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
- 1/2 cup softened butter
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract*
- 4 cups sifted confectioners' (icing) sugar
- 2 Tbsp milk
- 2 drops food colouring (optional--use red for pink icing)
*Regular vanilla extract will give your icing a "warmer" cream-coloured tone. Using colorless or clear vanilla extract is the way to get a pure white icing. I used my usual brown pure vanilla extract and 2 drops of red food colouring to make a creamy rose-colored icing.
- In a large electric mixer bowl, beat shortening and butter until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add vanilla, mix well.
- Sift then measure the icing sugar.
- Add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well at medium speed.
- Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.
- When all sugar mixture has been mixed, icing will appear dry.
- In a small separate bowl, whisk together milk, cornstarch, food colouring (if using).
- When smooth, add to icing mixture.
- Beat at medium speed another 5 minutes, until light and fluffy, adding more drops of food colouring if necessary to get the colour you want.
- Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use, or it will harden.
- For best results, while you are piping the icing, keep the remaining icing covered with a damp cloth or plastic wrap in the bowl in the refrigerator until you need to refill the piping bag.
- Icing can be made up to 2 weeks ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator but re-whip the icing before using.
Apricot Filled Cupcakes
Filled cupcakes don't have the staying power of unfilled, iced cupcakes as the filling has the potential to make the cupcake a bit soggy, but they are delicious.
- Make 1 recipe for 18-20 Celebration Vanilla Cupcakes (see above). Cool completely.
- Using a cupcake corer, remove a plug of cake from the centre of each cupcake.*
- Fill with cooled apricot custard pudding (recipe follows).
- Top with a generous circle of apricot glaze (recipe follows).
- Pipe stabilized whipped cream (recipe follows) around the apricot puree centre to cover top of cupcake.
- Refrigerate.
*My cupcake corer didn't come with instructions. It works exactly like my lawn weeder: insert, twist, pull out, push down the plunger to remove the cake plug (or weed root & plug of dirt in the case of the lawn weeder.) The cupcake "cores" may be frozen to use later in a trifle, or put them in a cookie tin and Norm will eat them.
Apricot Glaze
- 11 oz. dried apricots (see note)
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
- 1/2 cup instant-dissolving sugar (OR white granulated sugar)
Note: some organic dried apricots are a brown colour. Using apricot-colored dried apricots will look better. For a quick and maybe less expensive substitute, my mom has made apricot glaze using Heinz Junior Apricot Dessert (baby food) heated with white granulated sugar and sometimes a little apricot jam. When making the glaze from dried apricots, she uses the lemon juice but leaves out the vanilla so the glaze retains its orange colour, but I don't find the vanilla changes the apricot colour much.
1. Chop the dried apricots, put in a pot, cover with water.
2. Bring to a boil, then turn heat down to low and simmer covered, until the apricots are very soft, adding more boiling water if necessary.
3. When apricots are cooked but still hot, stir in white granulated sugar (if using) until dissolved. (If you have instant-dissolving sugar, add the sugar later, after mashing the cooked apricots.)
4. Drain the cooked apricots through a strainer, into a bowl or large measuring cup, reserving the liquid.
5. Mash the apricots (use a blender or food processor) adding 1/4 cup of the reserved liquid.
6. If using instant dissolving sugar mix it in now.
7. Add vanilla and lemon juice. Blend in well.
8. Let cool, then refrigerate.
You will use 1/2 cup of the apricot glaze in the custard, and spoon the rest on top of the centre of the cupcakes.
Note: To make an apricot torte with a sponge cake, you would fold 1/2 cup of the glaze into the custard, this becomes the filling in the layers of the cake. The rest of the glaze is spread in the centre of the top of the layer cake.
Apricot Custard
- 1-3/4 cups milk
- 3-4 Tbsp Bird's Custard Powder
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp real vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cooled apricot glaze (see recipe above)
- 1 cup whipped cream (see recipe below)
- Heat 1-1/2 cups milk in a saucepan on the stove.
- Meanwhile, in a small bowl or a measuring cup with a small whisk, whisk 1/4 cup cold milk with 3 Tbsp custard powder.
- When small bubbles form around the edge of the pot of the heated milk on the stove, whisk in the custard powder mixture.
- Stirring frequently, mix in sugar and vanilla.
- Keep stirring so custard doesn't burn on bottom and sides of pot.
- Reduce heat if necessary.
- Mixture should thicken to pudding consistency.
- If mixture seems too thin, whisk an additional tablespoon custard powder with a little milk and stir in.
- When thickened, remove from heat.
- Stir in 1/2 cup of the apricot glaze.
- Cool. Refrigerate.
- When apricot custard is completely cool, fold in 1 cup stabilized whipped cream (recipe follows).
- The apricot custard is spooned into the hole of the cored vanilla cupcakes. If making an Apricot Torte, the apricot custard fills the layers of the cake.
Stabilized Whipped Cream for Piping Bag
This whipped cream can be piped onto a dessert and refrigerated to serve later. The gelatin helps the whipped cream hold its shape. If the cupcakes are going to be consumed soon, you can just make regular whipped cream with the whipping cream, icing sugar and vanilla and skip the tricky gelatin powder step. If you're short of time, you can use canned real whipped cream for the cupcakes.
- 1 envelope (about 1 tsp) plain, unflavored gelatin powder
- 6 Tbsp room temperature water
- 2 cups heavy (whipping) cream, chilled
- 4-6 Tbsp icing sugar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract*
*If you're using this whipped cream in another recipe, you can substitute a tablespoon of liqueur, rum or brandy for the vanilla flavoring.
- Sprinkle gelatin powder over room-temperature water in a heat-proof bowl. I use a small stainless steel mixing bowl.
- Let stand until water is absorbed.
- Place the bowl of gelatin mixture in a pot of boiling water, stir very quickly, don't let the gelatin boil.
- When gelatin is dissolved, let cool to room temperature but be careful, if you wait too long, the mixture will solidify and you'll have to place the bowl in hot water again to return the gelatin to a liquid state and let it cool again (for a shorter time this time).
- Whip the whipping cream in electric mixer until the consistency of soft custard.
- Continue beating while pouring in cooled gelatin mixture, in a steady stream.
- Beat until almost stiff, then add icing sugar and vanilla (or liqueur, brandy or rum.)
Apricot Filled Cupcakes: fold 1/2 cup of this whipped cream into the cooled Apricot Custard mixture, then spoon custard mixture into centre of cored cupcakes. Top with a generous round of Apricot Glaze. With a rubber spatula, fill a piping bag and pipe whipped cream around the glaze on top of the cupcakes.
If icing a cake, swirl the whipped cream onto the top and sides of the cooled cake with a rubber spatula, then decorate by piping remaining cream on top.
