School and work are back in session, and so cupcake season is fast upon us. We don't bake a lot of cupcakes; we usually prefer the ease of one whole cake. But when it comes to school classrooms and workplace birthday parties, cupcakes are just so easy and fork-free. So we've been on the hunt for the ideal recipes for both chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, and now, the search is over.
We just haven't been happy with recent cupcakes; they would dome up too much, or be too crumbly, or too coarse. The recipes we usually used were our favorite cake recipes, and while these worked great for cake we weren't so happy with them as cupcakes.
So when we made a big batch of cupcakes for an event earlier this week, we had a chance to test out some new recipes. Both of the recipes we made turned out to be such winners that we immediately filed them away with a big red bow on top. These two new recipes were everything we wanted in cupcakes: moist, tender, and well-shaped. Oh, and easy too.
Chocolate Cupcake Winner: Far-From-Disaster Chocolate Cupcakes, at Orangette
Why?
• They taste like chocolate. So many chocolate cakes aren't chocolatey enough; these are rather grownup cupcakes, with a lot of richness. But they're still cake; they're not fudgy, brownie-like, or flourless.
• As Molly describes them, they are moist-yet-fluffy; they have such a perfect texture.
• There's coffee in them! The coffee gives a nice bitter edge to the chocolate flavor (which is accomplished, by the way, by the inclusion of both cocoa and chocolate).
Vanilla Cupcake Winner: Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes, at 52 Cupcakes
Why?
• Many cupcake recipes turn out to be too crumbly or coarse for our tastes. This one includes cake flour, which gave it tenderness. The cupcakes held together for easy eating, but they were spongy and moist still. Really perfect.
• This is one of the fastest cake recipes we've ever made; it has an unusual recipe structure that calls for beating the butter straight into the flour, then adding the wet ingredients. We were dubious, but then it turned out perfectly moist-yet-fluffy cupcakes.
• The flavor of these was buttery, rich with vanilla, and not too sweet. Another winner!
What are your favorite cupcake recipes? Do you have a reliable recipe you return to every time?
Related: How To Frost a Cupcake
(Images: Faith Durand)
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I'm hooked on the book "Vegan Cupcakes take over the World" Every recipe is a winner.
I somehow knew it would be the Far-from-disaster-cake for the chocolate. That cake is simply the best thing EVER as far as chocolate goes. It fails utterly as a bunt cake, though, just FYI. It's so tender that it rips apart.
The cupcake version is just lovely with raspberry frosting.
Last time I had a more formal dinner party (read, polo shirts instead of t-shirts) I took some advice from Alton Brown and baked cup cakes in actual cups (coffee mugs)!
Inject a little HOT fudge sauce into the middle, add a bit of frosting or whipped cream, serve with spoons. Everyone loved it!
Long live the cup cake!
There's a wonderful and easy yellow cupcake recipe in Cook's Illustrated New Best Recipe cookbook. It was formulated specifically for cupcakes (versus a cake recipe being used for cupcakes) and really hits the mark.
My standby vanilla recipe is from Magnolia Bakery. Reliable and delicious!
I think beating the butter into the flour is a Rose Levy Berenbaum technique from her Cake Bible.
That chocolate cupcake looks absolutely heavenly. My new kitchen is in post-move chaos, but once we have everything organized, it might be time to bake some celebratory cupcakes!!
I've never made chocolate cupcakes so delicious until i made this recipe!
Annnnnnnnd I just made the vanilla...DIVINE! And yes, the butter/flour technique is a bit strange, but the finished product more than justifies the unusual process! They were heavenly. The texture was lovely and moist.
I agree with nikkimay on VCTOTW!
"Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" is my go-to book as well. Like nikkimay stated, every recipe is a winner, and non-vegans have no idea they are vegan. The chocolate recipe is amazing, as is the matcha green tea recipe.
Contrary to the author's suggestion to stick with regular all-purpose flour, I use whole wheat flour for the chocolate recipe and they still turn out perfect. I also use coconut drinking milk instead of almond milk, and even though I over baked them for eleven minutes once, there was no difference in taste or texture and they were fluffy and moist!
here's my 2 cents: Duncan Hines vanilla cake mix with canned whipped vanilla frosting. delicious. easy. low fat.
yes, dhmoninger, there's nothing like Duncan Hines Corn Syrup, Corn Starch, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 60, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Citric Acid, Sodium Citrate, and Dextrin taste! YUM! your "sense" is about worth "2 cents".
Magnolia Bakery cookbook - the BEST. The lines in the original village store are still out the door. Also, Duncan Hines is gross!
I second that Duncan Hines is gross. Not just that, but it should be obvious that regular readers/contributors on this blog do NOT belong to the cake mix set!