I let my daughter choose which type of topping she'd like to make with me for these easy vanilla cupcakes - and she chose chocolate ... mmmmm !
Last week I baked some cupcakes for tea. It’s always a novelty for me baking in South Africa as the flour and sugar is so clean here and only ever has to be sifted once. At home in Tanzania, we usually have to pick tiny stones out of the sugar & sift the flour at least twice to get rid of all the ‘dudu’s’ ('dudu's' are insects in the local Swahili language). All the flour I buy contains small insects and/or funny bits and pieces of unknown animal life ! “OH YUCK !” I hear you say …………. but ‘tis the truth & if a few insects happen to miss my beady eye and fall through the sieve then I reckon it’s all baked at a high temperature so should kill all the germs anyway. (And none of us have ever got sick or anything so it must be okay !)
Another novelty – being able to buy and bake with Vanilla Extract. Not that cheap 'n nasty essence-y stuff. Not to mention real, fresh butter. Ahhhh ….. Also, being able to lick the batter straight from the bowl as the eggs here are pasteurized. How daring ! I don’t risk this at home (although my daughter has - and survived to tell the tale !) unless I’m in a particularly daring mood that day (ha ha – the daredevil life of a farmer’s wife, ‘eh ?!)
So – here then is a recipe for the cupcakes I made here last week. (And yes, I did lick the bowl … and the spoons, too !) -:
Easy Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
1 ½ cups Cake Flour
¾ cup White Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
½ cup Milk (I used Skim Milk)
½ cup Sunflower Oil
2 Eggs, beaten
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Butter or Margarine for greasing the cake cups/pans
Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder & salt together. Make a well in the centre and add the milk, oil, beaten eggs and vanilla extract. Blend all together and beat for a few minutes (I used a hand held whisk) until well blended and creamy. Place mixture into lightly greased cake or muffin cups, and bake at 180’C/350’C/Gas Mark 4 for 12-15 mins until a skewer inserted in the middle of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before icing them with a topping of your choice. Makes about 20 cupcakes.
For the Frosting:
Butter, softened
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
Icing Sugar
Drinking Chocolate Powder (like sweetened Cocoa Powder)
Dash of Milk
Multi Coloured Sprinkles
I’m afraid I didn’t weigh or measure the ingredients for this …. I placed a few heaped tablespoons of butter into a glass bowl, added the Vanilla Extract & about ½ a box of sifted Icing Sugar (250 gm/1 cup or so ?) to this, along with 2-3 tablespoons of drinking chocolate powder and then I beat it well (again, by hand as I far prefer this method to the electric kind !), adding a dash of milk (rather than more butter !) to moisten it a little. I smothered it over the cupcakes & my daughter and I had great fun sprinkling the decorations over the top.
Another novelty – being able to buy and bake with Vanilla Extract. Not that cheap 'n nasty essence-y stuff. Not to mention real, fresh butter. Ahhhh ….. Also, being able to lick the batter straight from the bowl as the eggs here are pasteurized. How daring ! I don’t risk this at home (although my daughter has - and survived to tell the tale !) unless I’m in a particularly daring mood that day (ha ha – the daredevil life of a farmer’s wife, ‘eh ?!)
So – here then is a recipe for the cupcakes I made here last week. (And yes, I did lick the bowl … and the spoons, too !) -:
Easy Vanilla Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
1 ½ cups Cake Flour
¾ cup White Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
½ tsp Salt
½ cup Milk (I used Skim Milk)
½ cup Sunflower Oil
2 Eggs, beaten
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Butter or Margarine for greasing the cake cups/pans
Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder & salt together. Make a well in the centre and add the milk, oil, beaten eggs and vanilla extract. Blend all together and beat for a few minutes (I used a hand held whisk) until well blended and creamy. Place mixture into lightly greased cake or muffin cups, and bake at 180’C/350’C/Gas Mark 4 for 12-15 mins until a skewer inserted in the middle of one of the cupcakes comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack before icing them with a topping of your choice. Makes about 20 cupcakes.
For the Frosting:
Butter, softened
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
Icing Sugar
Drinking Chocolate Powder (like sweetened Cocoa Powder)
Dash of Milk
Multi Coloured Sprinkles
I’m afraid I didn’t weigh or measure the ingredients for this …. I placed a few heaped tablespoons of butter into a glass bowl, added the Vanilla Extract & about ½ a box of sifted Icing Sugar (250 gm/1 cup or so ?) to this, along with 2-3 tablespoons of drinking chocolate powder and then I beat it well (again, by hand as I far prefer this method to the electric kind !), adding a dash of milk (rather than more butter !) to moisten it a little. I smothered it over the cupcakes & my daughter and I had great fun sprinkling the decorations over the top.
