The first recipe I tackled from this gorgeously fun, colourful book was the sweet and simple Vanilla Cupcakes.
The thing I love about vanilla cupcakes is the versatility for decoration. The sponge is classic and beautifully simple and so the buttercream/icing can be as flavoursome and colourful as you desire. You can have some serious fun and let your imagination run wild.
So back to this recipe...
Sponge: The method is simple but gives the added details of timings that many recipe books don't include. No timings can equal disaster to an inexperienced baker. But this recipe gives specific timings for mixing, phew. It really does make a difference, I would never have creamed my sugar and butter for as long as suggested (3-5mins).
So the technique was great, thanks to the instructions, but I made a bit of a mistake... I used plain flour and wholemeal self raising flour (this recipe uses plain and self raising flour)- I thought I'd ran out of white self-raising and so replaced it for the wholemeal, annoyingly I found the white self raising afterwards. So, although it added a healthier element to my cakes it made them slightly denser (definitely needed a cuppa to wash it down), savoury tasting and the vanilla was completely lost.
All in all the sponge recipe technique was great, but I'll have to try it again with plain self raising to give it the full seal of approval.
Icing: The vanilla buttercream icing was a little disappointing- very sweet, not enough vanilla and very firm. I wouldn't use this icing recipe again.
The thing I love about vanilla cupcakes is the versatility for decoration. The sponge is classic and beautifully simple and so the buttercream/icing can be as flavoursome and colourful as you desire. You can have some serious fun and let your imagination run wild.
So back to this recipe...
Sponge: The method is simple but gives the added details of timings that many recipe books don't include. No timings can equal disaster to an inexperienced baker. But this recipe gives specific timings for mixing, phew. It really does make a difference, I would never have creamed my sugar and butter for as long as suggested (3-5mins).
So the technique was great, thanks to the instructions, but I made a bit of a mistake... I used plain flour and wholemeal self raising flour (this recipe uses plain and self raising flour)- I thought I'd ran out of white self-raising and so replaced it for the wholemeal, annoyingly I found the white self raising afterwards. So, although it added a healthier element to my cakes it made them slightly denser (definitely needed a cuppa to wash it down), savoury tasting and the vanilla was completely lost.
All in all the sponge recipe technique was great, but I'll have to try it again with plain self raising to give it the full seal of approval.
Icing: The vanilla buttercream icing was a little disappointing- very sweet, not enough vanilla and very firm. I wouldn't use this icing recipe again.
