Vanilla Cupcakes in THREE Ways

    After so many succesfull proyects this weekend, the leftover mood is a mix in between being too tired and too relieved. I like to call it the Cake Hangover, to explain a little bit better, I fall into a coma for a few days until I recover my normal life again. The day of my recovering is like the sun start shinning again on my face, I can get out of bed and start
thinking on my next proyect. 

    I really hope the Cake Hangover disappears one day, because just imagine every Cake Shop owner would experiment something like this after a big cake. Nop, I don't think that would be good for the business. Well, allowing myself to be a little bit justified, this time I had to make a four tiers wedding cake and an 8" fondant cake on my own, but in the mean time I also had to take care of the kitties, as feed them, dress them and sending them to school. Not to bad, eh? For this reason I think its fear to fall in a induced-by-me coma for a day or two to get rid of any sparkle of stress. 

    

   

 This big cake, was made entirely by your humble server, but yes, I won't say I didn't get help from anyone either, it was precisely thanks to this persons that helped with the building of this incredible, fully stainless still made "cake toy", that I was able to transport the cake to the wedding reception in such a perfect condition and in such an easy way. I'm happy I got this angels to give me a hand, reason why I immediately thought that they deserved a reward, and what's better than Cupcakes? 

    Let's be honest to my self, I didn't even get to know how many people worked on the cake stand. So I decided to make at least 15 cupcakes, which I'm sure anyone would be out (that would be a sin). 15 cupcakes it's not too much, but if I made 5 of each flavor, wouldn't it look like a little piece of "Bakery" in a box? I mean, I also like to feel the bakery air on my house, because as I always thought, dreaming about golds, hasn't kill anyone. Plus it's just cute.

  

   Anyhow, I was still very tired and I didn't want to complicate my life too much, so I finally decided to make a batch of vanilla cupcakes in three ways. ufff... Happy times! To explain a little bit the reason why this idea made me so happy I only have to mention that I have half a batch of my Signature Chocolate Buttercream in the freezer, oh yes! Having this, I only need the cupcakes, some beautiful Gold Vanilla Buttercream and a little bit of "Blackberry magic" to fill up this box with my little baked jewels. 

   So, vanilla cupcakes and three creams, I had the chocolate cream from before, for the rest I made a classic American Vanilla Buttercream, which I separated in two bowls, one to be mixed with blackberry pure and become in a purple madness and the other, to be converted in a delicious Golden Vanilla Buttercream that matches so perfectly with strawberries. For the decoration, what I did was basically pipping three different creams with three different nozzles. One round one for the chocolate cream, one very big and curly close star for the vanilla frosting and a medium close star nozzle for the blackberry rose decoration. Only to be sure, I took a picture of the nozzles i used, so no one gets confused.

This was so meant to be... 

 Vanilla Cupcakes In Three Ways Recipe 

Vanilla Cupcakes 

(around 12 regular size cupcakes, I occupied slightly smaller wrappers so I got 15 cupcakes) 

Ingredients 

3/4 cup Butter 

3/4 cup Sugar 

2 Large Eggs 

1 1/4 cup Self Rising Flour 

1/4 Buttermilk 

1/4 Milk 

1 tsp Vanilla extract 

Pinch of salt 

Procedure 

Preheat the oven to 180°C. 

Place 12 to 15 cupcake wrappers in a cupcake pan. 

Sift the flower and the salt together and set aside. 

Pour the milk and the buttermilk in a cup together with the vanilla extract. 

With a stand mixer attached with the paddle or a hand one, whisk the butter with the sugar together on a high-medium speed until getting a soft and pale mix. (about 3 minutes) 

When 'Creaming' is ready, start adding the eggs one by one, mixing in a slow medium speed, and scrapping the sides of the bowl as you go, remember you doing this only to combine the eggs to the butter, but make sure you don't over mix to not destroy the air bubbles you created in the previous step. 

Now its time to add the flour and the milk, this two ingredients we will incorporate by separating and alternating them in three times. In my personal judge, I find that as is better to do this step with a hand whisk, every time when is possible, but you can do it perfectly using the slowest speed of the mixer. just don't get crazy with the mixer, it's very important only to incorporate but not whisk. 

To be more clear, incorporate a few spoons of flour to the butter and eggs batter, when this is done, add half of the milk; when milk is joined, add more flour, then pour in the rest of the milk to finish with the rest of the flour. make sure every ingredient is well incorporated by when you add the next and at this point, always scrap the sides after each addition. it's important. 

Fill up the cupcake wrappers until 3/4 of the capacity. 

Bake 20 minutes or until the sides and nice and gold and a toothpick comes out of them clean, if you don't want to pinch them and you are brave enough, touch one of them softly in the centre like if you would play a little drum the dough should stay in place firm and spongy, if it goes down it needs more time. 

Classic American Vanilla Buttercream 

Ingredients 

(for 20 to 24 cupcakes) 

490 g Softened Butter 

510 g Icing Sugar 

5 tbsp. Milk 

1 vanilla bean 

Procedure 

Sift the sugar and make sure the butter is soft to touch before starting. 

Whisk the Butter with a hand mixer or a stand mixer attached with the paddle on a medium- high speed until creamy (about 6 minutes), Stop the mixer to add in the icing sugar, and the pulp scrap from the vanilla bean, mix on a low speed until it's combine and high it up to a high-medium again for about 6 more minutes. 

add the milk at the end and whisk one more minute to make sure its unified. 

Separate in two bowls for the flavor addition.

Golden Vanilla Buttercream 

Ingredients 

(For 10 to 12 cupcakes) 

2 Large Egg Yolks 

1 tbsp. Granulated Sugar 

500-- g Classic Vanilla Buttercream 

Procedure 

In a Bain Marie, whisk together the yolks and the sugar until the mix is foamy and pale. 

combine together the Buttercream and the Yolk mix with a hand whisk or a mixer. 

Set aside, this is enough for more than 10 cupcakes, you can make half a batch or storage in air tight container in the freezer up to 3 months. 

Blackberry Purple Buttercream 

Ingredients 

(for 10 to 12 cupcakes) 

250 g of Blackberries 

1 tbsp. Granulated Sugar 

500-- Classic vanilla buttercream 

Procedure  

Pour in the sugar over the blackberries and smash with a fork. 

Pass thought a sifter to get rid of the seeds. 

Keep the obtained pure in a small bowl. 

Start whisking the Vanilla Buttercream  on medium speed and add in on the way the pure until is perfectly combined. 

   My purple magic was purple enough for me, but if you want to add more drama, you can always use a few drops of purple gel food coloring. 

Assembling 

   Cut the tips of three disposable pipping bags, insert a medium round nozzle to one, a large close star nozzle to the second and a medium close star nozzle to the third. 

   Fill up the bags with around half of the icing. The round with the Chocolate, the large close star with Vanilla and the medium close star with the Blackberry frosting. 

   Separate your cupcakes in equal amounts, start with the round tip, pipping a basic swirl from the outside of the cupcake, twisting to the inside and leaving up a little point at the end, sprinkle it with your favorite sprinkles, peanuts or even coconut flakes. If you need some practice before you start with the first one, just fill up the bag with all the frosting and pipe little swirls into the same bowl, that's going to give you more confidence and control, but most important, keep practicing. 

   Follow the same procedure with the Vanilla cream, one by one, the technique gets better and better. Pipe this beautiful curly swirl and finish it with a perfectly round and small size strawberry. (this is my favorite yummi!) 

   For the blackberry roses, you need to pipe the swirl from the centre to the edges of the cupcake, trying to hide the end of the pipping by keep the circle motion by when you finished pressing the icing. 

   This beautiful  cupcakes will be enjoyed for almost everyone around, you can be creative and change little details like the fruits on top, the sprinkles or the wrappers. There's so many options! 

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