That's Noice!

Are you looking for a cupcake recipe that’s easy to follow?

That will work every time?

That doesn’t need 3 separate bowls just to mix the batter? (a-la Crabapple Bakery recipes)

The perfect cupcake recipe?

You’ve come to the right place!

This is a recipe that I’ve been using for well over 4 years. For all the cupcake books I own (almost a whole row on our kitchen bookshelf!), I always find myself going back to this vanilla buttercake cupcake recipe. You throw all the ingredients in at once and it just works.

Technically, this is a recipe for patty cakes (anyone remember those??), so they’re slightly smaller than the now-popular “American-sized” cupcake.

Vanilla Buttercake Cupcakes with Vanilla Butter Cream Icing

Makes 24 “patty-cake” (slightly-smaller-than-average) sized cupcakes.

Based on this recipe, each cupcake contains 9.5g fat and 186 calories.

Cupcakes:

125g softened unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g caster sugar (2/3 of a cup)
3 eggs (room temperature if possible)
225g self raising flour (1½ cups)
60ml milk (¼ of a cup)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to moderate (180ºC/160ºC fan-forced). Line two deep 12-hole patty pans with paper cases
2. Combine ingredients in small bowl of electric mixer; beat on low speed until ingredients are just combined. Increase speed to medium; beat about 3 minutes or until mixture is smooth and changed to a paler colour
3. Drop slightly rounded tablespoons of mixture into paper cases. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Turn cakes onto wire rack; turn top-side up to cool.

Cupcake papers and my colour-coordinated decorations

Can’t we just eat the batter straight from the bowl?

Ready for the oven

Buttercream icing:

(Double this if you want to create funky swirls on your cupcakes)

125g softened unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
240g icing sugar or icing mixture (1½ cups)
2 tablespoons milk

Method:

Beat butter and extract in small bowl with electric mixer until as white as possible. Gradually beat in half the sifted icing sugar, milk, then the remaining icing sugar. Tint with food colouring, if desired.

Buttercream icing ready to be piped onto the cupcakes

I use a glass to make it easier to get the
icing into my disposable piping bag

VOILA! I piped the icing using the Wilton 1M swirl piping tip

This is an adapation of the Cookies’n'Cream (i.e. Oreo) cupcake recipe from Cupcakes Galore by Gail Wagman. As delish as the cupcakes were, I wanted to try an Aussie version, and what better iconic Australian bikkie to use but the humble Tim Tam?

Ingredients for cake mixture (makes 12-18, depending on your preferred cupcake size)
250g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter, room temperature
200g sugar (I assume castor!)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
180ml single cream
½ packet Tim Tams (or more/less, to taste)

Ingredients for cream cheese frosting
180g white chocolate, broken into pieces
180g cream cheese, cut into pieces
185g unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
½ packet Tim Tams (or more/less, to taste)

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°c
2. Mix flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside
3. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and single cream and beat until batter is smooth. Fold in crushed Tim Tams
4. Spoon batter into cupcake papers, to about ⅔ full
5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool

(I didn’t have cream, so used milk; while not bad, I’d suggest you stick with cream in this recipe – it really does make a difference)

Cream cheese frosting

1. In a large bowl over simmering water melt white chocolate until smooth and creamy. It should be just warm to the touch
2. Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add melted chocolate and beat again until smooth
3. Use frosting immediately or it will harden
4. Sprinkle crushed Tim Tams immediately, while frosting is still soft

(I was feeling brave and just used melted white chocolate mixed in with crushed Tim Tams, hence the ugly-looking finished product. Follow the frosting recipe properly and you’ll have a much better result!)

Given the nature of Tim Tams, the flavour isn’t very strong when in cupcake form. But I think increasing the Tim Tam quantities slightly would help that along, and what’s not to love about the idea of a Tim Tam cupcake? When I took this test batch to work, you should have seen everyone’s eyes light up at the mention of them! You have to try them, at the very least :)

I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this cupcake cookbook—The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook—it is by far the best cupcake recipe book I have in my collection. And I have A LOT of cupcake books on my recipe shelf (I really should take a photo of my cupcake bookshelf and my cupcake supplies storage box—there’s a lot!)

The story behind the Crabapple Bakery sounds normal enough – Melbournite Jennifer Graham starts selling cupcakes at the local markets and ends up doing so well she set up a cupcake bakery. Googling the bakery it becomes obvious that things turned pear-shaped and there seemed to be complaints of stale cupcakes and even cockies in the display window! The company has re-established itself as Crabapple Cupcakes and Supplies and is back at the Prahran Markets.

From the moment my sister gave me this book in September last year, I have been in love with it. There are so many helpful things that have become treasured cupcake-making tips (like, New Zealand butter has a higher fat content and therefore is nicer to bake with) and even a list of suppliers for decorations and equipment to make the all-important perfect cupcake.

The only thing with the recipes is that they say they make 24 cupcakes—and the cupcakes must be the size of Tassie because I can’t fit the full mixture in my Kenwood Chef bowl! The first time I made cupcakes from the Crabapple book I made 48 of my regular-sized cupcakes (more like the old-school pattycake size, slightly smaller than the traditional cupcake/muffin size that’s popular today). So all of the recipes have been halved so that I make a manageable number of cupcakes. Although,the full recipes will be handy when I’m making the next big batch for a friend’s 30th birthday.

I knew I was onto a  good thing with this book when my friend Nicky from Yummie Tummie Catering told me that she uses this book exclusively for the cupcakes she makes for catering orders. You know it’s good when someone who cooks for a living uses these recipes :)