hummingbird bakery's vanilla cupcakes.

It's true. I'm obsessed with finding the perfect vanilla cupcake. I thought I'd already covered all my possible candidates but no, there's more.

This one is a Hummingbird Bakery recipe and I must say, it's not too shabby. It's fluffy and sturdy, but came across as slightly dry to me, not because I overbaked it but because that's the texture it's supposed to have, I think. The upper part of the cupcake in contact with the frosting was moister and absolutely delicious. The cupcakes could use a tad more salt and a little less sugar, but there's nothing left to criticize about them. In fact, a bonus about them is that the cupcakes themselves are lower in fat as compared to most. That is, before you slather on the frosting.

If you've made cupcakes a couple of times before, the amount of batter you mix up following this recipe may not seem enough for 12, which is the stated quantity. I managed to stretch the batter out but I would not recommend that you do so. Even if the batter did rise quite significantly (be careful not to overfill!), all of my cupcakes did not rise to the brim because of the meagre amount of batter portioned for each one. So make 10 instead of 12 and you will be rewarded with beautiful chubby cupcakes.

Vanilla Cupcakes
makes 10
adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook via here

The original recipe said that it would yield 12 cupcakes but in my case, it didn't give me enough batter to fill the cupcake liners such that the cakes would rise to the brim. I feel that it would be much safer to divide the batter amongst 10 cupcake liners.

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and beat on slow speed until everything is combined and you have a crumb mixture with a sandy consistency. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat just until the milk is incorporated.

Whisk together the remaining milk, egg and vanilla. Pour into the flour mixture and beat until all ingredients are just incorporated. Beat for another 30 seconds until batter is smooth. Do not overmix.

Divide batter amongst cupcake liners and bake at 325F for about 15 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out mostly clean. Cool before frosting.

Vanilla Frosting
lightly adapted from Baked
makes enough to frost about 16 cupcakes

3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp + 2 tsp all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
40ml heavy cream
3/4 cup butter
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a saucepan, whisk the sugar and flour together. Add the milk and cream and cook over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until the mixture comes to a boil and has thickened, about 20 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until cool. Reduce the speed to low and add the butter; mix until thoroughly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla extract mix to combine. If the frosting is too soft, put it in the refrigerator to chill slightly, then mix again until it is the proper consistency.