Vanilla Cupcakes with Butter Cream Frosting

Children’s Birthday is always a special time for the parents. As a baker, the challenge for the parent increases further more because each year the kids come with a special request. Today my older one (who is still my baby) turned 9. This vanilla cupcake is a sport themed one and was really liked by all the kids. This classic recipe goes to the 2nd day of blogging marathon under the cook from the alphabets theme. My day 1 recipe, Keerai molagootal was cooked in the stove top and this recipe Vanilla Cupcake is made in the oven.

This vanilla cupcake recipe was given to me by my good friend who happens to be a wonderful baker. The inspiration to make the sports cupcake was from pinterest. It was lot of fun doing the designs on the cupcakes and I totally enjoyed it. The best part is this cupcake is made with whole wheat pastry flour along with little all purpose flour.

Preparation time – 15 minutes
Cooking time/Baking time – 25-30 minutes
Difficulty level – medium

Ingredients to make Vanilla Cupcakes –

For the Cake – (makes 24 large cupcakes or 1, 9 inch cake or 1, 9×13 sheet cake)

• Whole wheat pastry flour – 2 ½ cups
• Unbleached all purpose flour – 1 cup
• Baking Powder – 1 ½ tsp
• Baking soda – ½ tsp
• Unsalted butter – 1 cup (2 sticks)
• Sugar – 1 ½ cups
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Eggs – 4 large
• Vanilla – 2 tsp1
• Low fat plain yogurt – 1 cup

For the Butter cream frosting – (yields 6 cups)

• Butter – 1 cup
• Shortening – 1 cup
• Milk – ½ cup
• Vanilla – 2 teaspoon
• Confectioners’ sugar – 8 cups

Procedure to make Vanilla Cupcakes –

For the Cake –

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour the pan or pans of your choice or line with parchment paper. For cupcakes, lightly grease 2 muffin tins or line with papers and coat the papers with nonstick spray.
• Whisk together the flours, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl.
• Cream together the butter, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition and stopping to scrape the sides and the bottom of the bowl once or twice. Add one third of the flour mixture, mixing until incorporated.
• Whisk together the vanilla and yogurt in a separate bowl or cup and add half of this mixture to the large bowl, again beating until the mixture is very fluffy, and scraping the sides and bottom of bowl. With the mixer running on low speed, add another third of the flour mixture, the remaining yogurt mixture, then the remaining flour, mixing well after each addition and stopping once or twice to scrape the sides and bottom of bowl.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake the cake for the appropriate time for the size of pan. Remove from the oven and cool for 15 minutes before removing from the pan. Place the cake layers or cupcakes on a rack to cool completely before frosting.

• Baking time – 25-27 min for layers or cupcakes, 30-34 min for sheet cake.
• I used these cute Happy birthday cupcake liners for the muffin tins.

For the Frosting –

• Cream butter and shortening for 10-12 min. Gradually add the sugar, milk and vanilla.
• Start with 2/3 of the sugar and add more according to taste.

• If using pureed fruit to flavor/color the frosting the milk could be omitted.

To decorate the Vanilla Cupcakes –

• I made 4 different sports ball for the occasion. They are baseballs, soccer balls, foot ball and basket balls.
• I divided the frosting into 5 sections –
• 1st section, I kept it white and this was the largest portion, since I had the base of 2 balls as white color.
• 2nd section, I made it into brown. I used cocoa powder to color the icing and I just eyeballed the measurement until the frosting reached the preferred color. This icing was the base color for the foot ball and the trim for the basket ball.
• 3rd section, I made into orange. This color was the base for the basket ball and the trim for the base ball.
• 4th and the smallest section, I made it into blue to design the soccer ball.
• Do the base color icing for all the cupcakes. I made 24 cup cakes and hence made 6 of each kind of ball.
• Let the base frosting air dry for about an hour and then make the designs on top. Follow the pictures to help you make the specific ball.
• To make the green grass, I used desiccated coconut and green food color. I mixed them both up in a zippered bag and then layered it under the cupcakes to give a grassy feel.