Food For Thought

I swear we eat real food – it’s not all cupcakes and tiramisu all the time – it just seems that way right now; it’s birthday season.

One of my roommates turned 21 this past week, and since the actual date was sandwiched between exams and on a Tuesday night, we all made the decision to celebrate the festivities on the weekend. Me, being the overachiever (hah!) that I am, said, “Hey!! There’s going to be a lot of people here, and I don’t want to be stuck cutting a cake and using plates and all the other garbage that goes along with a full sized cake. I’ll make cupcakes so it’s easy and delicious for everyone.” Enter the Martha Stewart Cupcake book that is slowly reaching Divine status in my mind. Every recipe I’ve made from this book (and there are some you haven’t seen…yet ) has come out perfect. If she says you’ll get 36 cupcakes, then you’ll for sure get 36 perfectly portioned little pieces of baked heaven. The only issue I’ve had – and I blame this one on me – is she recommended a double batch of frosting, and I ended up having to trash about half of what I made . I probably just didn’t put enough frosting on the cakes, clearly my fault.

I whipped up 36 little yellow buttermilk cupcakes and about a gallon of vanilla frosting, colored a bit of it green, and created this poorly decorated birthday masterpiece. I think the mis-sized letters and crooked sprinklings give them character. (In time, my decorating skills will improve, at least I hope)

When everyone showed up, they were all glad to see that there was some sort of dessert, and I was happy to not have to individually serve everyone throughout the night. I hope these cupcakes are as amazing for you as they were for me. I may be a bit biased because yellow cake is my favorite, but if you don’t like these, I’m sure there is a mental institution nearby to help you rehabilitate.

Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes (from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes) Yield 36 cupcakes

3 cups cake flour

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

2 ¼ teaspoon baking powder

1 ½ teaspoons coarse salt

2 ¼ sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

2 ¼ cups sugar

2 cups buttermilk, room temperature

5 whole eggs, plus 3 yolks, room temperature

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir with a whisk to combine well.

Using an electric mixer and scraping down the sides when necessary, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy and pale, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time making sure the previous egg is completely combined before adding the next. Add the vanilla extract. On low speed, add the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with a cup of buttermilk between thirds. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the mixing bowl to mix in any missed ingredients.

Using an ice cream scoop, fill the muffin pans about ¾ the way full. Bake for ten minutes. Rotate the pans in the oven and bake another 8-10 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out cleanly. Let cool in the pans 10 minutes, and then turn out onto racks to cool completely. Once cool, decorate with frosting.

Fluffy Vanilla Frosting (from Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes)

3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups (1 pound) powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, whip the butter. Turn the speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar making sure to avoid lumps. Once all the sugar is added, add the vanilla extract. At this point you can add food coloring for decoration, or just spread onto the cakes.