merrifood

Vanilla cupcakes with cookie dough frosting

Posted by merrifood on July 14, 2012 · 1 Comment 

Farewells from our company tend to clump together, so this week there happened to be two goodbyes (well at least for me, since I’m going on holiday to Italy and won’t be around for the second goodbye).  And yes, neither wanted chocolate desserts.  Like I said, farewell baking goes outside my comfort zone.  I have to say that this was my first time making a basic vanilla cupcake.  I had to jazz it up with my favourite frosting – COOKIE DOUGH.  I am obsessed with all things cookie dough, so I feel that this frosting definitely took the cupcakes to the next level.  Also, this proved to be a very trusty recipe – moist cake and excellent vanilla flavour.

Vanilla Cupcakes (adapted from Pastry Affair)

I made a half batch so this makes about 8 cupcakes.  I tend to make half batches of everything here because let’s be honest, Aussies just don’t eat as much as Americans. (Also, it technically made 7 because I made 4 mini cupcakes as well since those are great for tasting purposes.)

Ingredients

1/8 cup (1/4 stick or approximately 25-30 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/6 cup sour cream (or plain, non-fat yogurt)
1/8 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoons vanilla extract
7/8 (aka slightly less than a cup) cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C. Line a cupcake pan with baking cups.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.   Beat in the sour cream, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract.  Add in the baking powder, soda, and salt, and then the flour gradually.  When that’s all blended in, stir in the milk, mixing until batter is uniform and smooth.

The first batch of ingredients mixed together pre flour adding

Final batter after adding of dry ingredients and milk

Fill baking cups about 2/3 full and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, transfer cupcakes to a cooling rack or plate, and allow to cool to room temperature before frosting or serving.

Finished cupcakes pre frosting

Cookie dough frosting (adapted from Tidy Mom)

The original recipe makes a LOT, so I actually divided it by 3 since that was fairly easy to do.  (Consider yourself warned – make too much of this frosting and you will undoubtedly just eat it by the spoonful out of the bowl.)  This is a really interesting frosting recipe in that it actually uses flour – definitely gives it more texture and really makes it taste like cookie dough.

Ingredients

• 1 stick / 110 g unsalted butter, at room temperature (take it out well in advance!)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1 heaping cup confectioners / icing sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

Beat butter and brown sugar until creamy and fluffy.  Then mix in the icing sugar until smooth.  Beat in the flour and salt, and finally mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and combined.

Ice your cupcakes (again, no fancy pastry pipers for me, I just use a knife – although you could always put it in a plastic bag and cut off the corner to make an impromptu pastry bag) and decorate with mini or normal chocolate chips.

Ready to serve!