Finest Vanilla Cupcakes

Noo's Note:

This is a great little recipe from Bill Grainger that is used endlessly in my house. Mostly I don't bother making it into cupcakes, but prefer to bake one larger cake, then portion into squares-a little more grown up if you are using it for afternoon tea-but in cupcake form they are great for kids parties! I also don't always bother with the frosting, as it’s quite delicious without it. Its quick and easy to make-kids and adults love it alike, and it freezes well too! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

• Total Time: 35 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 12

Yield: 12.0 muffins

• 250 g softened unsalted butter
• 250 g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 185 g self raising flour
• 60 g plain flour
• 185 ml milk

icing

• 250 g white chocolate, drops
• 300 ml sour cream
• raspberries, to decorate

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Grease a 12 hole 125ml muffin tin.
3. Put butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Add eggs, one by one, then add vanilla and beat until well combined.
4. Sift flours together and fold into butter mixture while slowly adding the milk. Stir until almost smooth.
5. Divide mixture between muffin holes and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for at least 10 minutes. Turn out on rack to cool.
6. For the icing, melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.
7. Gently beat in the sour cream until icing is thick and creamy.
8. Spread icing on the cooled cupcakes and decorate with raspberries.

Reviews

[2boyzmum]

These were very nice. I used my own icing, but loved the flavor and the softness of the cupcakes. My husband would have liked them a bit crisper, but he also likes his steak charred, so what does he know. :)

[Annacia]

I'm not going to star this because I think that I must have gotten the amounts wrong on converting them to US. According to my translation it ask for almost 8oz of butter! I used 6 and it was still waaay too much. Between the butter, eggs and vanilla I had so much "liquid" that there was no way I could add any milk. Even without the milk I got delicious cupcakes (very rich but delicious) that rose beautifully. I could have sworn that I had white chocolate in the house but I could only find dark (I'm blaming the missing white on the moving gremlins!) so they got regular chocolate frosting. I have to say that the dark chocolate didn't do them any damage at all and even with all my mess ups they turned out very well.

[Lainey6605]

These are very good! Such a wonderful flavor. Thanks for sharing.