cupcake warm-up

June 20th, 2009 by admin Leave a reply »

For the cupcakes we decorated Linzer style, we adapted the coconut cupcake recipe from the cookbook Williams Sonoma Kids Baking. This gives me a chance to comment that having ingredients at room temperature does make a difference for the better when you’re baking any kind of a cake.

A couple of shortcuts for those of us who don’t plan our baking that far in advance: If the butter is cold, microwave it at half power in short intervals (10–15 seconds). Monitor by touch (you’re want soft but not too squishy)—don’t let it melt! It took about a minute in our microwave. If your eggs are cold, put them in a bowl of hot (just from the tap, not boiling!) water for a few minutes.

Basic Butter Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup plain yogurt (we used Trader Joe’s full-fat Greek yogurt, which I bought by mistake, instead of fat-free)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a 12-muffin pan with paper liners.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium speed until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one is added. Add half of the flour mixture and beat on low speed just until blended. Add the yogurt and beat until smooth. Add the rest of the flour mixture and beat just until blended. The batter will be fairly stiff. Using an ice cream scoop or 2 large spoons, one to scoop and one to push, fill each lined cup mostly full with batter.

Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and set on a cooling rack for 20 minutes. Tip the cupcakes out of the pan onto the rack and let cool completely.

Go crazy with jam, Linzer style!

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