The Essentials

Ok, so this is a list of things that I think no cupcake baker should be without. I'm sure I'll add to it as I remember things, or I buy some wonderful new contraption.

Electric Mixer
I don't care how strong your arms are, there's no way anyone could sufficiently beat butter by hand! Whether it's bench top or hand held, it doesn't matter, as long as it works. My wonderful mother (bless her) recently gave me a Kenwood Patissier Mixer and I absolutely adore it. Prior to that I had a Sunbeam Mixmaster Compact Pro, which had the added bonus of a removable head for use as a hand held mixer. The only downside was that the beaters sat a good 2cm from the bottom of the bowl, but I still highly recommend it for those looking for a cheaper benchtop mixer (I think I paid about $90 for mine at Target).

Oven Thermometer
I really do find this essential to good cupcake baking. Imagine my surprise when I discovered my expensive, you bute, wizz bang fan force oven actually heats to around 20 degrees less than the dial states. Overcooking will leave your cupcakes dry, hard & crumbly, while undercooking will leave them, well, raw!

Basic Vanilla Buttercream Icing Recipe

As with the Vanilla Cupcake recipe, Buttercream Icing is fantastic on its own, or can be altered to create pretty much any flavour icing you can imagine.

Ingredients

150g Softened Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
500g Icing Sugar

Method

Beat butter until pale & fluffy. Add the milk & vanilla extract and beat until combined.

Gradually add in the icing sugar until desired consistancy is achieved.

(If your icing becomes too dry, add a little more milk. If too runny, add more icing sugar)

Basic Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

I think every baker should have a tried & tested Vanilla Cupcake recipe. Not only because they taste pretty bloody fantastic, they also serve as a great base for trying all sorts of new flavours.

This is mine (though when I say 'mine', I mean the one I use - I have no idea where I originally found it)


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
125g Softened Unsalted Butter
3/4 cup Caster Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Large Eggs
1/2 cup Milk

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees & line two 12 hole muffin trays with patty cases

Beat the butter until pale & creamy. Gradually add the caster sugar, beat until the sugar is almost dissolved. Add eggs (one at a time) and the vanilla extract & beat until light & fluffy.

Sift together the flour & baking powder. Gradually add the flour and milk to the wet mixture & beat on low speed until well combined.

Divide mixture evenly between patty cases and bake for 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

The Quest

What is exactly is 'The Cupcake Quest' you ask?

For as long as I can remember I've loved cupcakes, I'm not a fan of cake, but I would give anything for a really good cupcake. What's the difference between cake & a cupcake? Well, nothing I guess. LOL

Back to the topic... I have never been a baker; I don't even like cooking, so my cupcake experience has been limited to what's provided in the packet mix aisle of my local supermarket. They've also never been all that aesthetically pleasing, after all, the only people who would see them are me and my husband (R), and they would be demolished in seconds so why go to all that effort?

Then one day, in early January, I was browsing a book shop looking for something interesting on which to spend my Christmas gift voucher when I spotted a book. A magical, marvellous, mouth watering book - The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. The recipes had me salivating on the spot, and the cupcakes pictured were too gorgeous for words… so of course I bought the book.

And thus my quest began - to perfect the art that is the cupcake.

Another new blog

I'm going to have a blog for everything at this rate. LOL

Ok, so there won't be much here for awhile, the quest has only just begun.