Thursday, March 8, 2012

Basic Vanilla Cupcakes with Butter Cream Frosting...for a Colorful HOLI

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I wish you all a Colorful and Happy HOLI!!!!
I am posting today these colorful cupcakes as a visual treat, to celebrate this colorful festival with fun.
Cupcakes are a favorite among kids as well as adults. While I like to eat my cupcakes plain,this time I covered them with colored butter cream icing and decorated them with various sprinkles as we had to pack this for a friend.One can pipe the frosting into beautiful swirl patterns over the cupcakes but as I am not a person who likes to eat too much frosting I made it a bit thin and gave the cupcakes a thick coat of frosting and decorated them with various sprinkles.The whole activity of baking cup cakes and decorating them is a real fun filled one which I thoroughly enjoy. It is infact more of a stress buster for me.You can even keep your kids occupied with this kind of activity whenever you make them and more so in Birthday parties. Aren't they looking pretty?
Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream frosting Recipe:
(makes around 12-14 cup cakes)
Recipe Source: Joy of Baking

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups(195 grams) All purpose flour
1/2 cup(113 grams) unsalted Butter,at room temperature
2/3 cup(130 grams) granulated white Sugar
3 large Eggs
1/4 cup(60 ml) milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1 large lemon (outer yellow skin)(optional)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Buttercream Frosting:
2 cups(230 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk or light cream
Assorted food colors( I used red,blue,green)

Method:

Making Vanilla Cupcakes:
  • Preheat oven to 350 deg F (177deg C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
  • Sieve flour with baking powder and salt for a couple of times until it is mixed uniformly.
  • Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy using electric hand mixer.
  • Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.Add lemon zest to the mixture and mix.
  • Add 1/3rd of the flour mixture and 1/3 rd of milk and beat the mixture in low speed.Do this step alternatively for two more times beginning and ending with the flour.
  • Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed with a rubber spatula.
  • Scoop out the batter and fill the muffin cups evenly with the batter.
  • Bake them in the preheated oven at 180 deg C(350deg F) for about 17 - 20 minutes or just until set and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.It is always better to check a few minutes before the stated baking time.Do not over bake otherwise the cupcakes will be dry.
  • Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.Once the cupcakes have completely cooled,we can frost with icing.
Buttercream Frosting:
  • Cream the butter with an electric hand mixer until smooth and well blended.
  • Add the vanilla extract and gradually beat in the sugar using the mixer on low speed.
  • Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
  • Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).
  • Add a little more milk or sugar, if needed to get the desired consistency.
  • Divide the mixture into 2-3 portions and tint the frosting with desired food colors.I used few drops of red,blue and green food colors for the batter.
Decorating the cup cakes:
  • If you want flat topped cupcakes then slice off the dome of each cupcake, with a sharp knife before frosting.
  • If you want to pipe the frosting you can use a star decorating tip.This will give a nice swirls over the cupcakes.But I am not a person who likes to eat so much frosting and hence opted a simple and easy way.
  • I made my frosting bit thin and was easy to spread the frosting on each cup cake with a spatula or spoon and decorate with various color sprinkles,m&m's,white & brown chocolate chips and chocolate sprinkles.
  • Do not touch the frosting up to an hour,they would set properly and gives a shiny look on the cupcakes.They stay good for 2-3 days.

A special hug to my niece for allowing me to use her colorful spoons and forks and also her beautiful tiny hands as props in the photographs.I must say though she tried to hide her things from me while I was photographing but now she feels happy to see her things in the photographs.

44 comments:

hotpotcooking said...

Yum and delicious cupcakes with wonderful decoration

Reshmi Mahesh said...

Lovely looking cupcakes...nice presentation..

Torviewtoronto said...

pretty colours lovely pictures

Home Cooked Oriya Food said...

lovely... looks so good!
Happy Holi!

FewMinute Wonders said...

Hi Parthy,

Happy Holi! The cup cakes truly colorful. Beautiful presentation.

Raks said...

So pretty and colourful! happy holi to you too :)

lubnakarim06 said...

Happy Holi to you too.....love the way you presented the cupcakes....lovely colors...perfect to celebrate this festival....

Sudha Sabarish said...

Happy Holi to u Prathy.Cupcakes are drooling me.

Sensible Vegetarian said...

Looks so colorful and nice click with those tiny hands grabbing the cake.

Inviting you to participate in Cook Eat Delicious Desserts Event- Wholesome Desserts with no refined sugar or flours

Kanan said...

joy of baking has always great recipes. I made this vanilla cupcake a month ago and I loved it. your frosting looks wonderful

Chitra said...

wow, thats gives a real treat to our eyes. very colorful :) Happy holi :)

Valarmathi Sanjeev said...

Happy Holi...cupcakes looks awesome and colorful.... looks yumm.

Pavithra Elangovan said...

Happy Holi to you Prathy :) Colorful post for Colorful festival. Nice cupcakes.

Sangeetha Nambi said...

Looks colorful ! Happy Holi !

Lifewithspices said...

Happy Holi.. scrumptious n yummy cupcakes..

Vimitha Durai said...

Happy holi to u and ur family. The cupcakes look so colorful adn yummy

Priya dharshini said...

Happy holi ,prathy..The tiny cupcakes lus so cute and delicious..

Faseela said...

HAPPY HOLI.....yummy cupcakes and amzing presentation dear

Unknown said...

Love the frosting idea, looks yum

Deeksha said...

Beautiful cupcakes. Awesome pictures.

Archana said...

Love the colours of the cupcakes.

Love2cook Malaysia said...

HappY Holi dear..

Wow look at those colorful cuppies! Reflects the celebration..love it! ;)

Jeyashris Kitchen said...

Wow they look very cute, happy holi and nice recipe too

Vanamala Hebbar said...

Awesome..really colorfull

Suja Manoj said...

Happy Holi,beautiful presentation..looks so colorful.

Aarthi said...

Awesome Recipe Dear..Bookmarking it to try soon..

Aarthi
http://www.yummytummyaarthi.com/

Indian Khana said...

A perfect treat for Holi ....very colourful post and cupcake looks yum

Laavanya said...

Such pretty cupcakes... must be a kid's delight.

Kaveri Venkatesh said...

Delicious and colorful cupcakes..perfect for holi

Sobha Shyam said...

so colourful n yummy cupcakes..Happy Holi :)

Join the Just "4" Fun event :)

Amina Creations said...

cupcakes look soft and delicious... perfectly done... Happy Holi :)

Only Fish Recipes said...

what gorgeous cupcakes dear....they look so pretty n colorful...loved it :-)

Soundspicy said...

Happy Holi..pretty and colorful cupcakes..

Deeps @ Naughty Curry said...

how colourful & cute!

Pari Vasisht said...

Yummy!! What a colourful treat and your niece is lucky to savor them.


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Lena Jayadev said...

woww.. aweosme dear... looks super yummyyy.. :)

www.mahaslovelyhome.com said...

Oh my god..such a mouthwatering cakes ..it looks just awesome...vl try 4 sure....
Maha

Unknown said...

what a great holi treat !!!

anthony stemke said...

Beautiful colourful cupcakes for a colourful holiday celebration.

San said...

Hey prathy, those are cute vanilla cupcakes with my fav butter cream frosting. Hope you had a beautiful holi.

Ramya said...

Lovely cute cuppies! The deco and props looks simple tooo cute!

Kavi said...

Hi Pratibha! :)

Don't know if you remember.. but we spoke sometime back...
I would love to have you so a guest post for my Cooking With Kin series. DO check it out & let me know if you can or cannot do it. :) I want to schedule the posts before I take a break for exams. :)

Love,
Kavi
Edible Entertainment

(P.S: I'm sending the same as an email too just to get your attention! :-D)

Rupa.A said...

Prathy, Happy Belated Holi.
Your cupcakes look so colorful.

Rupa

AJ said...

Happy Holi to you too!! The cupcakes sure look pretty.

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