It’s that time of year again, you know…cupcake season! This is the perfect time of year to bake up a batch of cupcakes and share them with….wait….who am I trying to kid? The best time of year to bake cupcakes is ANY TIME OF THE YEAR!
Cupcakes are definitely one of my favorite things to bake! I don’t need an excuse, I just bake ’em whenever the mood hits me. Ask the people at work, ask my neighbors, ask my friends. They will testify! I think I quite possibly am a cupcake addict. Yep, pretty sure that’s true. You should see my freezer. I always have a couple of containers of cupcakes in there so I can pull out a few if someone comes over unexpectedly. Or when I bring food to my elderly neighbor, I will add a cupcake or two as dessert for him. (And…shhhh….I occasionally take one out for myself when I am craving sweets.) Best part about it is that you can even freeze them with basic frosting already on there. (If you are doing fancy toppings, I would put those on after defrosting the cupcake.)
Another great thing about cupcakes is that they are so very versatile. You can dress them up for any occasion or any season. You start with a basic recipe and then either add your choice of flavoring or coloring to get the cupcake right, then you can really get fancy with your topping if you want to go gourmet! The sky’s the limit.
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Now let’s take a step back. Back to the basics as the saying goes. If you can make your basic vanilla or basic chocolate cupcakes, you are off to a great start. You can please most people with either one. Top them with basic buttercream frosting or you can even go wild and put vanilla frosting on your chocolate cupcakes…or vice versa.
1. Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup 5% sour cream
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cups 2% milk
Note: You can halve everything in the recipe except the eggs and milk to make 12 to 14 cupcakes. Use 2 eggs and 2/3 cup of milk instead.
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla extract.
Click here to get the full recipe.
2. Chocolate Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs (room temp)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature**see note below
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Line a second pan with 2 liners – this recipe makes about 14 cupcakes. Set aside.
Click here to get the full recipe.
Now you see how easy it is to make your basic cupcake, however, you can get as creative as you want and whip up a batch of “gourmet” cupcakes to amaze your friends and family.
I created one of my favorite cupcake recipes by accident. I was supposed to be making chocolate cupcakes. So I started adding the ingredients to the mixing bowl and when I opened up my can of cocoa there wasn’t enough left to continue with the recipe. It was late at night, so I couldn’t run out and buy more. My dilemma: I use brown sugar in my chocolate cupcakes but not in my vanilla. I had already added the brown sugar, so I couldn’t just make vanilla cupcakes.
Hmmm, what do I do now? Do I dump the ingredients I already assemble and cut my losses? Nope…I decided to go forward and see what happens. I stuck with the exact recipe except I left out the cocoa powder. It could have gone either way…but it didn’t. The cupcakes were so good! The subtle flavor was somewhere between caramel and butterscotch. I decided to top them with a plain vanilla buttercream frosting and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce. Seriously…just writing about this is making me want to go pop a batch in the oven!
Try it your self and see what you think!
3. Brown Sugar Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup flour (spooned & leveled)
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs (room temp)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, at room temperature**see note below
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Line a second pan with 2 liners – this recipe makes about 14 cupcakes. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
Click here to get the full recipe.
Another favorite of mine, that I like to think of in the “gourmet” category is fruit flavored cupcakes. I particularly like strawberry, but the next recipe can be adapted to make orange, raspberry, cherry, etc. The picture shows the cupcakes with a basic vanilla buttercream frosting, but you can do flavored frosting by substituting a complimenting extract instead of the vanilla extract. My personal favorite is a strawberry cupcake with lemonade buttercream frosting.
4. Strawberry Jello Cupcakes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1-3/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 (3-ounce) box strawberry gelatin (just the dry mix)
- 4 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cake flour
- 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 1 cup chopped fresh strawberries (optional)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400-degrees and line two cupcake tins with cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl add the butter and beat on medium-high speed until pale and glossy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the sugar and strawberry gelatin. Mix until light and fluffy.
Click here to get the full recipe.
Last, but certainly not least is the much loved combination of maple and bacon. Just thinking about pancakes and bacon with maple syrup has my tastebuds begging! Now you can get that taste in a more portable dish…yes, you guessed it. A cupcake!
5. Maple Bacon Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 2 T pure maple syrup
- 1/2 t pure vanilla extract
- Squirt of honey
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 t baking powder
- 1/2 t cinnamon
- 1/8 t ground nutmeg
- 12 slices of thick-cut bacon (cooked and drained of grease)
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cut 3 strips of the bacon into small pieces on a diagonal. These can be used to decorate your finished product. Crumble the remaining bacon in to very small pieces (I use a food processor).
Click here to get the full recipe.
Get creative with your finishing touches!
Even the most basic cupcake can become a star with a few little additions! It’s kind of like getting yourself dressed. If you are just running out to the market, you might just throw on some comfy clothes, kind of like putting a dollop of vanilla frosting on top of a vanilla cupcake. But then, hmm…what if you run into someone you know and want to impress, like that cute fireman that lives down the street and you look all plain and blah. Maybe you’ll dash on some lip gloss and mascara…you know, just in case. Well, that plain comfy vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting might just want to impress someone too. Perhaps it would like a dash of sprinkles, some candy bits or even a maraschino cherry on top! That would change it from plain to interesting, maybee even eye catching!
Here are some of the ways I have dressed up my cupcakes in the past:
- Use a piping bag and tip to get a bakery finish with your frosting.
- Mini Reese’s Pieces rock on a chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter frosting swirl.
- Mini peanut butter cups on a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting.
- Mini M&Ms go great sprinkled on either vanilla or chocolate.
- Mini Rolos on a chocolate cupcake with caramel frosting.
- Chop up a favorite chocolate bar and put a chunk on the top of each cupcake. I like this on a chocolate cupcake with vanilla frosting.
- Shredded coconut (I love to put colored shredded coconut on vanilla frosting).
- Salted, chopped peanuts (or your favorite kind) on a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting.
- Strawberries or cherries on a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. Or even better with the Strawberry Jello Cupcakes above.
- Meringue topping instead of frosting on a lemon cupcake.
- Gummy candies or candied fruit chopped and sprinkled on the top of vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting.
- Go seasonal and decorate the cupcakes to match. Use food coloring to compliment, like red and green for Christmas, orange and black for Halloween, soft pastel colors for Easter….etc.