Can you believe it? Valentine's Day is officially over already! I hope you all had a great day that was filled with tons of love -- no matter what you ended up doing. I'm going to share the BEST yellow cake cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting recipe with you today. I know it's a day late if you were looking for something sweet to bake for the holiday, but these are great ANY day of the year. Warning: cleanup can be tricky since you're going to the extra mile and not using a boxed cake mix or jar of frosting but the extra effort is definitely worth it. You can see from the photos that I need to work on my frosting skills, but as long as they taste delicious I think we can let that slide ;)
What you need for the chocolate buttercream frosting:
1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened
3 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 tablespoons heavy cream
What to do:
1. Cream butter for a few minutes with a hand mixer.
2. Stir 3 cups powdered sugar and cocoa mixture into the mixing bowl.
3. Turn mixer onto the lowest speed until the sugar and cocoa are mixed with the butter.
4. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla, salt and cream and beat for 3 minutes.
5. If frosting is a little runny, add a little more sugar and mix again/If your frosting is a little too thick, add additional cream 1 tablespoon at a time. (I had to add two additional tablespoons of cream before my mixture was perfect)
What you need for the yellow cupcakes:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 + 1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 cup milk (I used skim)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
24 cupcake liners
What to do:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place your cupcake liners in your cupcake baking pans.
2. In a large mixing bowl stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Add butter, milk and vanilla. Beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, occasionally scraping sides of bowl. Add eggs, beat for 3 more minutes.
4. Pour batter into cupcake liners, filling each 3/4 of the way full. Bake approximately 25 minutes or until knife comes out clean.
5. Let completely cool before icing -- VERY IMPORTANT unless you want runny butter cream :)
Let us know if you make these cupcakes! Any other sweet treat recipes you'd like to share?
