Cream Cheese Vanilla Cupcakes
By: Hannah Chimal
Recently, my sister and I baked some cupcakes for a relative’s birthday. We wanted to make cupcakes similar to the photos shown on the first link down below but instead of making lemon cupcakes, we followed the recipe for vanilla cupcakes (the second link). The amount of time it took for us to bake these cupcakes was about thirty to forty minutes. Even though we changed the flavors of the cupcake, it still tasted delicious! The cupcake itself tastes simple but once you eat it with the cream cheese, it pulls it all together since it’s sweet. The cream cheese frosting was definitely my favorite part about the cupcake because it was fluffy and flavorful, it’s so yummy. To make this frosting, you’ll need only four ingredients which are cream cheese, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and powdered sugar. Ingredients to make the vanilla cupcakes include flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, unsalted butter, egg whites, vanilla extract, sour cream, and whole milk. We decorated some cupcakes with fruits, while others were decorated with the rest of the cream cheese frosting as colorful sunflowers with Oreos in the middle, just like photos (Please keep in mind that the cream cheese frosting makes a bit more needed for the vanilla cupcakes). I think whatever toppings you choose, it’ll taste great. For the ones who would like to bake these cupcakes that we made, here are the exact steps and ingredients:
For the Vanilla Cupcakes:
1 2/3 cup all-purpose flour 213g
1 cup granulated sugar 200g
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter 170g, melted
3 egg whites at room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract 15mL
1/2 cup sour cream 120mL, room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk 120mL, warm
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place cupcake papers in a cupcake pan.
Sift the flour, sugar salt, baking soda, and powder into a large bowl, and whisk together.
Separate the eggs. You can use the yolks for a custard or a batch of French buttercream.
In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients until combined. (The batter may be clumpy, do not worry!)
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
Distribute the batter evenly into cupcake papers, filling each paper with about 2/3 the way up.
Bake for about 18 minutes or until the centers are springy to the touch.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
12 oz cream cheese, cold
6 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and beat well.
Slowly add the powdered sugar until well combined. Continue to beat until smooth for about 2 minutes.
Load frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large closed star tip and frost cupcakes as desired.
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