Vanilla Cupcakes with Fluffy Buttercream Frosting

Have you noticed that cupcakes are kind of a popular thing these days? What’s not to love? A little cake and a little frosting. Yes, please!

In my party planning endeavors, I have just about perfected the basic vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting. It has taken a lot of trial and error though. I used to have high anxiety about baking, but the more I try things, the better I get.

I love a cake from scratch, but sometimes you just want something more simple.  These guys start with a box mix. I make a few alterations to the recipe on the box and I use this method while baking them. They turn out perfect! If you ware looking for an amazing scratch recipe, try Smitten Kitchen’s Vanilla Buttermilk Cake. It’s the best scratch cake I have ever made and ever eaten. Really.

I made these for Easter Sunday using a box mix.

Let’s start with the cake:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

• 1 box of vanilla cake mix (not the kind with pudding)
• Substitute buttermilk for the water listed in the recipe on the box
• Use the same amount of oil called for on the box
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp of real vanilla extract (not imitation)

Mix everything together as directed on the box. Fill your cupcake papers 3/4 way full. Place pan in oven and turn the oven down to 325 degrees. Bake for about 20 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool cupcakes on a rack.

When your cupcakes are completely cool (and I mean, they have to be REALLY coolyou can frost them. You don’t want frosting sliding off or melting all over the place. I usually bake mine the day before and chill them in the fridge until I frost them.

Martha’s Fluffy Vanilla Frosting is my latest go-to recipe for yummy buttercream.

If making decent cupcakes took me many tries, then making delicious buttercream and learning to pipe it took me forever. I mean, it seriously took me a ton of tries. And, I learned to make buttercream long before I I learned how to pipe it.

I found the secret to piping it in this blog post from Decorate This! The key is a really using an extra large decorating tip and a real piping bag. You can get a nice 1M tip and a package of plastic, disposable piping bags at most stores that sell cake baking supplies. I think I got mine from Wal-Mart, but Jo-Ann and Michael’s have them, too.

The great thing about learning to pipe it is if you aren’t happy with the result, you can just scrape it off and start over. Give it a try. Or two. Or twelve. The end result may not always be pretty, but it will be delicious.