Magnolia Bakery's Vanilla Cupcakes

i never knew i would hv craving for a simple vanilla cake with a glass of cold milk since i've always thought i had "complex tastebuds" but i did so i went hunting for a recipe in the middle of the night. i didn't wanna spend an hour baking a cake therefore i opted for cupcakes instead. i had really good results with magnolia bakery's red velvet cupcakes sometime back so i just wanted to try their famous vanilla cupcake recipe this time round.

i felt slightly apprehensive initially coz you wouldn't believe how bad some of the reviews for this recipe were. comments like "dense", "too sweet", "horrible", "middle sunken in" and "fit for the trash" were plagued all over the net so it was kinda demoralizing. same kind of reviews for the red velvet ones but since the recipe turned out pretty good for me, i went ahead with this. i'm sooo glad i did coz this is definitely the BEST vanilla cake i've ever had! as evident from my photos, none of those negative things happened to me, it was an extremely good cake!



it was buttery, had fine crumbs and the vanilla scent was apparent. perhaps it was becoz i substituted vanilla extract with bean paste + used half of the sugar with vanilla sugar. i didn't hv self raising flour so i made my own by combining plain flour, baking powder & salt together (substitution recipe courtesy of joyofbaking) and i feel that homemade self raising flour is definitely better than storebought. i also recommend using double-acting baking powder coz ever since i started using that, all my bakes turned out very nicely with light texture and fine crumbs. for the frosting, i used cannelle et vanille's vanilla buttercream. you can also follow magnolia bakery's old fashioned butter + confectioners sugar frosting but be forewarned, it will be very very sweet. in all honesty, i feel that the cupcakes are good enough to be eaten on their own, no frosting required.

recipe adapted from magnolia bakery via foodnetwork

ingredients (makes approx. 20) :

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour (to make yr own, add in 1 1/2 tsp double acting baking powder & 1/4 tsp salt to every cup of plain flour & mix well)

1 1/4 cup plain flour

220g butter, softened at room temp

1 1/2 cups sugar (i substituted half of it with vanilla sugar)

4 large eggs, room temp

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract (i used vanilla bean paste)

directions :

1. combine flours in a bowl.

2. in a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. sift the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. with each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 2/3 full. bake in a preheated oven of 170C for abt 20-22 mins or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

3. leave cupcakes to cool then frost if desired. they're best consumed on the day of baking. upon refrigeration, the texture will become denser like pound cake.