- Today I'm gonna show you how to make
the perfect vanilla cupcake.
You will be shocked by how tasty it is.
It's actually my friends' favorite thing that I make,
my most requested item ever at "Preppy Kitchen".
If you like my videos, hit that like button.
Let's get started.
First off, we're gonna be sifting all of our dry ingredients
into a large bowl.
I have one and 2/3 cups of all purpose flour.
So sift that.
Sifting is important because,
one, it aerates things, helps you mix things up together
more easily, and prevents any clumps from getting in.
A quarter teaspoon baking soda.
A teaspoon of baking powder.
One cup of granulated sugar.
Finishing off with a quarter teaspoon of kosher salt.
Now whisk it all together.
Before we start with the wet ingredients,
we're gonna separate the egg whites from the yolks.
We're not gonna use the yolks this time,
just because they're a little bit more yellow
than I'd like and I want to keep that cake
nice and bright and white.
Into my bowl, three egg whites at room temperature.
Half a cup of sour cream at room temperature,
and half a cup of milk.
I actually like to use warm milk for this.
Three teaspoons of vanilla extract.
Now let's give it a whisk before we add
our next ingredient in.
Our final wet ingredient is three quarters of a cup
of unsalted butter at room temperature,
and I get a ton of questions on the blog about
this step of the cake.
You're gonna add it in to your batter.
You can totally use an electric mixer.
Mine broke and I just never bothered to get a new one.
So right now you can see, the butter is all clumped up.
It almost looks like cottage cheese.
That's fine, because now we're gonna fold in
our dry ingredients, and it's gonna be all okay.
Now we're adding our dry ingredients to the wet.
It's a really simple recipe.
And just mix it in.
Now it's time to add your cupcake papers into that tin.
I'm using an ice cream scoop to add in
all of my cupcake batter.
It really helps me get an even amount of batter
into each cupcake.
You're gonna bake these at 350 for 15 to 20 minutes
or until the centers are set.
You might want to turn it around too,
if your oven has some hot spots.
I'm making just a simple vanilla buttercream,
really easy, just like three or four ingredients,
and it's a crowd pleaser.
If you want it to be even smoother and creamier
and less sweet, you can click up over here
for my "How to Make Italian Buttercream" video,
and give that a try.
Really tasty, and if you think that American buttercreams
are too sweet, Italian buttercream is for you.
Alright, into my standing mixer I'm adding in
one pound or about 450 grams of unsalted butter
at room temperature, and I'm using a paddle attachment
to whip this up.
Now we're gonna mix on low for like maybe five minutes
or just until it's really creamy and soft.
Okay, my butter is really creamy
and very silky as you can see.
Now we're going to sift in two pounds of confectioners sugar
in two batches, so sift in a pound, mix,
sift in the rest.
If you think, "Oh my gosh, this is so much sugar",
you don't have to use this much.
It's to taste, it's like any seasoning, like salt or pepper.
For this type of buttercream,
just add as much sugar in as you'd like.
Cover it with a tea towel, and mix on low
for just a couple minutes until the butter
is incorporated with the sugar.
Now we're gonna add in a little bit
of vanilla for flavoring.
Give it a mix. (mixer whirs)
You can see, because only half of the sugar is in here,
it's almost a bit soupy.
It's not gonna be holding up its shape.
And it's time for the rest of the sugar.
I'm gonna add a couple tablespoons of cream,
just a little bit of a drizzle,
so the consistency is nice and creamy,
but still stiff enough to decorate with.
I'm also adding in a healthy pinch of salt
to counteract all of that sweetness.
It's a nice balance.
Gonna add a teaspoon of milk in,
just to get the consistency right.
I want you to see that this is really nice and creamy,
not a lot of air bubbles, and the taste...
Is perfect.
Snip the tip off of your piping bag,
add your desired tip.
I'm using an 846, which is a large closed star tip,
but use anything that makes you happy.
And then add all that buttercream into your piping bag.
Now it's that magical moment where you're adding
that dollop of buttercream on.
So just by the way, yes, you could add a tiny
little shmear and it would taste delicious,
but I love this over the top look.
These cupcakes are a treat,
so go ahead and add as much as makes you happy.
I'm using that 846 tip, but just by the way,
you could also use an 8B, which is a large open
star tip, or really anything else.
I'm squeezing the bag, and lifting up very slowly,
which gives me this ruffled effect.
You can also move your hand around just a little bit
back and forth to increase the ruffling.
And then when you're done, you're going to stop
squeezing as hard, and pull up.
I wanted to see how these cupcakes would look
with some confetti sprinkles.
Kind of into it, kinda not into it.
These were so simple and easy to make
that you're gonna be very torn between
wanting to keep the recipe a secret,
so that you are like the master of vanilla cupcakes,
and wanting to spread it to all of your friends,
so they can make you some vanilla cupcakes.
Thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe.