double vanilla cupcakes with strawberries

Earlier today I made a variation of my favorite chocolate cake recipe, substituting Nutella for the cocoa powder (I was out of the latter and am always up for an experiment!). It was a disaster. The cupcakes didn't rise, but kinda blobbed, and all present agreed it was an epic cupcake fail. What a shame, too, because chocolate nutella cupcakes with coconut flakes inside would be really good. I'll have to work something out in the future.

So, still craving cupcakes, I made these, which are the opposite. Simple as simple can be, a vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream and a strawberry is so fresh and light you want to eat 3 at a time. Or so I'm told.

Vanilla Cupcakes

3/4 cup butter at room temperature
1 2/3 cups sugar
2 large eggs at room temperature
2 2/3 cup all purpose or cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup + 2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350º. In a large bowl, beat butter until smooth, then beat in sugar until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl in between. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside. Stir the vanilla into the milk in a bowl, set aside. Mix 1/3 of dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then 1/3 of the vanilla milk, and repeat until all are combined. Spoon into 24 cupcake cups and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Vanilla Buttercream

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 1 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tsp milk

In a medium bowl, beat the butter until creamy, then beat in the confectioner's sugar. Add the vanilla and milk, beating until combined. Add more confectioner's sugar as needed to thicken to your desired consistency.

Banana Cake with Nutella Buttercream

After a while you get sick of making banana bread all the time. Since I'm baking a lot of cakes this summer to get practice for my mom's wedding cake in a few months, I decided to turn my overripe fruit into cake for a change. Just another step in my self-imposed cakemaking bootcamp.

It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to play with the butter-to-Nutella ratio in the icing, let me know if you do.

Banana Cake
2 1/2 cup flour
5 tsp baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
4 ripe bananas, slightly mashed
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature

Preheat the oven to 350º.

Beat bananas with a hand mixer (because it's more fun than using a fork). In a separate bowl, beat sugar, eggs, baking powder, and butter at medium speed about four minutes until fluffy. Add banana mush, beat 30 seconds. Sift flour over the mixture and beat in at low speed for 30 seconds. Pour into two 8" round greased cake pans and bake in the center of the oven for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely before assembling.

While the cake is cooling, make the buttercream.



Nutella Buttercream Icing
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter at room temperature
1 cup Nutella
pinch of salt
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 tsp milk (or more as needed)

In a medium bowl, cream butter and nutella until smooth. Add salt and sift the powdered sugar over the butter mixture, beat in until smooth. Add the milk and beat at high speed until fluffy. Add more milk or powdered sugar if needed to achieve the thickness you want.