I am ready with cupcake decorating part 2 and this is all about my favourite cupcake recipes.

Let us start with the cupcakes that I have received most questions about, the pink cupcakes (top picture in this post). It is all about the dome.

My best way to get a dome on cupcakes is not to cream the butter and the sugar, but to whisk the eggs and sugar and melting the butter with the milk, thats about it. Of course this method will change the texture of the cupcake to a more light and airy cupcake, but if the cupcake is going to be dipped in poured fondant this method is perfect.

That means, that with one recipe I can get “two” kinds of cupcakes. So what recipe is it then? It is the great vanilla cupcake recipe  from Joy of Baking, a fantastic baking site with many great cake and cupcake recipes btw. Other cupcake recipes can of course also make great domes but when it comes to poured fondant, vanilla cupcakes is my fave to choose.

So let me show you how this recipe works. First line a cupcake (muffin) pan with cupcake paper cases. Here I have used the “wonder” cupcake paper cases which are a bit higher than the more common ones. This also means that it takes a bit more batter, so you may only end up with 9 or 10 cupcakes instead of the normal 12 cupcakes.

Domed vanilla cupcakes:

1. Warm the milk with the butter so that the butter melts and set aside to cool down if too hot.

2. Whisk the eggs, sugar and vanilla until thick and creamy with the electric handheld mixer. Be careful not to whisk for too long as this can give to many air bubbles.

3. Mix in the milk and butter mixture.

4. Add the dry ingrediens and mix it all just until smooth and with no flour lumps.

This batter is more liquide, so I transfer the batter into a pitcher and pour it in to the paper cases. You can use a spoon to catch any batter drips there may come. Normally I would fill my paper cases 3/4 full with batter. If you only fill 3/4 with this vanilla recipe (egg & sugar), it will still make a nice little dome. But here I have added a little more batter about 2-3 tsp extra. This gives me, a higher dome and the cupcake rise as close as it can to the top of the paper cases. This also makes it easier to get a nice cover with the poured fondant. Place the cupcake (muffin) pan in the middle of the oven and bake until a toothpick comes out clean.

This is how they looked today when I baked them…..Beautiful right? (I know that ovens can vary and some gets good results and some not. I can of course not promise that you will get high domes, but I do hope that you will be lucky).

During baking there can be some “vulcanos” in between, but that can easy be fixed the minute you take them out of the oven, by simply smoothing the cupcakes with the back of a spoon. This can also happen with the “original” method.

Just to show how nice they dome I have sliced two of them. The one on the left is the “egg & sugar” and the one on the right is the “butter & sugar”. By looking there may not be the big difference but in taste there is as the right ones are more moist. Remember that these cupcakes are best on the day they are baked. I ve stored them for 1 day and they will get a little sticky on the top, but still ok in taste. If you need to store them longer I would brush them lightly with a sugar syrup.

Other favourite cupcake recipes:

banana cupcakes

One bowl chocolate cupcakes

One last note: For more firm batter a ice cream scooper (size 16), is a perfect tool to scoop the batter into the cupcake paper cases and less messy.

If you like to read the other parts about my cupcake decorating, you can find them here:

Cupcake decorating part 1
Cupcake decorating part 3
Cupcake decorating part 4

Happy Caking

Louise