These cute little vanilla cupcakes are pure pleasure for kids and us grown-ups alike and this fail-proof recipe is guaranteed to give you perfectly baked vanilla cupcakes every time!
I am sure every novice baker has been overjoyed like me after baking his/her first batch of ultra-perfect vanilla cupcakes! I surely was! So much so that I didn’t even bother to add any icing on top of my cute vanilla cupcakes which I should have! But never mind, I parked that for my next batch of perfectly baked vanilla cupcakes, hopefully so. For today, I will just focus and urge you too to focus on how beautiful textured these vanilla cupcakes are and how amazingly tasty they are even without any icing!
I don’t know what’s the secret in becoming a pro-baker other than continuous baking experiments. I have taken that route and aspire to become a pro-baker one day. These vanilla cupcakes are just the warm-up of my learning path where I have to run long. If you love baking too but still perfecting your skill, I would recommend you to start with these vanilla cupcakes. Once your home fills with that indescribable baking aroma while baking these goodies, you will feel yourself on cloud nine and I can guarantee that!
I often used to wonder what passion is all about. What does it really mean to be passionate? I never had any passion for any non-living thing or any activity. So, I never really understood how people feel for what they were passionate about. Passion was totally an unknown emotion to me until I discovered mine a couple of years back and that is of course cooking/baking and feeding people; to bring a smile full of happiness on their face. Now when I think of it, I wonder how I was surviving without a passion!
Honestly, I hate monotonous and boring life. I feel that I am trapped somewhere without any exit. One instant way to break the monotony is to become a frequent traveler and that we are. But that too has a very short-lived effect and you soon re-enter that old cycle of routine jobs once you come back. The best way to incorporate excitement into your day-to-day life is to involve yourself into something that you really love to do; that you are really passionate about. It’s actually little more than love; it is like going that extra mile even though you are awfully tired or sick but still you want to put that extra effort only because of the happiness it would bring at the end.
And that is exactly what being passionate is all about! You will be ready to bear some additional pain for what you love doing. It also serves as a therapy sometimes to soothe your frustrations; at least it does for me. Whisking these vanilla cupcakes’ batter or grilling the chicken for an aromatic kebab makes me forget about all the unprofessionalism and unfairness in the corporate world. These vanilla cupcakes also materialized in the same way.
I was very upset with few things and wasn’t able to concentrate on my work fully. So, I decided to take a break and do something refreshing to uplift my mood. And what’s better than baking therapy to rejuvenate your mind? Nothing… I swear! The aroma of a freshly baked cake is so mesmerizing that you can’t help but smile every time you take these vanilla cupcakes out from the oven no matter how zillion times you may have baked them. And to make life easy, these vanilla cupcakes are easy and simple like a breeze!
- Unsalted butter – ½ cup (113 grams) at room temperature
- Granulated white sugar – ⅔ cup (130 grams)
- Large eggs – 3
- Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon
- Zest of 1 large lemon (outer yellow skin)
- All-purpose flour (Maida) – 1 & ½ cups (195 grams)
- Baking powder – 1 & ½ teaspoons
- Salt – ¼ teaspoon
- Milk – ¼ cup (60 ml)
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and grease a 12 cup muffin tray with butter or oil. I don’t have a muffin tray; I have 6 silicon cupcake molds, so I baked mine in two batches.
- Take the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat them until light and fluffy with a hand mixer.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the lemon zest, flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Now it’s time to mix the dry and wet ingredients together. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Ensure the batter is thoroughly mixed and homogeneous.
- Take an ice-cream scoop (or a tablespoon) and put one scoop of the batter in each muffin cup. Try to put equal quantity of batter in each cup so that they bake evenly. Smooth out the top with a spatula or the back of a spoon.
- Bake the vanilla cupcakes in the middle rack of your oven for about 20 to 22 minutes or just until set and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Refer the tip below.
- Cool the vanilla cupcakes on the wire rack and serve with a dollop of whipped cream. Enjoy!
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