Once in a while at my school we have retired teachers sub in for teachers that are out. The other day I got to spend my day with a teacher from last year who is so fabulously talented, sweet, and just an overall wonderful lady. It was her birthday the following day so, obviously, I needed to bake something special. I wanted individual cupcakes for the children, but with something inside that would get them excited.
Jam!
Strawberry jam! You can get creative, but since I was working with picky little preschoolers here I decided to stick with the good stuff...
Smuckers Seedless Strawberry Jam.
Here's an easy recipe for vanilla (versatile) cupcake that will never fail:
Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter- room temperature
1 cup sour cream
2 large eggs,
4 large egg yolks
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line standard muffin/cupcake tins with paper or foil liners.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl. Add butter, sour cream, egg and egg yolks, and vanilla.
3. Beat at medium speed until smooth (about 30 seconds).
4. Pour into cupcake tins. Bake until cupcake tops are pale gold and toothpick or skewer inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 24 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from tin and transfer to wire rack; cool cupcakes to room temperature before cutting, adding jam, and frosting.
After they cool you're going to take a sharp knife and cut a hole in the top of the cupcake. You're going to want to hold your knife at a 45 degree angle so that there is a hole in the center. Scoop out a little extra of the center so you can "jam the jam" down in there.
Take a tablespoon or so of your jam and place it in the hole.
Put the tops back on!
Next, frosting!
Easy Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
2½ sticks unsalted butter, softened
2½ cups confectioners’ sugar
A pinch salt-
please don't skip this step, it really does make a difference
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons heavy cream
Method
1. Beat the softened butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds.
2. Add confectioners’ sugar and salt. Beat at medium-low speed until the sugar has just become wet, about a minute.
3. Scrape down the sides and continue beating for another 30 seconds until mixture is fully incorporated, about 30 seconds.
4. Add the vanilla and heavy cream, and beat at medium speed until incorporated, about 20 seconds, then put the speed at medium-high and beat until light and fluffy.
Put into a zip-lock and cut a slant at the tip.
Frost away!
I like to start on the outside and swirl my way to the middle leaving the height in the middle of the cupcake.
I had to cut one in half to photograph it. Here's its insides.
Jesse (my roomate) enjoyed that I needed to do that. That's his hand, not mine.
Oh, and he also made himself a lamb burger and said, "Take a picture of this and put it on your blog." Here ya go Jesse..
