Sweet Candy Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla is one of my favourite flavours. It basically goes with everything and anything sweet like cakes or cupcakes which heightens the flavours and gives it a beautiful vanilla-y taste. Vanilla cupcakes are no exception. But when it comes to eating but not making cakes, I actually prefer chocolate over vanilla most of the time because I admit that I am a devoted chocoholic. Sorry vanilla cake fans! I haven't found the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe yet, but this one has a moist and light crumb and it smells delicious too. They tasted really good just like a good vanilla cupcake should and are like the ones at the local bakery especially with the cute candies on top.

I decided to use Sweetapolita's recipe of Bakery-style cupcakes with vanilla frosting as I wanted to try out different recipes in the search for the best vanilla cupcake. I loved the texture of it and the sweetness of the frosting helped balance out the flavours of the cupcake. I also topped them with some of the candies I had leftover from the Homemade Candy Hearts and Stars to add a touch of cuteness to the plain cupcakes. As you can see, I am gradually getting better at piping swirls on cupcakes, but thats after scraping ugly swirls about 100 times before re-piping them again. That also made the cupcake liners look untidy and soon enough, the icing started to melt. I had to put the icing in and out of the fridge since it was a reasonably hot day before I was happy enough *sigh*. I really want to own the 1M piping tip that everyone's talking about as the best tip for a cupcake swirl. Do you agree that it is the BEST one?

Anyway, back to the cupcakes. I used assorted piping tips here and thought the one with the pink candies looks the best; just like a little pink ribbon wrapped around the top which makes it look so elegant and pretty. You may also notice that I have a thing for cupcakes as there are a few of them here in this blog. That's because they're so cute and small, perfect for kids and treats that are already portioned for you. They are also so fun to make and decorate without spending too much time on them. And is there anyone out there who doesn't love cupcakes? But don't get me wrong, I love baking cakes and everything about them but I don't make them too often due to my studies and time constraints. Can't wait till the holidays though!

Take your time and be creative in decorating the cupcakes. You can  match them according to the event or day you are making them. You can also colour the frosting to the desired shade whether its bright and colourful or pale and pastel and add any candy or topping you can think of! Like sprinkles, lollies, homemade candies or chocolates. These cupcakes I made here are very girly and pretty that are great for any event including girls' birthdays, parties or a simple get together. My best friend's little sister was very happy when I gave her the cupcake and about 10 seconds later, she demolished it and even asked me for another one! She loved eating the frosting and candies the most and pink is her favourite colour anyway. I don't know why I seem to have great happiness when people enjoy my food and baked goods....

Adapted from Sweetapolita's Bakery-Style Vanilla Cupcakes        

Sweet Candy Vanilla Cupcakes

Source: Magnolia’s Vanilla Cupcakes from Food Network
Makes about 12 cupcakes (double the recipe if you want 24 cupcakes)

Ingredients
3/4 cups (95 grams) of self-raising flour
5/8 cups (80 grams) of plain or all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick/113.5 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup (200 grams) white sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup (125 mL) milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tsp for a stronger flavour

Sweet Vanilla Frosting

Ingredients
170 grams (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
313 grams (2.5 cups)  icing, powdered or confectioners sugar
1 tablespoon (15 mL) milk
1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 177 degrees C or 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with 12 or more cupcake liners of your choice.

2. Using two bowls, combine the flours in one and the milk and vanilla in the other and set it aside.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter on medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.

4. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the wet (milk and vanilla). With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but try not to over beat. Scrape down the batter of the sides in the bowl with a rubber spatula to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

5. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners with care and bake in the middle of oven until the tops of the cupcakes turn golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out nearly clean, for about 18 minutes.

6. Cool the cupcakes in tin for 15 minutes. Remove from the tin and cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

7. When the cupcakes are ready to be decorated, make the icing in the bowl of an electric mixer and whip the butter for 5 minutes on medium speed until very pale & creamy.

8. Add the remaining ingredients and mix on low speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 5 minutes. The frosting should be very light, creamy, fluffy (and tasty!).

9. Add a little gel food colouring (I used electric pink) and mix until blended.

10. Best used straight away to pipe swirls or ice them as you like and top with sweet candies.

Homemade Candy Hearts and Stars

Sometimes I feel like baking cakes. Sometimes cupcakes, or cookies! But that Friday morning was different; I was too lazy to bake up a storm and I wanted to make something that was easy yet fun to do. So while being in my "lazy bake mode", I browsed through recipes on the web only to find something really cute but simple: Multilingual Conversation hearts by Susan from Diamonds for Dessert. I can admit that I fell in love with those little hearts as soon as I set my eyes on them. They looked really attractive and bright and colourful especially with all the languages stamped on them saying "I love you". It was such a smart idea and Susan is really talented in creating sweet things. You should go check out her amazing blog!

I blame myself for rushing in the cutting out process because they are not as perfect and neat as I expected. But at least they're cute and colourful, right?  I also decided to leave out the messages on them so they would be just homemade candy hearts and stars. No complicated languages or stamps or liquid food colouring. I didn't have enough time for those things anyway so I just kept them plain and simple. Making stars as well seemed to be a great idea since I had little star cookie cutters laying around, but feel free to use any small cookie cutter you have.

These little candies are actually quite easy to make using mainly powdered sugar or icing sugar and gelatin without the need of any fancy ingredients. It was almost like working with fondant though but it does become dry pretty quickly when exposed to the air. Rolling it out, it brang back memories of me playing with play dough as a kid; moulding it into different shapes and showing off my creations to my mum. It was nice to think about it and it made me even more excited because the best part is that these pretty treats are edible!

There is one important thing you need to have when making these, that is... patience, yes, lots of it because you need to let them dry out for a few hours before they are ready to eat. That is, unless you like eating raw candy, but trust me, they taste better when they're hard in texture. I did however, put them in the oven at the lowest temperature possible for a few minutes to make the drying process faster. But that also depends on how thick the candies are. Mine were a little more thin than those from Diamonds for Desserts so they dried quicker. That's up to you to decide on whether you like your candies thick or thin.

For this fun project, you can divide the dough equally by weighing them on a kitchen scale and add any food colouring you like as well as flavour extracts. I only had vanilla though so I used that for all of them. They definitely tasted candy-like and was sweet and delicious! Perfect for packaging them in pretty boxes to give to someone special as little edible gifts.

Slightly adapted from Multilingual Conversion Hearts by Diamonds for Dessert

Conversation Hearts adapted from about.com
Makes about 180 candies

1 tsp unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup water
1 tsp light corn syrup (I used honey instead)
1 lb (454 grams) powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting
1/4 to 1 tsp assorted flavoring extracts
assorted food colorings
heart-shaped or other small cookie cutters

Method:

1. Combine the gelatin, water, and corn syrup or honey in a small bowl and mix. Put it in a microwave oven for 15-20 seconds, or until the gelatin dissolves and mix again. Pour this mixture into a bowl of a stand mixer (Or if using a hand mixer, pour into a large bowl). Add 1 cup of the powdered sugar to the bowl and mix on low until the sugar is combined. You can also alternatively use a spatula or whisk in place of the mixer.

2. Add the remaining powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, mixing until all the sugar is combined and this is where you should end up with a stiff dough. Dust the bench surface with the extra powdered sugar and put the candy dough out onto the surface. Knead the dough on the surface until no longer sticky.

3. Divide the dough into six pieces. Add the color and flavoring extract of your choice to each piece, kneading it until the color is well mixed and the dough is no longer sticky. If it is still sticky, knead in more powdered sugar until smooth. When you aren't using a piece of dough, make sure you keep it covered in plastic wrap so it doesn't dry out.

4. Once done coloring and flavoring, roll the dough out to between 1/8 inch and 1/4 inch thick. Use your cookie cutter to cut out shapes, theb place them on a parchment paper lined baking tray. Roll up the scraps and cut out more candies. Then repeat with the rest of the dough.

5. Let the candies dry for at least 24 hours. To test if its done, bite into a candy. If it's still wet in the center, let it dry longer. To dry them faster, preheat your oven to the lowest temperature possible. Once preheated, turn the oven off and place the sheets of candies in the oven with the door closed for about 10-15 minutes. Remove and let them totally cool.