Vanilla Cupcakes: Full Proof Recipe

Have you been looking for full proof vanilla cupcake recipe? Well then look no further- this recipe of mine is sure shot Vanilla Cupcake recipe that will give you 12 standard sized cupcakes. These cupcakes have everything that one looks in good vanilla flavoured cupcakes. Its soft, light, fluffy and has perfect sweetness and vanilla taste.

These cupcakes happened on Holi (indian festival) and even though I planned to put this post up on Easter it just couldn’t happen. I know I haven’t declared the winners of cook with green event also but trust me managing office and home is so tedious and busy that I am unable to find time. But I promise I will do it soon.

Coming to the post; These cup cakes contain eggs but I have eggless vanilla cupcakes recipe too. So here is the Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour/ maida

2 teaspoon baking powder

½ cup butter

½ teaspoon salt

1 and 1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Line the cupcake pan with cupcake liners/case.

With a sieve sift together flour, baking powder and salt for two times. Keep aisde.

Mix butter and sugar well or until light and fluffy.

In it mix vanilla essence and one egg at a time.

Now beat in flour and milk alternatively till well incorporated. Batter is ready.

Put 2 tablespoon of batter in the each cupcake case.

Bake at 180 C for 12-15 minutes till golden brown.

Remove immediately and cool on racks.

Notes:

Just use half batter if you want 6 cupcakes.

Please make sure that all ingredients are at room temperature.

For frosting recipes- look here.

Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes With Flaxseeds, Without Yogurt And Condense Milk

Good news everyone. I am happy to share that post of Sprouts Paratha is featured in Indus Ladies Kids' Lunch Box Recipes Ebook. There are 100 recipes in the book be it- sandwiches, parathas, pasta or healthy substitutes . You can download this ebook free of cost, here is the link http://www.indusladies.com/food/kids-lunch-box-recipes/

It’s always overwhelming to be appreciated or to see your blog’s recipes being published on another platforms-isn't it? And when such accomplishments happens a sweet celebration is a must.  This time it is Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes With Flaxseeds. Yum!!

Before I move ahead do take a look at my other eggless bakes:

Eggless Vanilla Cupcakes (with yogurt)

Eggless Almond Chocolate Cake (without condensed milk and yogurt)

Eggless Blackforest Cake (with coke)

Eggless Coffee Orange Marble Cake (with milk)

Today’s recipe is more royal and rich, more elegant and classy. It happened 2 weeks back when I laid my eyes on this square cupcake moulds  and these liners from wilton- oh it was an instant love. If you like new shapes and designs then buying these moulds is a good idea- a great alternative to old round cupcakes. Next, I used flaxseeds as eggs substitutes in this recipe and oh my god (very loudly) why dint I do that before.

Flax seeds are economical, easy, quick and very healthy. Those of you who are vegans, vegetarians or just don’t like the egg smell in the cakes then you have to try and use flaxseeds meal. If you want to know more about it read How to make flaxseeds as egg replacer in the bakes and how to include flaxseeds in the Indian diet.

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup - All purpose flour/Maida

3/4 Cup - Milk

1 tablespoon - Flax Seed Meal (see notes)

3/4 cup - Sugar

1/4 teaspoon - Baking soda

1/2 teaspoon - Baking Powder

1/8 teaspoon - Salt

1 tablespoon - Oil

2 teaspoons - Vanilla Extract

Method:

Mix one tablespoons of flax seeds powder with 3 tablespoons of water. Let it stand for 10 minutes. The mixture will become thick paste.
Preheat the oven at 180C and line the cupcake moulds with cupcake liners.
Mix all the dry ingredients together- all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a larger bowl, mix the oil, sugar, flax seed-water mixture and vanilla extract. Mix for 5-8 minutes.
Slowly sieve the dry ingredients mixture with the wet mixture and beat alternating the milk. 
Fill the cupcakes liner with the batter and bake till 35-40 minutes or till toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the pan sit on the rack for 10 minutes and let the cake cool down completely before frosting.

Notes:

Flaxseed is commonly known as Alsi (Gujrati, Hindi Punjabi), Jawas (Marathi), Tishi (Bengali) and Agasi (Kannada).

I buy the milled ones- but do check the label, you must buy good quality ones. I use this organic Linwoods Organic Flax.

If you want square moulds in India you can buy from here.

Serving suggestions:

Just dust some icing sugar and serve plain.

Serve with coffee or tea.

Icing Options:
Butter cream frosting
Chocolate Ganache
White chocolate glaze
Chocolate Mousse
Mango Mousse
Fresh cream
No cream chocolate frosting

Featured on:

Orange Cupcakes, Butter Cream Icing And Some Guessing :)

Once you are back from holidays it takes some days to get back to normal routine and start blogging again. Finally today, after 12 days I am here to share a new recipe with you all. I was planning to make orange cup cakes for a long time, but I kept on postponing it for some or other the reasons. When I came back from holidays I just wanted to make them this time without giving any second thought :)

This time I took some tips on how to make perfect cupcakes from bakingmad.com and I was happy with the texture and softness. BakingMad has some amazing collection of recipes for cupcakes, scones and breads and many more. It is always so good to browse through their site and look for interesting recipes.

Coming back to the recipe. Orange cup cakes are very fresh and have subtle aroma and flavour of tangy oranges. I opted to make butter cream icing because butter cream icing is generally sweet and thus balances really well with tangy orange taste. If you are wondering why I chose pink and blue colour, then yes there is a reason for it. It is an idea for baby shower. Last year British summers were very exciting with Queen diamond jubilee celebrations and Olympics and this year we will soon have a royal baby. I think and feel that royal baby will be the girl. What do you think guys? Girl or a boy? Please leave comments below.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes

2 cups self raising flour
1 ½ cups softened butter
2 cups castor sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 medium size eggs
1 Orange zest
Juice from one lemon

For Butter cream icing:

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or ½ pound), softened (but not melted!)
3-4 cups icing sugar sieved
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream
2 drops of pink and blue food colours

Method:

For the cupcakes

• Line the 12 cup cake liners in cupcake moulds.
• Preheat the oven at 180 C or 160 C (If using fan oven) for 10-12 minutes.
• Cream together butter, orange zest and sugar till it becomes soft and turns in pale yellow colour.
• Keep mixing one egg at a time and beat for 5 minutes.
• Sieve the flour and baking powder. And mix slowly 2 tablespoons at a time in the butter mixture. Keep repeating till the whole flour is incorporated.
• Finally add the orange juice and give quick mix.
• Bake for 20-30 minutes or till the skewer inserted in the centre of the cupcake comes out clean.

For Butter cream icing:

• Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes.
• If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.
• Divide in two equal quantities and mix colour.

Notes:

Always use the ingredients at the room temperature.
Baking time may differ from oven to oven, however if the cake turns golden in colour and is still under cooked than cover it with baking paper and then bake.
This cupcakes taste good with chocolate icing as well

Taste:

Slightly sweet zingy and soft.

Tempting Mango Chocolate Chips Muffins- Guest Post By Manju Of Desi Fiesta

Blogging has so many advantages - it is exciting, it gives us an identity, it is so much fun, but above all it is the platform where people with same passion that is cooking come together. One such person who has become my very good blogger friend is Manju of Desi Fiesta.

She participated in one of my events and send in some very innovative recipes. She won the competition for her wonderful Masala Cone recipe. Her blog as the name suggests is loaded with desi dishes with international twists. Some my favourite ones are Chocolate paan, Heart Beet Whoopie Pie Cake and of course Ghevar

We both always chat with each other and always have something new to talk about. I love the way she always adds the word DEAR after or before any conversation. I am glad that she agreed to guest post for me and it is my pleasure to bring before you’ll Manju. I happy to announce that Merry Tummy loves- Desi Fiesta .

Off to Our little chit-chat

Shweta- What made you start blogging? How long have you been blogging? Is there any particular etiquette that you like to maintain while blogging?

Manju-Hi everyone !! First of all, I am so glad to be here at Shweta's space. Thank you- Shweta for giving me this lovely opportunity of bring my recipe to your space :). Now coming to you question. I used to share my food pictures on Facebook and my friends where very curious in knowing all the recipes .. So this is what made me start a blog so that I can have my recipe collections in a place where all my friends can enjoy reading them :).  I started this blog as I am passionate in cooking and explore my kitchen a lot. And by blogging now I have earned so many lovely like minded people who are so supportive and encouraging. I blog and that makes me feel so happy when my blogger buddies encourage me!! And I feel so excited and have fun while blogging that I never follow any etiquette and I don't even want to, because I want my blog to stay as my stress buster and not a stress producer :). 

Shweta- That is so interesting. Which is your favourite ingredient in the kitchen and why?

Manju-My favourite ingredient in my kitchen which like to use frequently is - Cardamom. I add cardamom in all gravy and rice recipes a lot as my H likes the flavour of cardamom in any gravy /sabzi/pulav.. It adds an extra flavour to any dish and makes the dish so aromatic. The aroma really tempts the people to have any dish in which we add cardamom.

Shweta- Hmmmm! Cardamom  I am sure is any Indian’s beloved spice. Which ingredient scares you the most and why?

Manju-I love to explore with all new ingredients. So till now no ingredient scares me :) But my h is scared of having cauliflower a lot. He never even wants to taste it as he saw some worms coming when he went for grocery shopping. - So he hates it. But I have all veggies  and no such veggie or ingredient which I have explored and experimented with scares me .If you ask me should be some ingredients which scare me which don't even want see is any Non-vegetarian  ingredients including Egg. As I am a pure vegetarian I hate to see Non-vegetarian ingredients.

Shweta- He he! My hubby to hates cauliflower and the reason is same “Worms”. How do you spend your time other than cooking and blogging?

Manju-Oh that’s a good question! :)  I have 2 year old kidoo at my home and she always has some work for me to do :P So I always do those work as my routine. I like to watch new movies either it may be Tamil/Hindi/English/any foreign language with English subtitles, Other than that I love to play with my daughter a lot :)  That’s how I spend my whole day.

Shweta- Oh! So you are a movie fan. Like any other profession, I am sure cooking also has its share of difficult instances. Any such awkward moment?

Manju-As everyone know I did my Home science with computer science when I was in school. So we were introduced to use new terms and equipments. I have never even used mixer grinder, as I was scared to use it and had no idea how to operate it. Thus when my mom told me grind for chutney it came out as a green juice: P And Yes this was an awkward moment in my cooking.

Shweta- That was very funny! I can see some real wonderful food pictures in your blog. It is said that one eats with his/her eyes before actually tasting the food. Do you believe so-your comments?

Manju-It is surely true if your food looks good it will taste delicious for sure :).  Every foodie eat the dish with his/her eye first and then comes to the taste. So presentation is so important while doing food photography. I am still a beginner when it comes to photography. I am learning so much from my senior bloggers ‘and my very good buddies :) Who have been a great help in improving my blog and now they are helping me to improve my photography. So glad that I found such true friends in this virtual world :).

Shweta- So you totally love blogging. Which is one thing that you do not like about blogging?

Manju-It’s so much fun and I feel so happy to share my recipes in my blog .It is a very good thing to share is thoughts while sharing our recipes. Till now I have been enjoying blogging and no such thing has made me think any dislikes in blogging. I am excited every day to share recipes and even learn new recipes from our blogger buddies. So I don't have any particular thing which I don't like in blogging :)

Shweta-So, Which is your most proud moment in the blogging?

Manju-Till now I have so many proud moments that I am going to treasure my whole life :) I have won so many giveaways and so happy to get recognition from all my readers :). When I posted "Ghevar" ,which is the most popular dessert in my blog. I did it for SNC challenge conducted by Divya. I got an huge response for that post and still people are appreciating me as they tired and tasted my recipe. So ghevar brought me to limelight :) It was my happiest moment in my blogging world :)

With warm welcome over to Manju.

I am so glad and they were very lovely questions which made me to think a lot :) Shweta has been so kind and I love her collection of recipes a lot :) I like here bakes and innovative recipes. One such recipe is “cake churma “with leftover cake crumbs that was really a very innovative recipe.

Now, I have got a seasonal recipe for you Shweta. Hope you will like :)

I love mangoes and I am hunting for mangoes every week: P . So, I have come with this delicious recipe with my favourite fruit to share with you all. This is an yummy combo of mango and chocolate. They are so very moist and both mango and chocolate compliments each other so well. These muffins make perfect snack for tea time. I saw this recipe in a cooking show long back and made a note on my recipe to do list . Thought is will be the perfect treat to share with all the readers and Shweta  :)

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour (maida)

1/2 tsp baking powder

A pinch soda bicarbonate/baking soda

8 tbsp condensed milk

5 tsp chocolate chips

4 tbsp mango pulp

4 tbsp melted butter

A few drops of vanilla essence

Cupcake liners - 8-10

Method:

Sieve the flour, baking powder and soda and baking powder in a bowl. Keep aside.

Combine the condensed milk, mango pulp, butter (melt the butter before adding) and vanilla essence in another bowl, mix well and keep aside.

Add the flour mixture and mix gently using a wooden spoon or spatula.

Add enough water (approx. 2 tbsp) to get a batter of dropping consistency.

Pour 1 tbsp of the mixture into each of the 10 line muffin moulds with the cupcakes liner or you can even grease and dust them with some flour .

Sprinkle ½ tsp chocolate chips evenly on it and bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 F for 15 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a muffin comes out clean.

Tips:

Combine dry ingredients with wet ingredients in batches and don't add them in one go to avoid lump formation.

Don't over mix the muffin batter just fold the dry ingredient till well combined.

Cool slightly, unmold and wrap in an aluminium and foil or cling film or pack in a Tiffin box.

Instead of condensed milk you can substitute with 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup milk (you can adjust this to make the batter dropping consistency)

Thank you from Merry Tummy

Eggless Chocolate Cupcakes- Celebrating 100th Post

Celebration Time- Its my 100th post, So I chose to make chocolate cupcakes.I am sure all of us love Chocolate Cupcakes. This is a very easy chocolate cupcake recipe, all we need is hot milk ; no condensed milk or curd is needed, so even if your milk is not at the room temperature and you wish to make a cake, ah! no problem at all, just heat the milk and you are ready to go. I took this recipe from my friend who is an excellent baker (especially her eggless baking is too good.)

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
• 3/4 sugar
• ¼ honey
• 3/4 cup hot Milk
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 stick melted butter
• tsp Baking Soda
• tsp Baking powder
• tbsp Cocoa powder
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp Lemon Juice

Method:

1. Take bowl and put together honey,melted butter, milk, and sugar. Keep mixing till sugar dissolves.
2. Sieve together all purpose flour,salt, baking powder, cocoa powder and baking soda.
3. Slowly combine milk mixture with flour mixture. Mix till batter is smooth. Then mix in vanilla essence.
4. Lastly add lemon juice to it and give it a quick mix.
5. Bake it for 25-30 minutes at 180C or till when toothpick inserted it comes out clean.