This weekend was Megan and Kayli's first birthday. For their party, I volunteered to make two giant cupcakes using my co-worker's Great Cupcake Pan from William Sonoma. Since I normally don't make cakes and didn't have a favorite white cake recipe, I decided to try the recipe on the back of the package which had alot of positive reviews on the website.
The Great Cupcake
adapted from William Somona
Ingredients:
3 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/3 cups unsalted butter
2 1/3 cups sugar
5 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups milk
Directions:
Have all the ingredients at room temperature.
Position a rack in the lower third of an oven and preheat to 325°F. Grease and flour a great cupcake pan; tap out excess flour.
Over a sheet of waxed paper, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla just until incorporated, about 1 minute.
Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat each addition just until incorporated, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, filling the wells to within 1/2 inch of the rim and spreading the batter so the sides are higher than the center. Bake until the cupcake halves begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the center of each half comes out clean, 70 to 80 minutes.
Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let the cupcake cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
Using a serrated knife, level the cupcake base and top by gently sawing off the domed portion so they fit evenly.
Frosting
1 1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/2 stick of butter
lemon juice to taste
Food coloring gel
Cream butter for 1 minute until fluffy. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat until desired consistency. Slowly add food coloring to get desired color.
Frosting the cupcake proved to be the most difficult. Because of the insanely hot weather this weekend, I kept having to put the frosting in the fridge to prevent the butter from melting. I could not, for the life of me, get the frosting to look like the one in the picture, where it covers all the grooves nicely so you see the "swirls". Either I have no skills or the picture is misleading and you really can't get that effect. *Sigh* I guess I still have a long way to go with learning how to frost properly.
I had poor planning so didn't anticipate the cupcake looking so plain. Had I remembered, I would have stopped at Blackmarket Bakery for some of their gorgeous sugared flowers. Or grabbed some of the nice sugar crystals at William Sonoma. Instead, I had to wrap the base with ribbon and pipette little dots along the edges. Good thing the girls are too young to remember anything :)
Would I make this again? No. Would I use the recipe again? Maybe. The cake tasted really good coming out of the oven. However, it was really dry by the next day and while some people (ie my family) said it was still good, I am sure there are better white cake recipes out there.