Hello hello!

Did you guys have a good weekend? Mine was great and filled with a lot of baking. It was my nephew’s birthday, so to celebrate, I made cupcakes!

I’m basically a cupcake fiend – I’ve made cupcakes for all occasions: birthdays, pastry day at work, watching Bachelor with my friends on Monday nights… I’ve had a lot of people ask me for the cupcake recipes I use and have even had a few friends over for cupcake teaching sessions. I figured today was a perfect time to share my basic cupcake batter with you guys! Once you get the hang of a basic batter recipe and have a reliable buttercream frosting up your sleeve, you’ll be unstoppable in the cupcake department!

So my advice is to start with the buttermilk cupcake recipe below and the swiss meringue buttercream (both from Martha Stewart). Then you can play with different batters – devil’s food cake, red velvet, etc. And different frostings or even flavouring your buttercream with delicious things like homemade caramel, ripe strawberries or rich chocolate… MMmmmm!

To give you guys some ideas, here’s a few photos of cupcakes I’ve made in the past:

buttermilk cupcakes with swiss meringue buttercream grass and marzipan ladybugs:

fruitcake cupcakes with seven minute frosting and meringue mushrooms:

banana (robot) cupcakes with honey buttercream frosting:

buttermilk cupcakes with swiss meringue buttercream and marzipan bumble bees:

billiard ball cupcakes, decorated using buttercream and coloured sanding sugars:

devil’s food chocolate cupcakes, with chocolate butterflies:

cookie monster cupcakes, decorated with buttercream and Scotch mints for eyes:

Ok so to get you guys started… here’s my buttermilk cupcake recipe! And here is the swiss buttercream frosting. Enjoy!

By Genia Rodnyansky Published: Yield: 30 cupcakes adapted from Martha Stewart's "Cupcakes" Ingredients 3 cups cake flour

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 1/4 sticks unsalted butter room temperature

2 1/4 cups sugar

5 large eggs room temperature

3 egg yolks room temperature

2 cups buttermilk room temperature

2 tsp vanilla Instructions Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together the dry ingredients: the two flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Use an electric mixer at medium-high speed to cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs one at a time, mixing to combine after each addition. Add yolks and mix until combined.

Reduce mixer speed to low and add in flour mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk in two additions. Add in vanilla and mix until batter is fully combined.

Spoon batter into a muffin tray, lined with paper cups. Fill each cup about 3/4 full.

Bake for about 20 minutes, rotating trays halfway. You will know the cupcakes are done when a cake tester comes out clean when inserted.

Let cupcakes cool and decorate with frosting of your choice.



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