Cupcake Experiment #3 using Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

This cupcake decision was quite literally and surprisingly, a piece of cake! I am literally devouring a Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcake right now as we speak because they are so tasty! Who would have guessed. Sure, the thousands of people who are fans of Magnolia Bakery but what about everyone else who actually take the time to taste the cupcakes. As I said before, most cupcakes are a lot of hype that many people buy into because a famous person has eaten there or they saw it in a movie. I was prepared for the worst with these cupcakes and what I got was the best of the three cupcakes I have taste tested in the last three days.

Most famous bakeries, I'm sure, begin with a great recipe. Then, the masses come and they come, and they come and pretty soon the bakeries are so overwhelmed with customers they have to become more efficient with their processes thus the end of bakery fresh, straight from the oven taste and the beginning of a commercialized taste that is only a bit better than a cupcake from a plastic wrapper. Take Sprinkles for example. I have read about Sprinkles in all the tabloids, how wonderful they are, how fabulous they look and how just the other day Paris Hilton was seen inhaling one. I finally tasted one and I began wondering why the little cupcake bakery in Houston I have frequented a few times isn't famous and even more so than Sprinkles. Maybe it was my agitation at how rude the employees were or maybe it was the actual taste but needless to say, I will not be frequenting them again. I prefer instead to find small undiscovered bakeries who are still willing to put in the time and effort to make gorgeous AND tasty cupcakes.

Imagine my surprise when I baked the famous Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes and they turned our scrumptious! I devoured every last crumb. I actually forgot this was an experiment at one point and just kept eating. The Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcake was hands down the best cupcake out of the three tested, out-tasting Martha Stewart's Yellow Buttermilk Cupcake and JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcake. The cupcake recipe was also completely different than the previous two and much easier to mix, completely eliminating salt and baking powder for self-rising flour. I baked two half batches of the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcake, one original and one Greek Yogurt infused batch. I expected the yogurt infused batch to be tastier and more moist like the past experimental batches but I was surprised yet again. The original recipe was far tastier than the yogurt infused batch. Our apartment landlords were around at the time of tasting and they also both agreed the original tasted far better than the yogurt infused, however, the texture was better in the yogurt infused.
This recipe may be the recipe I play around with and tweak, adding less yogurt, maybe more vanilla, changing the eggs from whole eggs to yolks, etc. If you have a cupcake recipe you absolutely love, send it to me. I'd love to compare the flavors.

My experimenting must come to an end for this week as I have yet to make a batch for fun and am looking forward to finally being able to decorate all of my hard work. Unfortunately before I begin, I must play around with the buttercreams! Not a task I enjoy. My buttercream always tastes like a stick of butter with a little sugar added in so cross your fingers for me today and let the decorating begin!

Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended. Carefully spoon the batter into the cupcake liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Cupcake Experiment #2 using Martha Stewart's Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes

Well, I am kicking myself in the butt a little right now as I literally two seconds ago as I wrote the blog title, realized I made Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes and NOT Vanilla Cupcakes as my intent. The Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book does not seem to find the plain 'ol "Vanilla Cupcake" quite worth its page space so instead they feature the Yellow Buttermilk Cupcake. Although the Buttermilk Cupcake is quite similar, it does in fact, have buttermilk. But anyway, close enough for the time being. Can anyone tell me what the major difference in taste would be between Martha Stewart's Vanilla and Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes? Recipe-wise it seems the Buttermilk recipe calls for more eggs, more cake flour, buttermilk and a little less butter. Will this drastically change the overall taste or only provide a different texture?

On to the experiment, I divided the recipe in two this time for an original batch and a Greek Yogurt infused batch. I set out all of my ingredients including milk, eggs and butter to warm to room temperature and prepared my egg yolks while they were still cold as I read this will allow the yolk and whites to separate easier. Then you know, I kind of shook things up, did a little dance, walked around a bit, jammed to music, got my heart pumping and prepared for another day of tasting batters and cupcakes while not adding to my "sleek" figure.

Cupcakes are a funny thing. They always look mouth watering delicious and scrumptious but a lot of times they don't pass muster. Sometimes the frosting is too overwhelming to taste the cake or the cake cannot pull its own weight as part of a team (the cake and the frosting) but since our eyes play a major part in the experience of a cupcake, we are tricked into believing a beautifully decorated cupcake is delicious as well. I probably cannot count the number of truly great cupcakes I have had on one hand but I can tell you the frosting always looks pretty.


I mixed my cupcakes per the recipe instructions and added 1/4 cup Greek Yogurt to one batch, roughly 15 cupcakes. The bake time for the yogurt infused cupcakes was 2 minutes longer than the original batch as to be expected. Upon completion, the Greek Yogurt infused Martha Stewart Buttermilk Cupcakes held their "cupcake" shape a bit better than the yogurt infused JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcakes. Overall, both the original and yogurt infused Martha Stewart Buttermilk Cupcakes felt a little heavier and a bit more dense than the JoyofCooking.com's Vanilla Cupcakes. The yogurt infused JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcake on left and yogurt infused Martha Stewart Yellow Buttermilk Cupcake on right.

In a taste test, the original Buttermilk Cupcakes had a sweet corn bread like taste and similar texture in my opinion while the yogurt infused Buttermilk Cupcakes were more moist. However, while the texture was fairly similar to the original, the exterior of the cupcake was thicker and not quite as easy to cut with a fork thus making it not so much a winner in my book. Compared to the JoyofBaking.com's cupcakes, overall, the Martha Stewart's Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes were more moist in general which can probably be attributed to the use of egg yolks in the recipe. Egg yolks contribute to a spongier and more moist texture.
Head to head, the yogurt infused Martha Stewart Buttermilk Cupcake vs. the yogurt infused JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcake... both were moist cupcakes, however, the MS Buttermilk was more moist. Since I was not a fan of the texture though, I would definitely have to tweak the amount of yogurt added. I believe I may be able to achieve similar results if I substituted some of the egg in the JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcake with egg yolks.
This experiment is definitely a learning experience. If you taste the batter, you can definitely distinguish between the flavors and while none of the cupcakes are winners yet, I am learning what works and what doesn't and through research, why it works out as it does. Oh and eating lots of yummy cupcakes! You can tell we enjoyed the yogurt infused cupcakes (in the yellow wrappers) more than the original versions!)

Martha Stewart's Yellow Buttermilk Cupcakes
* 3 cups cake flour (not self-rising)
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
* 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (2 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
* 2 1/4 cups sugar
* 5 large whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks, room temperature
* 2 cups buttermilk, room temperature
* 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together both flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to medium. Add whole eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add yolks, and beat until thoroughly combined. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each. Beat in vanilla.
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until cupcakes spring back when lightly touched and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Cupcake Experiment #1 using JoyofBaking.com Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

We are in a very experimental mood lately! Yesterday, we began the great cupcake experiment in a quest for the perfectly moist and tasty cupcake because let's face it, people want the whole package, not just a pretty face (the frosting)!

First vanilla cupcake recipe up, JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcake. Here's where things become a bit dicey. I wanted to try 3 different add-ins with my cupcakes along with the original mix but we are on a major food overhaul (diets are for those who cannot stick to a plan for the long haul!) so I broke out the handy recipe ingredient converter and converted that baby down to 1/4 of its original size rendering me 3 cupcakes of each mix but such a small amount of mix is not so easy to... mix and while all of the ingredients were perfectly measured out (thank you new food scale!), the eggs may have gotten lost in there a bit. Who knew you could actually use "half" an egg! (Not just because the recipe converter said so..you can actually do it...I read up on eggs...a lot!)

So I measured, mixed, added and baked and voila! We have our first test cupcakes! Our add-ins were Sprite, Sour Cream and thick Greek Yogurt. Originally, I thought the Sour Cream and Yogurt would taste roughly the same but in the end, the sour cream didn't have that fresh baked taste although the moist-ness was about the same. The Sprite, Soner's idea, didn't turn out so hot...literally...the baking time should have been a bit longer for the Sprite cupcakes, however, since the cupcakes were all in the same pan, it was hard to adjust for that. I do not believe the Sprite cupcakes would have tasted better than the Greek Yogurt ones though. Overall, the Greek Yogurt cupcakes win out in the JoyofBaking.com's Vanilla Cupcakes (which is awesome as when we move to Turkey, they will not have Sour Cream and thick yogurt is what they do best!). Today I will try a different Vanilla Cupcake recipe, testing the Greek yogurt vs. original recipe then I will taste them against Cupcake Batch 1 (I saved two from each flavor although I have to act fast so they do not lose their moisture!) Bottom line, the original recipe tasted good but when you tasted it against the Greek Yogurt or Sour Cream cupcakes, they tasted dry.

In the end, I hope to nail down the best Vanilla Cupcake recipe for me then begin to tweak the recipe bit by bit for a difference you can taste.









JoyofBaking.com Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Zest of 1 large lemon (optional)

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup (60 ml) milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.


,