Images Vanilla Cupcakes with Caramel Drizzle

Cupcakes are probably the things I make the most, and yet for some reason I had absolutely zero pictures of any cakes. Not only that, as much as cupcakes are renowned for being pretty or cute, these were the hardest shots for me to take out of pretty much everything I have done.

For some reason I just couldn’t take a picture that showed how delicious these looked in real life. I had ok lighting but the pictures still felt ‘cold’ for some reason. It wasn’t until I ate one (that’s the empty red wrapper at the front of the shot) that things started coming together.

I think there are a couple of reasons for this:

1. I was probably hungry. It’s as simple as that. I think cupcakes are to me as spinach is to Popeye. They make the magic happen!
2. I was probably trying to make the shot too perfect. I think sometimes there is a tendency to try and take some ‘magazine style shot’ and it’s easy to forget about the actual food you’re photographing. If it happens to naturally come out looking picture perfect, great, but sometimes less is more. That caramel was actually supposed to be a perfect swirl that mirrored the curve of the buttercream. That would have, undoubtedly, showcased my talent, but would it have as tasty as that picture right there? I think not!

Now the recipe is one that I've used for years and I honestly can't remember where I got it from. I do think it's quite common though as I've seen very similar recipes in various places all over the web. It's great for add-ins and as a standard Vanilla cake recipe it's light, moist and flavoursome.

The recipe is:

1/2 cup of Butter
1 cup of Sugar
2 Eggs
1 & 1/2 cups of Plain Flour
1/2 cup of Milk (I use Almond Milk as it's what I drink most, so usually have plenty in the house)
1 & 3/4 teaspoons Baking Powder (NOT BICARB!)
3 teaspoons Vanilla

First Place your butter in the mixing bowl along with your sugar

You would usually mix after that step,, I didn't as I was losing light and needed to move quick if I wanted to mix, bake, ice and photograph them in time.

Next (once you've mixed!) add the eggs

Flour...

Milk...

And finally (because you forgot to take a picture of the vanilla), the baking powder

Then just mix. Once I'd realised I'd forgotten I added the vanilla, though I've done these as chocolate chip, crushed Oreo and lemon in the past. They were all amazing, this cake is a great base.

Divide the mix between your cupcake cases

Make sure to only fill the cases 1/2 to 2/3 full as they WILL overflow otherwise. Also, this mix will make 12 cupcakes if you use margarine but, strangely, 11 if you use butter. Seriously, I've made these numerous times and every time the number differs depending on what I've baked with.

Anyway, place these on the middle shelf of your preheated oven at around 240. They take around 20 minutes and, as with all cakes, will be done when a cocktail stick or knife inserted comes out clean.

I used my standard Vanilla Buttercream on half of these and added Cocoa Powder and a little melted dark chocolate to it to ice the rest.

Vanilla Buttercream:

250g Butter at room temperature
Icing Sugar
Milk
Vanilla

If the butter is too hard it's best to microwave it for a couple of seconds. The softer it is the more icing it will yield. How much Icing sugar you add will then depend on how soft the butter is and how firm you want the icing to be. Clearly to use this on cupcakes you'll need it to be firmer so just keep adding a little sugar at a time until it's right. Add 1-2 tablespoons of milk but be careful as they may split your icing.

Then divide the mix in half and add cocoa powder, melted choc and more milk until its the consistency you want/need. Then Ice!

I couldn't be bothered cleaning the bag/using a new bag in between flavours which is why my icing is striped. It looks and tastes awesome though, so here's to laziness! I then covered the cupcakes on a homemade caramel sauce which, while not perfect, does make the cakes look amazing. It's a simple recipe but I'm using a lot lately so I'll try and post the recipe soon. In the meantime...

Little Beauties...