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Basic Vanilla Cupcakes, Perfect Recipe for Noobs
I call these cupcakes “basic” because they are so so easy – even a total noob like me at baking (with a lack lustre past track record of only one successful bake) can pull it off ;p)
After I got my new oven, I hesitated for a few weeks before I dare to try baking sweet treats due to my past failures trying to bake with a microwave’s convention mode. After my success with the new oven roasting chicken and making baked rice, I gained a bit more confidence. I choose this recipe to start with because it looks simple and has minimal ingredients – in this way, if it does went wrong, it’s easier for me to try to find out which step I can remedy. So if you are learning to bake just like me, I think this is the perfect recipe to practise with ;D
Ingredients
(makes about 9 mid-sized cupcakes)Recipe adapted from 500 Muffins and Cupcakes by Fergal Connolly
110g unsalted butter, cut to small pieces and melted at room temperature
110g caster sugar*
110g self raising flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder, sifted
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essence- *Note: If you can get vanilla sugar, use half caster and half vanilla caster to enhance the vanilla flavour.
Directions
1. Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and pale (almost as light & fluffy like whipped cream), about 2-3 minutes.2. Place baking cases in muffin tins. Spoon the mixture into the cases (about half filled).
3. Bake at preheated oven of 175C (350F) for about 20 minutes.
4. Remove the tins from oven and cool for 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes (if you wish) and cool on a rack.
Before baking
Cooling on a rack
{ 54 comments… read them below or add one }
Whenever I make cupcakes, it would sink as soon as I took out from the oven! LOL
The recipe is almost the same as yours except the additional “10 grams” more for each ingredients.
Hmmm… maybe I should try to make cupcake again and hope it wont sink again *crossing fingers* :D
Those look good. Simple vanilla cupcakes are among my favorites.
Aw Noob…these are perfect. YUM YUM! I’m glad your new oven is working well!
Wiffy, I like simple cupcake like this. Not a big fan of fancy sugary cupcakes
Reminds me of my baking “handicap”…..uh-oh!
Honestly, I do not do any kind of baking. BUT.. something like this is making me want to throw some oven mitts and give it a shot.
congratulation!! bravo!!
i’ll bring the cappuccino you bring a dozen of this..hehehe that muffins look heavenly! yay, i need to make one too its been a long time i havent bake :P
I’ve yet to try baking some cupcakes. This is a good start! They look good!
Hi Wiffy!
Basic means easy, much better..I’m sure your cupcakes are amazing…drooling here!
If I can, I’ll try it this weekend :D
Cheers!
Gera
They look delicious! Great job.
Yay.. you are baking more and more. Looking forward to see more bake posts. :D
Yum.. I would add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with the cake. lol
they look so pretty lined up like that… :)
Looks good! I like simple cupcake without icing like this.
Mmm. Those look delicious! I have to be kept away from cupcakes because I’m known to polish off most of a fresh batch all by myself.
I love your cupcake papers! They’re adorable.
Those look really good. Sometimes all you need to bright up a day is a simple vanilla cupcake!
There beautiful! You did a great job! I think your going to have a lot of successes in your new oven! :lol:
Don’t tell me you actually baked this during CNY…How to find time?? Anyway, will try making some one day. =)
Wow these sound so easy even *I* (a complete noob) could probably do it! They may not look as pretty as yours are, though. :D
What cute paper cups too!
Not sure if it works for you but I realise my muffins tend to raise a bit higher if you left the batter standing for 30 minutes or so before baking.
Have fun with baking!
Hey! Congratulations! You are a successful baker now! :) Cute cupcake liners. :)
I am so inspired with your success story and yummilicious cupcakes! Feel like baking some now. Hehehe!
hi everyone, thanks for the encouraging words :)
ladyhomechef, nope, I baked them before CNY heh
Wollycroak, thanks for the tip, I’ll try it out the next time… I heard that cupcakes don’t rise as much as muffins? ;p
This is a fantastic blog you have! C-h-e-e-r-s! xD.
hey, love yr photos! i hv a good time reading yr past entries (and i’m still at it) lol.
p/s : didnt know you’re wiffygal, heard lots abt u!
finally! i can open your blog again! yay!!! gorgeous cakes, wiffy! i was not a big fan of vanilla before, but now i always drop a teaspoonful info anything i bake hehe
*copy and paste* recipe, make note to self to try it sometime this week. JUST WHAT I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR, I love you!!
James, thanks & welcome … you have a lovely blog =)
Evan, hi! You heard abt me from didally? ;p I love your bakes and photos, they are of superb quality. :up:
Rita, glad u can see my blog again, heheh
Jesse, thanks for visiting me, hope u like the recipe =)
Hi ! thanks so much and God bless u for your website! I’ve picked up cooking again as a result of your easy & great recipes!
i have a question – i m a new cook and just acquired an oven but clueless about using it!
for your lasagne and the vanilla cupcakes – when u say preheat and bake – r u referring to convection function? Sorry I am so duh about it and appreciate your reply :D Ty!
Hi Samantha, thank you for your kind words, you made me blush :halo:
Yours is a microwave convection oven? If so, yes it’s the convection function and I believe you have the option of preheating the oven to the desired temperature before baking. Hope this helps.
I am first time baking baisc cupcake with a normal small adjustable temperature toaster oven . The result of the cupcakes are taste dry.
My receipt :
120g butter
120g sugar
160g self raising flour
2 eggs
All ingredients manually mixed with wooden spoon
bake 175C for 10 minutes
Please advise what is going wrong? Thanks
Hi Susan, so sorry for my late reply. I am exactly sure what went wrong, but I heard that toaster oven may not be ideal for baking pastries, it’s more for warming foods I heard.
hi there, I tried your vanilla cupcakes and it was SUPERB!! My 1st time try on cupcakes. I guess I’ll stick to this recipe….thank you for sharing!!
:up: :lol: Hi Susan,
pop by thru your great website, nice cupcakes! I would be using ur recipes for today’s dinner desserts =) thanks for sharing
Hi wiffy,
Was very motivated after successful attempt of sausage baked rice. Tried the basic vanilla cupcakes today and they sunk…. My heart sunk too…. I followed your recipe but the cupcakes turned out so heavy that even the cups went out of shape… Pls advise…
Hi Sal, sorry to hear that! Not very sure why they sank. Are your cupcake liners the tall type? I find them if I use tall liners, my cupcakes tend to sink. And did you place the cupcakes in individual muffin tray holes?
Hi, I’m just wondering whether is it possible to substitute the self-raising flour with all-purpose flour instead? :)
sorry for my late reply. I’ve not tried before. Self raising flour is a combination of flour and baking powder, so I think you can use all-purpose flour with a bit more baking powder :)
Hi, I m troubled by those cupcake I made. The base of those cupcake always get burnt even I try baking twice. Any advise? I m using double grill convection oven from sharp to bake, I can only select to bake cake, cookies, etc but can’t choose the tempt to bake as preheated is ardy preset.
Hmm the baking feature cannot set temperature? It’s a bit tricky to bake if you can’t set temperature for baking …
hi, my microwave oven can set tempt but is basing on 160c or 180c 200c etc
so shld i set it at 180c at 10mins? any advise? thks
you can try 180C for about 14 minutes, and then see the result and adjust the time from there. Since you are trying out your oven temperature and timing (each oven is different), you can try with one or two cupcakes first instead of baking the whole batch. I hope this helps :)
Hi Miffy,
Unfortunately, my cupcakes sank too.. They sort of overflowed the cupcake liners.. I m using a muffin tray too… Any idea what could be the problem? Can I also ask when u say 1 tbsp, is it our standard dinner spoon?
oh dear sorry to hear that. Not too sure why. What do you mean by “standard dinner spoon”? Those silver type? Those are not tablespoon, 1 tbsp resemble more of the deep, soup spoon type. Do you have measuring spoons? They are very useful in baking.
Thanks for your reply Miffy… I guess the problem might be becoz I didn’t put enough baking powder? I use the normal silver spoon… Haha.. I guess I better go get a set of measuring spoons.. Btw, is tsp and tbsp different?
I’m not sure if that’s the reason, I’m no expert at baking. But you do need to be precise when measuring ingredients for baking.
tsp = teaspoon. tbsp = tablespoon. They are different. Typically 1 tsp = 3 tbsp. If you go Ikea Singapore, you can get cheap measuring spoons, only about S$2 but not sure if still in stock.
Hi Miffy, I tried them again last nite, and they turned out perfect!! I think it’s the way I measure the baking powder etc.. Btw, do u usually measure flour or sugar using the weighing scale? And do u weigh flour before or after sift?
wow finally, glad to hear that, you are really determined. Yes you need to measure the flour and sugar too. Baking needs to be precise and in fact, I used a digital weighing scale (so that it’s accurate to the gram). I find that there’s little room for “agaration” (estimation) when it comes to baking, compared to cooking, especially for noob bakers like me. Weigh the flour before sift. You are not supposed to lose a lot of flour after sifting.
btw, I’m wiffy not Miffy ;)
So sorry Wiffy… Didnt know y I always thought your Nick was Miffy.. Really sorry bout that.. Me feel so paisay now…
That was a wondeful recipe for my small toaster oven.
I made 5 cupcakes at a time and it was just perfect.
Thank you.
Hi..I would like to check if you could also give measurements in terms of US metric (aka cup, teaspoon, tablespoon, millimeters etc)
Thanks!
Hi, can I check if I need to replace the self raising flour with baking powder instead, what’s the amt I shd use?
Pls kindly advise.
Thanks!
Hi! No you can’t substitute the flour with baking powder, they have different purpose. In this recipe, you need 110g flour and only 1/2 tsp baking powder.
Hi wiffy,
Can I use normal bread flour instead of self raising flour?