The Perfect Vanilla Cupcake with Honey Swiss Meringue Buttercream

I have been on a quest to create the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe.  Vanilla - so simple, yet so vulnerable.  I wanted a cupcake that was fluffy, moist, and flavorful - and I was going to have to make that recipe myself.

The Perfect Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Sift all of the dry ingredients together except for the salt.  Add salt and whisk dry ingredients to combine.  

196 grams of flour

9 grams of baking powder 

5 grams of baking soda 

4 grams of celtic sea salt

Beat together the sugar and olive oil.  Beat in all of the eggs and vanilla extract.  

200 grams of white sugar

96 grams of olive oil

1 egg + 3 egg yolks (approximately 100 grams) - room temperature

A 7 oz. container of Fage 2% Greek yogurt - room temperature

20 grams vanilla extract (approximately 2 tablespoons)

Combine the dry into your wet mixture in thirds, beating until combined.  Finally, mix in the yogurt.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 14 minutes.  Don't disturb them for at least 10 minutes.  

Honey Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

I'm using the basic swiss meringue buttercream recipe.  You can find an excellent explanation of it here.   I'm changing it just a bit to include some delicious honey flavor.  

5 egg whites

1 cup of white sugar

A pinch of cream of tartar

4 sticks of butter softened and cut into tablespoons

1/2 cup of honey

Follow the directions from Sweetapolita or Martha Stewart.  I've always used Martha's recipe just because it was the first one I came across.  After everything is combined (after it looks curdled and gross - just keep going!) add in the honey and combine.  It's a very light and mild frosting.  

A Few Tips

• Room temperature is king.  Have all your ingredients at room temperature.  If your eggs are still cold, sit them in a bowl of room temperature water.  After baking, keep your cupcakes at room temperature too.  Nothing will kill a cupcake more quickly than the refrigerator; you will have some dry little cupcakes.  Keep them in a box or a tupperware.  I find that my frosted cupcakes are still delicious a week later.  The eggs are cooked, so there's nothing to worry about.  
• Buy a food scale, because you obviously can't follow this recipe otherwise.  We are talking science people!  They're thin and cheap.  Buy one and keep it tucked in a cabinet until you need it.  
• For the frosting, I always heat up the water first before you put the bowl of egg whites over it (otherwise you're spending a lot of energy beating when it's not even cooking yet).  I can tell when it's ready to come off the stove by rubbing the mixture between my fingers; if there's any grit then it needs to keep cooking.  Lastly, I always transfer it into a different bowl after I take it off of the stove so it will cool more quickly.  

 

Vanilla Cupcake - Trial #2 SUCCESS

Things I discovered this morning:

1. I wasn't crazy, the directions I was reading did not give accurate information for liquid ratios.  You need to switch over to volume.  
2. I passed high school biology with a 66, but I can proportion, invent, weigh, scale, and experiment with (what I think is) exception results.  
3. I need more flavor and moisture.  Maybe I'm overestimating myself, but I feel like I know exactly what to do.  

Vanilla Cupcake - Version 2

Sift all of the dry ingredients together except for the salt.  Add salt and whisk dry ingredients to combine.  

196 grams of flour

9 grams of baking powder 

5 grams of baking soda 

4 grams of celtic sea salt

Beat together the sugar and olive oil.  Beat in all of the eggs and vanilla extract.  

200 grams of white sugar

96 grams of olive oil

1 egg + 3 egg yolks (approximately 100 grams) - room temperature

A 7 oz. container of Fage 2% yogurt - room temperature

20 grams vanilla extract (approximately 2 tablespoons)

Combine the dry into your wet mixture in thirds, beating until combined.  Finally, mix in the yogurt.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 14 minutes.  Don't disturb them for at least 10 minutes.  

My plan is to keep the extra oil and leavening from Version 1 1/2, but double the vanilla and include more Greek yogurt.  fingers crossed

The Results

The batter immediately seemed smoother and fluffy, which seemed very hopeful to me.  My brother and I are anticipating the taste test again.  

The dome is nice; bigger than Version 1 and not quite as large as Version 1 1/2.  You can see that the cupcake has a lot more air in it. These are each of the cupcakes in the order they were created.  

They certainly taste more like vanilla.  They taste great!  The other two taste gummy compared to this last version.  It's light, it's fluffy, it's moist.  I don't know what else I could do to make it better, and I'm pretty darn happy about that.  

Vanilla Cupcakes - Trial Number 1 & 1 1/2

I'm ready to dive into making my own scratch cupcakes from my own scratch recipe.  It wasn't easy getting to this point.  Frankly, I'm still questioning some of my choices on paper, mostly because I don't 100% understand why I made all of these choices.

If you want to skip past my entire thought process, I won't blame you.  Version 1 is my base recipe, and Version 1 1/2 has a tiny bit more oil and a tiny bit more leavening.  Will there be a difference...?  (Now skip down to the pictures)

I'm going everything by weight, in grams to be specific.  You know how people always say that baking is a science?  Well it isn't - unless you're using a scale.  A cup is just a rough estimate.  Grams are tiny and precise.  I got my food scale for $10, and I think it was well worth the investment.  

So what is driving me so crazy about creating this?  The big old gaps left in the "wet ingredient directions" from both of these sites (FineCooking & Sweet Dreams, Cupcakes!).  Both articles are focusing on weight.  My sugar is 200 grams and my eggs are about 104 grams.  That means I should have 96 grams of liquid to add - BUT THAT MAKES NO SENSE!  Then I switched my measurements to ounces.  7.25 ounces of sugar and 3.75 ounces of egg, which leaves a difference of 3.5 ounces.  I switched my brain into volume, and 3.5 ounces would be a little less than a half cup of greek yogurt (about 113 grams).  BUT then I was thinking what if I should be thinking of the whole liquid portion in volume.  My eggs (104 grams - 3.5 ounces) is about a half cup of liquid, which would mean I would want about a half cup of Greek yogurt or 129 grams.  Is your head spinning yet?!?!?!  These numbers don't seem very different right now, but I think if I was doing a larger batch it would make a big difference.  I put my eggs in a measuring cup on a scale a weighed it (100 grams), then added in my 13 grams of vanilla.  I added greek yogurt into the measuring cup until I had one cup of liquid, which ended up giving me 143 grams.  

What I think makes this recipe unique (besides the neurosis) is the use of Greek yogurt, olive oil, and egg yolks.  I think all of these are going to make a very moist cake, and (hopefully) the correct leavening proportions will make them tall and fluffy.

Here they are!

Vanilla Cupcakes - Version #1

Sift all of the dry ingredients together except for the salt.  Add salt and whisk dry ingredients to combine.  

196 grams of flour

7 grams of baking powder (1/2 tablespoon)

3 grams of baking soda (< 1 tsp)

2 grams of celtic sea salt

Beat together the sugar and olive oil.  Beat in all of the eggs, yogurt, and vanilla extract.  

200 grams of white sugar

86 grams of olive oil

1 egg + 3 egg yolks (approximately 100 grams) - room temperature

143 grams of Greek yogurt (approximately 1/2 cup) - room temperature

13 grams vanilla extract (1 tablespoon)

Combine the dry into your wet mixture in thirds, beating until combined.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  

Vanilla Cupcakes - Version #1 1/2

Sift all of the dry ingredients together except for the salt.  Add salt and whisk dry ingredients to combine.  

196 grams of flour

9 grams of baking powder 

5 grams of baking soda 

4 grams of celtic sea salt

Beat together the sugar and olive oil.  Beat in all of the eggs, yogurt, and vanilla extract.  

200 grams of white sugar

96 grams of olive oil

1 egg + 3 egg yolks (approximately 100 grams)

143 grams of Greek yogurt (approximately 1/2 cup)

13 grams vanilla extract (1 tablespoon)

I put my eggs in a measuring cup on a scale a weighed it (100 grams), then added in my 13 grams of vanilla.  I added greek yogurt into the measuring cup until I had one cup of liquid, which ended up giving me 143 grams.  Combine the dry into your wet mixture in thirds, beating until combined.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.  

The winner in category #1: "The Dome" is.....  Version 1 1/2!

Just look at them!  The left is Version 1, and the right is Version 1 1/2.  I obviously overfilled my liners because I didn't want any extra batter.  But those two middle beauties are a perfect side-by-side comparison of the lovely dome each one created.  

The winner in category #2: "Moisture" is..... It's pretty much a tie

My brother, John, felt that they still needed more moisture, and I think I agree.  

The winner in category #3: "Texture" is..... Version 1 1/2!

Come on, look at that gorgeous cross section!  

The winner in category #4: "Flavor" is..... Version 1 1/2!

I personally think that Version 1 1/2 actually tasted less like baking soda, which is totally funny.  Both need more vanilla flavor.  I would straight up double that.  

Version 1 1/2 is the Overall Winner!  (Today)

Score 1 for Baking-Is-A-Science, because that tiny bit of extra leavening made a huge difference!

But it still isn't over.  I think this texture is the best test cupcake I have ever done, but we need more flavor and a bit more moisture.  We will have to see how version 2 comes out!  

Creating My Own Recipes

I've learned a lot of things baking at home my entire life, but my recent baking obsession has brought me on a hunt for the perfect cupcake recipe.  I feel like cupcakes are so different from cake.  Cake should be dense so it can hold up to slicing and frosting.  Cupcakes should be a little pouf of deliciousness, and they seem so obvious if they're not perfect.  

My parent's 30th wedding anniversary was this June, and they had a huge barbecue in their backyard to celebrate.  My mother asked me to make two different cupcakes for dessert.  The Mom cupcake was a chili chocolate cupcake with a chocolate swiss merengue buttercream topped with a chocolate chili pepper.  The Dad cupcake was vanilla with vanilla swiss merengue buttercream topped with homemade butterscotch sauce and a white chocolate heart.  

The chocolate cupcake was pretty easy.  My mother found this recipe for Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes from the blog Gotta Get Baked.  They were very airy and fluffy, which is the biggest thing I look for in a cupcake.  I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, olive oil instead of vegetable oil, and I left out the cinnamon and chili pepper.  Delicious, but they didn't rise very much.  Actually, they didn't seem to rise at all.  If I only filled the cupcake liner halfway I had a little midget cupcake after it baked.  

The vanilla cupcake was another story.  Who knew vanilla was so difficult?!?!?!  I must have tried 5 different recipes from various sites on the internet.  One turned out like a vanilla biscuit, and most were still too dense for me to enjoy.  I discovered that one big problem was I had been refrigerating the cupcakes before frosting, and it was drying them out (I certainly wasn't about to re-make all the cupcakes to see if I tainted the recipe with refrigeration).  I ultimately used this recipe The-Best-Moist-and-Fluffy-White-Cupcake from The Alchemist blog.  I found them to be greasy, and I personally think the cornstarch is a little weird.  They were delicious, but not perfect for me.  

Ultimately, everyone enjoyed the cupcakes and they all disappeared!  

How can you really be a baker if you are just stealing someone else's recipes?  And why on earth am I wasting my time testing out other people's recipes when, frankly, they never seem to be exactly what I'm looking for?  Time to break the mold and try to make my own recipes.  Something perfect for me.  

I found two sites with virtually identical information about the correct ratios for making a cake recipe.  Sweet Dreams, Cupcakes!  and For Great Cakes, Get The Ratios Right.  They seemed like a godsend, but upon further investigation they had me raising an eyebrow.  

Flour should equal sugar by weight - check

Eggs should equal butter/oil by weight - check (even though we usually don't measure either of these by weight)

Eggs and other liquids should equal the weight of the sugar - HUH???

"For Great Cakes, Get The Ratios Right" clearly says "Our recipe now has 7 ounces sugar and 3-1/2 or 3-3/4 ounces eggs. To get the total amount of liquid to weigh more than the sugar, we could add 4 ounces (1/2 cup) of a liquid, like milk or buttermilk."  BUT milk and buttermilk both have different weights.  This would imply that we have switched over to volume instead of weight.  That would have been nice to know!  It also does not show you how to add in cocoa powder and still have a good ratio.  

I spent a few manic hours making two recipes: vanilla and chocolate.  I figured that I could create anything I want from these two bases.  

I can't wait to try out my recipes and see if they work!  I have to be honest, even after writing this I am questioning some of my weights.  Tomorrow I'm going to try out my vanilla!