Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

 Since I've started my student teaching this semester I have met some really great teachers. One of those great teachers requested yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting... both of which I had never made from scratch. So I did a little research on the difference between white, yellow, and vanilla cake and found out that white cake is normally made using only egg white, yellow cake is made using whole eggs, and vanilla cake is made with more vanilla and either as a white vanilla or a yellow vanilla. Once I found that out the adventure began and out came yummy yellow cake and chocolate buttercream! 

I wanted this to be as easy as possible so I only wanted to use one bowl.... therefore, I forwent the creaming the butter and sugar and instead "extra softened" the butter in the microwave until just before melting. Without having to cream the butter and sugar I was able to mix all the dry ingredients in my mixer first. Next, I added the liquid ingredients, and lastly the eggs--one at a time. 

I must say one thing that has made my life so much easier is my ice cream scoop turned cupcake scoop! It makes getting the batter into the cups immensely easier! I won't lie, I'm not the cleanest in that process so having a scoop has made it so much smoother! Definitely worth the $15 I spent on it! 

As always, I preheat my oven to 350º and then turn it down to 325º when I put the cupcakes in the oven. This does often increase my bake time but it seems to bake them more even and helps them rise better and not sink in during the cooling process. 

Since I had never made chocolate frosting before I just kind of guessed and luckily it came out! I took my traditional buttercream recipe and added cocoa powder and hoped for the best and yumm! So good and so easy!! 

Since I was taking these to school I wanted to dress them up a bit so I bought these super cute boxes (on sale, no less!!) at Joann's. 

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Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

3 ½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

1 ¼ tbsp. vegetable oil

½ cup milk

1 stick butter, softened to almost melted

1tbsp. vanilla extract

3 large eggs

­Frostings:

1 cup (2 sticks) butter

1 ½ tsp. vanilla

6-7 cups powdered sugar

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

2/3-1 cup heavy cream

Directions

Cupcakes:

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with paper liners.

2.  In the bowl of your stand mixer mix together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix     
     well.

3.  Add heavy cream, oil, milk, butter, and vanilla extract. Mix well.

4.  Add eggs, mixing well after each addition.

5.  Beat for 2 minutes on medium/high.

6.  Scoop into cupcake pan about 2/3 full.

7.  Put pans in the oven and immediately turn oven down to 325­º.

8.  Bake for 17-23 minutes or until toothpick comes out almost clean.

9.  Cool on cooling rack.

Frosting:

1. Cream together the butter and vanilla.
2. In a separate bowl sift together powdered sugar a cocoa.
3. Add part of the powdered sugar cocoa mix to the butter and vanilla.
4. Add part of the heavy cream.
5. Continue switching back and forth until desired consistency.

Thanks for coming, stay awhile, and return often! xoxo