Super Easy Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

There is nothing better than a fluffy, moist vanilla cupcake--especially when they are super easy to make! And let me tell you, yumm! These are just that! Starting with a box mix makes these so easy and yet they are delicious and don't have the taste or texture of a normal box mix cupcake!

These whipped up to be a nice thick batter so I once again used my cookie scoop to fill the cups. The cookie scoop I bought was like $8 or $9 dollars and it is by far one of the best "tools" I've ever bought! It is so convenient and so much cleaner than trying to spoon batter from the bowl to each cup and trying to make them even! 

I tend to bake my vanilla cupcakes a little longer than I would another flavor because I like when they get golden brown and slightly crisp on top... but definitely watch them closely, they can quickly go from deliciously golden brown to disgustingly burnt. 

Although chocolate, strawberry, or some other flavor buttercream or cream cheese frosting can be tasty, I LOVE vanilla buttercream on vanilla cupcakes. Call me plain jane if you must, but it is simply divine! 

Super Easy Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 box of vanilla cake mix

3 eggs

½ cup melted butter-cooled

¾ cup milk

¼ cup heavy cream

Frosting:

1 can of buttercream

1 tsp. vanilla

1-2 tbsp. heavy cream

3-4 cups powdered sugar-sifted

Directions

Cupcakes:

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

2.     Add cake mix, eggs, butter, milk and heavy cream to the bowl of your stand mixer.

3.     Beat on medium for 2-3 minutes, scraping bowl as needed.

4.     Divide between cups, about ⅔ full.

5.     Place pans in oven and immediately turn the oven down to 325º. Bake for 16-20 minutes, turning half way through if needed.

Frosting:

1.     Add buttercream, vanilla and heavy cream to stand mixer.

2.     Beat on medium until well mixed.

3.     Add powder sugar until desired consistency.

Cinnamon Apple Pie Cupcakes

Our next door neighbors yard has a TON of fruit trees in it. We just had new neighbors move in and in between them moving in and our old neighbors moving out there was some time with no one living in the house... because of that their fruit trees are just overflowing with yummy fresh fruit and luckily for us they keep bringing us bags full! :) This last batch had a ton of apples, more than we could eat before they would go bad so I just had to come up with some way to use them!

I know it's not fall time and apple pie in the end of July just doesn't make sense-- but I just had to try! I've never made these before and I was very happy with how they turned out! I love making homemade  pie during the "normal" times- Thanksgiving and Christmas- so I decided to try and turn pie into a cupcake! I made the filling the same way I would for a pie, I just diced up the apples much smaller! 

I started with a box mix again as my base but didn't want an overwhelming vanilla flavor for the cake so I decided to make it a cinnamon cupcake. I started by adding very little cinnamon since it is so overpowering and worked up to 2 tsp. which I thought was a perfect amount; you could add more or less depending on how strong you want the cinnamon flavor. 

Once I divided the batter amount the cups I then used a tablespoon to spoon in the filling. I didn't attempt to push it down, but think next time I might. Once the cupcakes were baked the apple filling wasn't as in the center as I would have liked but they sure are yummy! 

Once they were out of the oven and cooled they weren't exactly that pretty cupcake look that I like; but of course, frosting could cover any imperfection! When I think of apple pie, I think of it being topped with ice cream and thus- creamy, vanilla buttercream! 

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Cinnamon Apple Pie Cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

Box Mix

½ cup melted butter- cooled

1 cup milk

3 eggs

2 tsp. cinnamon

2 tbsp. brown sugar

2 tbsp. white sugar

Filling:

4 tbsp. butter

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbsp. brown sugar

1 tbsp. white sugar

2- 3 cups chopped apples

Juice of 1 small lemon

Frosting:

1 can buttercream

2 tsp. vanilla

¼ cup heavy cream

4-6 cups powdered sugar

Directions

Filling:

1.     Peel and chop up apples into dime size squares

2.     Add lemon juice to bowl of apples and stir to coat

3.     Add butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and white sugar to a sauce pan and heat on medium-low, stirring occasionally

4.     Once everything is melted together stir in apples, turn to low heat

5.     Heat until apples are just tender, set aside to cool

Cupcakes:

1.     Preheat oven to 350º, line cupcake pan with paper liners

2.     In the bowl of your stand mixer, mix on low the cake mix, cinnamon, brown sugar, and white sugar

3.     Melt butter and set aside to cool

4.     Add milk and butter to dry ingredients and mix on medium

5.     Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition

6.     Mix on medium about 60-90 seconds until well mixed

7.     Divide batter between cupcake pans, filling about ½ full

8.     Scoop about a tbsp. of apple pie filling into each cup

9.     Place cupcake pans in oven and immediately turn oven down to 325º

10.  Bake for 20-23 minutes

Frosting:

1.     Add buttercream, vanilla, and heavy cream to the bowl of your stand mixer

2.     Beat on low until well mixed

3.     Add powdered sugar and mix on low, add more or less powdered sugar based on desired consistency

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Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cupcakes

I love red velvet cake, cupcakes and especially The Cheesecake Factory's Red Velvet Cheesecake! Yumm!! What I don't love, is what a pain red velvet cupcakes can be to make! Well, thats what I use to think until I found Lorann Professional Kitchen Red Velvet Bakery Emulsion! I love the color it gives the cake and the flavor is pretty good also, as long as you add some cocoa.

In order to make this process as easy as possible I like to start with a vanilla cake mix as my base. I add heavy cream, milk, and melted butter which gives the cake a super moist creamy red velvet flavor! I only add a couple tablespoons of cocoa because I don't like a real chocolately flavor and I add a little extra sugar to make sure the cocoa doesn't make the cake too bitter. 

Typically with a box mix you just throw it all in and mix it up but in this case I like to start with the dry ingredients and make sure the sugar and cocoa is well incorporated into the mix before I start adding the wet ingredients. Once everything is all mixed up I can already tell it's going to be great based on the batter color! Isn't it pretty?!?!

Like most cake mixes the cupcakes don't rise all that much so I tend to fill my cups pretty full, I find it easier to decorate cupcakes that are at the top or just below it when they're done. I have a great cookie scoop that I bought from Target that helps me to get almost even cupcakes, although no matter what, they are never even! 

There is nothing better on red velvet cupcakes then creamy cream cheese icing! I like my cream cheese icing to have a strong cream cheese flavor and therefore use a lot of cream cheese in it! This icing is definitely less sweet then buttercream because I tend to use a lot less powdered sugar. 

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Red Velvet Cream Cheese Cupcakes

Yield: a little more than2 dozen

Ingredients

Cupcakes:

1 box of vanilla cake mix

2 tbsp. Hershey’s Cocoa Powder

1 tbsp. sugar

½ cup melted butter, cooled

1 cup heavy cream

½ cup milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 eggs

2 tbsp.  Lorann Professional Kitchen Red Velvet Emulsion

Frosting:

½ cup butter-softened

16 oz. cream cheese

1 tbsp. vanilla extract

1½ cups of powder sugar

Directions

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Line cupcake pans with paper liners. 
2. Add cake mix, cocoa, and sugar to bowl of your stand mixer, mix on low until well mixed. 
3. Add heavy cream, milk, butter, and vanilla. Mix on medium. 
4. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
5. Add emulsion and mix well. 
6. Divide batter evenly between paper lined cups. Place pans in the oven, immediately turn oven down to 325º. Bake 15-20 minutes, turning half way through if your oven doesn’t cook evenly.

Frosting:

1. In the bowl of your stand mixer combine butter and cream cheese; beat on medium-high until smooth, scraping sides of the bowl with a spatula as needed. 
2. Beat in the vanilla extract. Turn mixer down to low and begin adding sifted powdered sugar until desired consistency. 
3.  Frost cupcakes once cool.

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