{"id":4322,"date":"2015-08-31T20:57:49","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T10:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/?p=4322"},"modified":"2021-02-18T15:31:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-18T05:31:17","slug":"in-search-of-the-perfect-vanilla-cupcakes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/?p=4322","title":{"rendered":"In search of the perfect Vanilla cupcakes."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" data-header=\"false\" data-footer=\"false\" data-context=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sasmonroe\/21002931106\/in\/photostream\/\" title=\"Top\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/631\/21002931106_de647df198_h.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1600\" alt=\"Top\"\/><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>I get a tad defensive when someone starts referring to a person as &#8216;Vanilla&#8217;. Meaning to say, that she or he is boring, plain, yawn, nothing out of the ordinary. I just don&#8217;t see how &#8216;Vanilla&#8217; is anything close to this description.<\/p>\n<p>Vanilla is ANYTHING but boring, it is delicious &#8211;  (dare i say) even better than chocolate (oo, i&#8217;m so brave lol) .<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, i haven&#8217;t made any new friends since i last posted. The few that i had went away for summer holidays and i&#8217;ve been filling up my time with gym, food , random Snapchat updates and ofcourse, netflix.  Out of my boredom i have also managed to &#8220;come up&#8221; with a vanilla cupcake recipe that i can be happy with for now.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" data-header=\"false\" data-footer=\"false\" data-context=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sasmonroe\/21036751091\/in\/photostream\/\" title=\"Vanilla cupcakes\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/719\/21036751091_12514a0117_h.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" alt=\"Vanilla cupcakes\"\/><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Despite being one of my most fav things in this whole wide world,  Cupcakes are still my nemesis. I&#8217;ve never been able to master the technique of making them. My first go at them was 6 years ago and i had used Magnolia&#8217;s recipe for Vanilla cupcakes. They had turned out hard and inedible. I may as well have been frosting Baulu. Fast forward to 2015, I had a craving for Red Velvet a few weeks back and attempted baking them &#8211; also failing miserably. Following this, i concluded that one should never to follow a cupcake recipe that calls for OIL. Even if it claims to produce the most-dense-moist-rich-cupcake- in the universe DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR IT and don&#8217;t say i didn&#8217;t warn you. I really have no fucking idea what magical cupcake world these bakers live in, but it certainly NEVER works in the real world. Tried, tested and failed.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, even after all the trouble, I still haven&#8217;t given up hope in finding and making the perfect Vanilla cupcake recipe. Desperate, I decided to follow this video to a T.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UwxTK2BB-_Y\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>No. the lady is not &#8216;Joy&#8217; from Joy of Baking. lol. I&#8217;ve always thought &#8216;Joy of Baking&#8217; was a book named after a person called&#8217;Joy&#8217;..but it&#8217;s really not. Turns out, it is what it is.<\/p>\n<p>It seemed easy enough, it uses simple ingredients and instructions weren&#8217;t as complicated as some that i have seen which requires &#8216;egg whites&#8217; to be &#8216;folded in meticulously&#8217; in to the batter. So complicated and unnecessary, that the recipe may as  well have read &#8216;masukkan tia puteh talor atu dalam ani, menggaul tah kau mcm gila bayi, inda jua mau jadi&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" data-header=\"false\" data-footer=\"false\" data-context=\"false\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/sasmonroe\/21019231662\/in\/photostream\/\" title=\"Kapskex\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5777\/21019231662_6ee0491eee_h.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1200\" alt=\"Kapskex\"\/><\/a><script async=\"\" src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The cupcakes were almost a success. The frosting recipe is full proof, but the cupcakes came out dry at 177 degrees Celsius with cracked tops that looked like my chapped &#8216;transition weather&#8217; lips. I then decided to test bake them at three different temperatures: 160 , 165 and 170 degrees and as i had expected, 160 is the optimum heat for MY oven. I guess it depends from kitchen to kitchen,  oven to oven, a recipe can be the same but the results may vary. In the second time around,  I substituted the milk with butter milk, decreased amount of flour,and added more butter to the batter, overall increasing the fat content to achieve a denser, richer, moister cupcake.And voila! my perseverance paid off.<\/p>\n<p>The tweaking produced a cupcake that i can be finally happy with: sort of fluffy, sort of dense, sort of moist. But it could also have been: less sweet (the icing), more vanilla-ey&#8230;&#8230;.i think that&#8217;s it. There&#8217;s definitely still  room for improvement but i was just happy at the fact that they actually looked like cupcakes! for the first time in my life! i made cupcakes! lol. I don&#8217;t know if i&#8217;m in the position to give tips, but based on my experience, i think i will anyway:<\/p>\n<p>So far, the secret to Vanilla cupcakes are:<br \/>\n1. Dont over mix the batter. Once the flour is in, treat it like you&#8217;re pulling out strands of hair tangled to a hairbrush. Untangling it too quickly might just hurt.<br \/>\n2. No OVEN is the same. Play around with oven temp.<br \/>\n3. SIFT THE ICING SUGAR to yield frosting that would be smooth as freshly powdered baby&#8217;s bottom.<br \/>\n4. Make sure you know what ROOM TEMPERATURE BUTTER looks like. Youtube this. (tres important!)<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m exhausted just writing this entry! If only baking was a piece of cake. It&#8217;s not, and you will only get better with time and a lot of patience. Much like life itself. Alternatively, to save you the trouble, you can just buy a cupcake. Money is the solution to everything.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, i&#8217;m going to go and have a bagel for lunch now. bcos im a hey fatty bom bom, sweet sugar vanilla cupcake.<\/p>\n<p>kiss me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I get a tad defensive when someone starts referring to a person as &#8216;Vanilla&#8217;. Meaning to say, that she or he is boring, plain, yawn, nothing out of the ordinary. I just don&#8217;t see how &#8216;Vanilla&#8217; is anything close to this description. Vanilla is ANYTHING but boring, it is delicious &#8211; (dare i say) even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dailies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4322"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4877,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4322\/revisions\/4877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sasmonroe.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}