Vanilla & Vanilla Cupcakes Take 2

Happy New Year......ok so I am a little behind. Nothing new! Nothing changes much in my life, so of course I apologize for my long absence. I have been cooking up a storm so I have a good chunk of recipes to get posted and I will get it done as quickly as possible. The holidays came and went and now that the dust has settled I have a bit more time.....but not too much time since I recently took up knitting and that now occupies my spare moments.

But I have some cool cooking goals set for myself in 2012 so I hope I can get some of finished products on here when I tackle them.

These were my Christmas Cupcakes I made and they were yummy. I have turned out to be a pretty good baker again. Too bad I eat all my work so I have to go back into forced retirement!

Vanilla Cupcakes

by Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon (optional)

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup milk

1-1 ½ recipes easy vanilla buttercream frosting

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners. Set pan aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides and beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest, if using.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan 5 minutes. Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Prepare frosting. Decorate cooled cupcakes as desired.