A Tale of Two Yellow Cupcakes

A friend requested a good cupcake recipe, so naturally I gave him three – a scanned copy of the full batch version of Ultimate Chocolate Cupcakes, a white cupcake which works well for making homemade confetti style cupcakes, and the one that follows, which is for basic yellow cupcakes.

For this third recipe, I had to admit I hadn’t tried it yet but was certain it would be good since I’d just made it as a regular yellow cake a few days prior. As I did so, I felt a little guilty about handing over an untested recipe, so I immediately went home and tested it as cupcake. Phew! It worked.

Because my friend had mentioned the family liked Hey Cupcake, a food trailer in Austin that makes jumbo cupcakes, I used jumbo size (1 cup capacity) cupcake cups.
These are lighter in texture and color than Hey Cupcake’s and have a good deal of sour cream flavor. If you frost them and put them in a sealed container, they become a little heavier (in a good way) and slightly moister, so you can definitely make and frost them the night before, but make sure you have a big airtight container to put them in. They're great, but since they're not quite like Hey Cupcake's, I tried a second recipe and included it as well.

Basic Yellow Cupcakes – Makes 6 Texas Size or Jumbo Cupcakes

2 large eggs
1 ⅛ cups (4 ½ ounces) cake flour, unsifted, but weigh to make sure you’ve got 4 ½ ounces
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup room temperature sour cream

Separate the eggs while cold and let them come to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Set the rack in the center (if it's not already) and line 6 Jumbo size cupcake cups with paper liners (I use Reynold’s).

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks just begin to form -- not too stiff or they'll be hard to fold. Set them aside to wait.

In the main mixing bowl, using a handheld mixer or stand mixer with whisk, beat the butter on medium high speed until light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually add the sugar, scraping the sides of the bowl once or twice and beating until light and creamy. Add egg yolks and continue beating for another minute or two, scraping sides of bowl. Reduce speed to low (or remove from stand mixer stand and do this by hand, which is how I do it) and add flour mixture alternately with the sour cream. When mixed, fold in the egg whites with a big, heavy-duty silicone scraper. When batter is well blended and there’s no trace of egg white, divide evenly among the cupcake cups. Bake for 28 minutes or until the cupcakes test done. Frost with a good chocolate frosting.

Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting

8 tablespoons unsalted butter
⅔ cup natural style cocoa powder
6 ½ tablespoons sour cream
2 ¾ to 3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Melt the butter and place it in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the cocoa and mix on low until well blended. Let cool to room temperature. Gradually add the powdered sugar and sour cream, increasing speed from low to medium high, and beating and scraping bowl until smooth. Beat in the vanilla

And here's the second recipe, which does not require beating egg whites, uses whole milk instead of sour cream, and calls for a bit more flour. Unlike the sour cream version above which makes 6, this one should give you 7 or possibly 8. I made my first batch as 6 and the cupcakes rose too high and had large, delicate, rims which broke. Only one cupcake made it and the rest were turned into cake balls.

Basic Yellow Cupcakes Two – Makes 6 Texas Size or Jumbo Cupcakes

1 ½ cups (6 ounces) cake flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup (4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Set the rack in the center (if it's not already) and line 8 jumbo size cupcake cups with paper liners.
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

In the main mixing bowl, using a handheld mixer or stand mixer with paddle, beat the butter on medium high speed until light and creamy. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually add the sugar, scraping the sides of the bowl once or twice and beating until light and creamy. Add eggs and continue beating for another minute or two, scraping sides of bowl. Reduce speed to low (or remove from stand mixer stand and do this by hand, which is how I do it) and add flour mixture alternately with the milk. When batter is well blended, divide evenly among the cupcake cups. Bake for 28 minutes or until the cupcakes test done.