It's been a while since I shared a cupcake recipe, so here's one for the easy yellow cupcakes I've been baking this week. This recipe is such a good one. Everything is just mixed together in one bowl, stirred briefly with the paddle of a mixer and baked. The 2-ingredient whipped chocolate ganache frosting is even easier. You just melt chocolate in cream, let cool, then whip. It goes on like regular buttercream.
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Cupcake Flavor and Texture
The texture reminds me of the cupcakes I used to buy in Austin at a place called Hey Cupcake. They're not super light and fluffy, but rather moist and slightly crumbly. As for flavor, you can really taste the butter and sour cream. They aren't as velvety soft as cake mix cupcakes, but they feel more substantial. Also, the batter is very thick! You can scoop it with an ice cream scoop. The cupcakes are very good, but like all yellow cupcakes they need a frosting.
Whipped Chocolate Ganache
I almost skipped the whipped chocolate ganache in favor of basic American style chocolate buttercream, but I was out of confectioners' sugar and went with the ganache. I used half cream and half chocolate, which was just a hodgepodge of different semisweet and bittersweet chocolates I had in the house -- a little Guittard, a few Costco chocolate chips and a smattering of an African dark chocolate. The ganache whipped up fluffy like a buttercream and tasted even better. So don't skip the ganache.
Gluten-Free Easy Yellow Cupcakes Recipe
We liked these so much that I tested the recipe again using King Arthur 1:1 Gluten-Free Blend (by weight). It worked perfectly, and I'm sure other 1:1 brands such as Cup4Cup will work too. There's so much sour cream in batter, and gluten-free baked goods always take well to recipes with lots of dairy. Here's a picture of the gluten-free cupcake.
Cupcake Wrapper Sizes
I tested the recipe with two different sizes of cupcake wrappers. For the first batch I used my favorite glassine wrappers that measure 2 inches across the base and 1 ¾ inches from top to bottom. Standard size cupcake wrappers are 2 inches across the base and 1 ¼ inches high, so the taller ones give you a little more cake per cup without having to change the size of your muffin pan. I bought some in bulk from Webstaurant and am still using them. I haven't yet found them on Amazon yet, but there are some on Etsy and various cake and candy supply sites. And of course there's Webstaurant if you're willing to pay the shipping. But regular 1 ¼ inch tall cupcake wrappers are just fine. Those are what I used for the gluten-free cupcakes.
Halving and Doubling
The recipe is adapted from one by Sally Sampson in an issue of Cook's Illustrated from 20 years ago. My very minimal changes were to increase the salt and vanilla just a bit. If you are thinking of doubling, there's a note with the original recipe saying that to double, you need to use 3 whole eggs and 1 yolk, so this is not a straightforward scale-up. I personally would stick to making 12 at a time. For halving, you can go ahead and just use half an egg (2 tablespoons) and 1 whole yolk.
Recipe
Easy Yellow Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (210 grams)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 grams)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt plus an extra pinch
- 1 stick unsalted butter, very soft and cut into chunks (114 grams)
- ½ cup sour cream, room temperature (120 grams)
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
Whipped Chocolate Ganache
- 8 oz heavy cream
- 8 oz semisweet, bittersweet or dark chocolate
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, and mix until evenly blended.
- To the dry ingredients, add the VERY soft butter, sour cream, egg, yolks and vanilla. Mix with a heavy duty scraper until ingredients are blended, then set mixer on stand and beat for about 20 seconds on medium, scraping bowl as needed. Alternatively, just mix everything together with a spoon and mix with a handheld mixer for about 20 seconds. I haven't tried mixing the batter fully by hand yet.
- Using a 2 ounce ice cream scoop, large cookie scoop or a heaping tablespoon, scoop the thick batter into the cups.
- Bake for 20-24 minutes or until cupcakes are brown around the edges and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Carefully remove from the muffin pan and let cool for 45 minutes while you make the ganache.
Whipped Chocolate Ganache
- Put the chopped chocolate in the stand mixer bowl.
- Heat the cream over the stove or in the microwave just until boiling, then pour it over the bowl. Cover the bowl and let stand for 5 minutes, then stir until chocolate has melted.
- Put the whole bowl in the refrigerator for about 30 to 40 minutes or until the mixture is cold. Keep an eye on it and don't let it get too cold or it will be too thick to whip.
- Set the mixer on the stand and beat with the whisk attachment until thick and creamy and peaks form.
Sue says
I hope I remember this the next time I need to make cupcakes. You posted this the day before our grandson’s birthday. I was completely cupcaked out that week! Lol!