The Hummingbird Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes

I was searching for an easy recipe to bake for 40 kids for my daughter's birthday. It has to be yummy and pretty too, since they are for kids and kids love pretty things, don't they?

Found this Hummingbird Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes recipe online. Actually, this recipe can be found on many sites. The variation is the Chocolate flavor, which you can replace 20g of flour with cocoa powder. The steps seem easy to follow, and they look very pretty with a slight domed top. I tried the chocolate version first. The recipe says it will make 12 cupcakes, but perhaps it is referring to smaller cups? I only managed to fill 6 cups, and I filled them up too full - about 3/4. The result is cracked tops and one of the cupcakes overflew. They are quite ugly :p After analyzing the issue, I baked a second batch, and this time, I filled up 8 cups, and each cup 2/3 full. The cupcakes rose beautifully in the first 10-15 mins, then strangely they collapsed slightly on the sides, so only the middle part of each cupcake was risen slight. It's somewhat funny looking, but not too obvious. I have been thinking about how to achieve a smooth, slightly domed-top cupcake since :p But I guess the result was still encouraging.

I did not frost the cupcakes as I always thought they are sweet enough, frosting is pretty but I'd like to reserve for very special occasions. I brought these cupcakes for my Korean class teacher and classmates yesterday. I know kids love the sight of cupcakes, but adults? The answer is, adults love seeing cupcakes too! :D Love seeing happy faces :)

As I finally tried one this morning (somehow I forgot to put this one into my bag yesterday), I was surprised to find that the cupcake was very soft! I wonder if it has got to do with the evaporated milk I swopped in place of regular milk. I have tried baking muffins with evaporated milk before and they turned out soft each time. Perhaps that is the reason?

Here's the recipe I used. Please refer to goodtoknow for the original recipe and method. The recipe is from a famous bakery called The Hummingbird Bakery.

Ingredients

Makes 8, 50x39mm cupcakes

120g plain flour

1tsp double-acting baking powder

a pinch of salt

100g castor sugar (original recipe uses 140g)

40g unsalted butter, soften

120g evaporated milk (original recipe uses whole milk)

1 egg

1 drop of vanilla paste (original recipe uses 1/4tsp vanilla extract)

Method

1. Preheat oven at 170 degC.
2. Sift flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl.
3. Add salt, sugar, and butter. Mix with a whisk (original recipe uses an electric mixer) until a sandy consistency.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk egg and milk well. Add half of the mixture into the flour mixture and mix. Add rest of milk mixture and mix until just incorporated. The batter will be smooth.
5. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake for 20 mins.

It was a sunny, hot and humid afternoon in Singapore (as usual? :D). The color of the cupcakes look washed-out (taken with my humble iphone 5S camera).