White Cupcakes

This is a great cake/cupcake recipe that begins with a cake mix as a base but is changed quite a bit. These cupcakes are moist and delicious and definitely a recipe that I'll use a lot in the future. I bet the cake mix flavor could even be changed for other varieties.

I made a ton of these for a fundraiser event and did some experimenting with different cake mixes and even did a frosting experiment. For the frosting experiment I made two kinds, one with real butter, and one with margarine. On many recipes they say never use margarine; but I grew up using margarine and everyone always raves about the good frosting on my cakes/cupcakes/sugar cookies. So I put it to the test and had family and friends taste both frostings not knowing the difference and asked what they liked best. Most of the men didn't notice a difference that's men for ya. However, the majority liked the one made with the margarine the best until they knew it was margarine. So ha, frosting can taste great with margarine! ;)

White Cupcakes

Yield: 36 cupcakes

Prep Time: 15 min            Cook Time: 18 min

This is a doctored up cake mix recipe. These turn out delicious, moist and fluffy cupcakes. They have flat tops perfect for holding buttercream frosting.

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 ounce) box white cake mix

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated white sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups water

2 Tablespoons vegetable or canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon of almond extract

1 cup sour cream

4 large egg whites

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pans (you'll need approx. 36).

2. In a large bowl, whisk together cake mix, flour, sugar and salt. Add remaining ingredients and beat with hand mixer for 2 minutes, or until well blended.

3. Use ice cream scoop to fill prepared cupcake tins- fill about 3/4 full. Bake about 18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Tips:

*Recommend: Duncan Hines "Moist" White Cake mix for this recipe. *Using an ice cream scoop is perfect for getting the batter into the cupcake tins without spilling. *You can also use this mix to make cake. Pour into greased and floured cake pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Buttercream Frosting

This is my go-to recipe for icing cupcakes and cake. It's so easy to make, and it works through a piping bag well.

*I like the flavor better made with margarine, for the butter version click here

Ingredients:

 7 ½ cups powdered sugar (whole 2lb bag)

1 cup margarine, at room temperature

3 to 4 Tablespoons whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, with a hand or stand mixer, cream together 2 cups of powdered sugar and margarine on low speed. Mix until well blended.

2. Gradually add in the rest of the powdered sugar with the cream.

3. Add vanilla, almond, and continue to beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, adding more cream if needed for desired spreading/piping consistency.

4. Taste frosting, add more almond if needed, add more powdered sugar if frostings to thin or tastes buttery, add cream if too thick.

5. Mix in desired food coloring (use paste or gel, liquid will thin out your frosting).

6. Scoop into a piping bag and pipe decoratively onto cupcakes, or spread onto cupcakes or cake as desired.

*This recipe doubles or triples well.

*You can use milk instead of cream but use less, cream is fluffier

Recipe from RecipeGirl.com