I have a problem. Are you sad? Let me bake you a cake, you'll feel better I promise. Happy? How about a pie to celebrate? Is it Tuesday? I should probably make some cookies. Whatever the occasion and whatever the mood, my automatic response is to preheat the oven. So when Laura over at Cupcakes and Lemonade told me that her three delightful little girls (whom I happen to adore... and babysit) were having a circus themed birthday party, and she wanted three jumbo cupcakes to put their candles in? I busted out my piping bag and got to it.
The cupcakes are classic yellow cake with vanilla buttercream. Fancy on the outside, simply sweet on the inside– just like the Beynon girls! For this kind of cupcake I like to make a 1-2-3-4 cake. It's a yellow cake that's easy to throw together (if you have self rising flour in the house) and it's just a little sturdier than a white cake or a fancier yellow recipe. See if you can figure out why it's called a 1-2-3-4 cake.
1-2-3-4 Cake:
1 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs *room temp
3 cups self rising flour
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1) Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Using the paddle attachment in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter and the sugar until it's good and fluffy.
2) Add your eggs one at a time, making sure each one gets beaten in thoroughly. *Room temperature eggs keep your nice soft butter from becoming chunky- if your eggs are cold it will make your batter look a bit curdled. Not the end of the world, by any means, but not the best way to bake a cake. A little trick of mine, because I never remember to set my eggs out, is to put them in a bowl of piping hot water (not boiling, we're not making egg salad, here) till they've warmed up a bit.
3) Add your milk and flour alternately, beating well with each addition.
4) Add vanilla (if you wanted to you could use almond, lemon, any kind of extract you've got lying around instead of vanilla) and beat it a little bit more, just until the batter starts to look like it's getting the message. Or all the ingredients are combined. You pick.
5) You should have greased 3 9inch cake pans before you started, because that's what real bakers do. But if you're me you're rushing to do that right now. Baking spray with flour is my best friend. You can also pour this into 2 cupcake pans for 24 cupcakes. Just remember to grease the wrappers.
6) Bake. 25-35 minutes. Set your timer! check at 25 with a toothpick, and give it a few more minutes if you have to. Resist the urge to open the oven before the 25 minute mark– It lets heat out and the boom of the door closing can make your cakes collapse. Use this time wisely (ie. licking the bowl, licking the spoon, convincing yourself not to lick the batter off the counter.) When the cakes are done, and the tooth pick is coming out clean, cool them in the pans for about 5 minutes, and then tip them out onto racks.
7) Frost, serve, solve everyone's problems with delicious cake.
