Week 5. "Snowed In!" Basic Yellow Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing

To be perfectly honest, I made these because I got snowed in...and I had all of the ingredients in my cupboard! Convenient, yeah?



Yellow Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS
• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
• 11⁄2 cups sugar
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 1⁄2 tsp salt
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup 1% lowfat milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 22⁄3 cups all-purpose flour
PREPARATION
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Line 12 regular-size (21⁄2-in.-diam) muffin cups with paper liners.

2. Beat butter, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl with mixer on high speed 1 minute or until well blended. Add eggs; beat 2 minutes or until fluffy. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in milk and vanilla (batter may look curdled), then flour just until blended. Spoon batter into lined muffin cups, filling each 2⁄3 full.

3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in centers of cupcakes comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 5 minutes before removing from pan to rack.

4. Repeat with remaining batter. Let cupcakes cool completely before frosting and decorating.Note: Since the recipe makes 24 cupcakes, if you have two 12-cup regular-size muffin pans you can prepare them both as the recipe directs and bake them side by side on the middle rack of your oven.

Basic Chocolate Frosting

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups confectioners’ sugar
Directions
In a large bowl, combine butter and cocoa; beat until well mixed. Add in the milk, vanilla and salt; beat until smooth. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until frosting is smooth and creamy. Add more milk if you want a thinner consistency.

**Hannah's Hints**

* Ok, I'd hate to lead anyone astray...these are not the most exciting cupcakes in the world. But, I didn't have time to go to the store for anything else...so, deal with it.

* I had a bit of a crisis in the middle of making these...it's been building up for a while and it finally happened...my hand mixer died on me. Basically wouldn't mix anything. Ruuuude. So I'm in the market for a new one...once my car doesn't go ice skating every time I try to drive, I shall be shopping around. (Which makes me real excited because I'm a HUGE dork about kitchenware...can you tell by my amazing vintage paisley tablecloth?)

Well, enjoy the snow...even if you don't enjoy these cupcakes!