White Cupcakes
from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook
ingredients
3 cups cake flour, not self-rising
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon salt
3 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
8 large egg whites
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line two standard 12 cup muffin pans with paper linters. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl, set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer [i don't have one, so i used a regular hand mixer/beater?] fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour; beat until just combined. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, set aside.
In the clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low speed until foamy. With mixer running [this was a challenge...cause i don't have an electric mixer] gradually add remaining 1/4 cup sugar; beat on high until stiff, glossy peaks form, about 4 minutes. Do not overbeat.
Gently fold a third of the egg white mixture into the butter-flour mixture until combined. Gently fold in the remaining whites.
Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups, filling each with a heaping 1/4 cup batter. Bake, rotating pans halfway through, until cupcakes are golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer pans to a wire rack. Invert cupcakes onto the rack; then reinvert and let them cool completely, top sides up.
I frosted these with lemon cream cheese frosting.
I did get more than 24 cupcakes, even though I tried to measure my heaping 1/4 cup with a measuring cup.
I did find out that I might be able to make an angel food cake one day because my egg whites didn't fail when I had to fold them into the rest of the batter. Yay!
These were pretty good, and I'm sure they're unhealthy, but I would make them again. Yep...Martha wins over my healthy desserts. Sigh.
mmm. the lemon cream cheese frosting sounds and looks delicious. :)
ReplyDeletePretty! I am not brave enough to attempt white cupcakes because of the whipping of egg whites step, haha.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure the white part comes only from the egg whites. The recipe said to use only cake flour so that it comes out white, and I suppose egg whites are part of it being white, but I'm not sure why they needed to be whipped. The cupcakes weren't that fluffy.
ReplyDelete