Moist vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream frosting

My sister said: Find a moist vanilla cupcakes with chocolate buttercream please... It's for her daughter's 1st birthday... My niece that I haven't met in Malaysia... Little Isabelle...

So I searched the recipes on the internet and I found this good review cupcake recipe at Martha Stewart's website. It's called Billy Vanilla Cupcakes. This recipe actually a very EASY recipes. Just mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and bake it.. Pretty simple right?

The mise en place for this recipe is:

- Electric mixer with paddle attachment

- sifter
- 1 bowl to mix all the wet ingredients
- whisk
- spatula
- cupcake pan with cupcake liner

Here's the recipe: (This recipe suppose to make 30 cupcakes... I tried half recipe and I got only 10 cupcakes. Probably because I filled the batter a bit more)

• 1 3/4 cake flour
• 1 1/4 all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 sticks of butter, cut into 1 in. pieces
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

The direction:

1. Preheat oven 325F

2. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners

3. In the bowl of electric mixer, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix on low speed until combined.

4. In another bowl, whisk egg, milk, and vanilla.

5. Add the wet ingredients into dry ingredients in 3 parts. Scraping WELL after each addition. Mix only until the ingredients are combine. DO NOT overmix if you want soft and moist cupcakes. The problem most people have is that they overmix the batter to make sure it's all incorporated. Remember, the more you mix the batter (containing flour), the tougher the cake will be because more gluten will develop.

6. Fill the batter 2/3 of full of the liner.

7. Bake for 17 to 20 min. Rotate the pan half way through the time.

Now... The frosting... I personally think that the recipe called too much sugar! I already reduced the amount of powdered sugar but it's still too sweet and it overpower the cake flavor.

So... here's the recipe: (For 30 cupcakes)

• 4 sticks of butter, room termperature (whewww... a lot of butter! Yesterday I only use 1/4 of the recipe to ice 10 cupcakes. It's just about right)
• 12 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled (Alternative, you can use bittersweet chocolate rather than semisweet so when you add the powdered sugar, it's not going to be too sweet)
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp khalua (this is not on the original recipe, I just add it to make it smell better!)

Here's how u make them:

1. In the bowl of electric mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter for 3 min. until smooth and creamy.

2. Mixer on low, add the chocolate until just combined.

3. Add milk, vanilla, and sugar.

4. Mix until combined. Do not evermix because the buttercream can break.

It's a pretty easy recipe, I shall say... It's great for parties and gathering... Happy trying and please leave a comment how it turns out...

Have a great great weekkkk!