If you're having the girls over for tea, cake is always a good idea, but making a full sized cake sometimes makes people go into a calorie panic and they ask you for "just a tiny piece". Well, it's impossible to cut a truly tiny piece, and even more impossible to get that paper thin travesty from the serving spatula to the plate without it falling apart and looking crappy.
Tiny cupcakes are of course a fine option, but even though they are trendy, they might seem a little juvenile for certain gatherings. My suggestion is to dispense with the muffin tin liners and use the large six-muffin pan to bake six small cakes, which can then be cut in half or in quarters to make delicate little pieces of cake, just the right size for a lady-like tea party. Butter and flour the inside of each cup, just as you would a cake pan.
Ingredients:
1 2/3 cup flour
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla
a pinch of cinnamon (just a hint, hardly noticeable)
Mix all of the ingredients together in your mixer on medium speed for two minutes, or by hand for a few minutes longer. Pour batter evenly into the six cups of the pan and bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes, or until just golden brown and cooked. Try not to overcook them. When they are done, pull them out of the oven, wait a few minutes then run a butter knife carefully around the edges of each little cake and remove them from the pan to cool.
For the frosting:
1 1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cream
3 drops red food coloring
1 drop green food coloring
Mix well until fully blended and creamy, then pipe onto each cake to cover the tops.
Try not to eat them all yourself.
This recipe makes about 48 cupcakes, or 3 cake layers. They are so light and buttery, beware of having them in the house after the party. I ate 15 of them in three days. For real.
Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups flour
3 cups granulated sugar
8 eggs, room temperature
4 sticks of butter, soft
1 cup milk, room temperature
4 level teaspoons baking powder (make sure it's pretty fresh)
1/2 teaspoon salt, IF your butter is unsalted
1 tablespoon vanilla
In your mixer, mix the butter, sugar and eggs together on medium speed for one minute. Add the milk and vanilla next and mix well at least another minute. Add the flour and baking powder next, and just kind of stir the baking powder into the top of the pile of flour to distribute it a bit. Start mixing on low for one minute, then mix on medium/medium high speed for exactly three minutes.
Pour into the cupcake cups about 2/3 the way up. What I would do is hold the cupcake paper in your hand, fill it and then dump it in your muffin pan. Trying to make it from the bowl to the pan with a dollop of batter always make a big damn mess!
Bake at 350 or 325 (my oven runs hot, I do 325) for about 15-20 minutes, depending on how accurate your oven is. Mine take exactly 17 minutes. You want light golden brown, and really try not to overcook or they will be dry. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for two minutes, then remove them to a rack to fully cool before you frost them.
If you want, you can do three 9 inch cake pans instead, but then you would need to cook the cakes for about 40 minutes. (Take them out when they are light golden and the centers don't dip down anymore, NO LONGER.) Please use a circle of wax paper or parchment paper in the bottom, plus butter and flour the pans so there is no chance of sticking.
For frosting, I would use Martha Stewart's Swiss Buttercream recipe, or any other egg white and butter based frosting, you can make it look fancy with some piping tips if that's your thing.
If the cupcakes are for kids, I would just whip together four cups of sifted powdered sugar with two sticks of soft unsalted butter, a pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Color the frosting with food coloring and either pipe them into fancy roses, or put contrasting sprinkles on top, because let's face it, desserts taste a little nicer when they're pretty. Anyway, the powdered sugar frosting is denser and sweeter than meringue-type frosting and holds it's shape better.
(For chocolate frosting, heat two sticks of butter in the microwave until melted and bubbling, then blend in mixer along with 20 ounces of semi sweet chocolate chips until the chips are all melted. Add three to four cups of powdered sugar, depending on how thick you want the frosting. You can always add hot water, a tablespoon at a time, if you need to thin it out- I usually do.)
