Yellow Cupcakes with American Buttercream

This is Magnolia Bakery’s cupcake recipe. It uses self-rising flour, which I like because you can scale the recipe up or down easily without messing with the leavening. It’s a straightforward recipe and bakes up perfect every time. This buttercream is a standard recipe, great for cakes or cookies too. Just make sure you beat it long enough (longer than you think) that it is nice and fluffy.

Helen

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Cupcakes: (makes 24)

• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour (or substitute 1 1/2 cups cake flour + 1 3/4 tsp. baking powder)
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Buttercream:

• 1 pound unsalted butter
• 8 cups (960 grams) powdered sugar (2-pound bag)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with liners.

Cream butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Beat well. Add self-rising flour and mix to blend. Stir in milk and vanilla. Add all-purpose flour and beat to combine well.

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling 3/4 full.

Bake 20 minutes, or until muffins spring back when lightly touched. Remove from pans and cool completely before icing.

Buttercream: Combine butter, salt and 4 cups of powdered sugar in a mixer with paddle attachment. Stir on low to combine. Add remaining 4 cups powdered sugar and stir until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat until the icing is very light and fluffy. Add vanilla.