The fluffiest/lightest vanilla cupcake ever + the fluffiest/lightest buttercream frosting ever!

I baked these on Monday night, and I've never baked anything like it :) Knowing myself and my un-proness at baking, and my over-dependence on recipes, I came across an awesome vanilla cupcake recipe! The food blogger of this website followed a recipe from Christina Marsigliese, who's a food scientist.  Man, I should really follow these legit recipes with a scientific background, I'm now more curious to know what ingredients do what to the stuff I bake, hahaha :) This way I would know what to add and remove to get the perfect batch, instead of feeling guilty and unsure of the

These vanilla cupcakes are light and fluffy, and have a melt-in-the-mouth quality.  I'm not sure if cake mix tends to make the sponge a bit soft, more on the soggy and dense side.  But maybe that's due to the overnight refrigeration...

Anyway, no further ado, this was my result!

So basically I worked with Christina's recipe, but halving each quantity as I only planned to make half her batch (her recipe makes 18 servings, mine made 10).  Her recipe was also in US measurements, so I've converted them to approximations below:

The lightest fluffiest vanilla cupcake everrrr:
Ingredients:

• 7/8 cup plain/all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda/bicarb soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/8 cup caster/granulated sugar
• 60g butter, at room temperature (I always forget to leave my butter blocks out of the fridge 1 to 2 hours before baking, so I just microwave it for 20 second increments on low-moderate heat until the block feels soft but not liquid-melted)
• 1 large egg (I used an egg from a 12-egg carton that weighed 700g altogether, so I reckon that's a normal sized egg, but the recipe still worked)
• 1/6 cup full fat sour cream
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup milk

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line a cupcake tray with 9 or 10 paper liners.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add sugar and mix on low speed until well blended.
3. Add softened butter and beat on medium-low speed until butter is coated with flour and mixture resembles dry crumbs, about 3 minutes. Increase speed to medium and beat 30 seconds longer. If you don’t have a mixer – mix the above dry ingredients together with a fork and then rub in the butter by hand (like making scones or pie crust).

4. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream and vanilla extract until smooth. Add this to the flour mixture and mix on medium-low speed until moistened, about 45 seconds. With mixer on low speed, gradually add milk and beat until batter is smooth, about 20 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix until batter is light, airy and creamy looking, another 15-20 seconds on medium to medium-low speed. Whether mixing with the mixer or by hand make sure you do not over mix.
5. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling them about two-thirds full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean, about 14 minutes. Transfer cakes to wire racks to cool completely and ice however you choose.
Original recipe from Christina Marsigliese.

Results:
They didn't rise as much as I've liked them to, but according to the blogger of eatpress.com, the one I found this recipe on, they said mine didn't rise to its full potential because of the baking powder's un-freshness, despite my baking powder being in the fridge .  Well, according to StillTasty, it's meant to be stored in a cool and dry area...well I have no idea how I found baking powder in my fridge, hahah!!!

After trying one, I must say, man it is so fluffy! Moral of the story, you don't have to be pro to follow this recipe, this recipe does it all for you :)

And then after my sister tried one, she decided she should take another, so I ended up giving 6 to the birthday girl.

Also, I wanted to find a fluffy buttercream frosting recipe as well, and I came across a quite nice one:

Fluffy Buttercream Frosting, recipe halved and adapted from this site:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup icing/confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 tsp flavour extract (I used lemon)
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 tablespoon water
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• Food colouring if desired (my friend's fave colour is yellow, so I opted for a light yellow shade of frosting with the 2 drops of liquid colouring, but I didn't want to add too much of it, because I heard somewhere that liquid food colour does stuffs up the baking)

Method:
1.   Combine all ingredients in bowl. Beat at low speed to mix. Beat at high speed until smooth and fluffy, approximately 5-10 minutes. If too stiff, beat in a few drops of water.

Results: Ta-da!! 

(Blogpost edited 29/12/12)