vanilla cupcakes

sometimes you don't need to go all fancy schmancy to be happy.

i had the weirdest craving for vanilla cupcakes today. the whole day. no joke. i don’t know what brought it on. i shall blame it on the mones. they’ve been very naughty lately. very, very naughty. baaaaad mones.

so, what’s a girl to do, when she’s too lazy to go out and get herself that vanilla cupcake? well, she does something waaaay better, that is to whip ‘em up herself.

you guys wanna try this? this is a super easy super fantastic recipe. i’ll share it with you guys. ready?

ingredients:
225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour (i used normal flour)
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
the how to:
1. preheat oven to 175°C (350°F/Gas mark 4). Line muffin tin with paper baking cases.
2. place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with an electric whisk until smooth and pale, about 2 to 3 minutes.
3. spoon the mixture into the cases. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. remove muffin tin from oven and cool for 5 minutes. then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.
5. store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.

Now, what did i tell you? easy peasy right? i managed to get about 18 2" cups. (boleh fehem?)
okay, another fantastabest thing about this cupcake recipe is that you can make variations out of it.
say, if you want to make
saffron cupcakes, all you need to do is to make the basic cupcake recipe, add a pinch of saffron to 2 tbsp of boiling water. infuse for 5 minutes. after creaming the cupcake ingredients, just stir in saffron and water.
you want another variation? how about almond cupcakes?
okay for this, again, you make the same basic cupcake recipe and add 3 tbsp of ground almond to the mixture and instead of vanilla essence, you substitute it with almond essence. easy, right?
or, if almond is not something that you fancy, you can make vanilla and sultana cupcakes. all you need to do is to stir in 75g (3oz) sultanas in the cupcake mixture. voila! if you noticed in the picture, i added coffee chips to the cupcake mixture. the possibilities are endless. (i sound like a dayum iklan...sowwy.)
okay, geng. luck luck. lemme know how your cupcakes turns out and hey, if you have other variations, perhaps you can share it with me?
recipe source: 500 cupcakes and muffins by fergal connolly