Bakery Style Mini Vanilla Cupcakes

A classic vanilla cupcake recipe, which has been all gussied up for a delightful springtime affair; Bakery Style Mini Vanilla Cupcakes are super easy and fun to make without breaking the bank.

Who doesn’t love Bakery Style Mini Vanilla Cupcakes? You know the ones I’m talking about. They are there every time you go shopping, and it’s easy to pass right by them except when they are all dressed up for a particular season.

You know the cupcakes I’m taking about – the ones that get their own display at Easter, Christmas, Halloween, Mother’s Day, Thanksgiving, etc. – just about any holiday or celebration you can possibly think of!  Usually, they come in a little box of 12 and costs about $4.99 (give or take a few cents.) Well, this particular recipe will yield 48 mini cupcakes for about $10!  How’s that for a bargain?

CHANGE THE COLOUR FOR EACH SEASON

It’s not every day that we need to have 48 mini cupcakes on hand, but there are occasions where you can use that many and more besides!  I made these at the beginning of spring, which is why I choose to use bright, spring-time, floral colours.  If I were making these for Halloween, I would obviously stick to the traditional black and orange, and maybe a witch-y green colour.

You can add just about any colour you want, because it doesn’t change the flavour, it just simply changes the setting or mood for the occasion.  Personally, because I’m such a freak for Christmas, I cannot wait to make these in red and green with gold and silver candy sprinkles, or white snowflake sprinkles.

I often think that mini vanilla cupcakes with a big, over-sized rosette made from buttercream frosting – like you see pictured – are perfectly synonymous with baby showers.  I’ve never been to a baby shower, mind you, because they tend to be female oriented, but that’s just what I imagine baby shower cupcakes would look like.

CHANGE THE EXTRACT TO EASILY CHANGE THE FLAVOUR TOO!

One of my favourite things about these Bakery Style Mini Vanilla Cupcakes is that they are just so adaptable to almost anything you want to throw at them.  For example, you can easily change the flavour from vanilla to anything you prefer.  As long as it comes in extract form, you can use it – lemon, coffee, almond, pumpkin spice, etc.

I’ve already mentioned that you can change up the colour by using the food colouring of your choice, but there’s also the option of not using any colour at all!  You can leave them completely plain and simple.  Another idea would be to skip the candy sprinkles, but instead, add the mini candy sprinkles to the batter before baking for a funfetti version of the mini cupcake.

INGREDIENTS NEEDED FOR THIS RECIPE

The following is a list of the ingredients needed to prepare this recipe. For exact amounts and measurements, refer to the printable recipe card located near the bottom of this post.

For the Cake:

• Flour – Any all-purpose flour will do just fine. I have not tested this recipe with any other types of flour.
• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature! You can salted or unsalted butter. If you use salted butter, do not add the additional salt in the list of ingredients here.
• Sugar – Sugar will caramelize when baked, which will help to brown cookies and cakes. 
• Eggs – Whenever you set out to bake, make sure your eggs are at room temperature too – just like your butter!
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies. 
• Baking Powder – This is used to increase the volume of the batter and to add texture as well.
• Salt – This is a common ingredient in baking and cooking.  In baking it helps to enhance and balance sweetness.
• Milk – When a baking recipe requires milk, I always use whole milk, unless otherwise stated. 

For the Frosting:

• Confectioner’s Sugar – This superfine sugar is sometimes called powdered sugar.  It is used in frostings quite often. 
• Butter – Make sure your butter is at room temperature! You should use unsalted butter for buttercream frosting.
• Vanilla Extract – Probably the most common extract and the most common flavouring used in cakes and cookies. 
• Milk – When a baking recipe requires milk, I always use whole milk, unless otherwise stated. 
• Sprinkles

HOW TO MAKE BAKERY STYLE MINI VANILLA CUPCAKES

Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a mini muffin or cupcake pan with paper cupcake liners. Set that aside. In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and blend well into the sugar and butter mixture. Next, add the vanilla and beat that into the batter.

Scrape down the bowl and add the following ingredients in this order: flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat the dry ingredients into the wet until well combined. Add the milk and fully incorporate. Next, divide the batter into four separate bowls.  Add a very small amount of food colouring to each bowl.  Stir the food colouring into the batter until well incorporated.  (Add more colouring or less so that you achieve the desired colour to fit your personal tastes.)

Fill each paper cupcake liner 3/4 full. You may have to do this in batches depending on the size of your mini muffin pans. Bake for 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack. When cooled, top with buttercream frosting and candy sprinkles.  (I used an Open Star Tip #68.) 

WHAT’S A CUPCAKE WITHOUT FROSTING?

And, of course, if you’re feeling really adventurous, you can colour the buttercream frosting as well.  I thought about doing that at first, rather than colouring the mini cupcakes, but decided to do colour the mini cupcakes instead and leave the buttercream frosting in it’s natural state.  I felt by doing it that way, the candy sprinkles that I had picked out would look better and stand out more.

By the way, the candy sprinkle colours, and how they are matched with the colours of the cupcakes, was total luck.  I bought the candy sprinkles, not yet having decided on the colour of the mini cupcakes.  And, when I baked the cupcakes, I didn’t refer to the colour of the candy sprinkles first so that they sprinkles and the cupcake colours match.  It was just luck.  I’m really not that obsessive.  Ha!

Colour or not, Bakery Style Mini Vanilla Cupcakes are fun to make and great for sharing.  I can’t wait to see the combinations you come up with, Dear Reader! 

WHITE VERSUS YELLOW BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

I have a buttercream frosting recipe that I use over and over again. In fact, I’m going to tell you how to make it. But, if you prefer, you can buy buttercream frosting from most baking supply stores. The frosting you see in the photos here was purchased from the Bulk Barn. Homemade buttercream, which in most cases, uses real butter, tends to not be as bright white. That’s because butter is yellow!

Every butter manufacturer seems to have a different amount of yellow tinge to it. If you want to make a beautifully white buttercream, you can substitute the butter with shortening. The texture is very similar when all is said and done, and to be honest, I prefer buttercream prepared with shortening, because using real butter makes the frosting very rich and buttery. You can even do half butter and half shortening. Experiment with them and see what works best for you. The following instructions are for the butter version.

HOW TO MAKE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

You will need confectioner’s sugar, unsalted butter, vanilla extract, and milk.  Beat the butter in a large mixing bowl for at least 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl every minute. Add the confectioner’s sugar one cup at a time, beating well after each addition. Next, beat in the vanilla extract and milk. If you want to tint the frosting with food colouring, do so now. It is best to use gel food colouring rather than liquid so that you don’t change the consistency of the frosting.