Jack's Vanilla Cupcakes

2 1/2 cups cake flour or all purpose flour

2 cups white sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cups butter (if salted you dont have to add more salt)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt (only if unsalted butter is used)

2 tsp vanilla extract

Crack eggs in a bowl. Seperate the egg whites out by using your fingers and passing the egg yolk between your fingers. Do not use the shells of the egg as you are super likely to crack the yolk

Whisk the egg white til it is at soft peaks. This is when the egg whites turn into a foam. Hard peaks are when the foam resembles icing and the consistency stays holds. 

Sift the flour 3 times. To do this use a sifter and add about 1/2 cup of flour to the sifter and shake the flour through the sifter.

Prheat the oven to 350

If you whisk the the egg whites add the yolk back into the mix and whisk. Add the sugar into the mixture and using a spoon combine. Add the butter, powder, and salt next and combine with a spoon.

For the flour add to the mixture in increments of 1/4 cups at a time and fold the flour into the mixture. Do not whisk the flour into the mixture (this creates airbubbles and will create a cupcake that is potentially liable to fall in the middle).

Add the vanilla last folding into the baatter

Add the batter to the cupcake paper inside the cupcake tin. Fill to about either 1/2 or 2/3 full. Anymore than this and the cupcakes may expand out of the tin way more. If full it will muffin top over making it harder to remove the cupcakes

After 12 minutes of baking test the batter by sticking it with a toothpick. Press the toothpick into the cupcake from the top and side all the way to the bottom. Removing it should be completely clean, if it is not cook for about 5 min more. The tops of the cupcake should be slightly brown, if the color is inconsistent your oven heat may be faulty leading to some browning more or less. 

Max 25 minutes of cooking, anymore will create a real dense non fluffy cupcake even if the oven temp is inconsistant. Remove the cupcake tins. You can either pop out the cupcakes carefully and place them on a cooling rack or counter to cool compleletly. The cooling rack is preffered as the air is allowed to all sides of the cupcakes for even cooling. With out it the outside of the cupcakes inside the tin will continues to bake more until it is cool. Takes about an hour or two. 

You can also place the cupcakes in the fridge after it hits room temp to cool more.

While cooling make an icing. I will not give out my buttercream icing recipes that everyone loves but I will give these recipes for the other icings I made. The base icing is used to created additional icings simply by adding the other ingredients. For the base icing the texture and constancy can be changed by adding more milk or sugar. Modify as needed to your liking.

Base Icing

1/2 cup butter

2 ~ 3 cups confectioners sugar

1 ~ 3 tbsp whole milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Lemon Icing (1 ~ 2 tsp lemon juice)

Lemon Icing (1 tsp lemon zest)

Pumpkin Spice Icing (1/2 tsp cloves)

Pumpkin Spice Icing ( 1/4 tsp nutmeg)

Chocolate Icing (1/4 ~ 1/2 cup unsweetened coco powder)

Chocolate Icing (1/2 tsp almond extract)

Only add the icing once it is at or below room temp