Cupcakes!

I decided to bake some cupcakes, as this recent cupcake craze is driving me insane!  
I searched for some vanilla cake recipes and buttercream icing recipes and came up with a great vanilla cupcake and a SUPER sweet icing. 




Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, room temperature  (VERY important that butter is room temperature!)
2/3 cup white granulated sugar  (I place a vanilla bean in my sugar jar to allow the sugar to absorb the flavor and scent of the vanilla bean. This adds extra vanilla flavoring)
3 large eggs 
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk (I used whole milk)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In my stand mixer I beat the butter and sugar until it was fluffy, then added the eggs one at a time and the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl, I combined the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt) and whisked them together. 

I turned the speed to low on the stand mixer and added the dry mix alternatively with the milk. 
Make sure the scrape the side of the bowl so that everything is mixed together!
I used a muffin tine and lined it with paper cups.  With an ice cream scoop I evenly distributed the batter to each muffin cup about 3/4 full. 
I baked the cupcakes for about 18 mins. 


Buttercream Icing:
4 cups confectioners sugar (plus two more cups if needed)
1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
Any color dye if you want the icing to have color.  I used red dye. 

In my standmixer, I beat the butter until it was light and fluffy.  I then added the milk and vanilla extract and beat for about 3 minutes.
I added the 4 cups of granulated sugar and let it mix for about 2 minutes.  I added another 1 1/2 cups because the icing was too wet. 
**This buttercream recipe is very sweet--I am currently testing other recipes and will post one once I get an icing that isn't too sweet.