Test Bake : Vanilla Cupcakes

 

3 days ago i baked cupcakes in my new oven for the first time, as you can probably see it didn't all go according to plan, oven problems again!

Now if you read my previous post you will note, i wanted to buy a conventional  / regular oven apposed to convection / fan oven, as they are known to be better baking ovens and fan ovens always run hot, always! well at least in my experience they do.

We bought yet another convection /fan oven (Alhamduillah / All praise be to Allah) as it was the only one within our budget and isn't new persay but reconditioned like the one we had before.

I have a oven thermometer so i thought it would be no biggy,  i set my oven to 140 degrees centrigrade on the dial but for some reason the oven just kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter 150, 160, 180.... i had to switch down the oven part way through baking but of course by then it was too late, the damage had been done! the cupcakes had risen too quickly, causing cracks in the surface and a few had erupted like volcanoes, thankfully the taste and texture underneath the crust were delightful, smooth fragrant vanilla and very airy and light due to using Mcdougalls self raising supreme sponge flour definitely going to be buying more of that.

Baking is a science as we all know, it's only easy if you have the right equipment and recipe, i will be making these again tomorrow (i must remember to reduce the oven temperature to 120 on the dial / 160 in a conventional oven) they are going to be a gift to my sister who has recently had a newborn, that's when i eventually get to visit inshaAllah (God willing) Friday, you see my children have been ill for what seems like forever,  it's only been a couple of weeks but one still has a runny nose.

The recipe i used to make my cupcakes can be found here  

The Nutella frosting i used can be found here, i halved the recipe quantities and it iced 12 cupcakes, with some to spare. I substituted half the butter for cream cheese which added a nice sour note to cut through the rich, sweet chocolate.  If you want to use the butter cream frosting to pipe high on your cupcakes then use the original recipe quantities, again substituting half butter for cream cheese (Philadelphia is the brand i used and in my opinion it's got to to be full fat)

I let my son help in piping on the frosting as it was the perfect opportunity with the cupcakes not being quite up to scratch,  the piping work didn't have to be either and well i had already bought him his own decorating bag and nozzles a few months ago that he was yet to use, we had lots of fun and  frosting left over that we speedily took 2 spoons to.

The cupcakes liners i bought on e-bay and although i will be using them again, they are not greaseproof as i thought, i would suggest you bake your cupcakes in regular white greaseproof cases (I'm all out) and then for display place them inside these baking cups, also the cups would be great for ice cream or other snacks such as small portions of pop corn.

Until next time, peace!