Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

I LOVE making cupcakes and I love eating them even more. They're so convenient and delicious and so fun to decorate, especially because you can decorate each cupcake individually just the way you want. So getting to the point, I've always been on the lookout for a good cupcake recipe...moist but also dense (tight crumbs as opposed to falling apart and too fluffy). When I bought the book 125 Best Cupcake Recipes, I found an awesome recipe that I'm going to stick to from now on because my family devours these cupcakes in a day or two.
As for the vanilla buttercream frosting, it's an easy recipe that I've found in the past. The good thing about this kind of frosting is that you can adjust the ingredients and the proportions of those ingredients whether it be butter, sugar, milk, whipping cream, vanilla, etc. to get the consistency you want - fluffy, rich, creamy, etc. Now that I really think about it, I don't even know if I make my frosting exactly the same every time, but you'll find the basic, general recipes below.
Note: When you decorate the cupcakes with frosting, I suggest you use a piping bag and decorating tips. First take the piping bag and insert the decorating tip of your choice (I usually go with the star tip). Then, roll down the bag, spoon in the frosting, and roll up the bag again squeezing the frosting down until it's ready to come out. You might want to squeeze a few times before you get started so you know the frosting is flowing properly. If you want to get a fun marbled effect, you can divide the frosting into two batches, color each a different color (with food coloring), then put spoonfuls of each batch in the piping bag together and giving it a little mix.

Below is a picture of piping decorating tips and another picture of a piping bag fitted with a star tip:

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional)
• Frosting (see recipes below)
• Sprinkles (optional)
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, and line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners. In a small bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

2. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer/stand mixer, beat together the sugar and butter until well combined.

3. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla.

4. Alternately beat in flour mixture and milk, making three additions of flour mixture and two of milk, beating until smooth. If using, stir in the chocolate chips.

5. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 23-28 minutes or until golden and tops of cupcakes spring back when lightly touched. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minute. Remove from pan and let cool completely on rack. Top cooled cupcakes with frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients:

• 3 cups icing sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, softened
• 2 tbsp milk or whipping cream
• pinch of salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Food coloring (optional)
  

1. Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl with a mixer at low-medium speed for about 2-3 minutes until creamy.

2. If desired, add more milk to achieve spreading consistency. (Makes enough to fill and frost a 2-layer cake, 13x9x2-inch sheet cake, or 24 cupcakes.)

Note: Because this recipe produces tons of frosting, to frost 12 cupcakes, make half of the recipe. Also, I read a tip somewhere about frosting - if it's too thin, add more icing sugar, and if it's too thick, add more liquid.

For the chocolate buttercream frosting, I created my own recipe and it turned out creamy and delicious - just add 2 tbsp cocoa powder and 1oz of unsweetened baking chocolate (melted and cooled) to the vanilla buttercream recipe. If you need it to be more chocolatey, you can always add more cocoa or melted chocolate.

If you need help on how to decorate cupcakes or deal with frosting, here are a couple of websites I found that can help you:
Frosting Piping Techniques - Cake Decorating Ideas
Cake Frosting Techniques