Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes

It's birthday time at our house, so I've been busy baking. We had both a family party and kindergarten girls party for my 6-year-old. Cake at the first party, cupcakes at the second and cookies (posted later) for the goodie bags. I wanted to make the Martha Stewart buttermilk cupcakes, but it was a huge recipe that made 36. I really only needed 12 and I was having trouble with the math!! I found this recipe at Baking Bites and ultimately decided to double it, just to make sure I had enough for the party. Kindergarteners love cupcakes!! But then I wound up making 36 cupcakes anyway. Ack!! Since I'm being really strong on my low-carb diet, I will be giving most of the rest away to my lucky neighbors. And I gave one to the mailman.


Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes (makes 12-24)
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour (I used cake flour)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ tsp almond extract
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F. Place liners in a 12 cup muffin tin. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until it looks creamy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla and almond extracts until mixture is smooth. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until almost combined. Add buttermilk and stir, again, until almost combined. Add the rest of the flour and stir until all ingredients are mixed in.

Divide batter evenly into muffin cups (2/3 full). Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350F, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool for 10 minutes and then remove from the muffin pan. Cool completely before frosting.

The above picture is my finished cupcakes (goodie bags in the background). They may not be as beautiful as store-bought, but I think the kindergarteners will love them just the same. The more icing, the better! And the batter came out very light and fluffy (I did have just one bite without the icing). This recipe would also make a great cake.

UPDATE - What a realized today is that most kindergarteners will eat only the cupcake or the icing, but not both. Making from-scratch cupcakes for little kids probably isn't necessary!! But I'm sure everyone else will appreciate them. :)