Zoe’s Share-With-the-Class Sweet Vanilla Babycakes

If you want to serve a group dessert without going overboard, these vanilla cupcakes from B is for Baking (Wiley, 2011) are the perfect tiny treats – especially for little ones and their schoolmates. Lighter ingredients – low-fat milk, a moderate amount of vegetable oil, and an extra dose of toasted wheat germ – lighten the cakes without hurting the flavor, while a dab of buttercream frosting gives them a little extra oomph.

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons toasted wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch salt
4 large eggs, separated
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup low-fat (1%) milk
2 tablespoons olive oil or vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 teaspoons low-fat (1%) milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:
1. Line 48 mini muffin cups with mini paper liners.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, wheat germ, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, stir together the egg yolks, 1/3 cup of the sugar, the milk, oil, and vanilla until well-blended. Use a fork to stir the yolk mixture into the flour mixture until well-mixed.

3. In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer on medium-high speed and clean beaters, beat the egg whites with the remaining 1/3 cup sugar until soft peaks form.

4. With a rubber spatula, fold a cupful of the beaten whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in the remaining whites just until incorporated. Use a measuring tablespoon to spoon the batter into the lined muffin cups, filling each one-half to three-quarters full. If you are baking in batches, refrigerate the batter between batches.

5. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one cupcake comes out clean. Transfer to racks to cool completely before frosting and serving.

6. To make frosting, stir together the confectioner’s sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla in a medium bowl until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use. Top each cupcake with just a small dab of frosting.

Tips:

• This recipe makes only a small amount of frosting that is best divided by piping just a dollop in the center of each mini cupcake. If you don’t have a decorating bag, spoon the frosting into a zippered plastic food storage bag. Squeeze the frosting down to one corner of the bag and snip off just the tip of that corner with scissors to make a small opening.
• To decorate, top each dollop of frosting with a small raspberry or a few mini chocolate chips.

Serves 12

Excerpted from B is for Baking © 2011. Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Photographs courtesy of Lucy Schaeffer.

Do you demand more cupcakes? Good. The Grandparents.com Recipe section will sate your needs, with tasty variations like Hide-and-Seek Cupcakes.