There is nothing else to say here except....YUM.
I have been wanting to make Cookies and Cream Cupcakes, and there are endless ways in which you can make them so I won't go into much detail about mine here. One of the main reasons I did these cupcakes is because I have been on a quest for a good vanilla cake recipe. Many of them I find dry out too quickly, some just don't have that great of a flavor, and others are insanely complicated! So I have been working hard to figure out why I haven't found THE recipe I love. Don't get me wrong, I make some good vanilla cakes, but not one I personally would sacrifice eating a chocolate cake for. Until maybe now.
I wanted to find a good vanilla base to use for the cookies and cream recipe, so off I went.
I mention Sweetapolita quite a bit on this blog because I admire her....she, as a baker, is who I aspire to be like. I follow her work quite closely. And it just so happens that she is a tad more obsessed with vanilla cakes than I am (her obsession comes from her love for vanilla, mine comes from the fact that I feel I could and should like it more than I do). Last week she posted on her blog a discussion of her various vanilla recipes and the differences between them. I have tried a few and they are all very delicious...but still. I was still looking for THE ONE. This weekend I think I found it, it is Sweetapolita's White Out cake recipe (which she got from a bakery in NYC), which you can find here.
This is by far the most amazing vanilla cake recipe I have tried yet, in taste and simplicity. When the Oreo cookies were added to the batter it ended up tasting quite a lot like chocolate chip cookies. Oh my, so good! They are topped with a dark chocolate and Oreo cookie Swiss meringe buttercream. Enough said. :)
Several people have asked me for good recipes, especially ones that won't dry out. Rosie goes into detail about why, especially vanilla cakes, can give you so much trouble. These are some of the many issues I have encountered in my baking adventures also...she just summed them all up so nicely! You are encouraged to read her blog if you want to know the secrets to good vanilla cakes. Otherwise remember these things:
1. Butter-based cakes, which vanilla cakes are, tend to dry out quickly, especially if refrigerated for even a short amount of time. Chocolate cakes stay moist much longer, even after being refridgerated, because they are made with oil.
2. If when mixing your cake batter your batter starts to look curdled, that means you added too much liquid to your batter, which is very easy to do. This will result in a flatter, more dense cake. In all honesty, you should use a digital kitchen scale to measure your ingredients for your cakes! It is also easy to ruin the consistency and taste of your cake by adding too much flour. I lecture you on this yet I still need to invest in my own scale. :D
3. You need to be very careful NOT to overmix any of your vanilla cake batters!
4. This is the most important tip of all: follow ALL directions for whichever recipe you are using very carefully. There are many different methods for mixing cake ingredients and there is a purpose behind each one of them. If you don't follow the baking directions chances are your cake won't turn out the way you were hoping it would.
For now I am satisfied with my vanilla cake quest. Good luck with yours! :)
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