Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Icing

Although I would love to plunge straight into macarons, I thought it best to first familiarise myself with using a mixer! So I've started off with what seems to be a fairly straight forward recipe. (Just Google if you want the recipe, it's freely available.) This cupcake also keeps icing decorations to the minimal although Magnolia Bakery says it takes their artisans 40 hours to get the swirl right! Although from the pictures I've seen online, there is plenty of variation in the swirls between their various branches.

Here's what the end result should look like

Magnolia Bakery cupcakes

This morning started off well with the delivery of some items including my Silpats!!! That means I can bring forward the making of macarons!

I started preparing after a supermarket run, realised the blossom cutter I ordered is really eeny weeny! I was thinking a size up. The blossom is dwarfed by the sugar pearl!

So, how was my first ever baking experience with cakes? The oven was rather fidgety, as suspected internal thermostat was way off, so oven thermometer proved its worth. After managing to get my 180 degree celsius, the temp. dropped to 170 when I introduced the cupcake trays... and didn't manage to climb back till near the end... worrisome re. macaron baking!

The frosting was not the consistency of the ones I had seen online... maybe because I used 4 rather than 8 cups of icing sugar? Or was my butter too cold? Or had I not whipped it long enough? I had to make frosting twice as the recipe didn't yield enough for the 2 dozen. Second batch was done with Mainland butter rather than Lurpak, with that much sugar, taste difference wasn't noticeable. I was also too generous with gel colors! So without further ado, here are my first ever batch of cupcakes which look nothing like the Magnolia Bakery ones above... ehehehe!

Cupcakes for Team JJ's consumption

First cupcake off today's production line

Bringing a box over to mum's and a box for a friend

My eco-friendly boxes have arrived! However the inserts and macaron boxes got on different flights so they will arrive later on Monday. Pretty big box eh? The inserts I ordered are for 6 standard size cupcakes, managed to fit 9 without the insert.

Next weekend's baking adventure is going to be red velvet cupcakes with fondant icing, till then!~