Birthdays are a moment to celebrate the passing of time and promise of the future. What better way to celebrate than with cake. As Julia Child said, "A party without cake is just a meeting." William, my grandson, loves cupcakes and Ole Miss football, so I made red and blue birthday cake cupcakes for his seven year birthday.
I used my favorite cake recipe to make the cupcakes. The recipe was given to us years ago by a friend. It is so buttery smooth and moist, melts in your mouth goodness.
Golden Butter Cake
All ingredients at room temp, preheat oven to 350 degrees (for a cake, butter and flour two eight inch round pans)
8 ounces butter (I use Plugra)
400 grams (2 cups) granulated sugar
108 grams (approximately 6) large egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
385 grams (3 1/2 cups) cake flour
14.4 grams (1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon) baking powder
2 gram ( 3/4 teaspoon) salt
370 grams (1 1/2 cup) whole milk
Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix on high for three to four minutes. Add the egg yolks one at a time mixing each to incorporate. Add the vanilla extract, then mix on high speed for 7 minutes until light and fluffy. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk, beginning and ending with the dry scrapping the bowl frequently.
Pour into cupcake holders or the prepared cake pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out cleanly or the center of the cake is at 190 degrees using a baking thermometer. Place on a cooling rack for 30 minutes before turning out of the pans. Cool completely before icing. Also, the cake can be wrapped in plastic wrap, placed in a freezer bag and frozen for up to a month.
The birthday cake batter ready to be poured into the cupcake liners.
Cake batter poured into a prepared cake pan.
Baked cupcakes cooling on a rack.
Italian buttercream was used for the icing. I flavored half of the buttercream with strawberry preserves and used a red food coloring. I flavored the other half of the buttercream with blueberry jelly and used a blue food coloring. The perfect red and blue birthday cake cupcakes to go with the Ole Miss football birthday party theme.
Go Rebels, Go William! The Rebels won the football game and the cupcakes were a devoured. William was a happy boy!
The leftover cake was wrapped and frozen to use in a later project.