Two Classic Cupcake Recipes for Your KitchenAid Mixer

Everyone loves cupcakes; they’re fun to eat and easy to make with your KitchenAid Mixer. Serve these cupcakes for after dinner dessert, for afternoon snack, for parties, and for kids of all ages.

The first recipe is an adaptation of Red Velvet Cake. By some accounts this cake dates back to the 1920’s; yet, today, it remains as popular as ever.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2 ½ cups flour

1 teaspoon soda

¼ cup cocoa

½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1-ounce red food color (2 tablespoons)

1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Sift flour, soda, and cocoa into separate bowl. Set aside.

3. Place butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract in mixer bowl; attach bowl and flat beater. Gradually increase to Speed 4 and cream for 2 minutes. Stop and scrape bowl with rubber spatula.

4. Turn to Stir Speed and add eggs one at a time until each is incorporated. Gradually turn to Speed 6 and beat for 3 minutes.

5. Add food color to buttermilk. Turn to Stir Speed and add flour mixture and buttermilk a little at a time, alternating flour and buttermilk. Add vinegar with the last of the buttermilk. Stop and scrape bowl. Continue on Stir Speed for 2 minutes.

6. Place paper liners (baking cups) in muffin pans. Scoop batter (¼ cup) into liners. Bake for 17 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Let cool completely.

7. Frost tops of cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing. (See below for recipe.)

Yield: 18 cupcakes.

Next is a recipe for a Southern favorite, Hummingbird Cake. The history of this cake is bogged down in a mire of myths and legends. The recipe was first published in Southern Living Magazine in 1978, although it seems to have been popular in the South long before. Now, it seems, it may have Jamaican roots.

Hummingbird Cupcakes

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons soda

1 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margarine, softened

2 cups sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 large eggs

½ cup buttermilk

1 can (8-ounce) crushed pineapple, undrained

1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

2 cups chopped bananas

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Sift flour, soda, and cinnamon into separate bowl. Set aside.

3. Place butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract in mixer bowl; attach bowl and flat beater. Turn to Stir Speed. Gradually increase to Speed 4 and cream for 2 minutes. Stop and scrape bowl with rubber spatula.

4. Turn to Stir Speed and add egg one at a time until each is incorporated. Gradually increase to Speed 6 and beat for 3 minutes.

5. Turn to Stir Speed and add flour mixture and buttermilk a little at a time, alternating flour and buttermilk. Stop and scrape bowl. Continue on Stir Speed for 2 minutes.

6. Add pineapple and pecans; mix on Stir Speed for 1 minute. Add banana and mix on Stir Speed for 30 seconds.

7. Place paper liners (baking cups) in muffin pans. Scoop batter (¼ cup) into liners and bake for 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of muffin comes out clean. Let cool completely.

8. Frost tops of cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing. (See below for recipe.)

Yield: 36 cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Icing

1 (16-ounce) package powdered sugar (4 cups)

1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened

½ cup butter or margarine (1 stick), softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Sift powdered sugar into separate bowl. Set aside.

2. Place cream cheese, butter, and vanilla in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and flat beater. Start at Stir Speed. Gradually increase to Speed 4 and cream for 2 minutes.

3. Turn to Stir Speed. Gradually add sifted powdered sugar, a little at a time, until well mixed with cream cheese and butter. Stop and scrape bowl with rubber spatula.

4. Turn to Speed 4 and beat for 4 minutes or until light and fluffy.

Yield: 3 cups