Mini Vanilla Cupcakes are an outstanding cupcake recipe that will only add to the magic of your tea party. They are just perfect, as all you need at tea, is just of few bits of each exquisite dessert. There are an easy-to-make dessert and quite good.
Recipe, comments, and photos by Ellen Easton 2020 – All Rights Reserved. Check out more of Ellen Easton’s Tea Travels™ articles and recipes.
Learn about the History of English High Tea and more delicious Afternoon Tea Recipes.
- 10 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar, sifted
- 2 cups cake flour, sifted
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup egg whites (about 4 large eggs), separated
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature (use vegetable shortening when pure white icing is needed)
- 1/4 cup milk, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or other desired flavoring
- 1 pound (boxed) powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar)
- Pastel food coloring
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease and flour (or line with paper or foil liners) a mini-muffin pan.
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In a large mixing bowl, at a medium speed, cream the butter. Adding in a little sugar at a time, beat together until mixed and creamy. Add sifted cake flour, baking powder, and milk; beat until smooth. Add vanilla extract and set aside. In a separate dry bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks cling to the bowl (not stiff). Fold the egg whites into the butter/flour batter.
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Divide batter among muffin cups, pour the batter almost to the top.
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Bake approximately 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick wipes clean from the center. Remove from oven and let cupcakes cool before frosting them.
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Prepare Basic Buttercream Icing. With a warmed flat knife, spread the icing over the top of each individual cupcake. Decorate with colored sprinkles or design of choice.
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In a large mixing bowl, combine butter, milk, vanilla extract, and confectioner's sugar; mix at a low speed until smooth. If stiffer icing is needed or the weather is very warm, add a little extra sugar.
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To create pastel colors: Divide prepared Buttercream Icing into a separate bowls for each desired color. Using a toothpick, add one drop of color, at a time, and mix until desired color is reached.
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Yields 3 cups Buttercream Icing.
Source: Recipe excerpted from A Tea Party Planner, by Ellen Easton – All Rights Reserved.
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Ellen Easton, author of Afternoon Tea~Tips, Terms and Traditions (RED WAGON PRESS), a lifestyle and etiquette industry leader, keynote speaker and product spokesperson, is a hospitality, design, and retail consultant whose clients have included The Waldorf=Astoria and Plaza Hotels. Easton’s family traces their tea roots to the early 1800s, when ancestors first introduced tea plants from India and China to the Colony of Ceylon, thus building one of the largest and best cultivated teas estates on the island.
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