Sour Cream Vanilla Cupcakes & Soya Milk Chiffon

I had been lagging on my post. Although I have been baking, as i'd try to squeeze in time to bake or cook something every weekend, but I have absolutely no time to blog about it as there are so many other commitments. But whipping up some simple bakes definitely has become one of my priority. So I'd just blog about those which I feel deserves sharing or to combine two different bakes in one post. :) This sour cream vanilla cupcakes were made the day after I made the New York cheesecake for my dear friend. I had been wanting to try out this recipe using sour cream and the leftover sour cream from the cheesecake making comes in timely.

I had mentioned before that I'm on the lookout for basic vanilla cupcake recipes that would comes in handy whenever I want to make cupcakes. So this is yet another recipe I have 'conquered'.

The result was simply so good! It was very soft, fluffy, rich without being too dense like a pound cake. Of course if you were to compare with the low-fat vanilla cupcake, it's much more "unhealthier". I had opted for the full fat version of the sour cream as I do not want to try one recipe without realising it's full potential if I cut down on the fat. But I believe light sour cream should do fine too, probably not as rich.

I brought a batch for my colleagues and was happy that everyone came back to me with a word of thanks that the cupcake was yummy! Do try it if you happen to have sour cream, you'll have no regrets!

Ingredients:

• 120g sifted cake flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/8 tsp baking powder
• 90g unsalted butter, softened at room temp
• 180g granulated sugar (I reduced to 140g)
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 125ml sour cream
  
  Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Line muffin pan with paper muffin liners.
3. Sift together cake flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder. Set aside.
4. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla extract and beat for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and beat until smooth, about 1 minute.
5. Using a rubber spatula, fold in one-third of the flour mixture.
6. Fold in half of the sour cream. Repeat ending with the last third of the flour mixture.
7. Fill prepared muffin liners to approximately three-quarters full (I filled it almost to the top unless you are making cupcakes).
8. Bake until light golden brown and cupcake springs back when lightly pressed, about 20-25 minutes.
9. Cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.

Recipe Source: Alphineberry's vanilla cupcakes



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I happened to buy some soya milk that day and decided to bake a soya milk chiffon. I always like to drink soya milk and was wondering how would the taste be like for a soya milk chiffon. I used a basic vanilla chiffon cake recipe but changed the milk to soya milk. Disappointingly the soya milk taste was not distinct at all. :( It tasted quite plain like a normal egg sponge cake. I believe a basic vanilla chiffon would taste much better because of the addition of vanilla essence and milk.

Nevertheless, here's the original recipe which you may like to try.

Ingredients:

• 4 large egg yolks
• 60g milk
• 60g canola oil (any vegetable oil will do)
• 60g caster sugar
• 1g salt
  
• 120g cake flour
• 3g baking soda
• 0.5g vanilla essence
  
• 4 large egg whites
• 2g cream of tartar
• 70g caster sugar

Method:

1. Sift cake flour and baking soda. Set aside.
2. Whisk egg yolks with a wire whisk. Add in milk, oil, 60g sugar and salt and mix until all the sugar has dissolved.
3. Add in sifted flour mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Mix until a smooth batter is formed.
4. In a clean dry bowl, using an electric beater, beat egg whites with cream of tartar added in.
5. Add in the 70g sugar in 3 separate additions. Beat until soft peaks formed.
6. Continue beating until stiff peaks form (egg whites should form a peak which curls slightly).
7. Fold 1/3 of the beaten egg whites into the egg yolk batter and mix throughly but gently. Mix the remaining egg whites into the batter until well incorporated.
8. Pour batter into 8-inch chiffon tin.
9. Bake at 180°C for about 30-35 minutes.

Recipe Source: 西点篇 01 by 陈明里


Actually I'm still wondering if my chiffon can be considered a success. Everytime after unmoulding, I found that the interior is rather moist. The top part usually shrank immediately after taking out of the oven, which subsequently caused the chiffon to be a little "deformed" after overturning it. I would say it's not firm and sturdy enough. Guess I must continue to keep on practising!!