Vanilla Cupcakes and How I got my First Commercial Order

Last week I got a message on my mobile that a female saw my FB page and wanted to contact me if I can make a birthday cake for her daughter who will turn 1 next month. I was intrigued... someone somewhere is noticing my work!!!

Being skeptical, thinking this could be a spam message, I finally dialed the number I got the message from. The other side was a mother from my locality planning her first kid's first birthday party and saw some photos from my FB page and wanted me to bake the first birthday cake for her cute little daughter. Her name was Meenakshi and she was planing to make fondant cake for her daughter Samara. She asked me if I can give some samples of different flavours for her to taste.

Until now, I have always made delights for my home or for my friends but never for unknown people in a professional way. And fondant cakes... that's really professional. I have made a  fondant cake once before but that was in a class and someone was there to correct me for any mistakes. I was soo nervous! But I kinda liked the challenge and wanted to see if I was good enough to be judged by some unknown person. Hence, I told her that I would send her some vanilla and chocolate cupcakes for her to decide the flavours for her daughters birthday cake.

Here it is, what I made for her taste samples, some vanilla and some chocolate cupcakes. For the recipe of Chocolate cupcakes, see the link here. 

I frosted these cupcakes with some strawberry butter-cream frosting. What would you think, would she liked the cupcake??? Sure she did! She simply loved it and wanted to me to make the birthday cake for her daughter. And that's how I got my first commercial order.... (Yayyy!!!)

I am sure you would also want to know how did I make these yummy looking cupcakes. Don't you? So, here is the recipe for you...

Do you have any such "first" stories to share with me??? What did you make for your kid's first birthday??? Don't forget to share it with me...

(Print this recipe)

Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Butter-cream Frosting

Here's what you would need to make Vanilla Cupcakes:

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Prepares - 12 cupcakes

For Vanilla Cupcakes

1 cup/ (200 gms) granulated sugar

1 stick/ (115 gms) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 large eggs

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt (ignore if using salted butter)

1 1/3 cup (175 gms) all purpose flour

1/3 (80 ml) cup whole milk

Strawberry Butter-cream Frosting

1/2 cup/ (115 gms) butter (at room temperature)

2 cups/ (230 gms) confectioner's or icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp strawberry preserves/ jam

2 tbsp milk (optional)

Here's how you can make it:

Preheat your oven to 180 degree C/ 350 degree F. Line cupcake tin with cupcake liners.

• In a bowl, add all purpose flour, baking powder and salt and whisk it all together.
• In the bowl of your electric mixer or in another large bowl using your hand held mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and creamy. 
• Add in eggs, one at a time, beating continue at a medium speed until nice and combined.
• Add vanilla extract and beat it to incorporate in the batter
• Add all the dry ingredients and mix it just until all the dry ingredients are combined in the batter using a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon. DO NOT OVERMIX THE BATTER!
• Scoop out the batter in the pre-lined cupcake tin till 3/4 full. Do not fill the liner to the full as the batter will rise during baking.
• Bake for 20 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted in the center of one of the cupcake comes out clean.
• Let the cupcakes cool for 10 minutes in the cupcake tin kept over cooling tray before taking them out from the tin. Let the cupcakes cool on the cooling tray for atleast 1 hour before frosting the cupcakes

Strawberry Butter-cream Frosting:

• In the bowl of your electric mixer or in a large bowl using your hand held mixer, cream butter until smooth.
• Add vanilla extract and whisk
• With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the icing sugar. Scrap down the sides of the bowl 
• Add strawberry preserves and beat on high speed for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy
• If the butter-cream is too thick, add more preserves or milk, if needed
• Pipe the frosting in a disposable piping bag using star tip nozzle and frost the cupcakes making swirls of frosting
• Decorate as desired.

Hope you would also enjoy making these cupcakes as much as I did and also liked its flavour just the way Meenakshi liked it!

Happy Baking!