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BAKING AND THE MEANING OF LIFE Helen Goh
$ 55.00
In her hotly anticipated debut solo cookbook, Ottolenghi pastry chef and recipe developer Helen Goh shares her 100 favourite baking recipes to show the many ways baking brings meaning and joy to our lives. We hope you love baking and eating these PVCs.
Images and text from Baking and the Meaning of Life by Helen Goh, photography by Laura Edwards. Murdoch Books RRP $ 55.00.
perfect vanilla cupcakes MAKES 12
I love the almost limitless breadth and variety of baking. I love extravagant showstoppers, intricately engineered bites and creamy confections. But I also love simplicity. And what better simple cake than a cupcake? A PVC( perfect vanilla cupcake) is like an LBD( little black dress) in your wardrobe – everyone needs one. Once I had landed on what I thought was the perfect recipe, only the name concerned me. Perfect? Surely disappointment was guaranteed. But my friends, who initially shared my scepticism regarding the wisdom of calling any cake‘ perfect’, withdrew their objections on tasting it, so I am boldly sticking to my claim! Close-textured, light and fluffy, with a homey, vanilla flavour, this is perfectly simple and deeply satisfying.
Cupcakes 190 g plain flour ½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ rounded teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
¼ rounded teaspoon fine sea salt 2 large eggs 200 g caster sugar 140 g unsalted butter, very soft
2 teaspoons sunflower or other neutral oil
seeds from ½ vanilla bean 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
130 ml plain unsweetened kefir drink or buttermilk
Vanilla icing
130 g unsalted butter, very soft but not melted
500 g icing sugar, sifted 2 teaspoons vanilla extract ⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
60 ml( 2 fl oz) full-cream milk, at room temperature
1. Preheat the oven to 160˚C fan-forced, and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake liners.
2. To make the cupcakes, first sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a medium bowl, and set aside for now.
3. Place the eggs and sugar in a food processor and process for 30 seconds to combine. Add the softened butter and process for about a minute, until the mixture is smooth and creamy and the butter is fully incorporated. Add the oil and vanilla( both seeds and extract) and pulse for a few seconds to combine. Now add about half of the sifted dry ingredients and half the kefir( or buttermilk). Pulse 10 times, then add the remaining flour and kefir and pulse another 10 times. Scrape the bowl down with a flexible spatula and pulse a further 10 times until the batter is smooth and creamy.
4. Spoon the batter into the 12 muffin holes, filling them about two-thirds up the sides – about 60 g per cupcake. A large latch-release ice-cream scoop is very useful here if you have one.
5. Bake the cakes for about 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Transfer the muffin tin to a wire rack to cool for a few minutes. When cool enough to handle, remove the cupcakes and place on the rack to cool completely. Meanwhile, make the icing.
6. For the vanilla icing, place the butter and half the icing sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-low speed for about 1 minute, until the mixture comes together. Add the vanilla and salt, then increase the speed to medium and beat for another couple of minutes until light and creamy. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the milk, then add the rest of the icing sugar, 1 heaped spoonful at a time, mixing well between each addition. When all the icing sugar has been added, increase the speed to medium-high and beat for another couple of minutes until light and fluffy. Cover and leave at room temperature for up to 1 day until ready to use.
7. Spread the tops of the cooled cupcakes with the icing, swirling decoratively as you please. Leave the cupcakes plain or scatter cake sprinkles on top. Small edible flowers or raspberries are also lovely ways to decorate the cupcakes.
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