Fluffy White Cupcakes with French Almond Buttercream
This French Buttercream has no grittiness because it’s made without confectioner’s sugar! It’s luscious, fluffy and perfectly whipped.
There are a bazillion cupcake recipes out there, so why on earth should you pay attention to this one?
Because 1) Most of them are terrible. Like, really bad. How many disappointing cupcake recipes have you tried? I know I’ve been disappointed by quite a few over the years.
and 2) This is *the only* white cake I will make for the rest of my life, and if you try it, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree that these are IT.
I know, that’s a pretty big statement to make.
But I don’t think it’s POSSIBLE for a cupcake to get any more fluffy, light, or flavorful than this one.
No, it’s just not possible.
These are too good.
I came across this recipe on another blog, Sweetapolita, and Rosie’s opening line caught my attention:
“8640 minutes, 144 hours, 25 loads of dishes, 7 recipes, 8 pounds of butter, a few tears, a couple of happy children, and 1 relieved husband later, I have finally found it: a new favourite classic vanilla cake recipe!”
I did my own frosting and topped the cupcakes with a French almond buttercream that uses up the leftover egg yolks from the cake. If you’ve never tried making a true buttercream, these cupcakes deserve it. Give it a try, you’ll find yourself never going back to those quick buttercreams (butter whipped with confectioner’s sugar…blah. Gritty and boring).
For the cupcakes, I really didn’t change them much from Rosie’s cake. Follow her directions to make the batter but instead of baking it in 2 9-inch cake pans, line 24 cupcake wells with paper liners. Fill each well 1/2 to 2/3 full with cupcake batter, and bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees F.
But, a few notes about these cupcakes:
-Weigh the ingredients. Yes, in grams. That way it is exact, there’s just way too much variation when measuring. If you don’t have a scale already, please, get one (I use this very highly rated OXO scale). I use mine every day, it’s absolutely essential.
-As Rosie notes, most cakes are overbaked. After 20 minutes, using an oven mitt, jiggle the pan and pay attention to the structure of the cupcake. If it jiggles a lot, it’s not done. If you look closely, you can tell when the structure of a cupcake is set (and keep in mind, the cake will cook a little extra after it leaves the oven). Whatever you do, don’t take the cupcakes out of the oven when jiggling or looking, or else they may collapse if they aren’t set. Reach into the oven and do it, quickly.
To make the French buttercream, start with 5 egg yolks in the bowl of a stand mixer:
Whip on high speed for about 8-10 minutes. They will start to lighten up:
And after a full 10 minutes, they’ll be a very pale yellow, like this:
Pour in a sugar syrup cooked to the soft ball stage (238 degrees F on a thermometer), and whip this for 5 minutes. It will start to turn white in color:
Little by little, whip in the butter and add the almond extract:
It’s now ready to be piped or spread onto cooled cupcakes!
French Almond Buttercream
Ingredients
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup water
- 2 sticks butter cut into cubes
- 3/4 tsp almond extract
Instructions
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks on high speed for 10 minutes until they are very pale.
- In the meantime, combine the sugar and water in a heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat, and let the sugar syrup simmer to the soft ball stage (238 degrees on an instant read thermometer).
- When both the egg yolks and the sugar syrup are ready, pour the sugar syrup into the mixing bowl (the mixer should still be on high speed), aiming as best as you can to pour between the wire whisk and the side of the bowl.
- Now if you touch the bottom of the bowl, it will be very hot. Beat the egg yolk sugar mixture until the bowl feels neither hot nor cold (about 5 minutes).
- Turn the mixer down to medium and add the butter, a couple cubes at a time to the bowl, over the course of 10 minutes. Wait until each installment of butter is absorbed until you add the next batch. Add the almond extract, then pipe or spread your buttercream on your cupcakes. If the buttercream is too loose, refrigerate until it reaches your desired consistency.
I made this tonight for Christmas to go along with a white cake I had already made. I think my temp must have been off because mine was runny too, even after refrigeration. I totally improvised though and drizzled the icing on top of the cake and then topped with a few almonds and cherries. The taste was never compromised! Next time I will try the cake recipe as well.
Hi Brooke, bravo to you for improvising! That’s the sign of a good, creative cook. Cooked sugar is always tough…the degrees change quickly once it gets going and the stages range such a small amount. Hope you had a lovely Christmas!
Looks so yummy. Perfect for my little ones birthday. Does the sugar syrup “cook” the eggs, or will I need to buy pasteurized eggs? Thanks!
Hi Bryn, the mixture gets pretty darn hot (if you touch the side of the bowl you can feel), but honestly I’m not sure what temperature it cooks to because I’ve never measured it, so I can’t say that it’s completely cooked.
I just made this frosting and it’s delicious! It didn’t turn too runny, but I just added an extra half stick of butter to firm it up and 1 tsp. salt. Thanks so much for the recipe!!
“Luscious” is definitely the word for this frosting. The. Best. I have ever had. Is there a chocolate version out there? Thank you!
That’s great Leah! I haven’t tried to come up with a chocolate version yet, but this recipe uses egg whites so you could freeze the leftover egg whites from this recipe and save them for this one: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/chocolate-buttercream-frosting-recipe/index.html
I decided to make cake balls yesterday, with a boxed cake cause I was feeling lazy, and this frosting as the binder. The buttercream was really fun to make, although I was wingin’ it without a thermometer. Unfortunately, by the end when I added all the ingredients, it just tasted like butter with a little sugar, not like good buttercream. It turned out fine– I added peanut butter and my family went nuts for the cake balls– but do you have any idea if messing with the temp for the sugar syrup would have affected the taste? Thanks for the recipe, I had fun!
Hi Claire, yes, I think not using a thermometer is going to trouble the results significantly. It’s so important to get it to an exact 238 since the sugar stages are so narrow in temperature. Different degrees to which the sugar is cooked affects the flavor. I’m glad that you were able to use the peanut butter to good results!
These cupcakes melt in your mouth! They are delicious. I accidentally overlooked the weighing part so they did not all come out so pretty looking. Will make them again the right way. Excellent recipe though.
They are my favorite cupcakes! Glad you enjoyed them.
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Thank you 🙂
The recipe is no longer available ??
I just pulled it up and it shows for me. Did you scroll past the recipe box?