Brown Sugar Pound Cakes (15)

Back to cupcakes this week! After a few cakes I chose a very easy cupcake recipe from Martha Stewart's book, because I had all of the ingredients at home and I didn't feel like going to the store. I knew at the beginning that nothing good ever comes out of baking in a hurry, but since everyone was expecting me to bake something, I had to at least bake some cupcakes. So I made these.

Brown Sugar Pound Cakes (makes 28)

3 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2 1/4 cups packed light-brown sugar
4 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees (160°C). Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of buttermilk, and beating until combined after each.
3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Transfer tins onto wire racks to cool 10 minutes; turn out cupcakes onto racks and let cool completely.
4. To finish, place cupcakes on a wire rack set over a baking sheet; spoon icing over cupcakes, and let set. Cupcakes are best eaten the day they are glazed; keep at room temperature until ready to serve.

Cupcakes can be stored up to 3 days at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

Brown-butter Glaze (makes 1 cup)

1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter

2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 to 4 tablespoons whole milk

1. Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Carefully pour butter into a bowl, leaving sediment behind.
2. Add sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons milk to butter, and stir until smooth. If glaze is too thick, add more milk. Use immediately.

These cupcakes didn't impress me at all. They were too sweet for me and the taste was boring. I only used one egg, which made eight cupcakes, because I was worried about their taste (and I was right). If I made 28 of them, and they didn't taste good, no one would eat them and we would have to throw them away after a few days. The glaze was good though. I added so much sugar, that it wasn't liquid anymore, so it was easier to spread and it didn't drip off. I only made 1/8 of the recipe and I didn't have any leftovers. 

I knew when I chose a recipe from the ''Dipped and Glazed'' chapter of the book, that it wasn't going to be very moist or interesting, but I still trust Martha Stewart with other recipes in the book because the majority of her recipes haven't disappointed me yet. After all, you can't expect much from a recipe that takes less than an hour to make, can you?

Look: 3/5

Taste: 1/5

Approximate cost of one cupcake: 0.20€

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