Real Butter: the Secret to the Perfect Cupcake
Blog Entry: Monday 28 Sep 2009
Having interviewed Pam Nelson, owner of Butter Lane Bakery in Manhattan, Jennie says “there’s no reason a cupcake can’t be moist, delicious, and not-too-sweet”, quoting Pam’s mantra of ‘less sugar, more flavour’, she reveals a few secrets to perfect cupcakes:
No.1: Use the best butter you can find. “A lot of commercial bakeries use a subpar fat like margarine or shortening,” says Jen Aaronson, an editor of Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes, because these ingredients are cheaper than real butter. But what you save in expense, you’ll sacrifice in taste. “If you don’t use butter, you’re going to have to overcompensate with sugar,” she says. At Butter Lane, Nelson and her partners go through 150 pounds of organic butter a week.
No.2: Use real ingredients. “Seeds of vanilla from vanilla beans, lemon from the fruit, not lemon-flavored extract, etc.”
No.3: Chocolate not cocoa. “Butter Lane’s chocolate cupcakes start with blocks of bittersweet chocolate, rather than cocoa powder for that moist, almost molten quality.”
No.4: Frosting is quality not quantity. “Reduce the amount of sugar by adding a bit of cream cheese, and when you add the sugar, do so slowly. Creaming it gradually into the butter will prevent the frosting from becoming gritty and grainy.”
No.5: It’s a wrap! “Whether you plan on frosting them or not, wrap your cupcakes within 30 minutes of taking them out of the oven to avoid drying out.”
Read Jennie Yabroff’s full article Five Secrets to the Perfect Cupcake at Newsweek.com.
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