The cupcake trend isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, with new cupcake shops and cupcake ranges popping up all over the place. Almost all cake flavours and recipes can be converted into cupcakes – just lower the oven temperature slightly and bake the cupcakes for a shorter time than you would a cake. But if you can make a good, basic vanilla cupcake you’ve already got a world of possibilities at your fingertips. All it takes is a variety of fillings and toppings.

Basic vanilla cupcake
125g butter, at room temperature
125g sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g cake flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Enough milk to loosen batter to a dropping consistency (about 2 tablespoons)
Preheat the oven to 170°C and line a cupcake tray with 12 paper cases. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into the butter mixture and use a metal spoon to slowly fold the flour mixture into the butter mixture, adding splashes of milk as needed to loosen the batter. Take care not to add too much milk; the batter shouldn’t be runny.
When the batter is smooth and drops off the spoon easily, divide between the 12 cups and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden and firm. Remove from the oven and cool for ten minutes before removing the cupcakes from the tray onto a wire rack and cooling to room temperature.

Flavours
This basic recipe can be easily adjusted to change its flavour:
•    Replace the extract with your favourite liqueur.
•    Remove a few tablespoons of flour and replace with cocoa powder.
•    Replace half the flour with ground almonds or other ground nuts.
•    Replace the extract with lemon or orange juice and add lemon or orange zest.
•    Add pinches of spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg, and so on.

Toppings
The obvious way to gussy up a cupcake is with the topping. The traditional topping is classic vanilla butter icing: 140g softened butter, beaten with 280g sifted icing sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Butter icing can be made more interesting with any number of flavourings such as citrus juice and zest, cocoa powder, coconut, rum, and more. But there are some other icings and frostings to consider:

•    Cream cheese frosting: Beat a block of softened cream cheese (Philadelphia, Lancewood, or something similar; not the tubs, they’re too soft) with 25g of softened butter, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, the juice of half a lemon and ½ to 1 ½ cups of sifted icing sugar (to taste).
•    Ganache: Melt 250g dark chocolate with 110ml cream, 2 teaspoons of butter and 2 teaspoons of golden syrup. Beat to combine and set aside for an hour to cool. You can also use milk or white chocolate, and you can replace the butter with peanut butter for a peanut butter ganache.
•    Meringue frosting: Combine 300g sugar, 2 egg whites, 80ml water, a pinch of salt and a splash of vanilla essence in a metal or glass bowl placed over (but not touching) a pot of simmering water. Whisk the mixture over the simmering water until it becomes firm and glossy and can hold a stiff peak. Remove from heat and use right away.

Fillings
To take your cupcakes completely over the top, scoop a cone-shaped piece out of the top of each cupcake out with a teaspoon or melon baller, fill with whatever your heart desires, and top with icing. This will create three different textures and flavours in one cupcake. Some filling ideas include: Caramel Treat, Nutella, jam/preserves, lemon curd, ganache (white, dark or milk), cream cheese frosting, flavoured whipped cream, and nut butters beaten with icing sugar.

Baked centres
Another option is to bake something into the centre of each cupcake. Scoop some cupcake batter into each paper mould, add the filling and cover with more batter. Chilled Lindt chocolate balls work really well baked into a cupcake, although the resulting cupcakes could fell a grown man with their richness. Some other ideas:
•    Soft toffees or chewy caramels. (Sweet Temptations toffees are a great option.)
•    A square of your favourite chocolate bar.
•    Bite-size chunks of chocolate bars.
•    A piece of biscuit, such as half an Oreo.
•    Raw chocolate chip cookie dough. (The dough bakes along with the cupcake batter and you end up with a chocolate-chip-cookie-centred cupcake which is best eaten warm.)

Go wild
Once you’re equipped with these basic recipes and ideas, you can go wild. Some ideas to get you started:
•    Vanilla cupcake with raspberry jam filling and white chocolate ganache topping.
•    Chocolate cupcake with peanut butter filling and salted milk chocolate ganache.
•    Vanilla cupcake with white chocolate Lindt ball and meringue frosting.
•    Cinnamon cupcake with apple butter filling and cream cheese frosting.
•    Lemon cupcake with lemon curd filling and lemon-orange butter icing.
•    Chocolate cupcake with Oreo filling and meringue frosting.

By Emma-Kate Coultas (née Liebenberg)