Birthday Cake Cupcakes
Every birthday party needs birthday cake cupcakes, and these are made using my vanilla cupcakes filled with a chocolate ganache and milk chocolate Swiss Meringue Butter. What could be a better way to celebrate?
Ingredients:
- Cake Flour: I don’t always use cake flour for regular cakes but for cupcakes I feel it works best however it’s not a noticeable difference to most. But even more important than the type of flour you use, is accuracy. Measuring the correct amount of flour is important. I recommend investing in a digital kitchen scale. They are accurate, affordable, and will save your life whilst baking.
- Sugar: I use granulated sugar for this recipe, but if you choose to reduce the sugar I cannot guarantee the same results. Fun fact. Sugar is not just used as a sweetener, sugar helps with leavening, moisture and tenderness, so I advise you to follow the recipe as is for maximum results.
- Butter & Oil: I use a combination of butter and oil in almost all of my cake recipes because I love the structure and flavor from butter and the moisture from oil.
- Eggs: I used 1 whole egg, because I like my birthday cake cupcakes to be more of a classic birthday cake yellow whereas my other cupcakes, I prefer to be white so I use just egg whites.
- Milk & Sour Cream: I have tested this recipe with a million and one combinations of milk, sour cream, yogurt, buttermilk, etc. This is my favorite ratio and combination. If you don’t have sour cream, you can replace it with full fat greek yogurt. It just works!
- Chocolate – I used milk chocolate for the ganache and the buttercream but you can sub this for dark if you like it less sweet.
- Vanilla – you want the vanilla flavor in the cupcake to stand out, so I recommend a pure vanilla extract and/or vanilla bean paste.
How to make birthday cake cupcakes?
We have 3 parts to these babies:
- The Cupcakes – I use this vanilla cupcake recipe as a base for pretty much all my cupcakes. Don’t change what’s not broken! You can also make these small batch cupcakes or turn them into mini cupcakes if you prefer.
- Ganache – a simple, 1:1 ganache for the filling – make sure to let this cool completely before using.
- Chocolate Buttercream – I made a chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and it’s SO SILKY.
The best vanilla cupcakes
In my opinion, when something is good, you stick to it! I’ve tested this vanilla cupcake recipe about a million times and have adapted it in so many different ways.
With cupcakes, the difficult part is that, unlike cakes, they’re not very forgiving. If you overfill or under-fill the muffin pans slightly, they may sink instead of dome beautifully. To avoid that, I recommend weighing the batter for each one, I put 50-55g of batter in each tin.
I used the reverse creaming method so it starts with the dry ingredients mixed with the fats, followed by the eggs and the rest of the wet ingredients.
How to make milk chocolate Swiss meringue butter?
Swiss meringue buttercream is simple. It consists of two main parts, the meringue and the butter. The meringue is egg whites whipped with sugar. The butter is then beaten until it emulsifies into a smooth thick, creamy and fluffy buttercream. You can check out my post on Swiss meringue buttercream for detailed, step-by-step photos.
- Egg Whites: from many experiments I’ve found it is best to use fresh egg whites but I’ve also had success with aged egg whites, pasteurized carton egg whites, and aquafaba.
- Sugar: I typically make buttercream with granulated sugar but I’ve also successfully made it with super fine castor sugar, light brown sugar and dark brown sugar. If you’re using brown sugar, reduce the amount by 25%, which is 1/4 cup (50g) in this case.
- Butter: because there is so much butter in the recipe, I like to use unsalted butter. I’ve had success with commercial butter, European style and plant-based butters.
Milk chocolate ganache filling
For something so delicious, chocolate ganache is actually pretty basic and easy to make. There are multiple ways to make chocolate ganache but I like to keep it simple. I prefer to stick to two ingredients; chocolate and heavy cream.
I usually stick to a 2:1 ratio of chocolate to cream for milk chocolate – it seems runny at first but once it’s cool and sets completely, you should be able to pipe it into the cupcakes without it being too runny. If it is runny, refrigerate it for just a few minutes.
Storing cupcakes
If you decide to bake the cupcakes ahead of time, store them in an airtight container or fully covered at room temperature overnight. If it’s longer than one night, freeze them and bring them back to room temperature when frosting.
The frosting can be made 1-2 days in advance and I keep it on the counter. If you make it more than 2 days in advance, refrigerate or freeze it, fully covered and then bring it back to room temperature to get a spreadable consistency before trying to frost. (I recommend making it fresh though).
Once the cupcakes are done, refrigerate them for 30-60 minutes until the frosting firms up. Then cover them in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap. I recommend leaving them at room temperature for 2-3 days. They can be refrigerated for 7-10 days but keep in mind the cupcake will slowly dry out with time so I recommend freezing after 1-2 days.
Fun fact, refrigerators will dry out your cake more than freezing!
To freeze cupcakes, refrigerate them for 30-60 minutes until the frosting firms up. Then cover them completely in an airtight container or wrap each one individually in plastic wrap. Place the container or the wrapped cupcakes in a large freezer bag, squeezing out all of the excess air. Bring it back to room temperature before serving.
For these cupcakes you have to carve out a hole to fill with the milk chocolate ganache. Instead of discarding the center of the cake, try using the spare cake to make cake pops.
Thanks so much for reading today’s post , if you have any questions just comment down below. If you’re hosting a birthday celebration, I do have MANY birthday style cakes ranging from every size cake to a full sheet cake, mini cakes and smash cakes.
If you love this recipe, please leave a 5-star rating or review below! As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!
Love, B
