Marions Vintage Bakeshop Miniature Cupcakes

Everyone loves a cupcake!

Miniature cupcake atop a vintage miniature cake tin, used by traveling salesmen to promote their full-sized tin-ware counterparts!

Especially mini cupcakes...These cupcakes were baked in the small condiment cups that you find at places like McDonald’s ®.  Actually that’s where I first had the idea to make the cupcakes. My daughter was delicately eating her french fries and dipping them in the tiny cup filled with ketchup.. She said ” These look like cupcake liners Mom”. “DING” the Lightbulb went on. I asked her to non-chalantly grab a few more.  Two days later I found them at Maine’s in two sizes.  The other cups were slightly larger so I purchased both packets.

To make the cupcakes use your favorite recipe or use my cupcake recipes!

Old-Fashioned Vanilla Cupcakes-  Preheat oven to 375°-

2 C. All-Purpose, unbleached flour

3/4 C. Swans Down Cake Flour

2-1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 C. Unsalted butter or Oleo ( margarine)

1-3/4 C. white sugar

1-1/2 tsp. Pure Vanilla

2 large eggs

1 C. milk + 1/4 C.  Dairy Sour Cream, mixed in a small bowl

Directions

1. Sift together the flours, baking powder and salt and set aside.

2. Cream the butter or Oleo for about a half minute, scrape bowl, and sugar and vanilla and beat until fluffy.

3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing one minute between additions.

4. Alternately add the dry ingredients and the milk and sour cream, beating after each addition.

5. Spray the condiment cups with Baker’s Joy spray and using a small pastry brush, brush the flour/oil mixture into all of the folds of the cups to ensure they will release nicely. Fill each lined muffin cup halfway with batter.  Bake 28-32 minutes or until top springs back when lightly touched in the middle. Cool on a wire rack. Frost.

*makes approximately 30 cupcakes

* Oven temperatures vary. Watch the cupcakes after 15 minutes and keep a timer handy to record how long they take in your oven.

Old-Fashioned Chocolate Sour Cream  Cupcakes- Preheat oven to 375°

1 C. All-Purpose, unbleached flour

3/4 C. Swans Down Cake Flour

1 tsp. Baking Soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 C. Butter or Oleo ( Margarine)

1/4 C. Crisco Shortening

1-1/2 C. White Sugar

1-1/2 tsp. Pure Vanilla

2 large eggs

3 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly

1/2 C. Dairy Sour Cream

1 C. room temperature, black coffee

Directions

1. Combine the flours, salt and Baking soda, set aside.

2. Beat Butter ( or Oleo) and shortening. Add the sugar and the vanilla and cream until light and fluffy.  Scrape the bowl.

3.  Add the eggs one at a time and beat one minute between the addition of each egg. Scrape the bowl again.

4.  Add the cooled chocolate and sour cream, and blend until no white streaks remain.

5. Blend in the coffee and dry ingredients alternately, mix briefly until smooth and blended.

6.  Line 24- 28 muffin cups with liners. Spray the liners with Baker’s Joy spray, and using a small pastry brush, brush the inside folds and bottom of the cups to ensure even coverage; they will peel off more easily.  Fill each cup halfway with the battter. Bake 28-30 minutes, cool on wire rack completely and then frost. ( Garnish with sprinkles while the frosting is still fresh-otherwise a crust will form after being frosted and the sprinkles will not stick to the buttercream)

*Use a medium or small star tip to pipe the frosting on top of the cupcakes

* Oven temps. vary; keep a timer handy and watch the cupcakes after 15 minutes to record how long they take to bake in your own oven.

Then mix up some yummy frostings in soft pastel shades using paste food colorings

Here is the recipe for my 1960′s Creamy Butter Frosting ( I call it this because it’s the basic American Buttercream -using confectioner’s sugar, butter and flavoring) and it’s inevitably the one that kid’s request the most, although I have adults who request it as well.  There is a secret to the recipe…which makes the buttercream incredibly smooth and creamy and a secret that gives it a better flavor than other buttercreams.

1960′s Creamy Butter Frosting

1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter or Oleo ( margarine)

9 to 9-1/2 Cups icing sugar ( confectioner’s sugar)

1/4 C. warmed Heavy Whipping Cream ( you may also substitute evaporated milk or buttermilk)

1/4 C. hot water

1 Tbs. Pure Vanilla ( or almond or lemon)

1 tsp. Butter flavoring

1. Cream the butter or margarine until light and fluffy.  Add one half of the sugar, beating until combined, and scraping the bowl once or twice  during the process.

2. Add one half of the heavy cream,the rest of the sugar and blend in, then add remaining heavy cream and hot water ( not boiling water), vanilla and butter flavoring.  Whip until the consistency is what you are looking for, frost cupcakes, or use to frost the tops and sides of  an 8 or 9 inch four layer cake.

Now….Baking time will differ according to your oven, but it took only about 15 miutes to bake these cupcakes and it made a WHOLE bunch…about 6 dozen

After baking and frosting your adorable cupcakes, find some really cute sprinkles to adorn them with.  I get sprinkles and jimmies wholesale and jar them up in up-cycled, hand painted jam jars which you can find in my Etsy store!

yummy

Sprinkles!

These sweet little mouthfuls are SO much fun to give as gifts.  A dozen in a small box, wrapped with pastel ribbon makes a HUGE statemet for such a little treat!

I love my PINK vintage toy stove, so I use it every chance I get to make vignettes for my miniature goodies.  I found the miniature cupcake tin at Ebay as well as the stove.

Maya Ferrer ( my daughter) displaying the mini cupcakes for " Summer with Matthew Mead"-May 2010

Matthew generously gave me permission to use this photo he took himself!

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