Perfect White Cupcake: Recipe for Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes (2024)

FAQs

What does sour cream do to cupcakes? ›

Sour cream adds moisture without thinning your batter the same way that a liquid would. That fact that sour cream delivers moisture without further thinning out a batter results in a cake with a very tender, very fine crumb.

Baking with Sour Cream: The creamy texture of sour cream makes baked goods more moist than if you used milk. This makes sour cream an excellent choice for recipes that are known to have drier results, like sponge cakes.

Sour cream is one of the fattiest dairy products; the extra fat content (for example, adding sour cream to a cake instead of milk) will make the cake moister and richer, says Wilk. "Fat, in any form (butter, lard, cream, etc.) shortens gluten strands, which essentially leads to the most tender baked goods," she adds.

Buttermilk. Buttermilk can work great as a substitute, but it's a little trickier since it's so much thinner than sour cream. In baking, we'd recommend only using 3/4 cup of buttermilk for every cup of sour cream called for. The batter may look a little thinner, but it should still bake up nicely.

Don't Over-mix, Don't Under-mix

Not too much, not too little. Make sure you're mixing the cupcake batter together *just until* the wet and dry are combined. Overmixing batter, whether that's for cakes, cupcakes, breads, muffins, etc, lends a tough-textured baked good. Don't turn on the mixer then leave the room.

Flour is the main ingredient of the batter and provides the base for the cupcake. Butter or oil provides flavor, tenderizes the batter and helps provide volume.

"Baking fluffy, moist cupcakes is all about creating air bubbles in your batter that expand in the oven," she says. "If you overmix your batter, you collapse those bubbles and end up with a brick-like cake." Always mix at a low speed to avoid this, stopping just as all ingredients blend.

Replace water with whole milk, coffee, or soda.

The result is a moister and more flavorful cupcake. Replace water with whole milk in vanilla and white cake mixes. Add coffee to bring out the richness of a chocolate cupcake. Lemon lime soda will make a citrus cupcake sing.

Soy milk. Soy milk is probably the best dairy-free milk for baking. It has a similar consistency to cow's milk, so will give a nice texture to your recipe. It also has a neutral flavour, so it won't affect the taste of your final bake.

How much sour cream equals 1 cup of milk? ›

Sour cream or full fat yogurt can be substituted 1:1 for whole milk. Use this substitute in baking quick breads or for adding creaminess to pan sauces. Sour cream works especially well in recipes calling for buttermilk, too and vanilla-flavored yogurt can be used for sweet quick breads and cakes.

Most cupcakes bake well between 325°F and 375°F.

For chocolate, vanilla, and most other cupcake recipes, you'll want to bake for 15 to 20 minutes in an oven preheated to 350°F. Test for doneness by inserting a wooden toothpick into the center of a cupcake. If the toothpick is clean when you remove it, the cupcakes are done.

Fill your cupcake cases 2/3 full – around 3 tablespoons – or one decent ice scream scoop. Avoid filling your cupcake cases with too much batter as they will not bake properly and might overflow when they rise.

Sour cream is commonly used as a condiment on foods, or combined with other ingredients to form a dipping sauce. It can be added to soups and sauces to help thicken and make them creamy, or in baking to help increase the moisture level over and above using milk.

The lesser fat content of sour cream makes it less versatile for cooking—while crème fraîche can be boiled, sour cream will curdle if heated too high or too quickly. It is best to add sour cream to a dish just before serving.

Baked goods made with yogurt as a straight substitute for sour cream will turn out less tender, lighter in texture and have a tangier, less buttery flavor.

If they contain any dairy or egg products, they'll definitely need a spot in the fridge. Or perhaps you're worried that the frosting will melt in hot weather. Whatever the reason, storing any kind of cupcake in the fridge overnight won't cause them too much damage. Just make sure you do it properly.