No Cupcake Liners? No Problem!

The other day I was reading Utah Loves Cupcakes and came across the post about the Blue Cattle Truck Vanilla. It went on to say how Marlo Scott, owner of Sweet Revenge in NYC used the vanilla at her bakery. I watched the video of her on Martha and was so intrigued by her cupcakes. Instead of baking them in cupcake liners she used parchment paper. I couldn't stop thinking about the idea until I tried it! They turned out really fun and I think they would look darling at a wedding or a special event, or just to have around the house for hubby and me to eat:) I wish I would have filled the parchment up a little higher, like 3/4 instead of filling them up 1/2 full like I did. I think they would have looked even better. Often I want to make cupcakes but realize I don't have cupcake liners but now I will have an alternative!

Now as for the cupcake. I had some buttermilk in my fridge that I needed to use up so I searched for a vanilla buttermilk recipe. Everyone needs a good stand by chocolate and vanilla cupcake recipe. I have my chocolate recipe which I love but had yet to find a super yummy vanilla one...until now! This recipe was absolutely amazing! Such wonderful flavor! I even made some simple syrup to put on top of them right when they came out of the oven which made them even more scrumptious! I put a drop of almond flavoring in the simple syrup to give it more of an almondy flavor. This will be my standby vanilla cupcake recipe until I find something better, so if anyone has a favorite of theirs I would love to hear about it! Until then I will be competely happy using this yummy recipe.

Which do you like better?

I don't think I will take the time to cut parchment for every
batch of cupcakes I make but once in a while it is a fun
twist!

As for the frosting, I just threw some butter, powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and almond extract together. Wish I had exact measurements but I dont-sorry!

Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
¼ cup butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ tsp almond extract
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F. Place liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.
In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until it looks creamy. Beat in the egg and the vanilla and almond extracts until mixture is smooth.
Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until almost combined. Add buttermilk and stir, again, until almost combined. Add the rest of the flour and stir until all ingredients are mixed in.
Divide batter evenly into muffin cups.
Bake for 18-20 minutes at 350F, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
Let cupcakes cool for 10 minutes and then remove from the muffin pan. Cool completely before frosting.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Simple Syrup
*equal parts sugar and water. Bring to a boil, boil a couple of minutes till sugar is dissolved. Let cool. Brush on cupcakes with pastry brush while cupcakes are still hot.

TO MAKE PARCHMENT LINERS
Cut a piece of parchment 5 1/2 inches square. Center it over cupcake pan and squish it down with a plastic cup. Marlo Scott of Sweet Revenge uses unlbeached parchment, I couldn't find any so I just used white.