Cupcake Recipe Challenge: Vanilla.

I have a confession.  Despite loving all things cupcakes, I'm not actually a big fan of vanilla cupcakes.  I've always gone straight to red velvet cupcakes as the 'standard' cupcake to measure how good a cupcakeries' cupcakes are.  I never even stopped to consider vanilla.  Ironically, for our wedding cupcakes, one of the three cupcake batters was actually French vanilla.  And it was the first flavor, out of about 8, that we settled on.  If you get a chance, check out The Cakery's French vanilla-- I might be mistaken, but I believe their sister cupcakery, appropriately named, "The Cup", uses the same delicious recipes for their cupcakes.

Because my tastebuds haven't had a chance to truly enjoy vanilla cupcakes (with the exception of the ones from The Cakery/The Cup), I couldn't trust myself to have a staple, go-to vanilla cupcake recipe without a little help from some friends.  So, on a hot weekday evening, after enjoying various combinations of chicken & waffles from The Sunflower Waffle Company in town, the group chowed down on some cupcakes and rated them very officially, with pens and pink index cards.

After tallying the votes for best (1) overall taste and (2) texture, the winner was determined:

Here's what the cupcakes looked like, side-by-side, to gauge the texture...:

After the best cupcake was officially decided, I tried all three cupcakes.  You know, just so I didn't spoil the project/study, since I knew what ingredients went into which batter, and which batter went into which cupcake liner (yes, this is research.  Pastry Research-- the best kind).  I have to say, I was actually really partial to the middle one (cupcake # 2) pictured above, in terms of flavor.  It was a little too dense for my liking, so I preferred the top one (cupcake # 1) for texture, since it was moist (that word just gives me the creepy-chills, but it describes #1's texture-- it was perfectly moissssttttt.)  Sorry, unnecessary.  Cupcake #3 just didn't do it for me.  It was moist as well, but almost too moist, almost.. oily.  The flavor was good, but I didn't think it was better than #2.  Surprisingly, the winner was neither of these two cupcakes-- cupcake #3 took the cake (ha, ha) for both taste and texture.  And it wasn't even all that close--well, for texture.  See? This is why I needed friends to help me choose a good, basic vanilla cupcake recipe to tweak and perfect.

So, where are these said recipes?  Right here, friend.  Bake away, and share away:

Cupcake #1: Hungry Girl Por Vida's vanilla cupcake, adapted from Joy the Baker, adapted from Hummingbird Bakery. Whew!
*note: easiest.recipe.ever.
Cupcake #2: Magnolia Bakery's vanilla cupcake
*note: Self-rising flour?  What?  No.  I used this substitution.  Let's be real here.  My pantry space is limited, and full of Nutella.
Cupcake #3: Cupcake Project's The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake
*note: I didn't use vanilla beans because I am a poor graduate student.  I know there are some great online sources for buying vanilla beans, but this was a last-minute taste test, and I didn't plan accordingly!  Also, 1% milk and light sour cream.  Jeez, just writing this makes me realize that this recipe was a bit high-maintenance...

One last thought: It's actually kind of reassuring to know that Cupcake Project's The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake won my taste challenge, since the Cupcake Project's Stef came up with the genius idea to have 50 test bakers go through a similar taste test of 3 different recipes of hers-- and 60% of the bakers named The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake as being... well, the ultimate best!