We’re back after not posting for more than a week! Can you believe that we still continue to get sick at the same time and we don’t even live together anymore? We’re both feeling better after some bad rounds of colds, and we’re ready to share more of our recipes with you all!
What a better moment than on this special day. Remember our niece Marilena? She turned 12 last month? Well, it’s time to meet Izabella, Marilena’s younger sister. Just as we’ve started getting used to the fact that Marilena is 12 years old, Izabela turns the big 1-0! Yah, that means her age has 2 digits in it. Do you remember those days? Being so happy that your age had 2 digits in it and meaning that you were getting older and that’s all that you could think about. Well, that’s what Izabela is going through today.
Izabela is such a beautiful girl not only on the outside, but also on the inside. She has a big heart and cares very much for her family. Every time she comes over, she always makes sure to say hi and bye to every single person. She is such a respectful young girl who listens to her parents. Every time we see Izabela, she’s always happy and has a smile on her face. She loves telling you stories about anything and we LOVE listening to her.
Even though Marilena and Izabela look alike, and you could definitely tell that they were sisters, they are both very different from each other. Marilena is more into hair, clothes, jewelry, etc. Izabela, not so much. She is more of a town boy and cares more about being comfortable.If you see Izabela, there is a good chance that she will be doing a cartwheel. Izabela loves doing cartwheels, even inside of stores! We find that hilarious because we used to do that too!
We love how close Izabela is with Marilena. We, as twin sisters, are super close, but we are also VERY close with our 2 older sisters. We felt so lucky and blessed to have each other growing up and it makes us so happy to know that Izabela will have the same connection with her sisters. Yes, we said sisters. You’ll meet the 3rd musketeer in April! =)
For Izabela’s birthday party, last week, we decided to make vanilla vanilla cupcakes. We’ve been on a quest for finding not only a good vanilla cupcake recipe but, also a vanilla frosting one.
We really liked this cupcake recipe. It is definitely our favorite so far!
Billys Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes
1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
4 large eggs
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 325. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.
In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat.
Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about two-thirds full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature.
We are not big fans of frosting that is either too sweet or too buttery. We liked our frosting smooth and perfectly sweet. Traditional, butter and powdered sugar, frosting gets too hard after icing and we don’t like it. We adapted a recipe we found for a Swiss meringue buttercream and this is what we came up with. Perfect sweet, incredibly smooth and a little buttery. When we make this recipe again, we will only use a 1 pound of butter and feel that it will be plenty. Can u believe that the original had 3 pounds of butter??…. That’s just crazy to us!
Vanilla Meringue Buttercream
12 large egg whites
2 cups granulated sugar
2 lbs unsalted butter, room temperature ( We recommend only using 1 lb butter)
2 Tbsp vanilla paste
1. Lightly whisk egg whites and sugar together over simmering water until egg-white mixture is hot to touch or a candy thermometer reads 140°F (60°C).
2. Pour hot whites into a room-temperature bowl and whip with a wire whip until double in volume on MEDIUM-HIGH speed. When the mixer stops, the meringue should not move around in the bowl. Meanwhile cut up butter into 2-inch pieces.
3. On your mixer, remove the whip and attach the paddle. Add half the butter into the bowl immediately and pulsate the mixer several times until the meringue has covered the butter completely. To pulsate the mixer, turn it on and off in a jerky motion. This forces the butter on the top to the bottom of the bowl. Add the balance of the butter and pulsate mixer several times. Slowly increase the mixer’s speed, starting with the lowest speed and increase the speed every 10 seconds until you reach a MEDIUM-HIGH speed.
4. Continue beating until the mixture begins to look light and fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl. Reduce speed to LOW. Add vanilla paste and continue to beat on LOW speed for 45 seconds. Then beat on MEDIUM-HIGH speed for an additional 45 to 60 seconds.
5.Leftover buttercream can be placed in plastic containers with lids and kept in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost completely (several hours) and rewhip before using.
Happy Birthday Izabela!
We Love You!
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