Thank you
Here's the recipe, jemma just blends everything at the same time, I tried and the butter wouldn't mix well. So this time I creamed the butter and sugar first.
The recipe has equal amounts of flour, butter, and sugar by weight. And the mixing method that you describe is an all in one. That is a old style pound cake recipe, which makes for very dense heavy batter. That is not a standard batter for cupcakes because the density of the batter requires a longer bake, makes a heavier cake, and the high fat makes for a too rich cake that is very heavily topped with a butter based icing. It looks like she just tried to downsize a Victoria sponge (which is not a sponge cake) into a cupcake.
A cupcake is very small, so requires a short bake. The batter should be lightened with both chemical leavening (baking soda, baking powder, or a combination of both) and mechanical leavening (creaming butter and sugar). A Victoria sponge is a pound cake. In its most traditional form, there is no chemical leavening. It would be a lead weight if not for the mechanical leavening (creaming butter and sugar). It seems the recipe developer of this cupcake took the reverse approach and eliminated the mechanical leavening.
It appears the recipe developer used self rising flour, which contains chemical leavening, and a good dose of baking soda to give the batter a big blast of leavening to make up for the lack of creaming the butter and sugar.
If you want to stick with this pound cake type of cupcake, then look for one that creams the butter and sugar.
Maybe try this one is by Annabel Karmel. Although I would reduce the oven temperature to 325°F (160°C), especially if you have a fan oven of which you cannot turn the fan off. And butter for baking is usually unsalted; the correct temperature of butter for creaming is 65°F (19°C).
110 g butter, softened
110 g caster sugar
110 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F / Gas 4. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and fluffy.
3. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl.
4. Beat the eggs and vanilla and add to the bowl. Beat until just combined.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases.
6. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until risen, golden and firm to the touch.
7. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
But keep in mind, when a butter rich icing is used, it is better to use a cupcake base with less fat to balance the greasiness of all that butter.
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