Buttery Valentine Cupcakes

This weekend, I ventured to Seoul's Bangsan-dong Baking Market in order to stock my kitchen with all the baking equipment I can't find in my area. Although I found a lot of pans and decorating instruments, I was less able to find the ingredients I'm lacking (the Foreign Food Mart was sold out of Crisco.)

Fortunately, I did find these little metal individual cupcake molds, which I thought would be perfect for my toaster over. Tonight, I gave them a test run with this Butter Cake recipe from Wilton (listed below). Although these cupcakes are delicious, I'm a little disappointed in their appearance; I don't know if it was the pans or the recipe, but they didn't really rise as well as I'd hoped (I know butter cake is suppose to be dense and all, but I would have at least liked a nice little dome top...)

Butter Cupcakes
(yields 12 cupcakes)

¾ c. butter
1¼ c. sugar
3 eggs
½ t. vanilla
1½ c. all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking powder
a pinch of salt
½ c. milk

Preheat oven to 375°F (175°C). Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add vanilla. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl. Alternate adding flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture (start with the flour mixture.) Pour into lined cupcake molds, and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Simple Frosting

3 c. sifted confectioner's sugar
¼ c. milk
½ t. vanilla
Dash of salt

Combine sugar, milk, vanilla and salt; mix well. Add food coloring.