Basic Cupcake Recipe (and variations)

I know a few of you were interested in some of the more exotic cupcake flavours I've come up with...so here is my base recipe that I use for most of my cupcakes and I tweak from there!

Faith's Basic Cupcake Recipe

2 C self rising flour

1 C milk

3 large eggs

2 C granulated sugar

1 C butter

2 tsp vanilla

1. Cream butter and sugar together.

2. Beat in eggs, one at a time.

3. Beat in vanilla.

4. Alternatively add flour and milk, starting and ending with the flour.

5. Bake at 350 degrees - start checking after 15 minutes.  When it bounces back to the touch, they are ready!

Variations:

Honey Lavender - swap out 1/4-1/2 of the sugar with honey (depending on how strong a honey flavour you want), simmer the milk for a few minutes with the lavender and allow it to cool completely. Strain and use the lavender milk in the recipe.  For extra lavender flavour, you can make lavender sugar or I also grind it and add it to the icing.

Guava - fold in some guava paste at the end.  I'm sure this would work for Mango as well, but I'm allergic so I can't mess around with it! I'm allergic to guava too but not as bad as the mango, my mom was my guinea pig and now she keeps harassing me for the recipe! LOL.  

Jasmine Citrus - the same as the honey lavender, just replace the vanilla with citrus extract of your choice (lemon, orange etc.) and a tsp of zest, and allow the jasmine tea to steep in the warmed milk until the milk is cool.

Green Tea - if you can get some matcha green tea powder, add a couple of teaspoons to the batter, other wise, steep the green tea in the milk (use a lot of bags to get a stronger flavour).

Pink Lemonade - use lemon extract instead of vanilla, add the zest of one lemon and add 1/4 C of grenadine or strawberry syrup.

Cappuccino - add some instant coffee granules to the warmed milk allow to steep as it cools.  For a stronger coffee flavour, replace a tsp of the vanilla with a tsp of instant espresso granules.

Chai - add some chai spice to the warmed milk, allow it to cool and use in the recipe.

White Chocolate Raspberry - I add 1/4 C of raspberry puree or 2 Tbsp of good quality raspberry preserves and 1/3 C of good quality white chocolate chips.

Vanilla Rum - add 1 tsp rum extract and replace 1/4 C of milk with 1/4 C of gold rum.

Rum n Raisin  - add 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1 tsp rum extract, replace 1/4 C of milk with 1/4 C of gold rum, replace half of the white sugar with brown sugar and add a handful of raisins.

Coconut - use coconut milk (the unsweetened type used for cooking; not the cream of coconut used for mixing drinks) instead of milk, and add 1 tsp of coconut extract.

Be creative - this basic recipe can be remixed soooo many ways!  Swap out extracts, add zests, mix in nuts, or chocolate chips etc. Have fun with it!  Let me know how the flavours work for you!