I'm back from my Grand Canyon rafting trip and can honestly say I had the best time of my life. I learned to camp, row a river raft, and a lot about myself. I even rowed a class 3 rapid! It was a lot of work being on the river, but the simplicity that came from letting go of modern life and truly relaxing made the experience just extraordinary. It didn't hurt that the Canyon is just so incredibly beautiful either. There's so many stories, so many things I want to tell you all about, but I'll save that for another post when I have the photos organized and ready to share. Until then, let's get to back to business, shall we? On to the cupcakes!
A few weeks before I left for my trip I received an email from a reader, Jennie, asking me if I had ever heard of Buster Brown Cake. She didn't provide a recipe so I hopped onto Google and found one on Midwest Living Magazine's website. I wasn't super impressed at first because it looked like just another brown sugar butter cake, but the frosting piqued my curiosity. It starts with making a roux like substance out of milk and flour that is slowly brought to a boil and let sit in the fridge for two hours. I wondered what a frosting made with flour would taste like? Would its texture be thick and pasty? 
I wasn't able to read the article that accompanied the recipe, so I know nothing of its origin; but my guess is that it is probably linked to the Buster Brown comic strip that was popular during the early 1900s. Maybe it was the winning recipe for a contest? Whatever the impetus was, this recipe is a keeper! I loved the tender crumb of the cake and its lovely butterscotchy-caramel flavor. And the frosting, wow! It lived up to its namesake because it really was delicious. I mean really, really good! It has the most wonderful creamy texture that was light and had the perfect amount of sweetness. And as an added bonus it was very stable and held its shape.
The day after I received the email from the reader about the Buster Brown cake, I was contacted by Jennifer from Singing Dog Vanilla. She had graciously offered to send me a sample of their organic pure vanilla extract. What perfect timing! I have to say that I was just blown away by this vanilla and I've tried a lot of vanilla extracts over the years. There's no added sugar or fructose - just water, organic alcohol, and organic vanilla beans so you're left with a very true vanilla flavor. Jennifer was kind enough to offer one of my lucky readers their choice of organic vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, vanilla beans, organic ground cinnamon, or cinnamon sticks. How cool is that?! Considering how good their vanilla is, I can't wait to try their cinnamon.
To enter for your chance to win you must leave me a comment below (no email please), and provide a link to your blog or some means of reaching you. If you don’t provide a way for me to contact you, you can’t win! Contest is only open to those that live in the United States (my apologies to my foreign readers!) All entries must be received by midnight Friday, October 16th. A winner will be selected at random and announced on Monday, October 19th.
Thank you to everyone for who wished me well on my trip and for being patient while I have gotten back into the swing of modern life. It took a good two weeks to adjust! I promise to get back to posting more regularly too. I have a backlog of recipes just waiting to be posted - everything from homemade bread to a new cheesecake recipe that will make you weep it looks so darned good. :)
Buster Brown Cupcakes with Delicious Frosting
adapted from Midwest Living Magazine
Cupcakes
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup shortening (not butter flavored)
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 egg yolks, at room temperature
1 cup buttermilk (low or full fat), at room temperature
2 egg whites, at room temperature
Preheat oven to 350F. Line a muffin pan with 18 cupcake liners and set the pan aside.
In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl beat shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and vanilla; beat for 2 minutes. Add egg yolks 1 at a time, beating for 1 minute each. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to shortening mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.
In a medium mixing bowl beat egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until stiff peaks form (tips stand straight). Gently fold egg whites into the beaten mixture. Fill each cupcake liner a little more than half-full.
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean (if a few crumbs stick to the toothpick, it's ok). Let the cupcakes sit in the pan for 5 minutes before cooling thoroughly on wire racks.
Delicious Frosting
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup of white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 teaspoon of salt
In a screw-top jar, shake milk and flour until well combined. Place milk mixture in a small saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly - it will take several minutes. It will eventually get really thick and look a little like a thick paste. Like this:Reduce heat; continue to cook and stir for 2 minutes more - be careful not to scorch it! Remove from heat. Transfer cooked mixture to a small bowl (preferably metal). Cover surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or until thoroughly chilled. It will look thick, like this:
In a large mixing bowl beat butter, sugar, salt and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. Add the chilled milk and flour mixture, 1/4 at a time, beating on medium speed after each addition until smooth. Let it sit in the fridge for about 20 minutes to thicken. Makes about 3 1/4 cups frosting.
When the cupcakes are completely cooled, frost each cupcake with a generous amount of frosting and enjoy!
Yield: 18 +/- cupcakes and about 31/4 cups of frosting