To celebrate going paperless with our products mFax, mSign, and mDrive, we made a recipe for Vanilla Go Paperless Cupcakes. These cupcakes can be made without cupcake liners! Whether you’re going paperless or want to use liners anyway, these fluffy cupcakes are sure to please.

Total time: 1 hour 10 minutes. Yield: 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients:

For cupcake liner substitute:

1 ½ tablespoons melted butter

Flour for dusting

Cupcakes:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

¾ cups sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Zest of 1 lemon (optional)

1 ¼ cups flour

1 ¼ tablespoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons milk (it’s an unusual amount, but it works perfectly!)

Frosting:

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature

½ cup shortening

4 cups powdered sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

2-3 tablespoons water or milk

(Optional: can add food coloring and top with cherries and sprinkles)

To make cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare muffin tin by brushing with 1 ½ tablespoons melted butter and dusting lightly with flour. Shake off excess flour.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine 6 tablespoons of softened butter, sugar, oil, and optional lemon zest. Use an electric mixer to beat until light and fluffy, about three minutes. Add one egg at a time, mixing thoroughly in between.

3. In a sieve, combine dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt. Sift half of this mixture into the wet ingredients. Mix with an electric mixer until just mixed.

4. Add the milk and vanilla and mix until well combined. It may look curdled at this point, but that’s all part of the process! Add remaining dry ingredients and mix until ingredients are well incorporated; do not over mix.

5. Fill the muffin tin about ¾ way full and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

6. Allow cupcakes to cool. Then, slide a butter knife gently around the edge of each cupcake. They should come out clean. If there are any problems, moistening the knife with water before loosening cupcakes from the tin.

To make frosting:

1. Add softened butter and shortening to a mixing bowl. Beat thoroughly until smooth.

2. Add half of the powdered sugar and mix until ingredients are combined. Next, add the vanilla and 2-3 tablespoons of water or milk. Beat.

3. Add the remaining sugar and beat until smooth. Additional water or milk may be needed, depending on what climate you live in. We added cake frosting dye to ours.  

Frosting the cupcakes:

We used a reusable frosting bag with a large open-star tip, making a smooth circle from the outer rim to the inner rim. We also added sprinkles! If you want to top with cherries, be sure to pat the cherries dry and wait until serving to place them on top.

Enjoying the cupcakes:

We hope going paperless makes your life a little sweeter. If you give this recipe a try, we hope you'll let us know how it turned out. We'd love to talk with you soon about optimizing your workflow.