Recipe: Magnolia Bakery's Best-Selling Buttercream Recipe

Vanilla on vanilla is the consistent best-seller at all eight [Magnolia Bakery](http://www.newyorkfamily.com/magnolia-bakery-vanilla-buttercream-cupcake-recipe-kids/www.magnoliabakery.com) locations, and Bobbie Lloyd, president and top baker at the iconic bakery, is sharing their recipe?and how to make cupcakes a family activity?with New York Family readers. Lloyd also has some tricks of the trade for the grown-up bakers. "Step one is: Be fearless. Just go for it," Lloyd says. Next, she recommends reading the recipe a few times through before beginning?then making sure you have a thermometer. Especially if you're working with a new oven, you don't want to end up in her shoes and find out too late that it's 75 degrees under the proper temperature after a move. She also has an answer for the trickiest question of all: How do you know when a cupcake is done baking? "The room starts to smell like cake and the cupcakes start to pull away from the edges of the pan," she says. But mostly importantly, make sure the middle of the cupcake comes out clean.   Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Buttercream Cupcakes Makes 2 dozen cupcakes Ingredients For cupcakes 1 ½ cups self-rising flour 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened 2 cups sugar 4 large eggs, at room temperature 1 cup milk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract To read the full recipe visit New York Family Magazine by [clicking here. ](http://www.newyorkfamily.com/magnolia-bakery-vanilla-buttercream-cupcake-recipe-kids/)