Let’s face it: sometimes we all need a dessert that only makes two servings.
Sometimes we just can’t handle 12 servings.
Sometimes we eat them all by ourselves. Sometimes we eat them all by ourselves in two hours. Sometimes we eat them all by ourselves in a matter of minutes. Sometimes it’s the best thing ever.
FYI: I have no idea what that is like.
Haven’t you always wished you could make just enough dessert for yourself? Or yourself and one other person?
Or… just yourself?
Me too.
But more often than not, I’ve found it to be a hassle to drag out the mixer, cream the sugar and butter, sift the dry ingredients and all that fun stuff for a measly two cupcakes.
What can I say? I’m lazy.
Well, I was lazy. Until I decided to make these cupcakes for two. This is only my second or third cupcake recipe completely from scratch and completely from my own recipe development, and I am so excited with the result.
It is definitely your typical white cake; fluffy and soft, full of vanilla flavor, and the perfect vehicle for some fluffy white frosting.
And it only takes one bowl! Not creaming, no mixer, no folding… just you, a bowl and a spoon. Try not eating some of that batter. Yeah right.
I think what I love most about these cupcakes is their customizability. Mr. How Sweet and I can have different flavors of frosting or even some different fruit, nuts or chocolate chips added in our cupcakes if we’d like. Meaning that I can make mine fun and fancy and he can keep his plain and boring. Nothin’ new there.
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One Bowl Vanilla Cupcakes for Two
serves 2
1 egg white
2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla (yes, a full teaspoon – they are super vanilla-y!)
1/4 cup flour
1/4 heaping teaspoon of baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin pan with 2 liners.
In a bowl, add egg white and sugar and whisk until combined. Add in vanilla and melted butter and stir until mixed. Add flour, baking powder and salt and stir until smooth. Stir in milk. Divide batter equally between the 2 cupcake liners.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until cake is set. Let cool completely, then frost as desired. I used some leftover white chocolate frosting.
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I have an inkling that these “easy” cupcakes may be made nightly. Does that defeat the purpose?
I’m Jessica and this is where I share my stuff. You will find a balance of healthy recipes, comfort food and indulgent desserts.
Your recipes absolutely make my stomach growl, even right after lunch. The pictures are amazing and make me want to just grab the foods right from the screen!! I want to go home and make all of your cupcakes and cake batter goodies RIGHT NOW! :)
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I’m so impressed that you developed these from scratch! They look SO delicious. dense and soft at the same time. I think I’ll also try them with maple sugar and/or lavender sugar, both of which I have but never really use. This is the perfect way to try them out. Thank you again, though my clothes don’t really appreciate you much. I keep going to the gym more and more, it’s the only way to keep reading your blog which I think I gain weight from just looking at.
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Jessica — March 16th, 2011 @ 5:28 pm
Those ideas sound delicious!
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Wow. Looks amazing! I love how “vannilla-y” they will be! I think I might just eat the batter first, though!
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This is a fabulous idea!
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Thank you so much for this recipe! :D
Now I know what to bake when I need a sweet treat! hahaha
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I love this, how fun! Sometimes I’m just craving one cupcake and don’t want to go through the hassle of making a whole dozen (or two)…I also don’t want to eat the whole bunch myself! What a cute idea, love it : )
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BRILLIANT!!!!!!
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oh such a good idea and they look SO delicious! sprinlkles on top next time!!!
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Love these! Perfect for a late night treat after the kids are in bed! I’m a mean mama. ;)
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2 is a safe number :) Safer, anyways!
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Girl, your timing could not be any more perfect! I just so happens I needed to make 4 cupcakes for this evening! Doubling this seems a heck of a lot easier than cutting a regular recipe into 1/3′s!
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I think you should do a whole series on mini-recipes like this. I LOVE to bake, and my husband HATES sweets. I end up making, and eating, a whole batch, and while I’m an active girl, my metabolism isn’t exactly magical.
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OMG…I just made these and they are soooo yummy. I ate just one and will have to control myself to save the other for tomorrow…breakfast maybe? These little treasures could become an addicting go to treat. The amount of vanilla was perfect and the texture is as well. I am teaching a Cupcakes 101 Community Ed workshop next Monday evening. I will have to let the participants know about your site and this recipe.Thanks for sharing this and keep creations coming!
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Jessica — March 16th, 2011 @ 8:50 pm
So glad you like them Nancy!
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What a wonderful idea, cupcakes for two is perfecttttt!!!
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That’s wonderful! And they look perfect! What kind of frosting and what size of frosting tip did you use?
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Jessica — March 16th, 2011 @ 9:34 pm
I linked the frosting in the recipe – it was some leftover white chocolate frosting I had from red velvet brownies! And I used tip #199.
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Perfect! Two little cupcakes will serve one (me!)
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these look sooooo goood! I think cupcakes are my favorite frosted dessert :o)
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Lisa — March 17th, 2011 @ 11:26 am
Just made them (swapped stevia for sugar) so far so good!!!
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hehe how funny, my boyfriend/partner is exactly the same, a man of simple tastes aka plain and boring, where as I like a little bit of excitement in my baking :)
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There’s nothing plain and simple about them…except that they’re SIMPLY adorable! :-)
Helpful tip, though: If you’d like to prevent your muffin tin from an untimely death due to Warpomyalgia (death by warp from the oven heat), you should make sure that there are never empty tins placed into the oven. The solution is simple….fill each empty tin 2/3rds full with water! :-)
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Great idea and so cute! Love simple recipes!
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This is perfect!! I love recipes for super small servings yayy :)
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What a great idea!!!
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Love this! This is a great recipe, I’ll totally be using this whenever I just want cupcakes for me and my mom. I love how you can easy add flavorings too. This is perfect.
Can’t wait to try it, thank you tons for the recipe!!
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Your cakes look so simple and moist. Love the idea of just making two..perfect amount to eat and to not overeat..
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How cute to portion it! Love the idea!
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Thank you for this recipe – just in time…I wanted to make cupcakes for my daughter and myself for St. Paddy’s, but didn’t want a whole batch sitting around….going turn these green!
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Love this idea so much! I feel so bad when desserts get thrown away, but when there’s only two of you it’s not possible to finish off a whole pan of brownies by yourselves! Actually I’m lying. It is possible. But I try to avoid it if possible.
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Two bowls… But i’ll forgive it, because they look really good.
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Yesyesyes! The world needs more dessert recipes made for two! This recipe is totally part of the fight against obesity ;)
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Just made these. UNREAL. So easy. So delicious.
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Jessica — March 17th, 2011 @ 9:57 pm
Awesome!
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I love this idea because there are SO MANY times when I crave cake but don’t want to (more like shouldn’t) eat cake for a whole week. I’ve done something similar a few times by mixing ingredients in a cup and “baking” them in the microwave. They never turn out as perfect looking as these though! I’ll have to try them when the next craving strikes! Shouldn’t be too long…
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This is such a great idea — the hubs and I love cupcakes, and a full batch is dangerous! Have you tried baking them in a convection oven or toaster oven? Do they come out ok? I hate waiting for the oven to preheat sometimes…
PS – I’ve only recently discovered your blog and I love it! I’ve been making a bunch of your recipes this week! Thank you for all you post!
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Jessica — March 17th, 2011 @ 9:55 pm
I’ve never tried, I don’t even have a toasted oven so I’m not sure! Thanks so much!
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Mary Beth — March 18th, 2011 @ 4:14 am
Butting in here–I used a small enough pan to fit in the toaster oven and they worked just fine!
Jessica — March 18th, 2011 @ 6:45 am
Great to know – thanks!
I made these within minutes of finding them on foodgawker! :)
I veganized with Ener-G Egg Replacer (using a whole egg’s worth). I also used canola oil instead of butter (because I was lazy) and coconut milk instead of cow milk. Delicious!
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Thanks!! This would be perfect for the husband and I, since we are not big “dessert people”, but we like something sweet once in a while.
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Thank you, Thank you , Thank you!!! I love this idea of just two cupcakes :) Yummy… Also you have gotten me addicted to buying frosting tips!!! I have got quite the collection now. Micheal’s Craft Store is loving me. Have a great weekend. XoXo
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I love the idea of desserts for 2 rather than 12.. i’ve never actually made a double serving dessert though.. so i normally cave and end up with a load of cupcakes. These look great though! Thanks for sharing!
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These were perfect! So good… thanks!
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Nothing like portion control.
Perfect size recipe for my little family. I would have to make 1 1/2 the batch to get three.
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You are a genius. I made these the other night. Mine were a little flatter than yours – didn’t have the nice dome on top. I think maybe my muffin tin is a wider cup than yours. I am going to attempt chocolate tonight. I have my changes already written down and I totally think it will work. I will post both cupcakes and the chocolate recipe on my blog acupfullofcake.blogspot.com and give you FULL credit and link back to you for sure. Thanks for a killer recipe!!
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I just made these, and I’m wondering what went wrong? Mine came out overly spongy and REALLY eggy. I made the recipe exactly as stated, I also had to bake them for almost 20 minutes. Something must have been off, so I am on a mission to figure it out. Perhaps I need to up the flour? Or maybe cut the butter down? What do you think? I don’t take a recipe going wrong lightly, especially when I know they can look like that!
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Jessica — March 23rd, 2011 @ 4:50 pm
Did you use an entire egg?? The recipe only calls for one egg WHITE, not a whole egg. I can’t imagine why else it would taste eggy!
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Nope, I used one egg white, 1/4 cup flour scooped and leveled…I really think the butter may be the culprit. I may have to measure it in grams next time so it’s more precise. We don’t have those nifty sticks with measure marks. I sure do miss the states sometimes….I will get to the bottom of this :P
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Jessica — March 23rd, 2011 @ 5:55 pm
Keep me posted! I’m curious because I’ve only heard of them working out for others, but now I’m wondering if some are having problems and just not saying anything!
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Emily — July 5th, 2011 @ 11:17 pm
Just wanted to weigh in! I just made them and they tasted a tiny bit off. I guess eggy might be a good way to say it. They almost tasted savory. It may be one of two things: (1) I used salted butter because it’s all I have in the house (2) I think maybe my egg was too big? Is that crazy? Anyway, I will definitely be making them again hopefully with a little more success. :)
Sarah — January 4th, 2013 @ 9:51 pm
Mine tasted eggy, too! And they took a lot longer to bake. It really didn’t stop me from eating, though, and I think it was just user error. I doubled the recipe for my family of 4 and wasn’t that ‘precise’ when measuring out the flour. I didn’t add as much vanilla (I will next time–it wasn’t over powering like I thought it would be) but I don’t think that was the problem. I also wondered about the size of my eggs. Did you sift your flour first before measuring or did you even sift at all? Do you think it mattered that I used bread flour? Just remembered I did that, too.
I just discovered your blog (thank you, pinterest!), and was literally drooling over every picture that I saw. Wow, your food looks so good! Can’t wait to try some more things!
Will do! And when I get it right they’ll be going on my blog with due credit :)
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Made these last night and they were AMAZING. I did have to bake them for 20 minutes and they did come out heavier than any cupcake I’ve ever had…but I liked them better that way. I have a feeling this is going to be a weekly thing :)
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I have three kids and my eldest who is 6 asked me for cupcakes at 8 oclock at night. He had been having a high fever for the last few days and wasn’t eating much. He just had a craving for cupcakes. I found this recipe and didn’t realize it was for only two portions until I started making it. By 8:30 all three of my kids were enjoying their cupcakes (the youngest is two so he only needed a half portion). I will not forget the grateful look on my son’s face while he was eating his cupcake.
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These are awesome! My husband always wants me to make just two servings of things, but growing up in a big family has made it difficult for me to pare things down. This little recipe is great, and my husband loved it. Thank you so much!
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OMG sooo cute, i never thought of doing this, but what a great idea. Makes you eat less.
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I made this tonight with my daughter because she is in a cupcake club with 2 other girls at school (they just made this club up one day on the way home on the bus) They came out great! She topped them with strawberries and can’t wait till bring them in tomorrow! Thanks again for the recipe!
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This is such a great idea!! I hate that I want like one cupcake and I have to make a dozen or two dozen.. Now my roommate and I can satisfy our cupcake cravings without having to make a whole batch!
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I tried these last night and they were so awesome! The boyfriend liked them too, which is always a good sign as his sweet tooth isnt nearly so big as mine ;) I did a vanilla-lemon topping (halfway between a glaze and an icing, really). Today, as I type this, I am trying a chocolate version – took out 1 heaping tsp of flour and replaced it with the same of cocoa powder. 5 more minutes until bliss! lol Thanks for the awesome recipe!!!
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Oh, one more thing…following the recipe exactly in measuring, I found that either i had 2 GIANT cupcakes which needed 15mins bake time, or three nice sized ones :) which is good, because the cook gets to taste test before sharing, right? ;)
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