Missing Tim Horton's Sour Cream Donuts (plain & glazed)

It's no secret that I miss Canada and everything about it. For example, my husband and I were walking down Pine Street to get our hair trimmed at Raven, when we happened to pass some sort of sports bar -maybe it was just a regular bar with televisions. When I looked at what was on, I saw the very distinct CBC logo in the upper lefthand corner, at which point I started to jump up and down and scream, "CBC! They're watching hockey on CBC!" Also, I haven't heard anyone use the term "double double" here, something I only learned in Ontario but still makes me giggle. (It means two creams & two sugars for your coffee) I haven't been able to find a place that sells sour cream donuts either, even though Top Pot Donuts is pretty amazing. I was looking up the recipe when I stumbled upon a yellow cupcake recipe on joyofbaking.com that calls for half a cup of sour cream! Well, that got me excited, and instead of a quiet night just watching Shakespeare In Love for the 50th time and drinking tea (household addiction, we have 20 varieties of tea) I had a cozy evening of baking yellow sour cream cupcakes with chocolate frosting! These are REALLY good and I highly recommend that you try the recipe. It's even good without the chocolate frosting, if that's any indication to you of their scrumptiousness. I think next time I'm going to use a plain sugar glaze so that I can get the true sour cream glazed donut effect, and call them: Sour Cream Glazed Donut-Flavoured Cupcakes! Yeah, no, that's too long.

 

This last picture I made for my friend Clementine, who celebrated her birthday this week and who loves cake and cupcakes more than any human being I have ever encountered.

Yellow Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (cut into pieces)

1 large egg, room temperature

2 large egg yolks, room temperature

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly butter or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat to combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter, egg, egg yolks, vanilla extract, and sour cream. Beat the wet and dry ingredients together at medium speed until the batter is smooth and satiny, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. If necessary, stir the batter with a rubber spatula until the flour is fully incorporated. Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 20-25 minutes or until pale gold and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. 

Chocolate Fudge Frosting:

4 oz unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 1/3 cups confectioners (powdered or icing) sugar, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2 -3 minutes).

Keep in mind, the frosting is optional! Mmmmmm!