Today is my birthday, and I've been craving a really, really GREAT vanilla cupcake for weeks now. Last night I made the 'white on white' cake recipe, but substituted sour cream for the buttermilk, as it was late at night and I had no buttermilk. Big mistake. 6 of the cupcakes poofed up and imploded down into themselves, so ended up being a cupcake shell. I then made SMBC frosting, and used real vanilla beans in it as always.
I had one today, and it was a disappointment. It was okay, but it wasn't GREAT. I really craved a great cupcake, and got an 'ok' one that is only good. Darn it. Well, lesson learned. Use buttermilk next time..... 
PS - at least they're not dry. I despise dry cake....
Happy Birthday! I know what it's like to crave a cake for your birthday...I craved coconut cake for mine for 3 years but it was always too hot to make it, no one else likes coocnut, etc etc.
Finally this year my g'daughter baked me a coconut cake from scratch...yum! It was so good and moist that the extra that I'd frozen (an 8" from leftover batter) was taken out and she won a first place at a local fair with it...one month later.
Anyway, I'm surprised the sour cream didn't work. I love sour cream in cakes.
Thanks, VTcake. I was surprised, also. In the famous Hershey chocolate cake recipe that so many of us use (on the cocoa tin), I always substitute the milk that is called for in the recipe with sour cream. The substitution makes that cake much better. Not so much in this one.....
Today is my birthday, and I've been craving a really, really GREAT vanilla cupcake for weeks now. Last night I made the 'white on white' cake recipe, but substituted sour cream for the buttermilk, as it was late at night and I had no buttermilk. Big mistake. 6 of the cupcakes poofed up and imploded down into themselves, so ended up being a cupcake shell. I then made SMBC frosting, and used real vanilla beans in it as always.
I had one today, and it was a disappointment. It was okay, but it wasn't GREAT. I really craved a great cupcake, and got an 'ok' one that is only good. Darn it. Well, lesson learned. Use buttermilk next time.....
PS - at least they're not dry. I despise dry cake....
You can make your own buttermilk, I use 1 tablespoon vinager to 1/2 cup milk. Let it set for approx. 5 mins.
Enchantedcreations,
I used to do that when I was a teen and baked in my mom's kitchen. however, I read on this message board that what you described is really sour milk, and not buttermilk. I don't know if that makes a difference or not....
I guess you could view it that way. However, it doesn't taste sour to me. But it works as a substitute, which is what it's meant to be, when you don't have the real thing and you're stuck.
If you look in the back of cookbooks, it's listed as an emergency sub when you don't have the real thing. So if you only need 1/2 cup or if you get that whim at 10:00 pm to bake, you know you can still pull it all together. Or if live out in God's Country! LOL
But you do raise a valid point.
Interesting update. Last night, after giving all my cupcakes away but for two of them, I decided to eat one, as there was nothing in the house to eat. It was really quite good. It needed 24 hrs to develop its flavor. I should have known better. So, I feel redeemed, AND I had a very good cupcake for my birthday after all!! 
Quote by @%username% on %date%
%body%