Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Buttercream

I love cupcakes, they are generally small and cute, and the perfect size for one serving. When I went to make these vanilla bean cupcakes, I realized I did not have the vanilla bean...Hmmm. Should I try it with regular vanilla, which would still be tasty, but that wasn't enough I thought. So what did I do, I turned to my trusty Penzeys Vanilla. Which if you choose to use this wonderful vanilla, there is actually a vanilla bean in the bottle (with the extract!) So I fished it out, took my paring knife with a freshly sharpened tip, split the bean open, scraped the seeds out and added them to the mix. Crisis averted-right?!



You'll notice in the image below the cupcake has a bit of sparkle to it, which is due to the sugar glitter I used to dress her up. The sugar glitter I used was purchased at Michael's.



Vanilla Bean Cupcakes (from Williams Sonoma)

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup sugar
6 Tbs. (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 whole egg plus 1 egg white, at room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla extract (and if you are using, the seeds from one vanilla bean)
1/2 cup milk
Vanilla buttercream for frosting cupcakes


Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan ( or use your 6 cup muffin pan twice) with paper or foil liners.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together the sugar and butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the speed to low and add the egg and egg white one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with the milk in 2 additions, beating until just combined; scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat just until no traces of flour remain, about 30 seconds; do not over beat.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full. Bake until the cupcakes are lightly golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Then transfer the cupcakes to the rack and let cool completely, about 1 hour.

Frost the cupcakes with the buttercream. (The frosted cupcakes can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days; bring to room temperature before finishing.)

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (William Sonoma)

6 cups confectioners’ sugar
16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter
4 1/2 Tbs. milk, plus more, if needed
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
Food colorings (optional)

Have all the ingredients at room temperature.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, combine the confectioners sugar, butter, the 4 1/2 Tbs. milk, the vanilla and salt and beat on low speed until combined, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Increase the speed to medium and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

If the frosting is dry, add more milk, 1 tsp. at a time, until it is creamy but still holds peaks. Tint with food coloring as desired. Makes about 4 cups.

Interesting Vanilla Info

So I received this Cooks Illustrated newsletter in my inbox and it had an article about vanilla taste testing. It said that overall real vanilla was preferred for cakes, icecreams, sauces etc., but for cookies artificial vanilla was preferred to the taste testers. The article went on to say that because cookies get hotter during the baking stage than cakes do internally, a lot of the components of real vanilla burn off or cook off because of the high temperatures. Artificial vanilla maintains its qualities at higher temps than real vanilla.

I usually use only Penzeys vanilla in everything, and I read up more on artificial vanilla (I was for a moment thinking I need to pick up some artificial stuff for cookies) and artificial vanilla, or vanillin, is derived from coal tar or a form of petroleum! Ish, I don't want that in my cookies! However, I feel it's six in one hand and a half dozen in the other. If the cookies taste better, why not use it? But fake stuff scares me, I try my hardest to only use the natural version of things. I don't know, it's a tough quandary right?!

To read the original article from Cooks Illustrated, click here.