Sunday 18 May 2014

Vanilla Cupcakes



If you are a vanilla fan, you are going to love these. There are 4 ways I included vanilla flavor today: vanilla beans, vanilla extract, vanilla yogurt, and vanilla almond milk. Don’t worry, the only two very important ones are the vanilla extract and vanilla beans. Feel free to use regular yogurt and milk if you need to. Today’s easy cupcakes are sweetened with sugar, left moist and soft from butter and yogurt, and their color remains impeccably white from using 2 egg whites. The presence of an egg yolk made these cupcakes a bit too yellow, so I subbed an egg white the second time I made these today. Feel free to use regular yogurt and milk if you need to.
• 1 and 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 egg whites
• 1/4 cup vanilla greek yogurt (or plain; or regular yogurt; or even sour cream)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• seeds scraped from 1/2 split vanilla bean

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 4-5 cups powdered (confectioners') sugar
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• seeds scraped from 1/2 split vanilla bean
• salt, to taste
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Stir in sugar - mixture will be gritty. Stir in egg whites, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract until combined. Split 1 vanilla bean down the middle lengthwise. Scrape seeds from half of the vanilla bean into batter. Reserve other half.
3. Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no lumps remain. Batter will be thick.
4. Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners (or 24 mini) and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Bake for 8-9 minutes if making mini cupcakes. Allow to cool.
5. To make the frosting, beat softened butter on medium speed with an electric or stand mixer. Beat for about 3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar, cream, vanilla extract, and vanilla bean seeds with the mixer running. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 minutes. Add more powdered sugar if frosting is too thin or more cream if mixture is too thick. Add salt if frosting is too sweet (1/4 teaspoon). Frost cooled cupcakes. There may be leftover frosting depending how much you use on each cupcake.
6. Store cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days and in the refrigerator up to 7.

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12 comments:

  1. Wow !! spongy cake with delicious vanilla frosting .

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  2. Moist and spongy cupcake !

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  3. Simple cake with the luscious frosting. Like to grab one right now Jaspinder.

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  4. Stunning they are, love that prefect piping..Feel like licking that frosting.

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  5. oh my they are beauties
    oh wow i can have this all:)
    Perfectly done

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  6. WONDERFUL FLUFFY FROSTING WITH PERFECT CAKE .........REALLY

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  7. They look so wonderful and I love the frosting! So glad you included the other options in your recipe. It's interesting to read them all!

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  8. after cardamom, vanilla is my other favorite ingredients, looks yummy

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  9. i love vanilla & i loved this cute yummy cupcakes..they look so pretty dear..

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  10. Wow!! Who will say NO to these gorgeous beauties!!!! Yummy!!

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