Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

It’s Sunday, time for a little treat?? So how about these Vanilla Bean Cupcakes? Moist, vanilla flavoured sponge, topped with the lightest, most dreamy vanilla buttercream and a pearl, because you are special.

Look how pretty these cupcakes are. So beautiful, that I almost called them antique Vanilla Bean Cupcakes, although I thought better of it. Since I’m pretty sure everyone would have imagined them as hard, mouldy, relics of the past – yep not conjuring up the image I’d like!!!

Especially stunning are these cupcake cases. A wonderful Christmas present from a much loved friend.

 

Thank You For The Presents:

Because I received quite a few cooking and baking related presents last year, for both Christmas and my birthday, using them feel extra extra special. Especially the little, cute, individual cupcake stand , present from my hubby.

Also I was very excited to receive four cookbooks, which I enjoy reading, as if they are novels. Although I very rarely follow a recipe religiously, I gather inspiration and ideas from my ever increasing cookbook collection.

Am I alone in my cookbook obsession collection?  Thought not!!!

These Vanilla Bean Cupcakes were the final bake for a review I have been carrying out. So after much discussion with my daughter, regarding flavour combinations, we decided to settle on a classic vanilla sponge, with the addition of vanilla bean paste instead of extract. Yet I kept to vanilla extract for the best buttercream icing ever!

The result being, the best cupcakes I have made, this year!

Recipe: Makes 12 deep filled Vanilla Bean Cupcakes or 18-20 standard ones.

For the cupcakes

150g/6oz Caster Sugar

150g/6oz Unsalted Butter at room temperature

1/4tsp Salt – I use Maldon 

150g/6oz Plain White Flour

1.5 tsp Baking powder – I use Waitrose 

1tsp Vanilla Bean Paste – I use Nielsen-Massey 

3 Large Eggs – I always use free range

25ml/1fl oz Whole Milk

Cupcake cases

For the buttercream

400g/14oz Icing Sugar -sieved

200g/7oz Unsalted Butter – very soft

1/8tsp Salt

1tsp Vanilla Extract – I use Nielsen-Massey

3tbsp Boiling Water

Edible pearls or sprinkles for decoration

Method: Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan oven, gas mark 4, 350F

Making And Baking The Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

• First of all, into a large bowl add the butter and caster sugar.
• Whisk the ingredients together until pale and creamy.

• Add the eggs, milk, vanilla bean extract and salt to the bowl and whisk until fully combined.

• Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl.

• Fold all of the ingredients together.

• Spoon the cake batter into each cupcake case so that they are half full.

• Place the cupcake tray into the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 20 – 25 minutes (a shorter time will be required for smaller cupcakes).
• The cupcakes are baked when golden brown and spring back when pressed lightly in the centre.
• As soon as the cupcakes are baked remove the from the oven.

• Allow the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then place them on to a cooling rack to cool completely.

The Key To Making The Lightest Buttercream Frosting:

• Place the butter, salt, vanilla extract and butter into a large bowl.

• Starting on a low speed whisk all of the ingredients together.

• For the very lightest, creamiest buttercream, continue mixing for 10 minutes. The result will be the dreamiest buttercream icing you will ever have tasted.
• The addition of very hot water to the buttercream mix, stops it from forming a hard crust.

Decorating The Cupcakes:

• Fit a large piping bag with the tip of your choice – I used a large French star tip.
• Fill the bag with buttercream and fold over the top of the bag.
• Using a circular motion, pipe buttercream in a swirl effect, onto the top of each cupcake.

• Finally top each cupcake with an edible pearl, or edible decoration of your choice.

I hope you’ll agree with me, that these cupcakes are elegantly beautiful ?

Usually I cannot wait to sprinkle edible glitter on, well pretty much anything I bake, but these Vanilla Bean Cupcakes looked so perfect after the addition of the pearl, that I managed to restrain myself.

Resulting in a spectacularly elegant cupcake, that tastes every bit as good as it looks.

While carrying out a review of a cupcake tin for British Bakeware, I was impressed with how evenly the cupcakes baked. Also the tin washed clean easily in hot soapy water.

These Vanilla Bean Cupcakes did not last very long in our home, although I did give our neighbours a couple. I believe food tastes better when shared. While I only spent 10 minutes with them, we had a lovely catch up chat and they were thrilled with the cupcakes I gave to them.

If you enjoyed this recipe for Vanilla Bean Cupcakes, then I hope you’ll like these too:

Black Forest Cupcakes

Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes 

Pink Heart Topped White Chocolate Cupcakes 

During the winter months especially, weeks, indeed months can easily pass without people living in close proximity, exchanging a word. Furthermore it really is worth taking a few minutes out of each day, once a week, or so, to make the effort to talk to those who live close by.

Are you friendly with your neighbours?

Do you keep a check on elderly or infirm neighbours, especially during the cold, winter months?

Whatever you are making, baking and creating have fun preparing and sharing your feast.

Sammie xx

@sammiefeasting Twitter/Instagram