Golden Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Tender and moist, yet sturdy enough to hold up under a stack of frosting, these cupcakes will quickly become your favorite vanilla extravagance.
Servings: 30 regular size cupcakes or 120 mini size cupcakes or a combination of both sizes
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour spooned into measuring cup, then sifted
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 vanilla bean may use 1 additional teaspoon of vanilla extract if vanilla bean is not available
- 1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 2/3 cups white granulated sugar
- 4 whole eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup milk whole or 2% recommended
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350-degrees F. Place cupcake papers in muffin tins; set aside.
- In a medium-size mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.
- Slice vanilla bean in half lengthwise. With the dull side of knife, scrape the vanilla caviar from each bean half.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, with the paddle attachment beat vanilla bean caviar, butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a measuring cup with a pour spout, stir together the buttermilk, milk and vanilla.
- Stir approximately 1/3 of flour mixture into the butter/sugar mixture followed by 1/3 of the buttermilk mixture. Repeat twice more, stirring just until ingredients are well blended. Do not over-mix. The batter is relatively thick.
- Using an ice cream scoop (or a ¼ cup measuring cup), scoop batter into prepared muffin tins.Tap the tins against the counter top several times to help settle the batter and release any large air bubbles which may be caught in the thick batter.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of several cupcakes comes out clean. Please note: When done, the cupcakes should be pale on top and will spring back when lightly touched. Be careful not to over bake. Over baking will cause the cupcakes to be dry. If using two pans in the same oven at the same time, rotate pans halfway through baking time.
- Allow baked cupcakes to cool in muffin tins for about 5 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tins and place on cooling rack. When cool, frost as desired.
Notes
For mini cupcakes: Bake mini cupcakes for about 10 minutes at 350-degrees F. This recipe will make approximately 120 mini's. For a combination of regular size cupcakes and mini cupcakes, the recipe can make 24 regular size, and 24 mini size.
I live at high altitude, so the batter ingredients react a bit differently here. The cupcake recipe as written worked well for me.
Reserve the scraped vanilla bean pod for other uses. Suggestions: 1) Push down into canister of white sugar. The pods will give the sugar a soft vanilla essence. 2) Add to a bottle of vanilla extract to pump up the flavor of the vanilla. Cut the pod to size before adding so that it will be submerged below the level of the extract.
Recipe adapted from Sweetopia