Category Archives: Recipes

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Miniature Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream Icing

I’ve had this recipe pinned for a while now on Pinterest and have been dying to try it, but didn’t have any vanilla beans. The other day I happened to see some for pretty cheap on Amazon and ordered them after reading the good reviews. So today, I made mini cupcakes! I used Melanie’s recipe from her blog The Sweet Life (there are tons of great recipes on her blog!) Here is the recipe:

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes (recipe from The Sweet Little Book of Cupcakes)

yield: 12 cupcakes (or about 36 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 2/3 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • seeds from 1/4 vanilla bean I actually used a whole vanilla bean
  • 2/3 cup milk

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.  Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin liners.  In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
  2. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the sides and add the egg; beat until combined.  Beat in the vanilla extract.
  3. Scrape the seeds of 1/4 of a the vanilla bean; add them to the milk.  Add the milk mixture and flour mixture to the butter mixture alternatively in three steps, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Mix on medium-low until smooth.
  4. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 liners; bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake for another 12 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  5. Cool completely before frosting.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
  • 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
  • seeds from 1/4 vanilla bean I used a whole vanilla bean
  • 2 cups confectioners sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the butter and shortening on high until smooth and creamy.  Scrape the seeds from 1/4 of a vanilla bean; add the seeds and the confectioners sugar to the butter mixture.  Start the mixer on low until the sugar starts to incorporate, then beat on medium for about 30 seconds.  Add the vanilla extract and beat on high 1-2 minutes, or until smooth and fluffy.

The specks of vanilla look awesome

I made a few regular size cupcakes for my family