Ultimate Vanilla Challenge

Most people who know me know that I would love to own my own bakery and it goes with out saying that I bake A LOT!! But one day my mom said to me "you should probably start figuring out some signature flavors". Well, she is totally right! I can't open my own bakery and not have a menu full of my own recipes. So I have decided to start with the most basic cupcake: vanilla. Yes, I have set out to find the very best vanilla cupcake and won't stop until it is perfect. I don't think that's too much to ask for, do you? For my first experiment i thought i'd try a recipe that claims to be "The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake".

What You'll Need

The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake
recipe adapted from The Cupcake Project's Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake

1 cup of sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter
2 large eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tblsp vanilla
2/3 cup milk

First i made vanilla sugar by combining the sugar with the vanilla bean. Personally, I love vanilla sugar and generally have some around the house but happened to be out. In fact, when I use vanilla beans i put the left over bean pod in either my vanilla sugar of homemade vanilla extract. Those darn beans cost so much i'm determined to get the max use out of them!! Now, for those of you who have never worked with real vanilla beans before, have no fear, it is quite simple. Just lay the bean out on a flat surface and use a sharp knife to cut open the bean running along the entire length. Once open, scrape down the inside of the bean with the dull side of the knife. This will scrape out all the tiny little flecks of vanilla. Those tiny little flecks are what you want, not the pod. If you have it, you can substitute vanilla bean paste but you won't need as much because it is highly concentrated.

I then mixed together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Then I added the vanilla sugar. Then I added the butter and mixed it until it formed a crumb like texture. In a separate bowl, i whisked together the eggs, sour cream, oil and vanilla. I then mixed the egg and flour mixture together until they were just combined. Then I slowly added in the milk. This resulted in what looked like and extremely liquidy batter, but the recipe said that was how it should look so i trusted it.

I filled the the cupcake liners a little over half full and baked them at 350 for about 17-18 minutes. The original recipe said they would only need approximately 15 minutes but when i inserted a toothpick into them at 15 minutes they were still fairly wet. Once they were completely done, i flipped them out onto a cooling rack and started on the frosting. **I'd like to mention that I LOVE using real vanilla beans because i think all the little flecks look pretty in the cupcake!

For the frosting I decided to try a vanilla buttercream recipe that came from the same site as the cupcakes. I typically don't make buttercreams and prefer to make cream cheese frostings but that is what the author said as well. She even went as far as to say that this was one of her favorite frostings and tasted like melted vanilla ice cream. So i though, "This, I have to try!".

What You'll Need

Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting

recipe adapted from The Cupcake Project's Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar (you can add more until the frosting reaches your preferred consistency)

1/2 cup unsalted butter

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tblsp milk

Mix together the sugar and butter until they are creamy.Then add the vanilla bean paste and milk. You can add more sugar if the frosting isn't as thick as you'd like it.

After I make frostings I ALWAYS stick my finger in it and have a little sample before i frost my cupcakes. Let me just say that the woman from The Cupcake Project was correct, this is melted vanilla ice cream in my your mouth!! It is so sweet but yet so amazingly delicious! And just like the cupcakes, the little flecks of vanilla only added to my enchantment. 

Now for the fun part... frosting the cupcakes. Since the frosting was pretty sweet i decided that you wouldn't need a huge swirl of frosting on top (and I couldn't find my 1A tip anyways) so I opted to use a 1M (large closed star) tip and just put a dollop on top of each cupcake.

And because I am a perfectionist I decided to spruce them up a little bit and sprinkle some edible gold dust on top to add some pizazz! **Shout out to my sister, Alana, for buying me the "disco dust"!

First things first, these were good cupcakes! I must say they were tasty, light and fluffy, and moist. And the frosting was literally the icing on the cake. All my coworkers said they were delicious and couldn't believe they were eating gold dust! With that said, I'm not convinced this was "The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake". I don't know what it is that i'm missing but it just didn't scream out Amazing Vanilla to me. Never the less, this is a good vanilla cake that i'd recommend anyone try.