Friday, April 22, 2011

White Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting

Yesterday afternoon, Gma and Gpa came and got the girls for an impromptu overnight adventure.

 Yesterday afternoon, the turkeys were gobbling and Eric went to hunt them.

At 5:30, I found myself in an empty house with three softened sticks of butter sitting on my counter.

There were five, originally, but my dog ate two of them, wrapper and all. He ate another one this morning. He has eaten three sticks of butter in a twenty-four hour period. He better get his cholesterol checked.

So, anywho. At 5:30, I looked at those three sticks of softened butter and thought about my options.

I chose sugar cookies and white cupcakes.


Here are the cupcakes. But they are a little naked. They are probably cold. They need to be dressed. What better to dress them in but frosting? But not just any frosting will do. No. For these cupcakes, we need a special frosting. How about vanilla bean buttercream frosting? Well, alriiight. Let's go!


Put a stick of softened butter in a bowl. Whip it up a bit. Now whip it. Into shape. Shape it up. Get straight. Go forward. Move ahead. Try to detect it. It's not too late, to whip...whip it good.

Yup, I just did that. Sorry. The urge came over me and I had to do it. Devo told me to.

Set the bowl of whipped butter aside.

 

Grab a vanilla bean. If you don't have a vanilla bean or don't want to buy a vanilla bean or can't find a vanilla bean, you can totally use vanilla extract. You need the seeds of one bean or 1 teaspoon of extract.


To get the seeds out, take a very sharp paring knife and slice the bean straight down the middle. Peel the bean open, trying to lay it flat. It's not going to lay flat, but try to pry it open so you can get in there.


Using the back of the paring knife, drag along the bean to collect the seeds.


Toss the seeds in a bowl with powdered sugar and milk. At first, mix it by hand to start incorporating the powdered sugar into the wet ingredients. Then, use a hand mixer to get everything all smooth and delicious.


Look at that. That looks good enough to eat.

It smells divine. Those vanilla beans not only taste amazing, they also smell amazeballs.


Frost your cupcakes and decorate in which ever way you'd like. Mine are for Easter, if they last that long. I delivered some this morning to Gma and Gpa. That leaves us with 8. Avery placed a claim on one for later today. That means Kendall will want one too. And if they are having one, I want one too. So that leaves us with 5. It seems as if the numbers are working against us here. We will see if we can make 5 cupcakes last 2 days. It doesn't look good but we will try our best.

Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting

This recipe will produce enough frosting for 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup salted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
the seeds of one vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cups whole milk

The Process

In a medium bowl, whip the butter. Cut open the vanilla bean and extract the seeds. Add vanilla bean seeds, powdered sugar, and milk. Mix by hand to incorporate the powdered sugar, then beat to smooth out the frosting. Frost cupcakes.

White Cupcakes

This recipe will make 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

Make 'em

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a cupcake pan.

In a large bowl, beat the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugar. Beat for 3 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the yolks, one at a time, beating well. Add the vanilla. Beat until combined.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.

With the mixer on low, alternately add the flour and milk to the butter mixture until combined.

In a small bowl, beat the egg whites on high until they are foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat until stiff peaks form. With a rubber spatula, fold the egg whites into the batter.

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely, frost, decorate and devour.



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