vanilla

April 10, 2017

Tres Leches Cake: Take Two.

Baking has always been a mostly solitary activity for me. Usually I’m content with this; I’m a very introverted person at heart, after all. I just love being in that therapeutic zone in my own mind when I’m working on a baking project. {But I also have a tendency to be in my own head a bit too much. Oops.}

So I think it goes without saying that it’s not often that I take the opportunity to bake with other people. But every now and again, someone asks to bake with me; in part as a friend date, but also as a baking lesson for them. Making this tres leches cake turned out to be the perfect friend date/baking lesson with one of my newer [but really great!] friends, Helen.

We spent a Saturday morning a while back back dressed up like 1950s housewives, petting her cute little dog, Harry, and making delicious cake. Just ’cause we can. The cake was a very late birthday present for one of our other good friends, Jimmy. You see, tres leches cake is Jimmy’s favorite cake of all time, and I actually made him a tres leches cake using a different recipe a while back. While that recipe certainly wasn’t bad by any means, I had been itching to try a new recipe this time around. I found that I actually prefer this recipe over the old one; this cake was nothing short of amazing.

trust the process collage — {From top to bottom: 1. whipped egg whites; 2. Helen uses the whisk attachment on the mixer; 3. A shot of my half sleeve as I’m using the mixer; 4. Lightly sweetened homemade whipped cream is the best!}

{Side Note: Unfortunately, I didn’t receive my 64 gig SD card for my digital SLR camera in time for this project, so I wasn’t able to take fancy pictures. So you’ll have to deal with semi-crappy phone photos of this cake for now.}

{From top to bottom, left to right: 1) Helen brought her doggie, Harry over to visit for our baking shenanigans; 2) I like to draw my “menu” on the chalkboard in my kitchen; 3) Helen snapped a photo of me pouring the three milks over the cake; and 4) We enable bad doggie behavior by letting Harry sniff some of the cake; don’t worry, I got him some pig ears to make up for the teasing!}

If you’re not familiar with tres leches cake, you are missing out. But don’t worry: I’m here to fill you in on tres leches cake and its awesomeness. Tres leches translates to “three milks” in Spanish. The cake itself is actually a sponge cake, so it soaks up the three milks; the end result is a deliciously moist, rich cake. In this case, the three milks used are evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and heavy cream. We also added some pure vanilla extract and bourbon to the milks for good measure. Then you just make a simple homemade whipped cream topping, and serve it with maraschino cherries after it’s had time to chill in the fridge for a while.

{Our Sunday “Tres Leches Cake and Macaron” party was a smashing success!}

{Jimmy and Helen dig in to their cake slices!}

The recipe itself comes off as slightly intimidating [e.g. separating eggs, whipping egg whites, etc.], but it’s truly not that complicated. It’s mostly a matter of reading the recipe multiple times prior to making it, and ensuring that you understand all the directions. If you’ve got a free Saturday afternoon and you’re looking for a special cake to make for someone, then I’d highly recommend making a tres leches cake. It’s a rare treat for me to have such a cake, but they’re totally worth it. Enjoy. {PS: It also helps when you have great friends to make and share the cake with, plus a cute doggie to “supervise” the process!}

{I enjoy the last few bites of my cake.}

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Tres Leches Cake.

Yield: One 13×9″ pan; about 12 slices.

Ingredients:

For the Cake:
– 1½ cups all-purpose flour
– 2 teaspoons baking powder
– ½ teaspoon salt
– 6 large eggs, separated
– ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
– 1½ cups granulated sugar
– ⅓ cup cold water
– 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
– 1 teaspoon pure almond extract

For the Milks:
– 1 cup heavy cream
– 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
– 1 small can (5 ounces) evaporated milk
– 1 tablespoon rum or brandy {Optional; I used some bourbon because I was out of rum.}
– 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the Whipped Frosting:
– 2 cups cold heavy whipping cream
– ½ cup powdered sugar
– 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract {I used vanilla bean paste here.}
– Sprinkles and maraschino cherries for garnish

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a baking 9×13″ baking pan with parchment paper and/or grease lightly with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and salt, set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment [or an electric hand mixer in a large bowl], whip together the egg whites, along with the cream of tartar until soft peaks form, about 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside.

4. In the rinsed bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks and granulated sugar until thick and pale. Stir in the vanilla extract, almond extract and water, until smooth. Add the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

5. Fold in the egg whites, a one third at a time, making sure to not over mix.

6. Pour batter into prepared baking pan and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan, but on a cooling rack.
7. Whisk together the tres leches ingredients, in a medium bowl. Using a wooden skewer or toothpick, poke holes all throughout the cooled cake. This will allow for the milk mixture to seep in. Pour the milk, evenly, over the cake. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to chill in the fridge for about 3 hours, or overnight. {I let mine chill overnight, and it is definitely worth the wait!}

8. Make the whipped cream topping by beating the heavy whipping cream along with the sugar and vanilla extract, until soft peaks form. Spread the whipped cream over the chilled cake.

Cover and refrigerate overnight.
9. Just before ready to serve, decorate with sprinkles and maraschino cherries! Enjoy chilled!

+ Recipe via The Candid Appetite [Originally found on Joy the Baker’s blog, but I think the recipe is by TCA].

{I had a slice for my post-lunch snack the following day. It was delicious.}

August 26, 2015

Vanilla Cupcakes with Nutella Frosting.

This here is one of those less fancy, photos from Instagram posts.

You see, full-blown food blog posts are – believe it or not – a lot of work. You have to first test the recipe, hope that it turns out if it’s a new-to-you recipe. Then you have to hope that your food looks aesthetically pleasing. After that, you need to plan when to take photos of the food. Edit said photos, upload them, rewrite the recipe in your own words, format things accordingly, and add some writing to the post to make it into that special blog post.

Yeah. It’s a ton of fun; really. I always have a blast when I work on these posts, and I [like most bloggers] truly pour my heart and soul (what soul?) into them. But they are a lot of work. And sometimes with a full-time job, some semblance of a social life, other extra-curricular activities, and the need for sleep/general hygiene/self-care, well… I fall behind. In these times, I find it useful to take photos from my Instagram account of food that I’ve posted before, but hadn’t yet gotten around to blogging about. As I said, this is one of those posts: vanilla cupcakes with Nutella frosting.

To kinda change the subject on you real fast: Did you know that European Nutella is better than American Nutella? Some might disagree, and I haven’t done a side-by-side taste test to be absolutely certain, but I’m pretty sure. When I was in Germany back in June, I consumed massive quantities of Nutella, mostly on flaky croissants. [I’m still dreaming about them.]

I’m not sure what the exact differences are, but I believe that the European Nutella is made with less sugar. It just tastes slightly less sweet, and different… and better. It’s not surprising, though, as mostly everything European is a lot less sweet than what we Americans are used to. And that’s probably a good thing, but I did find it a slight adjustment when I ordered a vanilla latte, for example. I found that I always had to add a tad bit of sugar, because the lattes in Germany aren’t nearly as sweet as ours seem to be by default.

Anyway, Nutella ramblings aside, I unfortunately didn’t make these cupcakes with European Nutella. I made them a month or two before I left for Germany, so I didn’t have access to any. But rest assured, even with our inferior American Nutella, they still turned out tasty! I took them to a work potluck, and people gobbled them up. The cupcakes are made with a simple vanilla cake, but the frosting is where it’s at. The Nutella adds a lovely subtly hazelnut/chocolate flavor to a typical buttercream, and that’s what makes these special. I find that the vanilla/chocolate/hazelnut flavor combination is the bomb.com. Make these with any kind of Nutella (if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on the real deal, then do yourself a favor and use it!), and enjoy!

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Vanilla Cupcakes with Nutella Buttercream Frosting.
Yield: Eighteen regular sized cupcakes. I made both miniature and regular, so I’m not sure how many I got in total!

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
– 2 cups cake flour {I typically use the cake flour substitute of cornstarch and regular AP flour; Google it for more information.}
– 2 tsp. baking powder
– 1/8 tsp. baking soda
– ¼ tsp. salt
– 1 ¼ sticks (10 TBSP.) unsalted butter, softened
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 3 large eggs
– 1 large egg yolk
– 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– ¾ cup whole milk (I used 2%)

Nutella Frosting:
– ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
– 1/2 cup Nutella
– 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1 TBSP. milk
– 1 cup powdered sugar

Instructions:

For the cupcakes:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line eighteen muffin cups with cupcake liners. Set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a hand mixer), beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the sugar and beat it for about three minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add in the vanilla extract.
4. Keeping the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternating with the milk. Begin and end on the dry mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed, and be sure to mix just until the ingredients are combined.
5. Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared muffin tins, filling each cavity about 2/3rds of the way full. Bake for about 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and let cool for ten minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the pan and let them cool on a wire rack.

For the frosting:
1. Beat together the butter and Nutella in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the remaining ingrdients, and beat until the powdered sugar is incorporated.
2. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until the frosting is smooth, fluffy, and stable. Frost completely cooled cupcakes as desired, and enjoy!

+ Recipe from Handle the Heat, who adapted from Koko Cooks, who adapted from Dorie Greenspan.

PS: This is my 100th post! Woohoo! 🙂

July 10, 2015

Rainbow Cupcakes.

This is not the post for you if you hate and/or are weirded out by artificial coloring and/or sprinkles.

This is most definitely the post for you if you: a) love colorful things, and b) you aren’t afraid of ingesting the occasional fake food coloring/chemicals/whatever evil stuff they’re warning us about now.*

*[Obviously, moderation is key. You won’t see me gulping down buckets of food coloring… That’s just nasty. *Cleveland voice* But I don’t think that some artificial colors in my system on occasion is gonna hurt my body any more than life already does. It’ll be aight. Also, #YOLO.]

That’s right. Today I’m talking about rainbow cupcakes! Just look at how pretty they are!

I made these beauties for Pride week in St. Louis. It just so happened that Pride weekend occurred right after the Supreme Court ruling for same-sex marriage was passed. That was a cause for celebration in my book, and no celebration is complete without some kind of sweets. I might be biased, but I think that these rainbow cupcakes were perfect for the celebration.

We’ve got a long way to go in regard to civil issues in this country. I don’t want to get into my personal beliefs too much on here, and I’m not here to shove my “agenda” (for the record, the only “agenda” I have is to bake a lot of tasty sweets and try to be a happy, decent human being!) down anyone’s throat. But the Supreme Court ruling was a big step toward improvement and more open-mindedness and understanding. And I’m thrilled that we’re starting to make some more progress as humans. I hope that we can continue to move forward to work on the myriad of issues involving equality (with sexual orientation, race, gender, etc.). In the meantime, I’ll continue with my attempt to make the world a better place with pretty, homemade baked goods.

For these rainbow cupcakes, I decided to try a new-to-me recipe for vanilla cupcakes. The recipe comes from another fellow STL redhead, Stef. She’s tirelessly tested the “ultimate vanilla cupcake” recipe along with many other bakers. After reading about all of their cupcake testing, I was confident that these cupcakes would turn out great as far as the taste and texture were concerned. Turns out that my confidence was justified, because these cupcakes ended up being 100% amazing!

rainbowinside — {Gorgeous cupcake interior!}

The cupcakes hold up well; the cake is sturdy, but still soft and moist. The vanilla flavor is perfect. I don’t know if my taste buds are just whack, but I swear that I can taste the egg in some vanilla cake recipes [which is a huge turn-off to me]. These aren’t like that at all; they just taste like pure, unadulterated vanilla cake.

To give them that gorgeous, tie-dye/rainbow effect, I got my ideas from this post on Dessert Now, Dinner Later’s blog. Then I topped them with a simple vanilla buttercream, and obviously I had to add lots of rainbow sprinkles, plus some hearts. Yay for pretty rainbow cupcakes, marriage equality, and making progress on some of our issues.

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Vanilla Rainbow Cupcakes.
Yield: About sixteen cupcakes.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 1 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise, and seeds scraped out
– 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising [I used this cake flour substitute from Joy the Baker.]
– 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
– 1/2 tsp. baking soda
– 1/2 tsp. salt
– 1/4 cup (half stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
– 2 large eggs, at room temperature
– 1/3 cup full-fat sour cream
– 1/4 cup canola oil or vegetable oil
– 1 TBSP. pure (not imitation) vanilla extract
– 2/3 cup whole milk [I used 2%.]
– High-quality gel food coloring [I used the Spectrum brand, but the Americolor brand is great too. Wilton is also fine. I wouldn’t use liquid food coloring for this project.], in red, orange (or make your own orange, which is what I did), yellow, green, blue, and purple.

For the frosting: (Note: You may double this recipe, depending on how piled-high you like your frosting.)
– 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar [Add more until it reaches your preferred consistency.]
– 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
– 2 tsp. vanilla bean paste [Add more to taste.]
– 1 TBSP. milk

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with sixteen liners and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean. Using the back of a spoon, apply pressure to break up any clumps of seeds to infuse the vanilla flavor into the sugar. Set aside.
3. In a medium-sized bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until combined.
4. Add the butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes. You’ll end up with a fine, crumb-like texture.
5. In a small, separate mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract until the mixture is smooth.
6. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture, and beat on medium speed until they’re just combined.
7. Slowly add the milk, and mix on low speed. Mix until just combined. The batter will be very liquid-y; this is okay.
8. To create the rainbow effect, evenly divide the batter into six small bowls. Add the desired amount of food coloring to each bowl and gently mix to get your six colors. Be careful to not overdo it with the food coloring; too much and it can make the final product taste bitter.
9. Carefully spoon each color in layers into the cupcake liners, filling until they’re about halfway full. [Alternatively, you can put each batter color into a small Ziplock bag, snip the corner of the bags, and pipe the colors in… That will make the layers more even, but I was too lazy to do that.]
10. Bake the cupcakes for 14 minutes, then test to see if they’re done. They are done when a toothpick comes out clean. The cupcakes won’t be super dark (although they won’t brown much anyway with the colors). Bake a bit longer for a minute to two minute increments until they’re done. Cool on a wire cooling rack.
11. To make the frosting: beat the butter for a few minutes until it’s light and fluffy. Carefully add the powdered sugar and vanilla bean paste (or extract), and beat until light and fluffy. Add milk to thin out the frosting to the desired consistency. Pipe or spread the frosting on the cupcakes as desired, and top with lots of colorful sprinkles! Enjoy.

Recipe Sources:
– Vanilla cupcake recipe from The Cupcake Project.
– Vanilla bean buttercream frosting recipe from The Cupcake Project.
– Rainbow cupcake tutorial from Dessert Now, Dinner Later.

June 7, 2015

Vanilla Funfetti Cupcakes.

Funfetti is just one of those things that everybody likes. It’s just fun, you know? {I’m punny today. Haha.} When it comes to baking, I often like to poll people on their favorite baked goods. When I ask people what their favorite cake is, most people always respond “funfetti.” I began to wonder why, as it’s just vanilla cake loaded with sprinkles. However, I think I get what all the fuss is about now. It really does look cool. And it’s fun (sorry) to eat. One of my friends said that it’s “the most moist cake of all,” but I’m not sure that’s a scientifically sound explanation. 😉

These funfetti cupcakes in particular are from a recipe for just plain old vanilla cupcakes. I decided to add sprinkles to them because I had made them for the cupcake decorating class that I taught several weeks back. I thought that the students would enjoy the pretty colors in the cakes. Anyway, these cupcakes turned out pretty great, in my humble opinion. 🙂 The cake is so vanilla-y and just rich enough. The frosting is your standard buttercream frosting. And of course, adding the sprinkles to the batter gives the cupcakes a fantastic burst of color.

These cupcakes would be super fun to make for a birthday party. Or just make them because sprinkles are awesome.

PS: I’m in Germany at the moment, and I’m having a blast. That’s why posts are a bit sporadic right now; I didn’t have time to schedule as many posts ahead of time as I would have liked. Whoops. Oh well. More updates to come soon! <3

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Funfetti Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream.
Yield: 12-14 regular sized cupcakes.

Ingredients:
For the cupcakes:
– 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 1/4 tsp. baking soda
– 1 tsp. baking powder
– 3/4 cup salted butter, at room temperature
– 3 large egg whites
– 3 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– 1/2 cup sour cream
– 1/2 cup milk
– 1/2 cup of multicolored sprinkles [Jimmies work best for this.]

For the frosting:

– 1 cup [two sticks] unsalted butter

– 4 cups powdered sugar

– 2-3 TBSP. milk or cream

– 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners, and set aside.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients [flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder] in a large mixing bowl (or in the bowl of a stand mixer).
3. Add the butter, egg whites, vanilla, sour cream, and milk, and mix on medium speed until smooth. Be careful to not over mix. Fold in sprinkles until evenly incorporated in the batter.
4. Fill the prepared liners a bit more than halfway, and bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (or with a few moist crumbs). Allow the cupcakes to cool completely.
5. For the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high speed until it’s lighter in color and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar, and beat until combined. Add the vanilla extract, and one or two tablespoons of the milk. Continue beating until light and fluffy; adding more milk as needed. Frost the cooled cupcakes as desired!

– Cupcake recipe from Life, Love, and Sugar.
– Buttercream recipe barely adapted, also from Life, Love, and Sugar.

May 9, 2015

{Vegan} Vanilla Cupcakes.

I feel the need to preface this blog post with a statement: I’m pretty much all for the real butter, y’all. *Paula Deen voice.*

Rarely will I buy shortening, and I’m not a fan of most vegan “butter.” Real butter is where it’s at.

That being said, I do like to experiment with recipes from time to time. I’ve been messing with a few different vegan cupcake recipes every now and then. While I have found one delicious chocolate one, I hadn’t yet settled on a vegan vanilla cake recipe.

So, while I’ll always be partial to real butter… I gotta say that, for being vegan, these cupcakes are pretty good. I *think* I’m finally starting to get used to vegan “buttercream.” But I’m always going to want real butter over vegan butter. That being said, if you’re a vegan, or you know some vegans, then try out these cupcakes. They’re definitely good, especially for experimenting. They are especially tasty when you just want some plain vanilla dessert. I think that vanilla is actually pretty underrated. Sometimes I just crave vanilla, despite the fact that I’m a chocoholic. Enjoy!

cupcakeandplant — {Just a cupcake and its succulent plant buddy.}

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Vegan Vanilla Cupcakes with Vegan Vanilla “Buttercream” Frosting.

Yield: About 10-12 regular sized cupcakes.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
– 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
– ½ cup plus ⅓ cup granulated sugar
– 1 tsp. baking soda
– ½ tsp. salt
– ⅔ cup unsweetened almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
– ⅓ cup canola oil
– 2 TBSP. apple cider vinegar or white vinegar
– 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

For the frosting:
– 1/2 cup (1 stick) vegan butter [such as Earth Balance “vegan buttery sticks”], softened
– 2 1/2 – 3 cups powdered sugar
– 1/4 tsp. pure vanilla extract
– Splash non-dairy milk [I used almond milk]

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin with 12 paper liners, and set aside.
2. In a big bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together. In another smaller bowl, mix the wet ingredients together.
3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, and mix until just combined. Do not over mix, or your cupcakes will fall flat, and nobody wants that!
4. Evenly divide batter among the liners, and bake 18-20 minutes until the tops are slightly golden. Set cupcake pan on a wire cooling rack, and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Once they’re somewhat cooled, remove the cupcakes from the pan, and allow to cool completely on the rack.
5. To make the frosting, beat the vegan butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until it’s light and fluffy, for about 3 minutes. Gradually add the powdered sugar, and slowly beat it in with the vegan butter. Add the vanilla extract, and continue to beat until it’s light and fluffy. Add almond milk as needed until you reach the desired consistency. Pipe or spread the frosting on completely cooled cupcakes, then top with sprinkles!

– Vanilla cupcake recipe from It Doesn’t Taste Like Chicken.
– Vegan frosting recipe from Minimalist Baker.

March 22, 2015

Small Batch Vanilla Bean Cupcakes.

Have I mentioned how much I freaking love small batch recipes? Especially these days. As I have mentioned before on the ol’ blog, most of the time, my coworkers and friends reap the benefits of my baking shenanigans. However, there are times in which one of the following scenarios occur: a) I’m not in the mood to share; b) I just have a sweet tooth and need a quick but homemade fix [I’m pretentious like that, I guess]; c) I want sweets but do not need to eat ten cookies; d) I have no desire to frost more than four cupcakes; or e) all of the above.

Small batch recipes come in handy for all of the aforementioned situations. Now, I’m no recipe expert, so I generally don’t like to screw around with baked good recipes very often. Once I have made something a few times, I’ll make my own alterations, of course. And, I usually have no issue with cutting recipes in half. However, I am not quite brave enough to scale recipes way down. But that’s where the Dessert for Two blog comes to save the day. Christina – the blog’s author – has experimented with recipes enough to scale them down to make just enough tasty baked goods for herself and her man. Then she shares them with the world. I’m telling you, she’s a genius. Every recipe of Christina’s that I’ve ever tried has always impressed me, and I’m kind of hard to please when it comes to baked goods.

singlecupcake — [Do you see those little flecks of vanilla bean?! Love it.]

I have ~~stalked~~ followed Christina’s blog for quite awhile now, but I just recently purchased her new cookbook. These vanilla cupcakes are the first treat I decided to make from the book. As expected, they turned out awesome! Also, her cookbook is just lovely. It never really occurred to me until recently that no other such book really exists for small batch baking. And I think that it’s a really awesome concept, especially for bakeaholics such as myself. Sometimes it’s just really nice to bake only a few treats, and then enjoy them by myself [or I share with Brian when I really feel like it… hehe].

The cake is really tasty; it’s simple, which I love, and it’s just plain good. I whipped them up on my lunch break while I was working from home last week, and I just love how quick they are to make. These cupcakes get a bit more browned on the tops than I was expecting, but they are really good. I added vanilla bean paste to mine in lieu of the extract, just because I love those little vanilla bean flecks. I have a feeling that these cupcakes would do well with a few little adaptations, such as making small batch chai cupcakes, or perhaps small batch snickerdoodle cupcakes! Let’s just say that I’ve got some inspiration up my sleeve. 😉

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Small Batch Vanilla Bean Cupcakes.
Yield: Four regular-sized cupcakes.

Ingredients:
– 4 TBS. unsalted butter, at room temperature
– 1/4 cup granulated sugar
– 1 large egg white
– 1/2 tsp. vanilla bean paste [You can use vanilla extract in lieu of the paste, but I love using vanilla bean paste whenever I can! Note: The quantities of both are interchangeable.]
– 2 TBS. sour cream [I use whole fat sour cream. I’m just not about that non-fat stuff.]
– 6 TBS. all-purpose flour
– 1/2 tsp. baking soda
– Pinch of salt

Instructions:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a standard muffin tin with four cupcake liners [Note: Use the cups on the outside of the pan}, and set aside.
2. Using an electric hand mixer [Note: You can use a stand mixer; I did, because I’m lazy, but that’s kind of overkill for such a small amount of batter], cream together the butter and sugar until it’s light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg white, vanilla bean paste, and sour cream to the butter/sugar, and beat until combined.
4. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt into the wet ingredients, and mix until combined. Divide the batter among the four prepared cupcake liners. Bake the cupcakes for about 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean [or with a few moist crumbs]. Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack, then once they’re totally cooled, frost as desired. Enjoy!

Recipe Source(s):
– Vanilla cupcake recipe barely adapted from Dessert for Two: Small Batch Cookies, Brownies, Pies, and Cakes, by Christina Lane. She’s also the author of the lovely blog, Dessert for Two. I would highly recommend buying this cookbook, though. It’s totally worth it!
– Vanilla bean frosting recipe was basically just made up by me, but here’s an actual recipe that’s similar to what I did for the frosting.