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CHOW: Recipes: Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes Recipe

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Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
Difficulty: Easy | Total Time: 40 mins | Active Time: | Makes: 24 cupcakes

Addictive even on their own, these tiny, vanilla-infused cupcakes are thoroughly irresistible when slathered with Salted Caramel Frosting. Whip some up for your next birthday party; they’ll appeal to both adults and kids.

This recipe was featured as part of our Back-to-School Bake Sale story, as well as our photo galleries on Baked Sweets and Picnic Recipes.

INGREDIENTS
  • 2 cups cake flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon fine salt
  • 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
  • 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and scraped, seeds reserved (or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract)
  • 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup whole milk, at room temperature
  • Salted Caramel Frosting
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Line 2 (12-well) muffin pans with paper liners. Alternatively, coat the wells with butter; set aside.
  2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to aerate and break up any lumps; set aside.
  3. Place butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until very light in color, about 3 minutes. Add sugar and vanilla seeds (if you’re using vanilla extract instead, you’ll add it later), and continue beating until the mixture is airy, about 3 minutes.
  4. Scrape down the paddle and the sides of the bowl, turn the mixer to medium speed, and add the egg whites one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  5. Add the milk (and vanilla extract, if you’re using it in place of seeds) and mix until combined (the mixture will look curdled, but it’s not). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Reduce the speed to low, add the reserved flour mixture, and mix until just combined, about 15 seconds.
  6. Fill the muffin wells about halfway and bake until the cupcakes are golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 18 minutes. Set the pans on a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the pans and let cool completely before frosting.
    Write a review | 28 Reviews
POST A COMMENT |28 Comments

COMMENT

  • All of these recipes have so much butter!

  • Made this for my friends' birthday party. Needless to say it was a bit different (the salted caramel frosting), but once everyone tried it, they loved it!

  • @ Liz...you misunderstood. The Caramel mixture is the water and sugar

  • Fabulous rich cupcake recipe (and so it should be -- it has twelve (12) tablespoons of butter in it!!!!). I made a basil glaze instead of the salted caramel frosting, and they were a hit at a bake sale in SF's Noe Valley. Moist, moist, moist...

  • Oh, Heavens. Lovely.

    I enjoyed the random little salt crunch bursts in the frosting. Didn't seem too salty to me at all. Perhaps I was distracted by the butter fat rapture.

  • Hi!! I would like to know - when making the carmel frosting, step 4 it says to add carmel, but in the ingredients it doesn't list carmel. My question is what type carmel and how much is needed for the recipe?
    Thanks

  • I actually found the cupcakes were not too salty from the recipe listed above, but the actualyl salted carmel frosting was to salty. I would cut the amount of salt in the frosting by half. otherwise the cupcake recipe was beautiful, with a good crumb.

  • Made this recipe with 3 modifications: 1) used salted butter since I also made the salted caramel frosting and did not have enough unsalted butter on hand for both recipes; 2) did not use the Kosher salt since I used salted butter; 3) used 2% milk. They came out great and I did not have an issue with the salt flavor. They did come out on the small size. I think the recipe yields more like 16-18...+READ

    Made this recipe with 3 modifications: 1) used salted butter since I also made the salted caramel frosting and did not have enough unsalted butter on hand for both recipes; 2) did not use the Kosher salt since I used salted butter; 3) used 2% milk. They came out great and I did not have an issue with the salt flavor. They did come out on the small size. I think the recipe yields more like 16-18 decent sized cupcakes.-COLLAPSE

  • Hey, thanks, ChefGuy! That's very helpful information!! I'll be sharing that info with friends here at 5,000 ft. who also have baking woes.
    Gracias :)

  • For SKCLARK
    With less air pressure weighing them down, leavening agents tend to work too quickly at higher altitudes, so by the time the food is cooked, most of the gasses have escaped, producing your flat tire. For cakes leavened by egg whites, beat only to a soft-peak consistency to keep them from deflating as they bake. Also, decrease the amount of baking powder or soda in your recipes by 15%...+READ

    For SKCLARK
    With less air pressure weighing them down, leavening agents tend to work too quickly at higher altitudes, so by the time the food is cooked, most of the gasses have escaped, producing your flat tire. For cakes leavened by egg whites, beat only to a soft-peak consistency to keep them from deflating as they bake. Also, decrease the amount of baking powder or soda in your recipes by 15% to 25% (one-eighth to one quarter teaspoon per teaspoon specified in the recipe) at 5,000 feet, and by 25% or more at 7,000. For both cakes and cookies, raise the oven temperature by 20° or so to set the batter before the cells formed by the leavening gas expand too much, causing the cake or cookies to fall, and slightly shorten the cooking time. Flour tends to be drier at high elevation, so increase the amount of liquid in the recipe by 2 to 3 tablespoons for each cup of flour called for at 5,000 feet. Often you will want to decrease the amount of sugar in a recipe by 1 to 3 tablespoons for each cup of sugar called for in the recipe.

    This is for RASAM
    You can use All Purpose flour in place of cake flour in any recipe. You won't have to adjust the amounts of baking powder if you use all purpose flour.

    Hope this helps! :)-COLLAPSE

  • I used Kosher salt, had no problem with the amount. I steeped the vanilla bean in the milk for an hour and then added the seeds when I added the milk towards the end. I then ended up tasting it and adding just a dash of vanilla extract just to make sure it got enough vanilla flavor, lol. The cupcakes were divine! However, I did not like the salted caramel frosting with these cupcakes, and neither...+READ

    I used Kosher salt, had no problem with the amount. I steeped the vanilla bean in the milk for an hour and then added the seeds when I added the milk towards the end. I then ended up tasting it and adding just a dash of vanilla extract just to make sure it got enough vanilla flavor, lol. The cupcakes were divine! However, I did not like the salted caramel frosting with these cupcakes, and neither did the people at the reception I made these for. I also served these with a blackberry buttercream and everyone by far prefered these cupcakes And the guinness chcolate cupcakes with the blackberry buttercream.-COLLAPSE

  • Too salty! I'd use at least half of the amount of Kosher Salt. I haven't had good luck baking with Kosher Salt at all.

  • There's 150 calories in the cake (if you make 24) and 85 in the frosting if you use 1.3 tablespoons (1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon) for each cupcake.

  • duz anyone know how many calories are in this recipe?

  • Does anyone have good high altitude baking tips? I would love to make these cupcakes, but have not had good results baking at 5,000 feet.

  • A word about Kosher salt:

    Kosher salt contains fewer additives, and has a more salty taste than ordinary table salt.

    It generally comes in flakes rather than granules. The flakes dissolve easily, and have a less pungent flavor than table salt. Due to the shape of the granules, there is simply less salt in a pinch of kosher salt than in a pinch of table salt however the granules from one brand...+READ

    A word about Kosher salt:

    Kosher salt contains fewer additives, and has a more salty taste than ordinary table salt.

    It generally comes in flakes rather than granules. The flakes dissolve easily, and have a less pungent flavor than table salt. Due to the shape of the granules, there is simply less salt in a pinch of kosher salt than in a pinch of table salt however the granules from one brand do not equal the granules of another. With that said, it is imperative particularly today with food cost escalating that even the brands of salt be reported in a recipe. Although it is savvy to use Kosher salt, my personal opinion is to avoid using it in baked goods.-COLLAPSE

  • caveats, we use Diamond Crystal kosher salt in all of our recipes in the test kitchen.
    Thanks!

  • I used 1 teaspon conventional salt, and the extract, and the cake flour, with good results.

    They did have lots of holes on top, would not be cute unfrosted / sprinkled with powdered sugar.

    Made 24 mini cupcakes (1 5/8 inch liners) plus 7 normal sized.

  • Which brand of Kosher salt did you use in this recipe? According to Cook's Illustrated, "1/4 cup table salt is equivalent to 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Morton’s kosher salt but 1/2 cup Diamond Crystal kosher salt". The brand may explain why some tasters found the recipe to be too salty.

  • An egg white equals 1 oz. So you'd want 2 oz of the pasturized egg white product. That'd be 4 T which equals a 1/4 cup.

  • An egg white equals 1 oz. So you'd want 2 oz of the pasturized egg white product. That'd be 4 T which equals a 1/4 cup.

  • if i use liquid egg whites from a container instead of cracking two eggs, am i doing this conversion correctly?

    2 large egg whites = 4T liquid egg whites = 1/2 cup liquid egg whites

  • Made these cupcakes yesterday and they turned out ok, but not sensational. Here are some things I learned in the process that could be useful for the next person to try it:
    1) The vanilla flavor I got out of the bean was very mild, so I recommend adding 1 or 1.5tsp to your mix in step 5. If you're not queasy about tasting batter with raw egg in it, that would probably be a good time to do it. You...+READ

    Made these cupcakes yesterday and they turned out ok, but not sensational. Here are some things I learned in the process that could be useful for the next person to try it:
    1) The vanilla flavor I got out of the bean was very mild, so I recommend adding 1 or 1.5tsp to your mix in step 5. If you're not queasy about tasting batter with raw egg in it, that would probably be a good time to do it. You can then decide whether it needs the added flavor.
    2) Like JasmineG commented above, I also noticed my cupcakes came out smallish, so making 20 instead of 24 would be a good idea. I was just using your standard issue cupcake tray, nothing bigger than normal.
    3) Emilies and NYchowcook point out that the recipe may call for too much salt. I agree though none of my customers complained when they devoured theirs. I probably wouldn't go as low as 1/2tsp though, more like 1tsp. Remember if you are using regular salt instead of kosher (which has a larger grain), you need a pinch less since it packs tighter.

    Rasam - I used all-purpose flour instead of cake with good results. Using a substitution trick I found online (just search for cake flour substitutions and you'll probably find the same ones), my cupcakes came out fine: soft, springy and with good crumb. The general rule I followed was to measure 1cup all-purpose, remove 2tbsp, and replace with 2tbsp cornstarch. Alternatively, measure 1/4 cornstarch, then fill the rest of the measuring cup with all-purpose until you reach the 2cup mark.

    If you can find cake flour though, that's probably better than my sub, but I had to make do with it since I couldn't get my hands on the real thing. Hope that helps!-COLLAPSE

  • Can I use all purpose flour instead of cake flour? Will I need to adjust amounts of baking powder if I do? Thanks....

  • I think the salt is a mistake. It should be more like 1/2 t.

  • these cupcakes were excellent, though i thought a bit too salty. is 2 teaspoons normal for this kind of recipe?

  • I made these cupcakes and the accompanying frosting to pretty good results. I expected the cupcakes to just be a serving vessel for the frosting, but they were really tasty on their own, with a great crumb, and good carmelization on the bottom. I will say, though, that the recipe should make more like 20 cupcakes instead of 24, I made the full 24 but they were pretty small cupcakes, and some of...+READ

    I made these cupcakes and the accompanying frosting to pretty good results. I expected the cupcakes to just be a serving vessel for the frosting, but they were really tasty on their own, with a great crumb, and good carmelization on the bottom. I will say, though, that the recipe should make more like 20 cupcakes instead of 24, I made the full 24 but they were pretty small cupcakes, and some of them barely had a dome. I'll definitely make these again.-COLLAPSE

  • thats one sexy looking cupcake!