Baked some vanilla bean cupcakes yesterday! they were filled with rich milk chocolate ganache and topped with salted vanilla buttercream, as well as salted caramel threads and a lovely red heart 🙂 To be honest, the salted caramel threads were made completely by accident. I meant to make salted caramel frosting, but the salted caramel i made was far too hard and i was only able to salvage some salted caramel threads 😦 but on the brights side, they look rather cute!
they were extremely simple to make and really yummy! the ganache is totally a cheat, but still tastes delicious and rich! you should let the cupcakes sit in the fridge for a few hours for the ganache filling to solidify a bit, so when you bite into the cupcake, it’ll taste like truffle. my friends found them delicious and just sweet enough, but the adults claimed that the frosting was a tad too sweet! so, do adjust the sweetness of the buttercream to your liking.
makes approximately 14 cupcakes
Vanilla Bean cupcakes
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/8 cup white sugar
1 1/8 sticks of butter, softened
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 cup of milk (minus 2 tbsp)
Salted Vanilla Buttercream
200g salted butter, softened
300g icing sugar (adjust according to taste & texture of buttercream)
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Milk Chocolate Ganache
1/3 cup milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions
To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 170 Celsius. Mix the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale. Add the three eggs, one at a time. Then, pour in the milk and dry ingredients in 3 additions. Lastly, add the vanilla bean paste and evenly distribute the batter into 12-14 cupcake liners. Bake for ~20 min, or until the cupcakes are golden brown on the top and a toothpick emerges clean when poked into the cake.
While the cupcakes are cooling, make the ganache. Simply place the chocolate chips in a bowl with the cream and microwave at 30 second intervals, until the chocolate and cream is completely melted. Once the cupcakes have cooled, core them and fill the hollows with the ganache. You can eat the leftover scraps of the cupcakes. ( HAHA )
To make the buttercream, simply beat the icing sugar and butter until incorporated. Then, add the vanilla bean paste and milk until very pale and fluffy! Fill a piping bag with the frosting and frost the cupcakes. (i piped mine in large swirls) Top with salted caramel threads and a heart sprinkle, or any toppings of your choice really!
millieats 