Not going to lie to you these Toasted Vanilla Cupcakes happened by accident. When you try to create a recipe you risk failing and having to dump the whole thing just to start from scratch. It feels like a waste. I don’t think I want to know how many pounds of butter, sugar and flour I have had to throw away.
This particular fail was my icing and only because I totally forgot to add the vanilla and salt. Actually the fail part was when I iced all 24 cupcakes before I realized I forgot the vanilla and salt. Did I mention I was providing dessert for ten people the night I made these. It occurred to me that the base of this frosting is a meringue which is just egg white and sugar. What the hell did I have to lose, I hit them with the blow torch. BOOM! Toasted vanilla cupcakes have been born. The following day I did redo the icing with the vanilla and salt just so you know and it made them even better!
What is special about a vanilla cupcake…
It’s the simple elegance that’s what. Vanilla is like an adult’s chocolate. When we are kids all we want is chocolate. Then we grow up and our tastebuds mature and now all we want is vanilla! I wanted to really bring out the vanilla flavor in both this cake and Vanilla Meringue Buttercream. One way to do that is to use a real vanilla bean! Using the super fragrant seeds from a vanilla pod is so much better that using an extract. You can then take the empty pod and place it in an airtight container with 1 1/4 cup of sugar. In a couple of hours you have vanilla sugar that you can use for anything. You can use it for baking or put it in your coffee. For us we will be using this sugar for our icing.
Making this toasted vanilla cupcake even MORE vanilla-y.
If vanilla-y is not a word it really should be. Here is the other thing we are going to do. When I learned this trick I thought the possibilities here are endless. I’ll never bake any cake again with out doing this. Before you ice your cake or cupcakes hit it with a flavored simple syrup.
A simple syrup is equal amounts of water and sugar cooked on the stove just until the sugar dissolves. Then you can add any flavoring or extract. For our needs today our simple syrup will need to be, that’s right, vanilla flavored. I added vanilla bean paste. Once it cools you can keep it in a mason jar and use for cocktails or put THIS in your coffee. Always with the coffee…
Ok are we ready to go? Let’s do it.
Step by step.
I hope you, your family and your guests enjoy these Toasted Vanilla Cupcakes!
Toasted Vanilla Cupcakes
Cupcake Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups ((180g) cake flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 sticks (168g) room temperature butter
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 2 large eggs + 1 large egg yolk room temberature
- 1 vanilla bean or 1-1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1/2 cup (120g) buttermilk (room temperature)
- Vanilla Meringue Buttercream
Simple Syrup Ingredients/Instructions
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup (200g) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
Cook on the stove in a pot until the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool. Store in a mason jar in the refrigerator. Trust me you will consume before it can go bad or up to one month.
Cupcake Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° and gather your ingredients.
- Slice your vanilla bean in half (like filet it almost) open it up and with the back of the knife scrape out the vanilla bean seeds. Add to your eggs.
- Place 1 1/4 cup of sugar and the vanilla pod in an airtight container. Keep for later baking or put in your coffee. Remove the pod after 24 hours. Sugar will keep and keep and keep.
- Add the butter to your bowl and start to whip.
- Add sugar and cream until light and fluffy.
- Combine buttermilk, eggs and vanilla bean seeds.
- Sift dry ingredients together.
- Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and incorporate (don’t over mix).
- Add 1/2 of buttermilk and eggs until just combined.
- Add 1/3 of dry ingredients.
- Add the other 1/2 of buttermilk and eggs.
- Add final 1/3 of dry ingredients by folding in by hand. We are trying to avoid gluten development to avoid a tough cake.
- Fill cupcake liners about 1/2 way.
- Bake 15-18 minutes.
- Frost with Vanilla Meringue Buttercream
- Toast the frosting with a culinary torch until lightly toasted like a marshmallow!
- ENJOY!
These look amazing!