vanilla bean cream cheese cupcakes

Though I often like to try an adventurous cupcake recipe, sometimes simplicity is the way to go. My friend Jess had a birthday recently and requested vanilla cake with vanilla bean frosting. I ended up making cream cheese frosting, which was an interesting combination with my classic white cake recipe. (Adapted from the Magnolia Bakery cookbook.)

(I like this method of ingredient shots better; once everything is prepped it's much easier to get the recipe done with minimal mess. Though I'm pretty brand loyal to the ingredients I bake with, so if you ever want to know what brand/type of ingredient I use, just ask!)


This next shot is a good visual of how the bowl looks when being scraped by a beater blade. It's a Kitchen Aid mixer blade fitted with rubber scrapers that keeps the bowl scraped down as it moves around. My classic blade that comes with the mixer started chipping (!!!), so I had to throw it out lest I get paint pieces in someone's birthday treat. Thank goodness Amber and Anthony had given me a beater blade years ago for my birthday! It's now my trusty blade for most everything!

Cupcakes in the oven? Time for the frosting!



Not-so-secret special ingredient? Vanilla bean. Terrible shot, but using vanilla beans is easy. Cut down the middle with a paring knife, open the bean and scrape the seeds out.


The recipe I use for cream cheese frosting is rich. A little goes a long way, so I don't pipe it on cupcakes in piles. However those who believe that cake is merely a delivery method for icing would probably beg to differ.

Since these were for Jess' birthday, they needed something a little extra. A party on top.