Vanilla Sky – Double Vanilla Cupcakes

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My eye was well and truly caught the other day by a picture of a vanilla cupcake – the post said that it was a Starbucks recipe. I have never had a Starbucks cupcake, but the specimen in the photo was a warm, dreamy white with its sugar crystal sprinkled swirl of vanilla frosting… enough temptation to follow the link!
Of course, it was a copycat recipe, and the blogger actually said that it didn’t really taste like the original, and some people commented that the cake was dry… but by then it was too late – vanilla cravings had hit and I was inspired to attempt my own version…

Double Vanilla Cupcakes

I’m calling them Vanilla Sky cupcakes, a nod to Monet’s impressionist “vanilla skies”, but I have to admit that this cupcake will do more than leave you with an “impression” of vanilla. Rather, it will leave you with an EXpression of vanilla.
Double Vanilla Cupcakes
The secret, like all the perfumiers say, is in the layering. French bourbon vanilla essence (the syrupy kind that costs $20 for a tiny bottle), Equagold vanilla pod powder, and Tahitian vanilla salt sprinkles will leave you floating in your own personal vanilla sky that will last all day.

Vanilla Sky Cupcakes

Makes 12

Double Vanilla Cupcakes

ingredients

165g unsalted butter, softened
165g caster sugar
1 tsp bourbon vanilla essence
1/2 tsp vanilla pod powder
3 large (at least size 6) eggs
250g white flour
2tsp baking powder
80mL milk

mixing

Cream the butter and sugar with the vanillas until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sift dry ingredients over mixture and add milk, stirring until well combined.
Spoon into a 12 hole cupcake pan lined with paper cases that have been sprayed with non-stick spray. The cases should be about 2/3 to 3/4 full.
Bake cupcakes at 180 degrees C for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centers comes out clean. The cupcakes should still be “whispering” slightly when you take them out.
Let cool completely on a wire rack, then frost with double vanilla buttercream.

Double Vanilla Buttercream

ingredients

180g unsalted butter, softened
4 1/2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp bourbon vanilla essence
1/2 tsp vanilla pod powder
about 50 – 60mL milk
Tahitian vanilla salt

mixing

Cream the butter with an electric beater until light and creamy. Add half the icing sugar and blend, then add half the milk, blending again. Repeat with the remaining icing sugar, but only add enough of the remaining milk to form a stiff but spreadable frosting. Add the vanillas and beat until the mixture is almost white and very fluffy. If you overshoot the milk, add more icing sugar, a couple of tablespoons at a time, and blend. You are looking for the consistency in the photo.

Double Vanilla Cupcakes

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with the nozzle of your choice (I am a huge fan of a really deep star nozzle such as a Wilton 1M). Pipe thick swirls of frosting onto the cold cupcakes. Don’t panic that you seem to have made a lot more frosting than pictured here – I made a conservative 1/4 of the recipe for the blog!
Double Vanilla Cupcakes

Sprinkle each cupcake with a pinch of Tahitian vanilla salt, or a little pinch of sea salt and a little pinch of vanilla pod powder.

Try not to hog them all.
xxx
K
PS – its right that the cake is relatively plain and the frosting is quite sweet (and a bit salty!). These are cupcakes where you need to bite through the whole cupcake for each mouthful… you poor things!

PPS if the frosting is too sweet for your tastes, you could substitute the Butter Roux frosting I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this blog – but keeping both vanillas and also the vanilla salt.

PPPS
A little note about the ingredients for Australian/ NZ readers:
Vanilla essence: I love the bourbon vanilla essence sold by the Essential Ingredient (also usually stocked in David Jones and some delis) http://www.essentialingredient.com.au/. If you can’t find (or afford!) the really expensive kind, Queen makes a vanilla essence syrup which will do in a pinch. Make sure it is NOT imitation vanilla, or you will have imitation cupcakes.
Vanilla pod powder: Equagold is a NZ company – the vanilla powder isn’t always easy to find, so when I am in Taupo I always get some from the Repleat. See also http://www.equagold.co.nz/Stockists.
Tahitian Vanilla salt: Can be purchased at Gewurzhaus – http://www.gewurzhaus.com.au/. Again its pretty expensive – it might be worthwhile, now that I think about it, of experimenting with a jar of nice sea salt and a couple of split vanilla beans… if you can make vanilla sugar, why not vanilla salt?

 

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