Food Network Kitchen's Vanilla Cupcakes with Easy Frosting

With the current state of the world, I’ve found myself not just hunkering down in my house but retreating into the kitchen more and more. I am finding comfort in cooking dinner, and surprisingly in baking sweets. I normally stick to the cooking and leave the baking to the boxed mixes at most. But measuring teaspoons of this and that and watching softened butter and sugar combine in my stand mixer are soothing and heart-warming right now.

Therefore I’m baking for any possible reason I can find. For our son’s 2 month birthday, I decided to make cupcakes from scratch. Even though he can’t enjoy them, my husband and I sure can! After all, we’re the ones feeding and diapering him so we deserve a little treat too, right?!

I added in fresh vanilla bean that I’ve had in my spice drawer for months now, just waiting for a special reason to be used. All you have to do to get the vanilla beans out is cut down the length of the bean with a sharp pairing knife and scrape out the inside flesh which looks a bit like burnt bits. But it smells divine, bringing you to a tropical locale in your imagination. Just mix it in with the vanilla extract.

The cupcakes came out beautifully, and the flecks of brown-black vanilla bean in them was lovely and tasty. The sweet frosting was more glaze than thick paste, which we prefer, and added a nice touch of moistness to each bite as well. I’ll definitely make these again in the future when our son can actually eat them too!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Easy Frosting

Total Time: 50 mins

Hands-On Time: 30 mins

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, inside scraped out, optional
2/3 cup whole milk, at room temperature

Frosting (1 cup):

2 Tbsp. milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1.2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp butter, softened but not melted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
Beat the butter and sugar in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract (and vanilla bean if using).
Reduce the mixer speed to medium low; beat in half of the flour mixture, then all of the milk, then the remaining flour mixture until just combined.
Divide the batter among the muffin cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool 5 minutes, then remove the cupcakes to the rack to cool completely. Top with frosting* once cooled.

*Frosting: Combine ingredients and beat on medium speed with hand blender or in stand mixer until smooth and fluffy.