Recipe

Vanilla Bean Mini-Cupcakes

Ingredients
 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
¾ cup whole milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ pod (about 2 inches of a vanilla bean pod) of vanilla beans (scrape out the inside of the pod and just use the small beans)

Frosting

1 stick (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 Tablespoons whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Kitchen Tools Used: Food Coloring Gel Pastes, these are the best I’ve ever found for coloring frosting and they last quite a while!

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line a 12-cup mini-muffin tin or regular sized muffin tin, set aside.

2. In a large bowl whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar.

3. In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, milk, butter and vanilla. Pour this into the dry ingredients and stir well to combine.

4. Fill each muffin cup 2/3 full and bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven when tops are lightly browned and spring back when touched.

5. For the frosting: Cream the sugar, butter, vanilla and milk in a large mixer. Blend until a good spreadable consistency. Use food paste to color frosting as desired.

Naptime Notes

Naptime Serving Ideas

If you are serving a crowd go ahead and double or triple this recipe. If you think you need to quadruple it you are better off just buying the cupcakes already baked!

Naptime Stopwatch

10 minutes for batter, plus baking time (which could be exceptional for a triple recipe)

Naptime Reviews

A couple hundred toddlers with orange frosting on their faces was enough for me!

Printed from: http://www.thenaptimechef.com/2010/10/vanilla-bean-mini-cupcakes-for-the-fall-fair/