I’m on a mission to find the recipe for the perfect wedding cake! As I’ve mentioned before, I will be making the cake for my brother’s wedding in December. So, I have started making some sample cupcakes for my brother and future sister-in-law so that they can pick the flavors for their wedding cake!
This will be my first wedding cake. We haven’t decided on the shape/style of the cake yet, but I wanted to try to find some cake recipes that will hold up well to being stacked. So, for my first attempt, I decided to work on my pound cake recipe a bit. I’m a huge fan of the vanilla bean paste that I bought at Williams-Sonoma a little while ago, so I added some of that to the batter instead of using vanilla extract. I love the flavor and the little flecks of vanilla bean are so pretty!
For the frosting, I decided to try my hand at some Swiss meringue buttercream. I’ve heard great things about it, so I had to give it a try. I found various recipes online, and ended up choosing this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. I don’t know about you, but I just trust Deb more than Martha… Plus, her recipes and posts are so much more entertaining to read! The only change I made to the recipe was to substitute vanilla bean paste for the vanilla extract.
The pound cake turned out well, as I expected, but we’re not sure if that will be the winning cake recipe or not! I absolutely *loved* the Swiss meringue buttercream, but my hubby wasn’t as much of a fan. I like it because it’s not overly sweet, and strangely enough, that’s what he wasn’t so thrilled about. He wanted the icing to be a bit heavier and sugary. My brother and his fiancee were pretty happy with it, though.
I’m not sure if you can add some powdered sugar to the Swiss buttercream to make it a bit less buttery and a bit more sugary. I might play around with it a bit. If you have any tips, I’d love to hear them!
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
(Yields 18 cupcakes)
- 1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 pound sugar (approximately one cup)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1/2 pound all purpose flour (approximately 2 cups)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- Swiss Meringue Buttercream (via Smitten Kitchen) – the 9-inch cake recipe will make the right amount of frosting for the cupcakes, with a little bit left over
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two muffin pans with paper cupcake cups and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is creamed and looks light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until each egg is incorporated. Add the vanilla bean paste and beat to incorporate.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. In another small bowl, whisk together the milk and sour cream. Gradually add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beating on a low speed. Be sure to start and end with the dry ingredients. Once the last of the dry ingredients have been added, beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds, until the batter is smooth.
Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake cups, filling each cup approximately 2/3 full. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the tops spring back when touched lightly with your finger. Cool in the pans for a few minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.
Prepare the Swiss meringue buttercream according to the recipe over at Smitten Kitchen. As I mentioned earlier, I subbed 2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste for the 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, pipe swirls of the buttercream onto the top of each cupcake, and enjoy!
Vanilla bean cupcakes are one fo my favorites. The buttercream sounds delicious!
Gorgeous little bites. I love the buttercream…beautiful!
Jen, Vanilla bean paste, I’m going to have to try that! I to have to make my first wedding cake in May! I’m super nervous and need to start experimenting as you are. Thanks for the inspiration!!
Diana
I’m in the same boat as you regarding the icing. I worked in a bakery that used a combination of Swiss BC (not sweet enough) and American BC (too sweet) in their icing – it’d be more work to make two icings and then combine them, but it just might be the solution we’re looking for. Let me know if you try it, and I’ll let you know if I try it! Beautiful cupcakes by the way!
Beautiful recipe. It sounds very flavorful especially the meringue frosting!
Oh my, these sound amazing! I too prefer a less sweet frosting. I love the flecks of vanilla bean.
Beautiful pictures! Oh, and the cupcakes look amazing, of course. :)
How pretty! I also love the look of vanilla beans in cake and frosting. So pretty! I bet the sour cream really gives those cupcakes a lovely flavor!
Delish! And finally, the excuse I needed to buy vanilla bean paste!
I totally trust Deb more than Martha, she seems much less evil. The cupcakes look wicked good!
I am just starting my foray into buttercreams now that I have good piping tools. For some reason buttercream just needs to be piped. Cream cheese frosting can be smeared but buttercream should be decadent (in my opinion). Haven’t tried Swiss yet but definitely need to!
These look fantastic. And I trust Deb. Implicitly. With my life.
I love that you can see the vanilla beans in the frosting! YUM!
Hi, I love love swiss meringue buttercream!! I just recently experimented with salted butter caramel smbc and it was fantastic!!!
To, answer your question regarding adding powdered sugar to the smbc…..
I tried it once, I made strawberry smbc and I guess my berries weren’t the sweetest. Well, I added powdered sugar thinking it would help….FAIL!! I don’t know why or if it was just something else I did, but as soon as I started blending it in, the buttercream started to separate and it turned out really nasty. I tried whipping & whipping to no avail. It was a huge waste of ingredients… if you figure out how to do it, properly lol please share it with me :D
Found you via TasteSpotting. Lovely cupcake photo! Your SMBC looks delicious. About the sweetness: I would not recommend adding powdered sugar “after the fact.” Instead, try upping the amount of sugar slightly in the underlying recipe. I’d suggest doing a small test batch first, then if you like the taste, you can simply multiply up to get the full recipe amount. About the cake: are you planning to fill the cake layers? If so, a pound cake might be a little too heavy. In any event, this looks like a fun – although ambitious! – project. Best of luck to you! :)
cute and sounds delicious
I bet the vanilla bean paste gives WAY better intense vanilla flavor! I need to get some of that paste. It sounds like your version of the buttercream would be right down my alley. I like things that aren’t overly sweet. Can’t wait to see more of your wedding cake experimenting!
All I can say is these cupcakes look perfect and lovely for the wedding. And I agree with you about Deb’s recipes – I’ve tried a few and they all work out well even though it was a 1st for me.
Just have to say vanilla bean paste is amazing. You can eat it with a spoon! Love the little flecks in the frosting.
Don’t add powdered sugar!! That defeats the purpose of SMBC. Make the recipe from howtoeatacupcake.net. Cassie has the best recipe. She uses less butter.
The swirl is really pretty!!
I wish someone would have made me vanilla bean cupcakes for my wedding! And yes, I’d take Deb over Martha any day.
Your cupcakes are beautiful! I want to pick up some of that vanilla bean paste at my nearby Williams Sonoma.
I like Silk Meringue Buttercream from Rose Levy’s Cake Bible. I think all her buttercreams are less sweet than we Americans are used to. I used her buttercream on the few the wedding cakes I have done, and people loved that it wasn’t overly sweet! Just my opinion, but I would stick with the recipe you used!
After seeing these pretty little cupcakes I’m definitely going to be buying some vanilla bean paste. Love the little flecks!
Oh this is so so so good….i love buttercreams too and ur over the top recipe makes me wanna run to the kitchen right now……
One of my best friend is getting married too and I’m in charge of her wedding cake!
Your post is inspiring, love the frosting!
Oh I thought I commented on this but apparently not. I love everything about these cupcakes – so simple but so elegant.
Wow, those cupcakes are really gorgeous. This is perfect for the wedding.
These look amazingly delicious! The frosting sounds to die for!
I’ve heard great things about Swiss meringue buttercream but still haven’t gotten around to making it myself yet. Love the look of yours with the little flecks from the vanilla – gorgeous! Good luck with the recipe search for the wedding cake!
Will this recipe work for a layer cake? My neice wants a Vanilla Bean Cake for her wedding and I need something that is dense and delicious.
Nancy – I think that this recipe will work OK for a layer cake, but I have not actually tried it myself at this point. It will be a bit dense and heavy, though, so you will need to be careful not to overfill the cake!
LOL I love swiss meringue buttercream because its not super sweet and my husband dosent like it because its not sweet enough for him, I though he was the only one that was nucking futs for not liking it LOL.
I actually made this Swiss meringue buttercream last week. It was great for the first bite..after that is was way to buttery. I was thinking about reducing the butter by half a stick. have u or anyone else tried this???will the frosting still come together properly?
Marisa – I have not tried reducing the amount of butter. However, I think that the buttercream is supposed to be quite buttery (very different than the traditional buttercream I was used to)… If you give it a try with less butter, I’d be curious to hear how it turns out!
Could I use the cupcake recipe as a cake instead? Would it work all the same?
Jeanette – Yes, this recipe would work well as a cake. Just be sure to keep a close eye on it as it bakes since the time may vary a bit from the baking time for the cupcakes!
My daughter raves about this recipe and just made these cupcakes in chocolate also. Hosting a cupcake “war” for a local non-profit this fall and welcome ideas and
suggestions for rules, judging, etc.
This recipe christened my very first Kitchen-Aid. It as fabulous. I made them in mini-cupcake sizes instead of the typical cupcake portion, since the butter-cream is SO rich. My coworkers, whom I shared them with, fawned over them.
Thanks a bunch for sharing this recipe. I love your blog and can’t wait to test out more of your magnificent and creative concoctions. :)
Would this also work well for a wedding cake? Sounds delicious.
Oh, wait. Never mind. :)
Jen,
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the site. This recipe is superb! Made another vanilla bean cupcake recipe… did not turn out… this one is perfect. It’s officially in my safe keeping. I just started a blog. I’m going to post this pics and links to this recipe on your site! Can’t wait to try the frosting.
everyone keeps saying how pretty the pictures they are but no one said they actually made them and they were good??????????
Hi, Mally – I do know of a few readers who tried the cupcakes. Look above at the comment from Abigail.
There are alot of comments suggesting it looks and sounds delicious, which i agree it does, but has anyone tried these cupcakes? I want to make them for my friend but i dont want to be dissapointed. Thank you
-Kadie
oh nevermind….haha
Made these tonight, delish! Thank you for the great recipe!!!
I am going to make these possibly tomorrow night. Yum! I don’t have any vanilla bean paste, but I do have vanilla beans and also vanilla extract. Can they be subbed?
Jenn – Yes, you could definitely substitute vanilla extract for the vanilla bean paste. And, if you still want the little flecks of vanilla bean, scale the extract back a bit, and scrape the seeds from one vanilla bean into the cupcake batter.
I’ve never made a swiss meringue icing before, I would probably love it, I don’t like too sweet.. how long can it be at room temp for? Your cupcakes look and sound DELICIOUS!! I’ve also never seen vanilla bean paste before!
Hi, Carrie – I left the swiss meringue buttercream at room temperature from when I frosted the cupcakes until when we ate them (a few hours, and probably overnight). I hope you enjoy it if you do decide to make it! You can also find the vanilla bean paste at Williams-Sonoma or Amazon.
Thanks so much for the recipes, I plan to try them. I love baking and have had classes in cake decorating but not able to master tiered cake. I live in the South and have never tried swiss meringue, but definitely plan to.
Maybe if you found a way to incorporate the powdered sugar into the butter/fat first (melting then cooling/solidifying) then when you add the butter as normal it might react the same? idk, i might play. hubby likes sweet frosting too.