Aww, mini cupcakes!

When regular cupcakes just aren’t small enough, it’s mini cupcakes!
I made some spicy chili-chocolate mini cupcakes… and they were a disaster. So then I made some vanilla bean cupcakes instead and they turned out great. I actually didn’t get too discouraged after the first incident, and the vanilla was a great idea.

3 Vanilla Cupcakes
Recipe by Chokylit
3/4 cup (1-1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1-2/3 cups vanilla sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
2-2/3 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out

Beat the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time.
Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, combine the milk and vanilla. Alternately add in the dry ingredients and the milk.
Bake at 350 F for 22-25 minutes
(or bake at 350 F for 10-15 minutes for mini cupcakes)

For the frosting I tried mascarpone cheese for the first time and fell completely in love with it. If you’re a poor student and can’t afford nice ingredients, buy some anyway. My small tub cost about $12, but I still have lots left, had a bit on a croissant this morning, mmm. Anyway, this is the best icing I’ve ever made and it’s my new favourite. My mom requested it for her birthday. I also already had chocolate icing, so I blended in some leftover strong coffee for a mocha icing and put that on a few cakes.

Vanilla Mascarpone Icing
recipe by me
1/4 cup soft butter
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/4 vanilla bean *
2 oz white chocolate (2 baker’s squares), melted
2- 2 1/2 cups icing sugar
splash milk
1/2 tsp vanilla

Blend the butter and the cheese, scrape the vanilla bean seeds into the mix. Add the melted chocolate and mix thoroughly. Mix in the icing sugar about 1 cup at a time, alternating with a bit of milk and a touch of vanilla extract. Try not to eat it all before you ice the cupcakes.

* for this recipe I used 1/2 a vanilla bean for the cakes and 1/4 of a bean for the icing. I used the remaining 1/4 bean to make a bit of vanilla sugar. It’s in a little mason jar with some granulated sugar to be used later. I’ve still got one Madagascar vanilla bean left, I’ll have to save it for something special.