Variations of Vanilla

Yesterday my friends, Ryan and Sasha, got married. It was a beautiful wedding. It is so exciting to celebrate the joining of two people who are absolutely perfect for each other. sigh... Anyway, it was the third wedding where I have done the cake/dessert. I made vanilla bean cupcakes filled with chocolate hazelnut cream. (recipe here) They turned out very cute. I sprayed half of them with a pearl sheen which made them sparkle and the other half I sprinkled with edible pearls. The overall effect was very "wedding-y"

I really love this vanilla cake recipe. It is so versatile! It is actually my red velvet cake recipe with vanilla bean paste instead of red food coloring and chocolate. I used the recipe to make funfetti cupcakes for my co-workers birthday last week. I don't know if the sprinkles give it a different taste of if it is just the fact that funfetti is so festive but I loved these cupcakes. They tasted delicious and were perfect for a birthday. I know I have the vanilla cake recipe in multiple places but I will put the actually funfetti recipe here for easy reference.

Funfetti Cupcakes

Cake:
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter, at room temperature
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk w/ 1 Tbs. vinegar)
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vinegar
1 cup multi-colored sprinkles

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 stick butter, softened
1 cup marshmallow cream
1 lb. powdered sugar
multi-colored sprinkles for decoration

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a mixing bowl, cream the sugar and butter, beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well after each addition. Sift together flower and salt. Add flour mixture to a creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk. Blend in vanilla. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and add to mixture. Stir in the multi-colored sprinkles.

Pour batter into cupcake tins. Bake for 20 minutes (rotating the pans halfway through). Remove from heat and cool completely before frosting. Blend cream cheese and butter together in a mixing bowl. Add marshmallow cream and sugar and blend. Color with food coloring if desired.