Almond Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Almond Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

Tomorrow night is a pot-luck dinner at our synagogue and having a wonderful last name that starts with 'C' means that I get to bring dessert! This is absolutely perfect because I have been waiting to try a new recipe lately, but I was waiting for a good reason. I also have been dying to use my new cupcake tool, and tonight was the night! First things first: the cupcakes...

Vanilla Bean & Almond

1 cup softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk (I used a half&half/skim milk mix)
1/4 tsp ground vanilla bean powder from North Market Spices
1 tsp almond extract

Beat all ingredients in electric mixer for 3 minutes or until smooth. Spoon into cups and bake for 20 minutes at 350*. Remove from the pan and cool on cooling rack before frosting.

Baked Vanilla Bean Almond Cupcakes

I decided to use the ground vanilla bean powder to mellow out the almond flavor and to give the cupcakes these delightful little brown speckles. Coming at $9.99/oz, I didn't want to use too much of it and I also haven't used it yet so I wasn't sure how strong it was. It smelled pretty strong, but I am happy with the amount I used. You can really taste the almond flavor but it isn't overpowering and you can taste hints of vanilla in the cupcake.

Cupcake Batter Dispenser

Tonight, I had the pleasure to use my brand new Chicago Metallic Baking Essentials Cupcake Dispenser, and it was awesome! The batter comes out slow enough that I have control of it but not so slow that it drives me nuts. I can keep the batter in the cups this way instead of having it go all over the place. The cupcake recipe makes exactly one dispenser full (4 cups is what the measuring part of it says). The trigger isn't difficult to squeeze and is pretty comfortable. It is nice that it is clear so that I can see how much batter is left. The only thing that is a bit of a bummer is that the less batter there is, the more the apparatus slows down since there isn't such a weight pushing it down, but it isn't so bad. There is an online demonstration here from the 'Bed, Bath, and Beyond' folks, but I bought mine off Amazon.

Chocolate Frosting

For the frosting, I used the Ghirardelli Chocolate Frosting recipe that came on the side of the container. I had originally thought about putting some almond extract in the frosting instead of vanilla, but I decided that there was enough almond in the cupcakes, so I left the frosting alone:

1/4 cups butter
3 tbsp milk
1/2 cup Ghirardelli Sweet Ground Chocolate & Cocoa
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
dash salt
1/2 tsp vanilla

Frosted Cupcakes

"Combine butter, milk, and Sweet Ground Chocolate in saucepan; stir over very low heat until butter melts. Remove from heat. Add confectioners' sugar, salt, and vanilla; beat until smooth." I used my mixer to beat the frosting and letting the machine run until the frosting was nice and fluffy also allowed it to cool a bit more. It was so delicious! I am still working on my frosting techniques, but I think these worked out pretty well.

Frosted Cupcakes

In the end, it made about 30 delicious cupcakes since I like my cupcakes to be below the paper edge. The next time I make these I am thinking about putting crushed chocolate covered espresso beans on top like sprinkles. The cupcakes were fluffy and sweet and the frosting was creamy and delicious.