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Perfect White Cupcake: Recipe for Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes
It was a week long adventure for sure!
There were several batches baked and tweaked, frustrated phone calls to Jamie from My Baking Addiction, and more tweaks.
It turns out I had a high altitude dilemma on my hands.
I don’t bake cupcakes a lot and depending on the recipe, I often get lucky, but this time around it did not work out so well.
Circus Tent Cupcake Decorating Tips
We had an adorable Circus/Carnival themed birthday party for Madeline (more details to follow later this week) and I knew that I wanted a moist, Vanilla Cupcake recipe for the party so I could do two-toned frosting in the party colors on top so they would somewhat resemble a Circus tent.
I used a combination of red, yellow, and turquoise striped cupcake wrappers and frosted each with a coordinating color combo: white and red swirls, yellow and white swirls, and turquoise and white swirls.
Decorating Tools Used:
- Wilton 1M Tip – I purchased 3 tips so I could have 1 for each color combo.
- Disposable Pastry Bags
- Ateco 12-Color Food Coloring Kit
- Striped Cupcake Liners
The final cupcake recipe turned out delicious! Everyone, including perfectionist me, loved them. It was well worth the effort.
I love the slight tang that the sour cream offers the cupcakes and how incredibly moist they are.
These Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes will definitely be my new go-to Perfect White Cupcake Recipe.
Please Note:
I have not personally tested this recipe at sea level.
I live at around 5,300 feet elevation and made tweaks to the original recipe, which you can find credited in the recipe’s print box.
More Yummy Cupcakes
- Nutella Cupcakes with Triple Cream Cheese Frosting
- Lemon Blackberry Cupcakes
- Lemon Coconut Cupcakes and Lemon Buttercream
- Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcake
- Solar System Chocolate Cupcakes
- Chocolate Cupcake with Raspberry Buttercream
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Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes
I love theΒ slight tang that the sour cream offers the cupcakes and how incredibly moist they are. These Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes will definitely be my new go-to Perfect White Cupcake Recipe.
Ingredients
For the Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes:
- 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup milk
- 4 large egg whites, room temperature
- seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream:
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
- seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
- 2 teaspoons clear vanilla extract (to maintain the bright white color)
- 1 Β½ pounds (24 ounces) confectionersβ sugar, sifted
- 4-6 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
Instructions
For the Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Place the racks in the center position. Line cupcake tins with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- In a large bowl combine both flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the milk, sour cream, and egg whites. Set aside.
- Fit a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, or use a hand mixer (I got a better dome with the hand mixer). Add the butter, sugar, and vanilla to the bowl and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes, or until light. Scrape the sides as necessary.
- Add the vanilla extract and one third of the flour mixture while beating on medium speed, again scraping the sides as needed. Beat in half of the sour cream mixture. Alternately add the remaining flour mixture and sour cream until all the wet and dry ingredients have added, beating until the batter fully incorporated and smooth.
- Use a large scoop (about 3 tablespoons), evenly divide the batter between 18 lined muffin tins filling each about 2/3 of the way full.
- Bake for 15-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centers come out clean. Cool on wire rack.
For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the butter and vanilla bean seeds. Beat until fluffy. Turn the mixer to low speed and slowly add the confectioners' sugar while continuing to beat.
- Once well blended, add in the vanilla and 4 tablespoons heavy cream or milk. Mix on low speed until well combined and moist. If desired, an additional 1 to 2 tablespoons of heavy cream or milk until your desired consistency is reached. Beat at high speed until frosting is smooth and fluffy.
- Pipe or decorate as desired. See Two Tone Frosting for Cupcakes and Cupcake Piping Tricks for piping tips.
Notes
cupcakes heavily adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours
Vanilla Buttercream via Jamie
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 18 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 318Total Fat: 21gSaturated Fat: 13gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 57mgSodium: 157mgCarbohydrates: 30gFiber: 0gSugar: 16gProtein: 4g
GoodLifeEats.com offers recipe nutritional information as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although GoodLifeEats.com makes every effort to provide accurate information, these figures are only estimates.
Loraine says
I am honored to say I got to try them at Madeline’s birthday party, they were truly delicious!!
Sharon {Grumpy, Sleepy, and Bashful} says
Sounds like you finally came up with the perfect recipe! Thanks for sharing your beautiful cupcakes! Those pictures are amazing. Sour cream is fantastic in baking.
I love to use buttermilk, too. It’s in my grandmother’s coffeecake, recipe, which I dare say is the best I’ve had!
Tracy says
These sound perfect Katie, and of course, loving the two-toned frosting!!
laura says
beautiful cupcakes! so glad you were able to find a recipe/make adjustments that worked for altitude. i moved from baking at sea level for years to living at about 5,500 feet and there’s nothing like the realization that your old recipes just don’t work any more. cakes are the hardest!
Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen says
I love the tang of sour cream in baked goods too. I just love that swirled frosting too, they look perfect. I hope the birthday girl enjoyed the party!
sara says
Gorgeous cupcakes! Love the photos, they’re so pretty! π
Heather of Kitchen Concoctions says
Beautiful cupcakes and photos!
Amanda says
This recipe is wonderful Katie… and your pictures are just stunning!! I thought I was opening the recipe page of Donna Hay! (only yours are better!)
Great job!
Kristen says
How fun – love the pretty colors! Hope she had a great birthday and loved the pony!
Deborah says
These are absolutely beautiful!! I’ve had a hard time finding a recipe that works every time for cupcakes – I need to give these a try!!
Jackie @ La Casa de Sweets says
So pretty! I’m sure it was a great birthday π
Lindsay @ Schnoodle Soup says
Your photos are gorgeous! These look delish! Madeline is one lucky little girl π
Suzi says
You mention your initial difficulty was “high altitude dilemma”. I assume you made adjusted to compensate but just what did you do? I tend to only decrease the baking powder, add a half egg shell of extra water, reduce the sugar a little, and up the temperature. See http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/suzi/recipes/above.htm for specifics. Does the table look about right? Thanks for your input.
Katie says
I did decrease the baking powder. I’m not an expert on high altitude baking so I can’t say anything regarding your table. I had to do a lot of research to tweak the recipe and achieve desired results. I plan on doing a post on what I learned and how I tweaked the recipe to change certain things.
TidyMom says
These are beautiful Katie!
thelittleloaf says
I can’t get over how awesome that two-tone frosting is! Have just clicked through to your tutorial and next time I make cupcakes I’m giving this a go. Your daughter is very lucky to have such a wonderful baking mum π
Natalie @ Cooking for My Kids says
I am a cupcake perfectionist, too. I cannot wait to try these. The pictures are just beautiful!