Jellybean Vanilla Cupcakes

I am a part of the PTA at the girl’s school at for one of the last fundraisers we held a cake stall. Basically the parents who won’t be buying cakes tend to donate cakes and then the parents who don’t donate end up buying the cakes.

Since me and Baby-Baker went early and helped set it all up we had first pick of the plates. We had a good plate it had a princess and bumblebee cupcake and other delicious looking cakes.

However when Mini-Baker arrived she was not happy with the plate we choose. She wanted a different plate because it had a fairy cake with jellybeans on it. If it had been sooner I might have just swapped one cake for another. However the room was already full of people looking for cake and if we did it then other children would have wanted to do it.

Basically I had to promise that we would make cupcakes and put jellybeans on them. We even bought jellybeans at the quick trip to the store after school. So, the following day we made vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting colored blue topped with jellybeans.

This vanilla cupcake recipe is adapted from the hummingbird bakery book and I’ll be honest they are pretty darn good vanilla cupcakes. Children really could care less about gourmet cupcakes and adventurous flavors. I find they are just happy with either a simple vanilla or chocolate cupcake as long as it’s decorated to their liking.

Jellybean Vanilla Cupcakes:

120g plain flour
140g golden caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter, room temp
120ml whole milk
1 medium egg
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract

Heat the oven to 170C and line your cupcake pan with 10 cupcake liners. In a free standing mixer or large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter until crumb-y. Slowly pour in half of the milk and mix until just combined. Add the egg and vanilla to leftover milk and gently whisk before adding to the mixer and mix until just combined and smooth, try not too over mix! It will make the cupcakes holey and heavy. I use an ice cream scoop and I fill the scoop and trigger release into the cases! Bake for 20-25 minutes until lightly browned and spring back when gently pressed. Skewer should come out clean. While cooling make the buttercream frosting.

vanilla frosting:
250g icing sugar, sifted
80g unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
blue food coloring paste just a drop
Jellybeans

Beat the icing sugar and butter together until it's completely combined. Add the milk and vanilla extract and beat until smooth and at your desired constancy! Then add the food coloring a little bit at a time, paste makes a great color quickly so you need very little. Then beat until the frosting is completely blue! Top with jellybeans and enjoy!!