I can’t quite believe it, but it’s been 3 months since the last installment of My Cupcake Adventure. It certainly wasn’t my plan to delay the series but our lives took an unexpected turn last fall with Steve’s shoulder injury. When we found out he would need surgery and it would be a 6 month recovery period, every other aspect of our lives went on hold so we could complete as many of the renovation projects we had going on. Now that his surgery is completed and the renovation is on hold, I have finally found time to write, so better late than never, here is the next installment of My Cupcake Adventure.
With all the ideas from my Pinterest page to inspire me, I made my plan.
1. Figure out how to make, dip and decorate cake pops. (completed, read here!)
2. Find the best tasting chocolate cupcake recipe. (completed, read here!)
3. Find the missing vanilla bean cupcake recipe.
Mikall (the bride to be) fell in love with a white sour cream cupcake I had made for her sister’s bridal shower.
She asked me to make a vanilla version of the same cupcake for her wedding
(in lieu of a wedding cake).
No problem, well maybe a small one…
I couldn’t find the recipe.
Shortly after Mikall asked me to bake her wedding cupcakes my family and I moved 1000 miles across the country.
Prior to packing up the kitchen of our old house, I put all the recipes I would need for the wedding into a journal, however once we got settled into the new house and I started working out the details for the wedding, I couldn’t find the white cupcake recipe.
It wasn’t in my recipe card binders either. The only thing I could think of was that it got mixed up with loose papers and packed in some box marked kitchen.
This was supposed to be the easy part of this project. Ugh!
Okay, well I had two choices: find it or start over!
Find it, no big deal right?
Not so easy.
We had just moved in and only unpacked essential items, as we were renovating the entire house. The rest of our belongings were packed and stacked in the 900 square foot garage/shop we had built to store our stuff until the renovations were completed.
The picture below shows one stall of the two car garage and the shop behind it. The other stall and the second floor attic, both of which you can’t see, were full as well.
I had no idea where to start looking.
The only rational option was to start over but that wasn’t an easy pill to swallow.
It had been a couple of years since I’d worked on the recipe but I remembered a few things, like the painstaking process, over the course of several months, of recipe testing to narrow down the final winner.
I also recalled that the winning recipe was so far superior to every other recipe, that I threw out every other white & vanilla, cake & cupcake recipes I had.
It really was that good!
There was also an unusual ingredient in the recipe that I’d never forget:
a box cake mix, gasp!
[Let the record show that I bake from scratch with a passion, however there are times when a shortcut, like using a prepared crust or a box mix for cake pops, makes sense. It also made sense during a brownie phase my kids went through (phase might not indicate how obsessed they really were). For years, seriously like 5 or more, without fail there was a covered pan of brownies on the stove. I’m not kidding. The only time there wasn’t, was when the pan was being washed between batches. They ate brownies with breakfast, lunch and dinner. They fought over who got the scraps and would put them in a baggie with their name on it. I think my Dad enjoyed their obsession as much as they did, but I digress.]
I was highly skeptical that a cupcake born out of a box mix could be anything special, but the rave reviews and the author’s comments compelled me to try it and obviously I wasn’t disappointed. Not only did it taste delicious but the tender, moist crumb and the perfect rise couldn’t be beat.
The actual name of the recipe and the name of the website escaped me which dashed my hopes of trying to find it again, so I had to start from scratch (a lot of pun intended!).
I needed inspiration!
My cookbooks were deemed “essential items,” so thankfully I knew right where the two boxes were. At the bottom of the second box, I found a pink Taste of Home Cupcake Cookbook that I vaguely remember my sister giving to me right before we moved.
You’ll never believe what I found inside…
Yep, tucked right inside the front cover was the cupcake recipe. It was incredible!
Printed neatly at the top was the recipe name, White Sour Cream Cake, and the website I found it on, cakejournal.com .
I had no recollection of putting it there, but no matter I had it, thank goodness!
The original recipe had to be tweaked some to make it work for the wedding. The vanilla flavor needed enhancement and I wanted to achieve the perfect ivory color. It took a couple of batches to work things out but the final cupcake was divine!
Here’s what I did…
First, the recipe desperately needed salt. Yes, salt! The original recipe produced a flat and one-note cupcake (how could I have missed that the first time I made them?).
Salt helped the flavors pop (especially the vanilla) and it balanced the sweetness. I used popcorn salt, a little weird hey, but it’s the most finely ground salt I could find. The fine grind allows the salt to distribute better and doesn’t alter the texture (especially when making icing).
The second change I made was to omit the 2 T of vegetable oil which wasn’t necessary if you used a full fat sour cream. The omission did not alter the final product in any way.
Lastly, I increased the amount of vanilla and used vanilla bean paste instead of extract. The paste helped develop the ivory color but more importantly added the beautiful brown specs that take an ordinary vanilla cupcake and make it elegant.
My recipe for: Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes follows.
(If you want a bright white cupcake see the second note that follows the recipe.)
Vanilla Bean Sour Cream Cupcakes
4 cups white cake mix (I prefer Betty Crocker Super Moist)
1 cup all purpose flour (spooned into a one cup measure and leveled)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp fine salt (popcorn salt)
8 ounces (full fat) sour cream at room temperature
1 1/3 cups water
3 large whole eggs at room temperature
1-2 Tablespoon vanilla bean paste ( or 1-2 Tablespoon vanilla extract) * see note
In bowl of standup mixer whisk together: cake mix, flour, sugar and salt. Put bowl onto mixer with paddle attachment. Add sour cream, water, eggs and vanilla and mix on low for 2-3 minutes, until well combined but not over-mixed. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake at 325 for 17-19 minutes. The recipe yields approximately 30 cupcakes depending on the size of liner you use. To make a cake, grease three 8″ round pans and divide batter evenly. Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes.
*note: If you want a subtle vanilla flavor use 1 T but if you want the vanilla flavor to smack you in the face, use 2 T or more. I used a generous 2 T in this recipe.
You can use paste and extract interchangeably, but I reserve my vanilla bean paste for light colored desserts (cheesecake, vanilla ice cream, vanilla cupcakes, light colored cookies/ bars and light colored icing) so the beautiful brown specks can be appreciated. If I am making a dark colored dessert I use vanilla extract.
*note: to make bright white cupcakes, substitute 4 egg whites for the 3 whole eggs and 1-2 Tablespoon clear imitation vanilla extract for the 1-2 Tablespoon of vanilla bean paste/extract.
Enjoy!
Keep it simple and do it with sass!
Kim
We so enjoy your posts.
Thanks! I also enjoy seeing your replies!
Kim