Very Vanilla Cupcakes with Cookie Butter Frosting

Very Vanilla Cupcakes with Cookie Butter Frosting - made November 15, 2014, recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

We were having the monthly potluck at church earlier this month and, as always, I bring dessert to any potluck. There are five kids in Sunday School so I like to have kid-friendly desserts. What are more kid-friendly than cupcakes? Especially since I bought fall-themed sprinkles earlier the day I made these.

I wanted to make cookie butter frosting like I did for the Cookie Butter Cupcakes but this time I thought I'd made actual vanilla cupcakes instead of mistakenly making cookie butter cupcakes. Good vanilla cupcakes are sometimes hard to make because the ingredients are so simple and the cupcakes need to stand on the vanilla flavor alone.

Fortunately, I found a good recipe for them from Sally's Baking Addiction. These are easy to make, are straightforward vanilla, and taste pretty good. I cored a few and filled them with cookie butter (warmed up slightly for easier spooning into the center cavity), then piped the frosting onto them before dusting with the sprinkles.

I myself am not fond of sprinkles and prefer a simpler, cleaner look to my cupcakes but the sprinkles alone made these cupcakes seasonally festive so I went for it. And again, I was going for kid-appealing and kids like sprinkles, right? I did have to laugh at the potluck when I saw one of the kids snag a cupcake; later I saw she had eaten off all of the frosting and the top half of the cake. That was all she needed.

1 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 egg whites
1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
seeds scraped from 1/2 split vanilla bean

Cookie Butter Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2-3 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup cookie butter
seeds scraped from 1/2 split vanilla bean salt, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt butter in the microwave. Whisk in sugar - mixture will be gritty. Whisk in egg whites, yogurt, milk, and vanilla extract until combined. Split 1 vanilla bean down the middle lengthwise. Scrape seeds from half of the vanilla bean into batter. Reserve other half.
3. Slowly mix dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until no lumps remain. Batter will be thick.
4. Divide batter among 12 cupcake liners (or 24 mini) and bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Bake for 8-9 minutes if making mini cupcakes. Allow to cool.
5. To make the frosting, beat softened butter on medium speed with an electric or stand mixer. Beat for about 3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add powdered sugar, cream, vanilla extract, cookie butter and vanilla bean seeds with the mixer running. Increase to high speed and beat for 3 minutes. Add more powdered sugar if frosting is too thin or more cream if mixture is too thick. Add salt if frosting is too sweet (1/4 teaspoon). Frost cooled cupcakes.