Small-Batch Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Strawberry Frosting

A light, fluffy vanilla bean cupcake, topped with tons of luscious strawberry frosting. These cupcakes are made with sour cream and butter, resulting in a super moist and tender cake. The frosting is silky and perfectly sweet, with so much strawberry flavor. Both the cupcakes and frosting are so incredibly easy to make, you'll have no reason not to!

INGREDIENTS FOR VANILLA BEAN CUPCAKES

These vanilla bean cupcakes are deliciously light, and perfectly sweet. This is a small-batch recipe, so it will yield exactly 6 cupcakes. Here's a list of everything you'll need to get started!

• All-purpose flour

• Baking powder

• Salt

• Unsalted butter, softened

• Sour cream

• Granulated sugar

• Egg

• Milk

• Vanilla bean paste

MAKING VANILLA BEAN CUPCAKES
These cupcakes are super easy to make, and take just a few minutes to throw the batter together.

To begin, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the egg, sour cream, milk, and vanilla bean paste. Mix together until smooth. Next, sift in the all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Gently whisk or fold everything together just until the batter comes together and is smooth.

Pour batter evenly into 6 lined cupcake cups. Bake in a preheated 350°F. Bake for 20-21 minutes until cupcakes spring back to the touch, and a toothpick comes out clean.

MAKING THE STRAWBERRY FROSTING

Frosting makes up probably half the reason why we all eat cake, right? So we can't forget about it for these cupcakes! For this frosting, you only need 6 ingredients! Here are all of the ingredients you need to make a delicious strawberry frosting! 

• Unsalted butter, soft

• Powdered sugar

• Pennsylvania Dutch Strawberries & Cream Liqueur 

• Vanilla extract 

• Freeze dried strawberries, crushed

• Pinch of salt

HOW TO MAKE THE FROSTING

To make the frosting, start by creaming the butter on it's own for a few minutes to get it fluffy and soft. After 2-3 minutes, add in the powdered sugar, crushed freeze dried strawberries, pinch of salt, and vanilla extract. Once mixed, slowly pour in the Pennsylvania Dutch Strawberries & Cream Liqueur. Once combined, let it mix for about another minute. Then, you're ready to frost your cupcakes! 

You can pipe or spread the frosting on the cupcakes-- however you please! You can top with more crushed freeze dried strawberries, a fresh strawberry, or devour them as is! 

Pennsylvania Dutch Cream Liqueurs are made with farm fresh, real dairy cream. The new Strawberries & Cream Liqueur is perfectly sweet, and made locally sourced ingredients, with a blend of fresh strawberry puree and dairy cream. This delicious, creamy liqueur gives the strawberry frosting such a delightfully smooth, light texture with perfect strawberry flavor!

HELPFUL TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THE BEST CUPCAKES

These cupcakes are so simple to make, but here are just a few helpful tips to make sure you get the best cupcakes possible!

• Make sure your ingredients aren't straight out of the fridge. To make sure that you get the best rise and texture in your cupcakes, you want to be sure that your ingredients are room temperature. That will allow all the ingredients mix and incorporate together, and give you a smooth cake batter.

• Don't over mix the cake batter. Over mixing cake batter can often times yield a slight gummy or dense, chewy texture to the baked cake. To avoid this, try to only mix your batter until it just comes together.

• Fill cupcake liners evenly. This is a small-batch recipe, and it makes exactly 6 cupcakes. To make sure they all bake evenly and end up the same size, be sure to fill each cup equally.

• Let cupcakes cook completely. No one wants drippy, runny frosting. You want to be sure your cupcakes are totally cool before you start frosting them.

This post is sponsored by Pennsylvania Dutch. All wording and thoughts are my own. Thank you so much for supporting the brands that help make The Hungry Kitchen possible!