vanilla bean cupcakes with vanilla ganache

Photos: heysweetie8

Oh hot dayum. Here they are, the tastiest cupcakes ever. Recipe adapted from here. The milk chocolate decoration is definitely not necessary, unless you're feeling piggish... like me.

Makes +-18

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cups sugar

2 cups cake flour

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 vanilla bean

4 large egg whites

Ganache

300g white chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup cream

1 vanilla bean

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Beat butter on high until soft, for about 30 seconds.

2. Add sugar. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy.

3. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

4. Measure out milk and vanilla and mix together. Add the seeds scraped out of 1/2 of a vanilla bean.

5. Add about a third of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and beat to combine. Add about a half of the milk and beat to combine. Continue adding, alternating between dry and wet and finishing with the dry.

6. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until firm. Fold egg whites gently into the batter until you can't see any streaks.

7. Scoop into cupcake papers about half full. Don’t overfill.

8. Bake for 20 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.

For the vanilla bean ganache:

1. Chop up the white chocolate and leave in a bowl.

2. Pour the cream into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer.

3. Remove the cream from the heat and pour over the chocolate.

4. Leave it for 1 minute then stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Scrape out the contents of 1 vanilla bean and add to bowl.

5. Leave the ganache to cool (stirring occasionally to keep it smooth) before spreading on cupcakes.