Hot Milk Cupcakes

This was one of the cupcake recipes I tested out for the United Way bake sale. These look quite plain because I was just testing the recipe, but we loved the end result I just had to put them on the blog. I found this recipe over at Sweet revelations a long time ago, these cupcakes are so light and moist and I topped them with just a simple vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

Cupcakes:

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 plumped vanilla bean
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups whole milk
10 tablespoons butter

 

Preheat oven to 350.  Line a cupcake pan with paper liner.

 

In a small bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

 

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs for 5 minutes, until thick and lemon coloured.  Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture has thickened.  Add in the vanilla extract and the flour and mix just to combine.

In a small pan heat the milk with the vanilla bean and butter until simmering.  Remove the vanilla bean and gradually add the hot milk to the batter.

Fill each liner 2/3 full and bake for 18 minutes, or until cooked through.

 

Vanilla Bean Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

5 egg whites
1 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
2 cups of unsalted butter at room temperature
1 plumped vanilla bean
pinch of salt

To make the frosting, put a few inches of water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Put the egg whites and sugar into a bowl that will fit over the pan of water and whick until it reaches 150 degrees and the sugar has all melted. Transfer mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk on medium speed until the bowl feels cold (this can take up to 10 minutes) add the butter 2 tablespoons at a time, then add the scraped vanilla and salt.