Valentine’s Day may still be a month away, but it’s never too early to start planning your Valentine’s Day desserts! Enter easy strawberry champagne cupcakes! This is a delicious champagne cupcake, made with actual champagne and a champagne extract for a little extra flair. Then topped with delicious strawberry buttercream, because champagne is always better with strawberries, right? And yes, these are as awesome as they sound!
These vanilla cupcakes may be simple, but they are definitely not plain! This classic dessert is full of rich, vanilla flavor and is perfect for any occasion. The easy vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream frosting come together in less than an hour, making this a perfect go-to cupcake recipe!
I have been on a mission the last few days for the perfect vanilla cupcakes! I wanted them to be full of rich vanilla flavor, but also really easy to make! Simple in every sense of the word. I also didn’t want to include ingredients that were difficult to find or expensive to buy. I’m looking at you, vanilla beans!
Make these for the next birthday party, or even for Valentine’s Day with some fun red and pink sprinkles! You’ll love what a quick and easy cupcake recipe this is, and everyone else will love how delicious they taste!
Makes 12 standard cupcakes
Cupcake Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 egg plus 1 egg yolk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/3 cup full-fat vanilla yogurt (greek or regular is fine)
1/4 cup buttermilk
Vanilla Buttercream Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 tablespoon heavy cream, if needed
Cupcake Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through salt.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Mix in the sugar until combined. Add in the eggs, vanilla, yogurt and buttermilk and mix on low until all ingredients are incorporated. Then add the flour mixture, mixing on low until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
Spoon the batter into the lined muffin tin, filling the liners evenly to about 1/2-2/3 full. Bake 13-16 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Allow to cool before removing from liners.
Buttercream Directions:
Whip the butter until light and fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar and mix on low speed until incorporated. Add vanilla extract. Increase the speed to high, and mix about 2-3 minutes. Frost the cooled cupcakes, and serve!
Click the image below to pin this recipe!
Good morning and happy Friday! Even though it was a short work week, I am sure ready for the weekend! Funny how the holidays make real life so much more of a struggle, right? Well if you’re not quite ready for all good things to come to an end, today I’m sharing my recipe for healthier cinnamon rolls with you! Buttery, flakey, full of cinnamon goodness – but made with wayyyyy less sugar. Perfect for a delicious breakfast or brunch this weekend!
I love biscotti, because they’re such simple yet delicious cookies. They are soooo good enjoyed with a hot cup of coffee or tea, and are a perfect afternoon treat!
I used to not really like biscotti, because they all seemed kind of dry and flavorless to me. Then I started experimenting with making them myself, and discovered that a fresh, homemade biscotti is nothing like one from the store or coffee shop.
These biscotti cookies can be stores in an airtight container for up to three weeks, so they’re really perfect for impromptu guests or just enjoying a quiet moment to yourself.
Did you know? Biscotti in Italian actually means twice baked, and these cookies are appropriately named because, you guessed it, they’re baked twice! Biscotti are very easy to make, but I’d recommend reading through the directions before getting started if you’ve never made biscotti before to familiarize yourself with the steps.
I seriously debated dipping these in dark chocolate, and you totally can! But sometimes I think there’s something really nice about a simple recipe. I really enjoy the subtle almond and bright cherry flavors in these, which would be overpowered by chocolate.
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 large eggs
1/2 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup dried cherries
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through cinnamon and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together melted butter, vanilla and eggs. Add the flour mixture in two batches, mixing until just combined. Dough will be sticky! Add almonds and cherries, and mix until they’re all incorporated.
Moisten your hands, and separate the dough in two. Form into two logs on the prepared baking sheet, about 8 inches by 3 inches, continuing to moisten hands as needed to prevent the dough from sticking to you. As you can see in the photo below my logs were not exactly even, and that’s ok.
Bake for 35 minutes, or until the logs are lightly browned. Remove from the oven, and allow them to cool about 20-25 minutes, or until they’re just warm to the touch. Then use a serrated knife, and cut the logs into 1 inch slices. I discard the ends (by discarding I mean I eat them then and there haha!), just because they’re not as pretty.
Arrange the biscotti slices flat side down on the baking sheet, and bake again for about 15 minutes or until golden.
Serve with tea or coffee, and enjoy!
It’s been a while since I shared a new cupcake recipe with you! I’ve been working on this gingerbread cupcake recipe for a few weeks, and have been doing lots of taste testing haha! This is the perfect holiday party recipe, because the cupcakes are such a traditional Christmas dessert flavor, but in a new form. I also love that when I serve them as mini cupcakes they’re so easy for people to eat in a party setting.
What I found interesting in making these cupcakes is that I needed to tone down the traditional spices quite a bit compared to what you would find in a gingerbread cookie recipe. Now they’re still definitely present, prominent and flavorful, but not overwhelming.
My other “secret” ingredient is coffee. I tested this recipe with milk, buttermilk, water, eggnog (not even kidding haha!), and coffee. They all turned out well, but using coffee added a delicious level of richness and depth to the gingerbread flavor that I loved.
Aren’t the sprinkles on these so fun? I can’t not mention them, because I think they’re so cute! They’re such a perfect finishing touch and really elevate the final product. When I served these cupcakes this past weekend, so many people commented on how cute the sprinkles are.
Makes approximately 12 regular cupcakes or 36 mini cupcakes
Gingerbread Cupcake Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup coffee
1/2 cup molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients:
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened
8 oz full-fat cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350, and line two mini cupcake tins with liners.
Whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through cloves, and set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the softened butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla, molasses and coffee, mixing until combined. Your batter will look kind of piecy at this stage, and that’s ok! It will all come together in the next step.
Add the dry ingredients in two batches, mixing on low speed until just combined and making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl often.
Fill mini cupcake liners about 2/3 full each of the batter, and bake for 7-9 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Allow to cool completely before frosting.
To make the frosting: beat together the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, mixing on low. Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined.
At this point you can add a little more powdered sugar if the frosting needs to be thicker, or a little bit of milk if it’s too thick. Beat on high for a few minutes to fluff up the frosting, and then fill a piping bag and frost your completely cooled cupcakes.
