Best Ever Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

This weeks cupcake recipe is brought to you by my relentless urge to make something with buttercream frosting.  I can't resist it.  It's not my birthday or a special occasion of any kind.  The truth is sometimes a girl just needs a cupcake.  And a pretty one at that.  Don't you agree?

One night while perusing Pinterest I found this recipe for the Best Ever Vanilla Cupcakes from The Brown Eyed Baker.  She wasn't kidding! If you are a vanilla girl like I am, you will be over the moon for these!  The only change I made to her recipe was I added a little strawberry jam to the vanilla frosting.  To me it tastes just like strawberry ice cream....

Vanilla Cupcakes:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbsp (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1/2 sour cream
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp vanilla
1/4 cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper or foil liners.

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, and vanilla with an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.  Add the sour cream, egg, yolks, and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed until smooth and creamy, just a minute or two. Don't forget to stop and scrape down the sides. 

Divide batter evenly among the lined cups of the muffin tin.  Bake 20 - 24 minutes, until the cupcakes are a pale golden color and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Set on a rack to cool. 

 

For the frosting: Use a wire whisk attachment on your mixer and whip the butter on high speed for about 5 minutes.  Reduce speed to low and slowly add the powdered sugar and vanilla.  Slowly blend in the jam. When all is incorporated, adjust the speed to high and whip an additional 2 minutes.  The frosting will become pale pink, light and fluffy.  Frost cupcakes as desired. 

The weather has been so nice lately that I set a little place up for myself on the deck and had a little party for one! The one being me! ♥  Who says you need a special occasion for cupcakes? I'm a rule breaker all the way.

Ok, so I can't do this everyday.  And after my cupcake binge I will go back to eating like a regular human being again (did I mention my party was at 10am?).  It was fun while it lasted though. Downright sinful....xo