Vanilla Cupcake with Chocolate Frosting
These perfect vanilla cupcakes are topped with a creamy chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream frosting. They are as classic as they get when it comes to a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting combo and guaranteed to become your go-to easy vanilla cupcake recipe!
Servings: 12 cupcakes
Equipment
- Pastry Bag
- Wilton 1M open star tip
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour 197 g
- ¾ cup granulated sugar 135 g
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt 1g
- 1 teaspoon baking powder 4 g
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda 2 g
- ¾ cup buttermilk 170 g, room temperature
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil 67 g
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 1 large egg yolk room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 13 g
Frosting
- 4 oz egg white 115 g
- ¾ cup granulated sugar 135 g
- ¾ teaspoon vinegar 4 g
- 10 oz unsalted butter 283 g, room temperature, cubed
- ½ teaspoon vanilla 2 g
- 4 oz dark chocolate 115 g
- 1 tablespoon dutch-processed cocoa powder 7 g
Instructions
Make the cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix with a whisk to distribute evenly. Set aside.
- Add buttermilk, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla extract to a medium bowl. Beat together with a whisk until smooth. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture and fold until just combined.
- Use a large ice cream scoop to divide batter into the previously prepared muffin pan. One flat scoop of batter for each cupcake cavity, or about ¼ cup of batter each.
- Bake in the middle oven rack for 17 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to the touch, remove cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the frosting
- Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water just until most is melted. Continue to stir as you take it off the heat until all the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Set aside to cool.
- Add egg white to the stand mixer bowl and beat with a wire whisk attachment on medium low speed until frothy.
- Increase speed to medium and slowly add sugar, one tablespoon at a time to allow it to incorporate into the egg white. Half way through adding the sugar, stream in the vinegar. Then continue to add the sugar until all gone.
- Increase speed to medium high speed and beat until stiff peak forms and the meringue is shiny and smooth.
- Reduce speed to medium low and slowly add the room temperature cubed butter, one cube at a time and allow it to incorporate into the meringue. When all the butter is added it will look chunky, like cottage cheese.
- Add vanilla and increase mixer to high speed and beat for 4-5 mins until buttercream is formed and smooth. Add the completely cooled melted chocolate and cocoa powder and beat until completely incorporated and fluffy.
Assemble the cupcakes
- Add a piping tip of your choice to a pastry bag, fill with the frosting and add frosting to the cooled cupcakes.
- Garnish with sprinkles if desired.
Notes
- If you are uncomfortable with making the frosting using raw egg whites, you could heat up the egg whites and sugar in a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water until it reaches at least 160°F, make sure to keep stirring or whisking while heating the mixture. Then continue making the meringue for the frosting as directed.
Nutrition
Serving: 113g | Calories: 460kcal
