Whoa. Hello there, ginormous picture!
I'm trying something a bit different. I had this thought occur to me a few days ago that maybe my photos were too small for the design of my blog. And then, I became a bit obsessive about it, and couldn't stop thinking about it. So I made them bigger. Quite a lot bigger, actually.
And now they look enormous and I don't know if I like it. So, I'm going to live with it for a few days and see if it grows on me. What do you think? Do you like the bigger photos? Or do you like them smaller, like they used to be?
Yes, I realize there are far more important decisions to worry about in life, but for some reason, this is really bothering me. Dumb, I know.
But, you know what NOT dumb about really big pictures of Honey Vanilla Bean Cupcakes? You can actually see the specks of vanilla bean in the cake. And you can see the drizzles of honey dripping off of the cream cheese frosting.
You guys, these cupcakes are fantastically amazing.
As if you need further evidence of my obsessive compulsiveness, these cupcakes came to be after a friend of mine messaged me late last night. She was inquiring about cupcakes for her upcoming wedding, and said she was thinking about a honey and lemon cupcake with cream cheese frosting.
So. These aren't actually honey LEMON cupcakes, but only because I only had one small lemon in the house. (Which, incidentally has probably never ever happened in the history of ever. Usually I have an entire bowl of lemons in my kitchen!) They became honey vanilla cupcakes, which is a pretty darn good compromise if you ask me.
As soon as she mentioned a honey-flavored cupcake, I was all over it. I researched recipes late into the night, and whipped these up at 9am this morning. I couldn't stop thinking about them, so less than 12 hours after a request for a wedding more than eight months away, I was already testing recipes.
They have a perfect crumb,and the cake has a just-right honey flavor. The cream cheese frosting also has a nice undertone of honey, which works very nicely with the warmth of the vanilla bean. And then, I drizzled some more honey over the top of the frosting. Soooo yum.
A couple of quick tips for this recipe. First, if you are baking in dark or coated muffin tins, I would recommend placing a cookie sheet (preferably aluminum) under the tins. These bake at a relatively low temperature so they're in the oven longer than normal cupcakes, so you want to be sure they bottoms don't get too brown.
Secondly, try to use local honey if you can. The flavor of local honey is more intense and will really help the honey flavor come through in your cupcakes.
Hope you love these. Enjoy!
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Honey & Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
