Delicious white cupcakes with Chocolate Icing

Ok, here it is!  An AWESOME white cake recipe FROM SCRATCH!!  Yes! I thought I would never ever find one.  Up until now, my favorite white cake recipe has been a doctored cake mix.  This cake is just lovely.  It's fluffy, it's very flavorful, it's moist, it looks pretty and it's easy to make. I LOVE this recipe and will definitely make it again.  I came across the recipe on this blog:

The Cupcake Project

Everytime I come across a white cake recipe that sounds like something I haven't tried yet and they swear it's the best, well, I have to try it.  I'm glad I did.  If you are a white cake lover, then you must try this. It's perfect!!

The chocolate icing I used was an experiment.  I made a wonderful white icing the other week using my Junior's Cheesecake Cookbook. 

Junior's Decorator Buttercream

This time I needed a chocolate icing so I added some cocoa powder and some melted dark chocolate to the vanilla Junior's Buttercream.  It turned out really delicious. 

The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
From The Cupcake Project BlogYield: 16 cupcakes

• 1 cup (225 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 3/4 cups (175 grams) cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup (57 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup (75 grams) full-fat sour cream
• 1/4 cup canola oil or vegetable oil (60 ml)
• 1 tablespoon pure (not imitation) vanilla extract
• 2/3 cup (160 ml) whole milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C).
2. In a small bowl, combine sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean. (For those of you who are new to using vanilla beans, check out this video to learn how to get the seeds out of the bean.)
3. Using the back of a spoon, move around the bowl and apply pressure to break up any clumps of seeds and to better infuse the vanilla flavor into the sugar. Set aside.
4. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
5. Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until well combined.
6. Add butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes. Because there is so little butter, you'll end up with a very fine crumb texture.
7. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
8. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined.
9. Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined. The batter will be liquid. (Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong. It's supposed to be that way.)
10. Fill cupcake liners just over 1/2 full.
11. Bake for 14 minutes and then test to see if they are done. They are done when a toothpick comes out without wet batter stuck to it. The cupcakes should appear white with specks of vanilla bean. They should not turn a golden brown. If they are not done, test again in two minutes. If they are still not done, test again in another two minutes.
12. When the cupcakes are done, remove them immediately from the tins and leave them on a cooling rack (or just on your counter if you don't own a cooling rack) to cool.