Making Vanilla Extract at Home

I just made a batch of vanilla extract but I can't use it until the end of November. Vanilla extract is so easy to make, but it does take a bit of patience! I've been wanting to make my own vanilla extract for awhile now because one, using real vanilla beans in baking is quite expensive, and two, I keep buying the tiny jars of vanilla paste or imitation vanilla extract here and they run out like once a month. I mean, this chocolate chip cookie recipe alone uses half a tablespoon of vanilla! 

Once in awhile, Netto sells five bourbon vanilla beans in a tube for about 25kr. That is r i d i c u l o u s l y cheap. Like so cheap I usually buy three tubes and keep my little vanilla bean stash stocked. I've been looking for a nice bottle to make my vanilla extract in and I finally found one at Granit last week in Malmö. There is always different kinds of vodka on sale at the various grocery stores here so the boyfriend and I picked up a bottle of Absolut at Kvickly over the weekend. Making vanilla extract is so easy that I don't even need to post a recipe, but here it is!

Vanilla Extract (from Joy the Baker)

3 vanilla beans (I used four)

1 cup of vodka, 80 proof

a nice, clean jar

Use a sharp knife and cut lengthwise down the center of the vanilla beans, leaving about an inch at the top of the bean uncut. Put the vanilla beans in the jar you will be using.

Cover the beans completely with alcohol. If you are using a larger jar or container, adjust the number of beans and how much vodka you pour in. Make sure that the beans are submerged in vodka. 

Cover the jar tightly and give it a good shake. Now here is the hard part, put the extract away in a dark place for two whole months and remember to give it a shake every couple of days. And that's it!

I will let you guys know how the vanilla extract tastes in two months or so. I'm so looking forward to seeing the extract get darker and darker as the weeks go by. And most of all, I can't wait to taste it!

A Tea Party & Raspberry Filled Vanilla Cupcakes with a Lemon Buttercream

Last weekend the boyfriend and I bought a set of teacups that came with saucers and plates at the flea market behind Frederiksberg Rådhus. So of course I had to have a tea party! Yesterday, the daughters of one of my Danish classmates came over for some tea, painting and cupcake decorating. The boyfriend and I have babysat the girls before and they are two very sweet and funny kids.

We had some tea (of course), sandwiches, chips, and fruit salad before diving into the really sweet stuff. I prepared vanilla cupcakes the day before and made a quick raspberry jam type filling to go with it. I cut a cone out of the tops of the cupcakes yesterday morning so that the girls could fill them later on. I also prepared the lemon buttercream in the morning so that it would be ready to go in the afternoon. After the girls filled the cupcakes, I piped them, and they carefully decorated each one. All of the cupcakes were decorated differently and they looked amazing!

The combination of the sweet vanilla cake with the raspberry filling and the sweet and sour lemon frosting was great. You could taste each of the flavors but they all went together as well. Most of the recipes I post for chocolate or vanilla cupcakes and the different buttercreams are interchangeable. Feel free to use this vanilla cupcake recipe with the mocha frosting or make a chocolate cupcake and fill it with a raspberry filling for example. There are so many possibilities with (cup)cakes! 

Vanilla Cupcakes (barely adapted from Pastry Affair)

Makes 18 cupcakes

1/4 cup or 57g unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt (I used skyr because that is what we had in the fridge)

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/2 tbsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cup cake flour

11/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk

Raspberry Filling 

Enough for 1 tsp of filling for about 15 cupcakes

175g frozen raspberries 

juice from half a lemon

2 tbsp sugar, or to taste

Lemon Buttercream (slightly adapted from Sweetapolita) 

Enough to frost 18 cupcakes

1 cup or 227g unsalted butter, softened

2 tsp lemon zest 

5 cups icing sugar, sifted

2.5 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup whipping/heavy cream

a pinch of salt

Vanilla Cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 350F/175C and fill a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.

Start by sifting together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt so that it is ready once the wet mixture is prepared.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy with your mixer. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream/yogurt/skyr, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and the seeds from the vanilla bean. 

Gradually add in the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Stir in the milk, mixing until the batter is uniform and smooth. This batter is quite runny compared to other vanilla cakes, so don't worry!

Place 3 tbsps of batter in each cupcake liner or fill until about 2/3 full, and bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or  until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from the oven, and carefully remove the cupcakes from the pan and let them cool on a rack or on the counter. Allow them to completely cool before filling or frosting.

Raspberry Filling:

Pour the frozen raspberries into a small saucepan/pot. Cook on a low heat for a few minutes before adding the sugar and lemon juice. Let it boil slightly and continue to stir  until you reach a jam like consistency. Remove from the heat and let it cool completely before using it to fill the cupcakes (or you can use this as a warm ice cream topping!). Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days.

Lemon Buttercream:

Cream butter and lemon zest for 3 minutes. The butter should become very light in color and have a whipped like consistency. Slowly add the icing sugar and mix on low speed for about 2 minutes. Add the lemon juice, cream, and salt and beat on medium-high for 3 to 4 minutes until very fluffy.

I think these raspberry filled vanilla cupcakes with lemon buttercream are a great summery treat. I hope you'll like them! God fornøjelse! 

Marshmallow Love

After making flødeboller two weekends ago and then buying a candy thermometer, I've been wanting to make marshmallows. And on Saturday, I did! (I'm also totally eating one as I write this post.)

Making marshmallows is extremely easy. However, I don't necessarily have the right tools for extreme baking/candy making projects. I told the boyfriend I could start a blog on testing how far my little $15 hand mixer can go. Many people who have made marshmallows online say that a stand mixer is necessary, however, my little mixer survived! So it is possible, but keep your eye on your mixer and don't push it's boundaries. I used the marshmallow recipe from Smitten Kitchen's website and just jazzed it up a little bit after cutting the marshmallows.

Springy, Fluffy Marshmallows (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

Enough to fill a 10 x 16cm baking pan

1 cup powdered sugar (approximately, I didn't measure this out. Took what I needed from the box.)
2 tbsp + 2 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatine powder (or 3 1/2 envelopes)

1 cup cold water, divided

2 cups cane sugar (I used 1 cup cane sugar and 1 cup granulated vanilla sugar)
1/2 cup liquid glucose (original recipe calls for light corn syrup but that is not available here)
1/4 tsp salt

2 large egg whites

1/2 of a scraped vanilla bean (or 1 tbsp vanilla extract)

Oil bottom and sides of metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with powdered sugar. 

In a large glass or metal bowl, or in the bowl of your standing mixer, sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup of cold water and let stand to soften.

With your mixer, beat the 2 egg whites in a separate bowl until it holds stiff peaks. Set aside in the fridge for later. 

In a heavy saucepan cook the sugar, liquid glucose, 1/2 cup of water, and salt over low heat stirring with a wooden spoon until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to medium and boil mixture until a candy thermometer reads 240 degrees farenheit or 115 degrees celsius. Remove the sugar syrup from heat once it has reached the right temperature, pour over the gelatin, and stir until gelatin has dissolved. 

With your mixer, beat the gelatin and sugar mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume. Smitten Kitchen says that this will take about 6 minutes with a stand mixer and 10 with a hand mixer but I only let my mixer work for 6 minutes as the white fluff began to creep up my beaters. 

Now take out the whipped egg whites and the vanilla and beat it into the white fluff until just combined. Pour mixture into the pan and don't worry if you don't get all of the mixture out. Sift powdered sugar over the top making sure that the entire pan is covered evenly. Chill marshmallow uncovered in the fridge, until firm, at least 3 hours and up to a day.

Run a thin knife around edges of the pan and invert onto a large cutting board. Life up one corner of the sheet of marshmallows and use your fingers to loosen it from the pan and onto the board. Using a large knife or a oiled pizza cutter, cut marshmallow into cubes or use a metal cookie cutter and cut into shapes. Roll each and every marshmallow in powdered sugar, making sure to get all sides, and shaking any excess off before packing them away. 

The marshmallows can be stored in a air tight box for up to 1 week.

To jazz my marshmallows up, I dipped a third of them in melted and slightly cooled 70% dark chocolate and then in some shredded coconut. Another third was rolled in a mixture of powdered sugar and dehydrated raspberries which I crushed with a mortar. And the rest were kept plain for hot chocolate! 

Low in fat but off the charts in sugar! So I'm limiting myself to 2 or 3 marshmallows a day and we've given away half the batch so that the boyfriend and I aren't consuming all this sugar by ourselves. I'm thinking some homemade marshmallows and a box of hot chocolate mix would be a really nice gift for friends this Christmas! 

Happy marshmallow making!

Whipped Vanilla Dream Cupcakes

Two weeks ago, I tested out Sweetapolita's Whipped Vanilla Dream Cupcakes and I must say, they are absolutely wonderful. It had the perfect texture, it was light and moist, and it was a beautiful light color (as it is a white cake). I don't have much more to say about it except that I loved this cake and that I'm looking forward to making and eating it again soon! 

Whipped Vanilla Dream Cupcakes (adapted from Sweetapolita)

Makes 24 cupcakes (I halved the recipe to make a dozen)

2 1/2 cups sifted cake flour 

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk, at room temperature

2 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 whole egg, at room temperature

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1 1/2 cup sugar

8 tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup whipping/heavy cream, cold

Preheat oven to 350F or 180C and line muffin pans.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk the milk, eggs, and the insides of the vanilla bean together in another bowl. 

With a mixer, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until it is light and fluffy.

With the mixer still on medium speed, alternate additions of the flour mixture and the milk-egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture (3 dry additions, 2 wet). Beat after each addition until incorporated. Continue to mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.

In another mixing bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. (Don't beat until stiff.) Fold whipped cream into the cake batter. 

Divide batter evenly among the cupcake liners, about 2/3 full, and bake until a toothpick comes out with only a few crumbs. Takes approximately 16 minutes. 

Carefully remove cupcakes from pan and let cool on a wire rack. 

Prepare your favorite frosting and frost when the cupcakes are completely cool.

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Whipped Vanilla Bean Frosting

This last week was full of sweet experiments. We had strawberries getting old in the fridge so I made strawberry scones and a strawberry panna cotta, I bought some dulce de leche that was on sale this week so I made a mini banoffee pie, and for our housewarming party last night, I made two different cupcakes, a chocolate cupcake with oreo cream cheese frosting, and this vanilla bean cupcake with whipped vanilla bean frosting.

I like to google recipes and compare different ones and read the comments before choosing a recipe to try and this can sometimes take up quite a bit of time! There are hundreds of recipes for vanilla cakes, white cakes, and yellow cakes available. With all these recipes available, sometimes it is quite difficult to know which is best! I try to choose recipes based on the best reviews/comments from those who have tried them and the ingredients I have available.

I was really happy with how these vanilla bean cupcakes and frosting turned out. The cake was moist, the frosting was light, fluffy, and the perfect amount of sweet, and I loved seeing the tiny flecks of vanilla bean throughout the cupcake. I topped them off with a sprinkle of gold flakes I found at a small specialty tea and chocolate store just down the street from our apartment.

Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Cupcakes (adapted from Baking Bites)
Makes 12 cupcakes

1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1 egg
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350F/175C and place cupcake liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.

In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

With a electric mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter for a minute and then gradually add the sugar until it looks creamy. Add the egg, the insides of the vanilla bean, and the vanilla extract to the mixture and mix until smooth.

Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until almost combined. Add buttermilk and mix until almost combined. Add the rest of the flour and mix until everything has been incorporated (I did this last mix with a rubber spatula as I didn't want to overmix).

Divide batter evenly into muffin cups, fill about halfway as these will rise. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cupcakes cool for a few minutes before removing them from the pan. Cool completely before frosting them.

Whipped Vanilla Bean Frosting (adapted from Sweetapolita)
Enough to frost 12 cupcakes and a few more

188g unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tbsp milk
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Whip butter for 8 minutes with a mixer on medium speed. Butter will become very pale and creamy.

Add remaining ingredients and mix on low speed for 1 minute, then on medium speed for 6 minutes. Frosting will be very light, creamy, and fluffy.

Now you're ready to frost!

The cupcakes were devoured by the end of the night at our house warming and everyone really enjoyed them so I hope you will too. Sometimes a delicious double vanilla cupcake is better than a fancy cupcake concoction!