Cute vanilla snowman cupcakes with only 143.5 calories each

Blogger Gina Homolka at SkinnyTaste serves up recipes that are fun and healthy - even cupcakes! From her about page:

On Skinnytaste, you'll find healthy dishes that don't sacrifice any of the flavor that can be found in their full-fat origins. Gina knows all the food she prepares for Skinnytaste is tasty and satisfying, because after all, this is the same food she cooks on a daily basis for her friends and family, and they are some of her toughest critics!

She caught my eye with these very cute vanilla snowman cupcakes.



The recipe involves Duncan Hines Cake Mix and Chobani yogurt, whose nutritional stats clock in at:

Servings: 24 • Size: 1 cupcake • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts* (3 pts no frosting)Calories: 143.5 • Fat: 2.7 g • Carbs: 27.3 • Fiber: 0 • Protein: 2.1 g • Sugar: 19.6Sodium: 143.2 mg

And if you just can't get enough, she's got lots more recipes on her site. Here are two of the cupcake ones:


super moist low fat chocolate cupcakes with chocolate glaze


pink lemonade confetti cupcakes

You can also follow SkinnyTaste on Facebook and @SkinnyTaste on Twitter.

Recap: Friday's Twitter Chat About Vanilla Cupcakes

If you were on Twitter last Friday afternoon and followed the hastag #cupcakechat, then you know we chatted about vanilla and vanilla cupcakes. We had people on the chat from Egypt, the UK, Greece, Germany (Hi Betsy!) as well as many from across the US.

I asked about favorite vanilla cupcake recipes. Magnolia Bakery Cookbook and Cook's Illustrated are well-regarded. Many bakers start from a basic recipe but add on ingredients including buttermilk, sour cream, vanilla pudding and even yogurt to their vanilla cupcakes.

We talked about vanilla as well. Which do bakers prefer? There are three main types- Madagascar, Mexican and Tahitian. Which brands do they use? It's old skool, but I have used McCormick's Vanilla Extract. Many chatters like Neilsen-Massey extract, Trader Joe's Vanilla Bourbon extract and one mentioned Veracruz Vanilla. BTW, there's a recent article on Cook's Illustrated about vanilla beans.

We also chatted a bit about flour. A soft all-purpose flour is best. Don't use self-rising flour. Pillsbury and King Arthur were name-checked. One question I asked: What's the difference between angel food, yellow cake and vanilla cake? Angel food uses egg whites, not yolks. Angel food cake has a completely different texture; it is more like a sponge. Yellow has a distinct taste that's different than vanilla.

 Links to a few Vanilla Cupcake Recipes:

• Vegan Vanilla Cupcake Recipe from Isa Chandra of Post Punk Kitchen.
• Amy Sedaris' Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
• Baking Bites Vanilla Cupcake Recipe 
• Brown-Eyed Baker's Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Our next cupcake twitter chat will be Friday, November 18 at 2PM. This time we will talk about Red Velvet Cupcakes!

Bakery-Style Vanilla Cupcakes

Sometimes, you don't need a really fancy cupcake with a mountain of frosting and glittery decorations, not that those cupcakes aren't delicious. But sometimes, a nice vanilla cupcake is all you need.

I love these vanilla cupcakes paired with pink frosting and I love all the different kinds of sprinkles. They're so colorful! Also, they're kind of simple, but they still look like cupcakes you could find in a bakery.

For the recipe and whole blog post, head over to Sweetapolita!

Watch Rachel eat and talk cupcakes on The Gayle King Show

Big, big thanks to Sanford Marcus and Taj Greenlee at The Gayle King Show, all the bakeries where I got cupcakes (especially Swirlz Cupcakes in Chicago and The Sweet Tooth Fairy in Utah, who delivered cupcakes from a distance), and, of course, cupcake fan Gayle King herself. I had a fabulous time! Yay cupcakes! Happy belated National Vanilla Cupcake Day (I will be posting your vanilla cupcakes today, yesterday got very hectic for me) Note: this is a smaller portion of the segment.

the Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake!!!

Behold!!!

Happy National Vanilla Cupcake Day!!

I followed Stef from the cupcakeproject's recipe and made my own vanilla bean meringue frosting and it was AMAZING!!!

It all starts with one thing:

the vanilla bean.

Today is the day we honor this little beauty and show our love by baking cupcakes!

Click here for the full recipe, more photos, and a step-by-step for de-seeding vanilla beans.

Go Vanilla!

Simple Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe

Happy National Vanilla Cupcake Day! Per the title of the picture, here's a Simple Vanilla Cupcake recipe! If the picture is hard to read, I've typed it out below! Thanks to DestinedForFame.tumblr.com for the picture!

Simple Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place liners in pan

2. In a bowl cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in eggs and add vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to mixture then mix well. Stir in milk until batter is smooth. The pour.

3. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Calories: 209

Purple Vanilla Cupcakes

 Just because it's a vanilla cupcake doesn't mean it has to be boring. Look at these purple vanilla cupcakes! Made by The Purple Spoon, these are creme fraiche vanilla cupcake generously frosted with swiss meringue buttercream. Check the recipe.

Happy National Vanilla Cupcake Day!

We'll have many more vanilla cupcakes for you today as we celebrate National Vanilla Cupcake Day (have you made some? Email us at cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com with "Vanilla" in the subject line and your URL or photo, though, as always, the best place to submit photos is via our Flickr pool) or send links we can retweet on Twitter (we're @cupcakeblog). Thanks and hope you have a delicious National Vanilla Cupcake Day! The next cupcake holiday is National Cupcake Day on December 15th! See the master list of American food holidays here. And tomorrow is our latest Twitter chat, taking place on Friday, November 11 at 2PM EST. Follow @cupcakeblog on Twitter as well as follow the hashtag #cupcakechat.

This beautiful vanilla cupcake is by blogger The Lone Baker, who always goes all out, and who has the recipe for you! Via Flickr. Officially, it's "Vanilla fairy cake with Fluffy Mock Vanilla Bean Cream and crystallised vanilla pod shred."

Shweddy Ball Cupcakes!

These come from the girls at Cupcrazed Cakery in Fort Mill, SC.

Vanilla cupcakes filled with chocolate rum ganache, malt frosting, and topped with malt balls.

De-lish! Ben and Jerry's: eat your heart out.

Click here for their website

Vanilla cupcake necklace, earrings and ornament

I am working on a Halloween cupcake wrapup post, and in the meantime, looking ahead to National Vanilla Cupcake Day (November 10th) and Thanksgiving (November 24th). We'll be doing special posts around both those holidays, so if you have anything related to them we should know about, email us at cupcakestakethecake at gmail.com and we'll do our best to include it. Each of these products, the vanilla cupcake necklace, earrings and ornament, are by different sellers on Etsy. Click through on the photos below to be taken to the sales page.



vanilla cupcake necklace - details: "Tiny Enameled Vanilla Cupcake with Rainbow Sprinkles 3D Charm Necklace in Silver with a Delicate 18 Inch Silver Plated Cable Chain"

Charm measures 17x13mm.

Silver plated cable chain is 18". If you'd prefer a different length, shorter or longer, up to 30" just include a note during checkout!



vanilla cupcake earrings - details: "Handmade cupcakes made of polymer clay
Silver dragees and a sweet cherry sit on top of this dreamy vanilla cupcake
surgical steel earring hooks light weight and non toxic"



vanilla cupcake ornament - details:

Hand-sewn from felt and finished with pink ribbon. Delicately filled with polyester filling.

Approximate size (width x height x depth): 7.3 x 7.8 x 2.0cm / 2.9 x 3.1 x 0.8""

Crème Brûlée Cupcakes

I love the idea of taking other desserts, like crème brûlée, and turning them into cupcakes!

These were made by Cupcake Project. And they aren't just regular crème brûlée cupcakes, they're pumpkin crème brûlée cupcakes. You can combine your favorite flavor of crème brûlée and your favorite cupcakes!

To get all the details on making your dream crème brûlée cupcakes, go here!