Vanilla Bean Frosting

Is there anything better than vanilla bean? I think not! I have always LOVED the taste of this wonderful ingredient but used it for the first time today in the frosting for Dad’s cake. It was a bit of a hectic day, so I didn’t get a chance to whip up (no pun intended…ok…slightly intended) the frosting until my parents arrived at my apartment. Ah well, I enjoy cooking with some company. 🙂

For dinner, my parents and I had planned something relaxing and delicious – none other than Punch Pizza! See my recent post about Punch and why I think it’s so divine. We enjoyed both a Margherita Extra (the best EVER) and a delicious meat concoction with onions. It was great to have the combination of the two pizzas with the olive oil on one to outweigh the zip of the spice on the meat version. I’ll have to look up the name of that pizza, it was tasty.

Back to the vanilla bean. And the frosting. So, I’ll put this out there – this is not a healthy frosting. But MAN is it good. Mom and Dad kept sticking their fingers in the bowl of frosting and insisting on putting more on the cake. I even caught them in their frosting frenzy – including Dad sneaking extra layers on the cake. Got to love it.

For the recipe, this again a Sweetapolita creation. Below is her exact wording, measurements, ingredients and ‘how to make’ process which can be found on this page in her blog (when you see an ‘I’ that refers to Rosie, not to me):

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Whipped Vanilla Bean Frosting

Ingredients

3 sticks + 2 tablespoons (375 grams/13 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes

3 cups sifted (480 grams/1 lb + 1 ounce) confectioners’ sugar (icing, powdered)

3 tablespoons (45 mL) milk

1 vanilla bean, scraped

1 teaspoon (5 mL) pure vanilla extract — I use Nielsen-Massey Vanillas 8-oz. Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract

pinch of salt

Method

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for 8 minutes on medium speed (I use “4″ on my KitchenAid). Butter will become very pale & creamy.

2. 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.

3. Best used right away.

4. You can eliminate the vanilla bean and use a total of 1 1/2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.

*Adapted from Donna Hay

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So, as I was whipping the frosting for a total of 8 + 1 + 6 minutes, I got in a little workout too. I unfortunately do not own a Kitchen Aid mixer. I know – the shame! It’s on the lists of “I’d really like…” but hasn’t quite made the list of “I REALLY NEED…”. Yet. If you’re like me and use a hand mixer, prepare for a little arm workout. If you have a Kitchen Aid mixer…well good for you. What color is it?!?

Back to frosting and cake. Locate your cake plate, or in my case, an upside down pizza pan. (I meant to buy a large cake stand last weekend and totally spaced it out. The humor here is I own three mini cake plates (for perfume, picture frames etc.) but not one that’s cake size. I know – little weird.) Either way, as long as the surface you use is flat, you should be good.

Slather frosting all over the top of whichever cake you’d like to be the bottom. I was told I should have put MORE frosting on for this middle frosting layer, but this is up to you and much you LOVE frosting. Set your other cake on top, face down. This gives you a nice, flat surface for the top of the cake and makes it easy if you wish to decorate. Layer on the frosting on all sides and the top until your satisfied with the both the coverage and depth of frosting. I didn’t use all of the frosting, but there wasn’t too much leftover.

Decorate as you’d like or be like me and just use candles. Here’s the birthday boy:

And here he is, in vanilla heaven:

All in all, a delicious cake and frosting recipe and a successful birthday celebration was had. I highly recommend both the frosting recipe and the cake recipe from yesterday’s post. This is no ‘boring vanilla’ cake . I’m a chocolate girl and loved this cake. Trust me.

Now go make some cake!

Tags: Cake, Frosting, Vanilla