Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream
Enjoy these delicious vanilla bean cupcakes with fresh blackberry buttercream and a surprise blackberry jam filling. Made with vegan butter and almond milk, this recipe is completely dairy-free.
Ingredients
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
- ¾ cup vegetable shortening
- 1½ cups sugar
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- ½ tsp salt
- 3½ tsp baking powder
- 2¼ cups flour
- 5 egg whites
Blackberry Buttercream Frosting
- ⅔ cup water
- 1¾ cups sugar
- 4 egg whites
- cream of tartar (optional)
- 2 cups vegan butter
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 2 cups blackberries
Filling
- blackberry jam
Instructions
Vanilla Bean Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the almond milk and vanilla bean paste and mix until just combined.
- In a small bowl, add the dry ingredients and mix with a whisk or fork.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients. Increase speed to medium and beat until well mixed, about 2 minutes.
- Add the egg whites and beat on high speed for 2-3 minutes.
- With a large cookie scoop or spoon fill each cupcake liner ⅔ full with batter. Bake for 20-24 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the cupcake comes out clean. Let cool completely on a wire rack before filling and frosting.
Blackberry Buttercream Frosting
- Add 1 cup sugar and the water to a small saucepan on medium heat.
- While the syrup is cooking, add the egg whites and cream of tartar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on high speed. When the egg whites start foaming, slowly add the remaining sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. If your syrup is not ready, lower the speed, but do not turn the mixer off.
- The syrup is ready when it pours off the spoon in a steady stream or reaches 235F.
- With the stand mixer on high speed, slowly pour the syrup into the egg whites, but DO NOT let the syrup hit the whisk. It should be a steady stream into the bowl.
- Continue beating the frosting until the bowl cools down and feels barely warm. Switch to the paddle attachment and add the butter one tablespoon at a time.
- Continue beating until frosting stiffens. If it’s not stiffening then stick the bowl in the fridge for 20 minutes, and then try again.
- Put the blackberries in a blender and blend until there aren’t any blackberry chunks left. Pour blackberry mixture into a mesh strainer that’s over top a bowl to separate the seeds. Using a spoon stir and push the mixture against the strainer to get as much in the bowl as possible. There should be about ½ cup to use in the frosting.
- Add the seedless blackberry juices and the vanilla in the frosting and beat until well combined.
Filling
- Insert the apple corer or cupcake corer into the cupcake ⅓ the way in, twist gently, and remove the top.
- Add blackberry jam.
- Frost your cupcakes however you would like.