Last week, I received a 1/2 lb. of organic Grade A Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans from eBay…yes, eBay. The only vanilla beans I find around here are the dry little beans sold two in a jar down at the grocery store for $10. I think that’s why I rarely used vanilla beans when I baked at home–I can’t bring myself to spend that much. So I tried the whole eBay thing and guess what? It only cost me $15 and the beans are pretty awesome. Nice and plump and oily on the outside and lots of beans on the inside. If anyone is interested, this is where I bought mine.

(Side note: When I worked in the cafe, my boss would never order me vanilla beans because he said it was too expensive, so I was stuck with using a huge bottle of imitation vanilla extract for everything. The pastry girl before me was allowed vanilla beans and pure vanilla extract. I’ll leave it at that for now.)

This morning, I decided to make simple vanilla cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream. Sounds simple and easy, right? No. I kept the cake simple by using the white velvet cake recipe that I’ve been making a lot recently, but I decided to try a completely new buttercream method and recipe from The Cake Bible. Oh, and I thought I’d also whip out my gum paste tools and make little flowers for each cupcake.

I made something called a “Silk Meringue Buttercream,” in which you make a creme anglaise AND an Italian meringue and whip them with softened butter (recipe will be posted on the “Recipes” page shortly). It’s fairly simple if you’re familiar with making these two things, but so much more time consuming than regular buttercream. Oh, and there is A LOT of butter–one pound of it to be exact.

I was a little afraid to try this, thinking it was just going to taste like vanilla bean butter, but it was actually really good. A little more buttery than the buttercream I usually make, but still sweet. And I love seeing those little black specks of vanilla bean. Would I make this again anytime soon? No. I much prefer Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream over this one. Still, it was fun to experiment with a new type of buttercream.

So, after making the cakes, the buttercream, and then making a dozen little purple flowers and green leaves, this is what the finished product looks like:

The cheesy cupcake liners kind of take away from the fanciness, but it was all I had. Overall though, I love these, but I sadly have nobody to share them with except for a husband who rarely eats cupcakes. So who wants to come over and have some cupcakes?