Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Citrus Glaze

Combine the delicious recipes from Hummingbird Bakery and Martha Stewart along with some fantastic gluten-free flour and what do you get?  An amazing cupcake !

These beauties bake up light and fluffy. They are perfectly sweet and speckled throughout with vanilla bean.  Topped off with a lovely lemon glaze these are sure to please.

For those of you who aren't gluten sensitive then I will add some notes below to ensure that you too can make them with traditional all purpose flour.  But for those of you, like me, that require gluten-free baked goodies, you will be delighted to know the days of rubbery tasting, sandy consistency GF desserts truly are a thing of the past!  This cupcake is proof that our baked treats can be truly phenomenal and no comprise on taste is required.

My preferred flour blend is C4C (Cup for Cup) which already contains xanthan gum.  I now Pamela's also makes a wonderful pre-blended mix that would also work here.  If you don't have either on hand then go with your preferred flour blend.  If it does not have added xanthan then add 1/4 tsp to the dry ingredients. 

I opted for lemon as the base of this glaze because it pairs so well with vanilla but you can also swap it out for lime or orange as well.  Any option you choose will work wonderfully.

Let's get baking!

RECIPE:
* Cupcakes - adapted source recipe Vanilla Cupcakes, The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
* Citrus Glaze - Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

WHAT YOU NEED

CUPCAKES
1 cup GF flour blend with added xanthan gum (see note above)
**  if not Gluten Sensitive then replace GF flour with 1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup superfine sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup milk
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste

GLAZE
1 1/2 cups icing sugar (powdered sugar)
zest of 1/2 lemon
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

MAKE IT

MAKE CUPCAKES
LINE a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners
PREHEAT oven to 325F

IN BOWL OF STAND MIXER fitted with paddle attachment, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt
ADD in butter and blend on MED speed until butter is broken down and mostly incorporated into dry ingredients
IN MEDIUM BOWL, whisk together milk, egg and vanilla bean paste
ADD WET ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until blended with no large lumps remaining
FILL liners 2/3 full with batter
BAKE 22 MIN or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean
REMOVE from oven and let cool on cooling rack

MAKE GLAZE
IN MEDIUM BOWL, whisk together all glaze ingredients until smooth
DROP one tsp of glaze on top of each cooled cupcake
NUDGE the glaze into the nooks and crannies with back of spoon
LET glaze set for 15 minutes before indulging!

ENJOY!