vanilla bean cupcakes topped with french vanilla cocoa frosting

Hi friends.

I hope you all survived the super bowl. Can I be honest? I didn't even know which teams were playing until I asked a guy at work yesterday. I'm going to be honest again... I wanted to go shopping today. I mean honestly, wouldn't retailers make a zillion kabillion dollars if they had super bowl Sunday sales? I'm not talking rotel and velveta and beer. I'm talking... Anthropologie. I'm talking... Urban Outfitters. I'm talking... department stores, boutiques, salons, spas, everything women love. WE could be shopping spending lots and lots of money buying cute clothes, SUMMER clothes, sun dresses, heels, sandals, (can you tell it's really freaking cold in Missouri?) while the lovely men in our lives pretend to actually care about football. They can drink beer and feel manly, we can spend money and look fly. Fair trade? I think so.

*P.S. If you are offended by my "women should shop men should watch football comment", I'm truthfully not sorry, but if it makes you feel better, you can think I am. I'm a girl, I do like shopping. I however, do not care about the super bowl. On the flip side, I also like hockey, tattoos, working in a kitchen full of dudes, wearing pearls and diamonds, and cursing like a sailor. It's okay, we can all get along. I promise.

Anywho, last week, while snowed in for three days... I ate, a lot. I cooked a lot, but I def. ate a lot too. (Notice a new swimsuit wasn't in the list of summer wants) But I was checking out some of my favorite bloggers, so of course I went to joythebaker... my blog crush. I don't really know what a blog crush entails, but I know I look at her blog and then come back to mine, and feel like the stinky kid in class or something. I also feel like we'd be friends. It'd be pretty sweet.

Bake these. You won't regret it. The cupcakes are really dense, but yet still super moist... kind of an unusual texture. The frosting however, is mind blowing. She suggests using ovaltine, but I don't have that. I was a fat kid, I used Hershey's syrup for chocolate milk. So, I actually used a packet of French Vanilla hot cocoa (it was 1/3 of a cup worth of dry cocoa). It was d-e-l-icious! Okay okay, enough of me, more of you. Bake these!!

Vanilla bean cupcakes from JoytheBaker:
•2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
•1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
•4 large eggs
•1 cup whole milk (I used skim, no one died)
•1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
•1/2 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out (I used the full vanilla bean, people clapped)
•2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
•1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
•1/2 teaspoon salt

-Position a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cupcake pans with paper liners and set aside.
-In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
-In a small bowl, whisk together milk, vanilla extract and vanilla bean seeds. Set aside.
-In a stand mixer, fit with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This may take 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to make sure everything is well incorporated.
-Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. If the batter begins to looks a bit curdled, that’s alright.
-With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the vanilla milk mixture in three batches, starting and ending with the flour. When the batter is almost combined, stop the mixer and finish mixing the batter with a spatula, making sure that any flour bits at the bottom of the bowl are well incorporated.

Divide into the lined cupcake pan and bake for 25 minutes or until golden and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely before frosting.

Ridiculously awesome chocolate frosting: (makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes or one 8-inch layer cake)
•1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
•1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
•1/2 teaspoon salt
•2 1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
•1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
•2 tablespoons milk (I used skim milk)
•1/2 cup heavy cream (Yes, I used skim milk and then poured in a half cup of heavy cream. My baking has personality disorders)
•1/3 cup Ovaltine (I used French Vanilla hot chocolate)

-Cream together butter, cocoa powder and salt. Butter mixture will be very thick.
-Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl and add powdered sugar.
-Turn mixer on low and mix in powdered sugar while adding milk and vanilla extract. As the sugar incorporates, raise the speed of the mixer to beat the frosting. Beat until smooth.
-In a 1-cup measuring glass, stir together heavy cream and Ovaltine.
-Turn mixer speed to medium and pour cream mixture into frosting in a slow, steady stream, until you’ve reached your desired consistency. You may not need the full amount of Ovaltine and cream.