Jump to RecipeThis recipe for homemade soft, fluffy vanilla cupcakes uses beautiful and bright Nestle’s Tollhouse Unicorn Morsels to make these the prettiest little treat on the dessert table! Top with a swirl of vanilla buttercream frosting speckled with finely chopped Unicorn Vanilla chips to make the magic complete.
A unicorn, the Easter Bunny and a leprechaun walk into a bar…. they all decide the would rather have this magically delicious cupcake than a drink!
Yeah, not much of a joke- but I could say the same for this cupcake- they are no joke!
The inspiration to for these cupcakes came from an invitation sent to me by Nestle Tollhouse to participate in project #tollhousetribe. Get ready because I will be churning out creative recipes over the next 3 months incorporating some new and classic morsel flavors: Unicorn Vanilla chips, Espresso chips, Butterscotch and Milk Chocolate. When I received my package of product from Nestle, I immediately opened up each bag to taste test each morsel for flavor inspiration. Believe it or not, as soon as I saw these pink and blue swirled vanilla chips, I just knew a fluffy, white vanilla cake batter would be the perfect backdrop to showoff and compliment the pretty colors! And now as i sit her in retrospect, I can tell you that I wasn’t wrong and I wasn’t disappointed!
I scoured the internet for the best vanilla cake recipe I could find as the base for my task and I felt that Sally’s Baking Addiction’s “Simply Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes” had the most promise. I followed her recipe as a guide and added a couple tweaks of my own to incorporate Nestle Tollhouse Unicorn Vanilla.
Cake Batter Tips:
- Softened butter: A fluffy base of creamed butter and sugar is the first step to making sure that your cupcakes/cake turns out fluffy and moist. Using room temperature butter is key to having fluffy whipped sugar butter. But be careful, there is such a thing as too soft. Ideally, you should be able to pick up the stick of butter and bend it without it melting in your fingers or becoming glistening or sticky.
- Sour cream: This is a power ingredient; it lightens up and moistens the crumb. The acid in sour cream produces a very fine crumb because it tenderizes the gluten in the flour. Sour cream adds so much richness making the cake super moist and almost springy.
- Egg whites: To keep the clean white vanilla cake color, you need to leave out the yolks. I recommend separating the yolk and egg white before bringing the eggs to room temperature. It’s much easier to separate with refrigerated eggs. Since we are losing a little fat from the missing egg yolks, it’s added back in via sour cream and whole milk.
- Cake flour: Switch out the all-purpose flour for cake flour. Cake flour is much lighter than all-purpose flour and helps to produce the softest, lightest cakes and cupcakes you’ll ever eat. When I measure flour, I always stir it to loosen it and then spoon it into a dry measuring cup and swipe it level with the flat edge of a knife.
whip the room temperature butter cream in the sugar add egg whites, vanilla and sour cream 
after adding the dry ingredients, slowly incorporate the milk 
fold in the unicorn morsels 
fill cupcake liner 2/3 full 
let cupcakes cool before frosting
Pink and Blue Speckled Vanilla Buttercream
This fluffy sweet buttercream frosting recipe is pretty standard, however with the #tollhousetribe project I wanted to incorporate the Unicorn Vanilla chips again. This time I finely chopped them up and folded in after I whipped up the buttercream frosting. The finer, you chop the better. If chips are too large they can clog up your piping tip. I also recommend using a larger tip, I used a round Wilton 2A tip. In retrospect, I would have chopped the morsels even finer than what I have shown here in the pictures.
Buttercream Tips:
- Butter: Once again, room temperature butter is necessary to make fluffy frosting. Also consider using an unsalted butter when baking, as a general rule of thumb.
- Confectioners’ Sugar: Sweetens vanilla buttercream and adds stability and pipe-ability to the frosting. I really insist on sifting the sugar. Confectioners sugar can be quite lumpy.
- Heavy Cream: Though whole milk or half-and-half are perfectly acceptable, use heavy cream for maximum creaminess and richness.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Adds that glorious vanilla flavor. Investing in a high quality pure vanilla extract, it definitely worth the couple extra dollars. Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Extract is well known and highly regarded
- Salt: Offsets the sweetness and adds that little something extra. Just a pinch, whip and see if you need more.. or perhaps none at all. It just depends on preference.
whipped vanilla buttercream fold in the pink and blue morsels 
pink and blue speckled buttercream 
pink and blue speckled buttercream
The final product here is wonderfully vanilla with beautiful pink and blue swirls!
Vanilla Unicorn Cupcakes with Pink and Blue Speckled Vanilla Buttercream
Ingredients
Vanilla Unicorn Cupcakes
- 1 ¾ cake flour spoon & leveled
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large egg whites at room temperature
- 2 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup full fat sour cream at room temperature
- 1/2 cup whole milk at room temperature
- 1 cup Nestle's Tollhouse Unicorn Morsels
Speckled Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup cup unsalted butter soften to room temperature
- 4 cups confectioners sugar sifted
- ¼ cup half and half or heavy cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup Nestle Tollhouse Unicorn Morsels chopped very finely
Instructions
Cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake liners. Line a second pan with 3 liners – this recipe makes about 15 cupcakes. Set aside.
- Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat on high speed for 2 minutes until creamed together. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
- Add the egg whites and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until combined, then beat in the sour cream. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Pour/spoon the batter into the liners – fill only 2/3 full to avoid spilling over the sides. Bake for 19-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Frost cooled cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. I piped it on using a Wilton 2A tip. Because of the morsel speckles, I recommend using a larger tip.
- Leftover cupcakes keep well covered tightly in the refrigerator for 3 days.
Frosting:
- With a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy – about 2 minutes.
- Add 3 and 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar, the half and half, and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then increase to medium-high speed and beat for 2 full minutes.
- Add up to 1/2 cup more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin or another Tablespoon of half and half if frosting is too thick. Add a pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet.
- Turn off mixture to fold in the chopped unicorn morsels.
- Use immediately or cover tightly and store for up to 1 week in the refrigerator if making in advance.
