Wedding Cupcakes (Round 3)

And we have a winner! After a few different cake recipes, we finally found a cupcake clear winner. The bride originally wanted yellow cupcakes and gave me two recipes that she wanted to try. I made them and wasn't pleased, so I asked her to let me make her my go-to vanilla cupcakes. These vanilla cupcakes never disappoint. They quickly won over the bride and were chosen as the clear winner. These cuties will be decorated with purple and white icing and adorned with white edible pearls and white and purple flowers like this:

Vanilla Cupcakes
Source: adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:
3 cups cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 sticks butter (room temperature)
2 cups sugar
5 eggs (room temperature)
1 and 1/4 cups buttermilk (room temperature)
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

Beat butter on medium-high speed for 3 minutes (with either a hand mixer or stand mixer), until light and creamy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for an additional minute.

Add the sugar to the butter mixture, 1/4 cup at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition. Beat in the eggs one, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition.

Combine buttermilk and vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup. Beating on low, add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, and ending with the flour mixture.

Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full (I had enough batter for a half-dozen more cupcakes) Bake 18 - 22 minutes. Allow to cool in the pans a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

My Favorite Vanilla Buttercream
2 sticks butter, room temperature
4 - 6 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1 - 2 tablespoons water

Cream the butter. Add vanilla and water. Beat well. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time until desired consistency is reached. Beat well.