Champagne Pear Cupcakes

Okay, so the decorating was a little underwhelming this time, but these were my girly-spring cupcakes. They were made for a coworker who is pregnant, and inspired by one of my favorite flavor combinations: pear and vanilla bean.
Let us start by having a little moment of silence for those cupcakes whose lives were cut short by a tragic baking accident..........

I attempted to make some double chocolate cupcakes a little while ago but they ended up being double busted cupcakes :( I bought these new Hershey's drops and figured they would be great as a cupcake filling. I was probably right, but I wouldn't know. About halfway through baking, I realized that I forgot to put them inside the cupcakes! A foolish choice was to pop out the cupcakes, put in the chocolates, then finish baking. I don't know if that was why they didn't turn out, or if I possibly forgot to add the salt. Regardless, they were my first cupcake catastrophe and they've been haunting me ever since.
I've made my Lemon Cupcakes, the Remix and these champagne pear cupcakes since that time, and was VERY nervous both times. But with good reason: I made two substitutions in ingredients and had a measuring mishap while making the lemon cupcakes, and my champagne pear cupcakes were a bit of a crazy experiment in recipe making. Here's the (hopefully) abridged story:
I didn't plan out my grocery shopping well, so I assumed I'd need one pear for the recipe and bought an extra to eat by itself. WRONG. The ONLY recipe I could find online for champagne pear cupcakes called for 2 3/4 cup of flour (which would make about 30-36 cupcakes) and three pears. UGH. After some thoughtful debate, I decided to do what I've been wanting to do for a while: research baking science. It was super enlightening and now I have much more appreciation for the ingredients that go into a cake. Armed with my new-found knowledge, I decided to tweak my Pomegranate Green Tea cupcakes recipe because it seemed to have a good ratio of ingredients and mirrored the liquid content I'd need to use to get the champagne flavor to shine in these cakes. I figured the pear component was an extra and wouldn't affect the chemistry, and I was right. So here's MY recipe:

Champagne-Pear Cupcakes:
2 cups All Purpose Flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter (3/4 cup)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 cup milk*
1 cup champagne*
Two pears, grated*
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grate the pears and set aside.
Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl, set aside.
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add vanilla extract and milk, plus half the flour mixture. Mix together until combined. Add the champagne and other half of the flour mixture, mix together until combined. Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake 16-22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into center of cupcake comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
*The milk is probably not necessary, because the batter was a little thinner than I'm used to. They still turned out fine, but next time I'll omit the extra liquid. I used some cheap champagne- I think it was like $9 per bottle and was of the "brut" variety. It was quite interesting to have an ingredient fizz as I added it into the batter, but the best part was finishing the champagne afterwards (which was surprisingly pretty good!). As far as the pears go, it wasn't that bad to grate them. One of them was a little under-ripe and quite firm, and the other was much more ripe and soft. However, grating them with a cheese grater (using the side with the largest holes) wasn't a big deal. A little messy, but not difficult. Oh, and I also added some pink food coloring to make them a little extra cute :)

It's hard to tell what color they are, but they're a light pink-ish color. So needless to say, having made my own recipe for these, I was apprehensive about how they'd turn out. But I think the flavor of the champagne was there, but not overwhelming. The pear flavor was almost non-existent, but I think it balanced everything out and made for the most moist cupcakes I've ever had. Possibly my new secret weapon for moist cakes :) Overall I was relieved that they turned out ok and somewhat proud that I tweaked an already-tweaked recipe to make something new.

On to the frosting of my dreams...
Vanilla Bean Buttercream Frosting:
1/2 of one vanilla bean, seeds scraped and pod discarded*
One poud of confectioner's sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbps+ of milk
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature

Beat butter until smooth. Add vanilla bean seeds and extract, then slowly begin adding about half of the powdered sugar. Add the milk, then the rest of the powdered sugar. Add more milk if needed to desired consistency, and beat until smooth. Do not overbeat. Makes enough frosting for about 24 cupcakes.
*This was my first vanilla bean experience. I bought some McCormick gourmet vanilla beans, found on the spice rack at my local grocery store. They actually sell them in a little glass jar just like they use to sell other spices (like rosemary). I cut the seed in half width-wise with a paring knife. I put one half back in the jar, and then cut the other half length-wise. You'll see the darker seeds in the middle of the pod. Use the rounded side of a butter knife and hold the knife perpedicular to the bean on the side that has access to the seeds. Apply some pressure to the pod and scrape down it to extract the seeds. The seeds should come right out and stick on the butter knife.

I piped on a swirl of frosting and spinkled on some yellow sprinkles. Mmmmm... sophistication.