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Home » Secret Ingredients

Butter & Nut Extract Cupcakes

Last updated on June 3, 2021 By Anna 15 Comments This post may contain affiliate links.

This is an older post from back when McCormick's Cake Batter Flavor was called McCormick Vanilla Butter & Nut Extract. So if you see Cake Batter Flavor, it's the same thing and can be used interchangeably.

butter & nut extract

Butter & Nut Extract aka Cake Batter Flavor

It definitely lived up to my expectations, which had been set pretty high thanks to glowing reviews from people who said it was the key ingredient in their family's favorite pound cake or that they'd used it as a substitute for vanilla in chocolate chip cookies. So far, I've used it in both pound cake and chocolate chip cookies, but my favorite use for it was in yellow cupcakes. Vanilla Butter & Nut added an interesting  and rather bold blend of butter, vanilla and nuts. An unexpected benefit was that this extract is deep yellow, so it added a nice yellow hue to an otherwise sour cream colored cupcake.

UPDATE:  Judy mentioned she liked the star on top of the cupcake.  If you want to know which tip, it's the closed star tip from the Ateco #786 Large Tube Set, 12 pcs.

Butter & Nut Cupcake
This is a cupcake made with the flavoring formerly known as McCormick Vanilla Butter & Nut Extract.

These cupcakes got rave reviews from all tasters and I can't wait to make them for a bake sale! The recipe below makes 12.  I try to keep vanilla cupcake batch sizes small because I usually accompany them with a batch of good chocolate cupcakes.

cupcake-texture

Recipe

Vanilla Butter & Nut Extract Cupcakes

Cookie Madness
Cupcakes made with McCormick Vanilla, Butter & Nut Extract
5 from 2 votes
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes mins
Cook Time 20 minutes mins
Total Time 40 minutes mins
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 12

Ingredients
 

  • 2 large eggs
  • 114 grams cake flour 1 cup
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 114 grams 1 stick unsalted butter, cool room temperature (Land o' Lakes
  • 196 grams 1 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons McCormick Vanilla Butter & Nut Extract
  • ½ cup sour cream

Frosting

  • 230 grams 1 stick unsalted butter, softened, I used Land o'Lakes
  • 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
  • 2 teaspoons heavy cream
  • ½ to 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or as needed I used Sonoma Syrup Vanilla Bean Crush

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 cupcake cups with paper liners.
  • Separate the eggs. Put the whites in a mixing bowl and the yolks in a small bowl. Bring them to room temperature. You may want to do this ahead of time.
  • Sift the cake flour and then stir in the baking powder and salt and set aside.
  • With a clean mixer, whip the egg whites to soft peaks and set aside.
  • In a large mixing bowl, using the same mixer you used to beat the whites, beat the butter until creamy. Gradually add the sugar and continue to beat for until fluffy and light, scraping sides of the bowl. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, using lowest speed of mixer. Beat in the extract.
  • With a big mixing spoon or heavy duty scraper, add the dry ingredients alternately with the sour cream, stirring until mixed. Scrape the sides of the bowl and beat with the electric mixer for about 1 minute or until smooth. With the spoon or scraper, fold the egg whites into the batter.
  • Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake cups and bake for about 20 minutes or until the cakes appear set. These cakes do not brown very much – just a tiny bit around the rim. The tops also look pretty wet even when the cupcakes are done, so bake just until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
  • Let the cakes cool completely. While warm, they may seem a little flimsy, but they will firm up a bit as they cool.
  • To make the frosting, beat the butter until creamy. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar. Add the cream and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
Keyword Cake Batter Flavor, Cupcakes
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

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Reader Interactions

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  1. Anna

    December 24, 2017 at 11:58 am

    Denise, that's so funny! I'm glad we share a secret ingredient. I've had a hard time finding it lately.

  2. Denise

    December 24, 2017 at 11:24 am

    5 stars
    You are giving away my secret ingreduent for sure. Lol. This is my go to flavor for birthday cakes and yellow cakes with strawberry or coconut buttercream. Sometimes I even add 1/4tsp of coconut with the vanilla butternut in he cake. Ahhh-maz-ing

  3. Anna

    September 27, 2013 at 10:53 am

    Shirley, that's good news! Maybe it really is more of an East Coast thing. I recommend using it in yellow cake or cupcakes. It's good in chocolate chip cookies, too. It's also REALLY good in sugar cookies.

  4. shirley

    September 27, 2013 at 10:08 am

    Shopping at Wegmans this morning I took a minute to look at seasonings, extracts etc... and YES they have it so I bought a bottle. Hope to try something soon; thanks for posting re it. Granted I had to look at ALL the new seasonings and came home with a couple of others. Savory ones. I also noticed that many of the ground spices/herbs are now 'roasted' or 'toasted'- cumin and about 5 or 6 others. Didn't buy ... will have to check my stash to see what is old and can be discarded.

  5. Anna

    September 25, 2013 at 7:40 am

    Karen, I'm having the weirdest problem with my recipe formatting software and am in the process of fixing that.

    Update: Fixed!

  6. Karen

    September 24, 2013 at 11:19 pm

    Is it an oops in the recipe, Anna? You have the flour and the eggs listed 2 separate times.
    These cupcakes look so very nice and moist. Yummy.

  7. Betty

    September 24, 2013 at 9:54 pm

    I use the butter and nut flavoring all the time in my pound cake, but have never thought to put it in my yellow cake. I will try these! 🙂

  8. Anna

    September 24, 2013 at 3:19 pm

    Judy, it's the closed star tip #847 from Ateco. I bought it as part of a set, so I went ahead and added a link to the set (it's right above the second picture) for anyone interested. The tips in that set are jumbo size, so they're perfect for topping cupcakes. The set is very reasonably priced, so I recommend you just buy the whole set rather than the one tip.

  9. Judy

    September 24, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    Anna, what type or number tip did you use to get that cute squiggly swirl on you cupcakes. I love it.

  10. Holiday Baker Man

    September 24, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    Cool.... I am going to try Maple Emulsion in some of this year's Christmas Cookies!

  11. Anna

    September 24, 2013 at 12:21 pm

    I'm sure it would be great in a five flavor pound cake! However, I'd go for one of the older Butternut Pound Cake recipes on the web. There are quite a few variations. I made the one on McCormick's website last night, but thought it was too sweet.

  12. C L

    September 24, 2013 at 11:39 am

    5 stars
    Thank you for posting this! It sounds like it would be a delicious upgrade for my Cold Oven Pound Cake. Would it be OK to use in a 5 Flavor pound cake too, I wonder? 🙂 Looking forward to your post about your cookie testing. 🙂

  13. Anna

    September 24, 2013 at 10:18 am

    Stacye, I special ordered it from Amazon.

    Cheryl, yes. I'm actually testing it out in a different chocolate chip recipe today just to see if I like it better in thin and crispy chocolate chip cookies or thicker, chewier cookies.

  14. Cheryl

    September 24, 2013 at 9:50 am

    Did you do a straight substitute of the amount for a small batch of Choc. Chip Cookies?

  15. Stacye Smith

    September 24, 2013 at 9:21 am

    Can you get this flavoring in the store or do you have to special order it?
    They look really good!!

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