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Preheat the oven to 350 and line 2 cupcake pans with 18 total cupcake liners.
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In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes.
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Add the eggs and mix for an additional 2 minutes. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed.
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In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt.
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Pour the vanilla bean paste and the espresso powder into the buttermilk and whisk to combine.
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Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk starting and ending with the dry ingredients. So, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half of the buttermilk, then 1/3 of the flour, etc.
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Mix until the dry ingredients are just incorporated.
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Portion the batter into the cupcake liners filling just over 3/4 of the way full.
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Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, then rotate the cupcakes and bake an additional 8-10 minutes or until the edges are just starting to brown and a toothpick comes out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs attached.
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Let cool completely before frosting.