A truly perfect Vanilla Cupcake recipe! These Vanilla Cupcakes are easy to make, moist, and bake up beautifully every time! Light, fluffy and flavorful! Got the baking bug? Try my Lemon Cupcakes and Chocolate Cupcakes too!
Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe
This week I’ve made 6 batches of vanilla cupcakes and a vanilla cake. I feel like my oven has been on for 42 hours straight! =) What are all these cupcakes for, you might ask. Well, for me… and for science, and for you too. Confused yet? I’ll explain…
I have been on a search for a perfect vanilla cupcake recipe for several years. I have tried Martha’s, Magnolia’s, Billy’s and Amy Sedaris’. I’ve read the Cake Bible from cover to cover (really!). I’ve googled until I can’t google anymore! Some of the recipes were good, just not perfect. I’ve considered just giving up… maybe my expectations were to high. I wanted a vanilla cupcake recipe that was as light and fluffy as a box mix, but without all the funny chemicals. I wanted a cupcake that was flavorful and moist. And I wanted it to be almost as easy to make from scratch as from a box.
The BEST Vanilla Cupcakes
This week, I wasn’t going to stop until I found what I was looking for. So I baked and baked… then went to the store for more butter and sugar, and baked some more! I tried recipes with butter, oil, or some of both… recipes with milk, buttermilk, or sour cream… 1 egg, 2 eggs, 5 eggs… baking powder, baking soda… bake at 350*, bake at 325*…
I made cupcakes that were lopsided, over-flowing, over-baked, and just plain ugly…
And then I made these…
They looked beautiful and tasted perfect, so I double checked all my notes to make sure I could remember what I put in them… then I made another batch to make sure it was THE ONE.
They were just as perfect!! I think I heard angels singing….
I am SO happy to share the results of my many experiments! These cupcakes were absolutely delicious and I look forward to making them again and again. Now certainly, peoples tastes and preferences vary greatly. I love these, my husband (my #1 taste tester) loves them, and I hope many of you will too. As with any recipe, it is very important to use the best quality ingredients you can.
Ingredients Needed
You will notice the recipe calls for cake flour, which is a bit more expensive than all-purpose flour, but I have found it is essential to produce the light and fluffy texture I was looking for. Also, the recipe uses oil instead of butter. I realized most cupcake recipes (from scratch) call for butter, and yet box mixes (which have the texture I was looking for) are baked using oil.
I was concerned that using only oil would leave the cupcakes without adequate flavor, but I found that with good quality vanilla, these cupcakes are delicious and flavorful.
- 1 1/4 cups cake flour
- 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup oil (vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil)
- 1/3 cup milk (whole or low fat, but avoid fat free)
- 1/3 cup sour cream (full fat or light, but avoid fat free)
How To Make Vanilla Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350*F.
- In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil, beat.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add the milk, then the rest of the flour and the sour cream. Beat until just combined. Scrap down the side of the bowl.
- The batter will be thin. Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners. Fill liners about 2/3 full.
- Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.
- Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.
- Frost as desired when fully cool. I love to use my favorite Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting recipe.
- Feel free to use this recipe for a cake as well. The recipe above will work for a 6″ cake. Double the recipe for an 8″ or 9″ cake.
* A note about Cake Flour- Cake Flour has a lower protein content than traditional all-purpose flour, which results in a more tender, delicate crumb in the finished product. If you can not find or access cake flour, feel free to substitute as necessary, but your results will vary from the original recipe.
RECIPE UPDATES
I have made this recipe many times with success, but in an effort to always be improving (even great recipes) I’ve made a couple small updates to this recipe (which are now listed in the recipe card).
My original recipe included 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder (now reduced to 3/4), 3/4 cup sugar (now increased to 1 cup) and 1/2 cup buttermilk (now updated to 1/3 cup milk, 1/3 cup sour cream).
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More Cupcake Recipes
How To Make Vanilla Cupcakes
Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups cake flour
- 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup oil vegetable, canola or extra light olive oil
- 1/3 cup milk whole or low fat, but avoid fat free
- 1/3 cup sour cream full fat or light, but avoid fat free
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350*F.
- In a medium bowl, add cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir together with whisk, and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds. Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds. Add vanilla and oil, beat.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly add about half of the flour mixture. Add the milk, then the rest of the flour and the sour cream. Beat until just combined. Scrap down the side of the bowl.
- The batter will be thin. Pour batter into a muffin pan prepared with paper liners. Fill liners about 2/3 full.
- Bake cupcakes in pre-heated oven for 12-14 minutes.
- Cool in pan 1-2 minutes, then remove cupcakes from pan (carefully) and finish cooling on a wire rack.
- Frost as desired when fully cool. I love to use my favorite cream cheese frosting or buttercream frosting with these cupcakes.
Your recipe won my very own vanilla cupcake taste. All of my co-workers loved it! Read all about the taste test here:
http://mary-making.blogspot.com/2012/08/vanilla-cupcake-taste-test.html
Congrats!!
Wonderful news! Thanks for giving the recipe a try!
what kind of cake flour did you use?
Any brand should be quite similar.
Hi Gloria!
Do you have any idea what size cake this recipe will make? Thanks!!
Yes, if you are making a 8″ or 9″ round cake, use one batch of batter (the full recipe above) for each layer. For a 6″ cake, you could make 1.5 times the recipe above. I don’t have baking times for the cakes, because it depends on how much batter is in each pan, and the size of the pan. The cake is done with it is slightly golden, with a small dome, and a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs, but no wet batter. Happy baking!
Just made these last night and filled with a fresh pineapple curd and topped with bright yellow buttercream, too good! Can’t wait to try more variations!
Thank you so much for the hard work you’ve done to create this recipe, it really is being well appreciated 🙂
I just stumbled upon your blog when looking for a good recipe for vanilla cupcakes. I just made these this evening and they are DIVINE! As is the vanilla cream cheese frosting (which my mother and I were eating by the spoonful). I made them for my grandmother and I cannot wait for her to try them tomorrow! Your blog is simply beautiful! I’m a new follower and I can’t wait to try out other things you have on here, and those you have yet to post!
Omg I made these cupcakes for a friend event and All I had is great comments thank u so much for sharing its definitly a keeper:)
I made a few batches of these cupcakes for my baby son’s christening and they were amazzzzzzzzing!……….EVERYONE has been asking me for the recipe. Thank you so much for sharing this with us. Ive spent a fortune over the years paying for cupcakes for my girls birthday partys which never really came up to scratch…….I am pretty good at cake decorating but could never quite get the cake part right……..Now I can thanks to you……Im looing forward to making these again! x
Perfect recipe! I made cake instead cupcakes but still perfectly moist and soft. I posted the crazy cake I made here http://iampatzs.blogspot.com/2012/08/2-hours-crazy-birthday-cake.html
Hi I tried your cupcake recipe with my friend today and like you said they were going to be a thin batter. But then we took them out of the oven and let them sit and with my homemade frosting recipe we frosted it. Then we decided to taste one and all of a sudden got a wiff of a foul smell like fish. Then we had her parents try it and sure enough they do smell. Why is that it smells like fish powder? Does this happen to you as well?
Mary-Lou, No, they should certainly not smell like anything but vanilla cake! You may want to check your ingredients, or your stove, there may be an odor in your fridge or pantry that has mades it’s way into the ingredients.
Thanks so much for this recipe! I just tried it right now and it did come out moist and yummy. I think I’ll stick with this recipe of yours. Thanks so much!