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.
This has become my staple vanilla cake recipe. It is divine.
Look good but mine did not come out moist….rather dry actually
Next time, try baking the cakes just a minute or so less. The cakes are done when they have a nice dome and a toothpick inserted in the center of a cake comes out with a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter.
Happy baking!
hi. im new here and i’d like to ask the cake flour is the same with the self risin? and if not, in case i cant find cake flour is there anything i can to replace it with?
thank u very much
Eva- No, cake flour is not the same as self rising flour. Cake flour has a lower gluten content than regular/all purpose flour. If cake flour is not available, use regular flour, but replace one tablespoon of flour with one tablespoon of corn starch for each cup of flour. If possible, sift the flour as well.
Happy baking!
I am so glad I found this, as all the Googling was not pulling up what I want for my son’s bday cupcakes I will be making tonight. I haven’t made any cake treats lately and completely forgot about cake flour. Yay , I think they will be great using your recipe!
Made your perfect cupcake yesterday and I must say they are perfect! Thanks for all your hard work! I will definitely be using this recipe a lot!
Wow!! Thanks a lot for such a good recipe !! Just tried and it worked wonderful .. Now going to try the icing part . Thanks a ton!!
This is the best tasting vanilla cupcake from scratch I have ever made! They usually end up too dense, but these are the perfect consistency and the vanilla flavor really comes out in them! Thanks for sharing! I’m making 4 dozen for my nephew Wyatt’s (facebook page A New Heart for Wyatt) 1st Heart Birthday tomorrow, it’s been a year since he had a heart transplant at 5 months old! These are the perfect party cupcakes! (:
I made these cupcakes today and I am in love. These cupcakes are truly amazing- Light, fluffy, great taste (perfect sugar.) I live in Denmark at the moment, and so there were a few things I did differently, but still turned out great. 1. I used organic flour instead of cupcake flour. 2. I used powder vanilla instead of liquid. 3. I used a tiny oven (only fits a mini 6 cupcake pan) which caused my cupcakes to get golden before completely baking on the inside, but still were moist enough. I did notice that when I took my cupcakes out of the oven they went down a little (i could hear them sizzle) and I think this has something to do with my oven. But over all….. i lovvvvvvvvvvved this recipe and will continue using it cuz it tastes so much like box cake mix. Thank you so much for all the effort!
I made your cupcakes and I say they are perfect……………..thanks, andi
Hi Glory, I tried this recipe for cupcakes for my brother’s daughter turning 3. They are amazing!!!! So soft and fluffy and packed with vanilla flavour. To top it all, it was SUPER easy to make! Thank you so much for all your research. I have also tried various recipes before and these are definitely the best vanilla cupcake recipe I’ve ever made. This is going to be my standard vanilla cupcake recipe from now on. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Love from the beautiful Winelands, SA