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.
Love this recipe! One question: recently I used foil liners – is this a no no for the recipe? I removed from oven and during cooling I heard ‘crackling’, The bottoms never filled out, and remained slightly squished! Weird! I’m going to redo them with paper! Any suggestions?
I just made these yesterday, and they were perfect! Exactly what I was going for. Soft, fluffy, but sturdy enough that they didn’t fall apart. I topped them with vanilla buttercream and they’re awesome. Thanks for the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe!
This recipe was just what I was looking for. Thanks for letting me link back here from my blog =)
I just made these this morning. The recipe is easy and they taste great. My only concern is they came out a little dry. I added a little butter. It helped a little…..ant other suggestions?
Hi Gloria,
If I were to make these cupcakes without eggs, what do you suggest I replace the eggs with? Also, do I need to alter the quantity of any other ingredients if making eggless cupcakes?
Waiting eagerly for your reply…
Thanks,
Aakriti
Aakriti,
I’m sorry but I have not ever experimented with eggless baking. In this recipe (as with most any cake that calls for eggs), the eggs help provide the structure and texture of the cake. I would suggest googling for vegan cupcakes and starting with a recipe that is already designed to be egg free.
Hi there!
I’m new here but I love your website! I made these for my birthday party and all my friends and family adored them. I filled them with chocolate pudding and paired them with your delicious cream cheese frosting. Yum. My friends said it was the best cupcake they’d ever had. Some overfilled but I know I overfilled the batter.
Thanks for sharing!
-Niah
These were fantastic! I literally just made these – followed the recipe. My husband LOVED the chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and is a massive chocolate person, but he said that these are officially his favourite :). The base is super light and fluffy, and the icing..well the icing my dears tastes just like vanilla icecream. The trick is to beat the butter for a minimum of 5 minutes till it starts took almost like whip cream and white then add the cream cheese. Also if you find the icing splits its because u have over beaten the mixture once you have added the cream cheese. Otherwise super easy, insanely tasty and much better than box mix. best vanilla cupcake recipe ever!
whats the recipe foe the icing in the picture
What a wonderful recipe! I have made it numerous times in the last two months. Sometimes as a just because and once for my sister-in-laws baby shower. I have doctored them up (not that it needed it. Just experimenting. ) filling with strawberry purée and just made a batch where I threw in some blueberries to the batter. They are wonderful any way you turn them and the vanilla with the buttercream here gets raves every time I make it. Your site is my go-to for cupcakes. 🙂
Your perfect chocolate cupcakes gave me fits… but THESE!!! They truly are PERFECT! I used actual buttermilk and King Arthur brand cake flour… they are so pretty! Behaved exactly as you said… and I’m getting precisely 15 cupcakes per batch. Thank you so much for the recipe! Saving this one for next time too!