These vanilla cupcakes are my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe ever. Tender, moist, and lots of vanilla flavor going on. I frost with the best vanilla buttercream frosting in the end. And these vanilla cupcakes are made with just 8 simple pantry ingredients!
Every good baker needs a go to vanilla cupcake in their arsenal. And friends. This is it.
It’s funny isn’t that being called vanilla means plain and boring? Poor, poor vanilla. I mean being called vanilla should be like the highest compliment ever.
But I feel like because vanilla is such a pure and simple flavor, unadorned, and just “take me as I am” it can sometimes fall flat. But I swear by these vanilla cupcakes.
Ingredients For This Vanilla Cupcake Recipe:
- Cake Flour – Cake flour has a lower protein content than regular all-purpose flour so it will yield a more tender crumb. You can try a Homemade Cake Flour, but the results still won’t be quite the same as store-bought.
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Butter – I always bake and recommend using unsalted butter vs. salted butter so I can control the amount of salt. If you only have salted butter then you can try reducing or omitting the salt altogether.
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- Buttermilk – Buttermilk will give a moist, tender crumb. Buttermilk and milk are not the same thing and cannot be swapped for each other. If you don’t have buttermilk you can try making a Homemade Buttermilk (but again the results will slightly vary than store-bought).
How To Make These Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes
- Preheat your oven to 350oF, and line your cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Whisk your dry ingredient together (cake flour, baking powder, and salt) in a bowl and set aside.
Heather’s Baking Tip
Measure your flour correctly so you get a light, fluffy cupcake and not a dense, dry one. Measuring by weight is best, but if measuring by volume then stir the flour first in the bag. Then spoon the flour into your cup and level it off. Do not pack it down into the cup as it can result in over-measuring.
2. Cream your softened unsalted butter in the bowl until it is smeared around the sides of the bowl on high about 3 minutes.
3. Add the sugar, a 1/4 cup at a time. Cream the mixture for 1 minute after each addition.
4. Adds the eggs one at a time. Scraping down the bowl after each addition.
5. Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine.
6. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and cream for an additional 15 seconds.
Why do you alternate the ingredients?
Alternating the ingredients with the dry ingredients and buttermilk is important in achieving a smooth batter that you don’t have to over-mix. If you added all the buttermilk at once it could cause the batter to separate, instead of a smooth batter. Adding all the dry ingredients can result in overmixing, which can make for a tough chewy cupcake. So by alternating the ingredients we will get a moist, tender cupcake in the end with a soft crumb!
7. Using an ice-cream scoop, fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 full and bake for about 18-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. You can also touch the top of a cupcake and it should spring back to the touch.
You want to remove the cupcakes from the oven, and allow to cool in the cupcake tin for about 5 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling on a wire cooling rack.
Frosting Your Vanilla Cupcake
Once your cupcakes are cooled it’s time to frost your vanilla cupcake! To get that high beautiful swirl on my cupcakes I use a large closed star tip. I used my Vanilla Buttercream Frosting <– so creamy, light, fluffy vanilla frosting ever. But hey why stop there? These vanilla cupcakes are a perfect blank canvas.
If you want a less sweet frosting then try –> Swiss Meringue Buttercream Recipe or Italian Meringue Buttercream (+video!).
Or mix it up with some flavor like –> Easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting or Cake Batter Buttercream Frosting.
Recipe FAQ’s
Yes, I do recommend it! If you don’t have any cake flour you can make your own. Cake flour is lighter in protein content so it will result in a light and fluffy textured cupcake. You could use all purpose flour, but keep in mind this will change the result of the texture in the end.
You can store these cupcake frosted in the fridge for up to 3 days, or unfrosted covered overnight. But when serving, if refrigerated with frosting, make sure to bring to room temperature as the frosting can harden and it’s like eating a stick of butter!
Yes vanilla cupcakes freeze wonderfully. You can freeze cupcakes, frosted or unfrosted, for up to 3 months. Check out my post on how to freeze cupcakes.
More Recipe Tips For Success!
- Check that oven temperature. Not all ovens are calibrated correctly, so use an oven thermometer to make sure yours is running at the correct temperature.
- Bake in the middle of your oven. You want to make sure that the cupcakes bake evenly. And it can help if your oven has hot spots, then to rotate your pans halfway through baking.
- Use quality vanilla extract. These are vanilla cupcakes after all, so don’t cheap out on the vanilla. Use pure vanilla extract for the best flavor.
- Make sure your refrigerator ingredients are at room temperature. You cannot use cold butter, eggs, or buttermilk in this recipe or your cupcake batter will not be smooth and could affect how they rise in the end. Take your dairy ingredients out of the fridge about 30 minutes to 1 hour before.
- Don’t overfill your cupcakes. This could result in your cupcakes sinking in the middle after baking and ugly cupcake tops. Scoop about 2/3 full.
- Check for doneness. You want to make sure to check with a toothpick to look for moist crumbs, and the tops should spring back to the touch.
More Recipes To Try:
Baking Tools Needed
- Cupcake Pans – My favorite cupcake pans are these ones from Wilton and these ones from Chicago Metallic.
- Large Piping Tips – To get those professional looking cupcakes you need large cupcake tips. You could get a set like this one, or individual cupcake tips from Ateco (which are the ones I own).
- Greaseproof Cupcake Liners– I love the greaseproof ones so they still look nice after baking.
- Piping bags – You can use reusable piping bags or disposable piping bags (which is my preference). I prefer to use the 18-inch bags so I do not have to refill as often!
So let’s recap. Perfect vanilla cupcakes. Bland and boring? No way. Good lesson learned. Now get to making them…
If you love this recipe, then be sure to subscribe to join a community of bakers! And as a thank you I will send you my buttercream cheatsheet!
Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
For the cupcakes
- 3 cups (360 g) cake flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 226 g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 cups (400 g) granulated sugar
- 5 large eggs at room temperature
- 2 Tablespoons vanilla extract
- 1¼ cups (300 ml) buttermilk at room temperature
For the frosting
- 2 1/2 cups (5 sticks, 565 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 5 cups (565 g) powdered sugar
- 4 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the cupcakes
- Prep oven and pans. Position rack in the center of your oven and preheat the oven to 350° F (180°C). Line cupcake pans with paper liners. Set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together and set aside.
- Cream butter. Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, until light and creamy in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for one more minute.
- Add sugar. Add the sugar to the butter mixture, ¼ cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition.
- Add eggs and vanilla. Mix in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add vanilla and beat to combine.
- Alternate dry ingredients with buttermilk. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.
- Bake cupcakes. Divide the batter between the prepared paper liners, filling each about 2/3 of the way full. Bake 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting
- In your stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat the butter until light and fluffy for about 1 to 2 minutes.
- With mixer off, add in your powdered sugar 1/2 cup at at time. Then mix on low speed until combined.
- With mixer off, add your heavy cream and vanilla extract and then mix on low until combined.
- Then mix on medium to medium-high speed for 8 minutes until light and fluffy. Frost cupcakes immediately or store for later use.
- Use right away on cooled cupcakes. If not using right away, then store in a closed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You will need to mix the frosting again when ready to use to bring it back to that light and fluffy texture.
Video
Notes
- Making ahead/Storage: You can store these cupcake frosted in the fridge for up to 3 days, or unfrosted covered overnight. But when serving, if refrigerated with frosting, make sure to bring to room temperature as the frosting can harden and it’s like eating a stick of butter!
- Freezing: Yes vanilla cupcakes freeze wonderfully. You can freeze cupcakes, frosted or unfrosted, for up to 3 months. Check out my post on how to freeze cupcakes.
- Frosting your cupcakes: I use my Ateco pastry tips and plastic piping bags
- Adapted from Annie’s Eats
Maria says
Hello, I’ve tried this recipe and followed step by step, but while baking the dome formed on the first 7 min then the dome fell and became flat. Can you please help me and tell me what I am doing wrong?
Heather says
Hi Maria, could be a matter of overmixing the batter and incorporating too much air into the batter. Or perhaps your butter was too soft when creaming.
Kristen Renee Christie says
Hi Heather,
I’m hoping to make this recipe for my nephew/godson 2nd birthday party but I’m going to top with a chantilly cream and berries. I need about 48 cupcakes and I want to make him a smash cake. Would it be ok to double this recipe and use it for both the cupcakes and cake, (obviously the cake bake time would be different,) and would it be best since it’s a larger batch to use a stand mixer? Thanks so much!!
Heather says
Hi Kristen, this makes quite a bit of batter so I would recommend making two seperate batches to be safe. I use my stand mixer as well for a single batch, so I wouldn’t recommend doubling. Hope that helps!
Anna says
Hi
Do you know why my cupcakes taste like cornbread?
I used this recipe:
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 + 1/8th flour
1/2 + 1/4th self rising ( I did not have self rising so for ALL the flour I added 1.5 teaspoons baking powder and 1/4 salt. This was King Arthur how to make your own self rising flour)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 eggs room temp
What should I do different? I cannot figure out the reason for corn bread taste instead of vanilla cup cake. Your recipe looks similar except buttermilk. Should I try yours, or will I have the same issue maybe because I am over mixing or undermixing something. I am guessing I used too much baking powder but have no idea. I just know I used to not use any leavening when I started baking and my cakes were very dense. Thanks!!!
Heather says
Hi Anna! So the cornbread taste could be just that recipe not sure without testing. But it could be also trying to sub out and improvise with the 1/2 homemade self rising and regular flour. I also recommend weighing your flour – too much flour could have made them dense and cornbread like. If you only have cups then make sure to stir your flour first, spoon it in and level it. But yes try mine with buttermilk and see what you think!
Sue Anne says
Heather is the best at explaining how to bake “correctly,” and these delightful cupcakes are a perfect example! I still have trouble with piping, but no matter how they look, they taste great. Never thought of using buttermilk but it works. Heather has helped me immensely already with cookie baking and now cupcakes!
Heather says
Aw thank you Sue Anne for your kind words and I’m so glad you loved the cupcakes!
Victoria says
Hi lovey recipe just wanted to know if there is any substitute for buttermilk
[email protected] says
Hi Victoria! Thank you so much! Yes you can make a homemade version- for every cup I add a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar to my Measuring cup and fill up to the 1 cup line – and then stir and let it sit for 10 minutes. This recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups so I would probably add an extra teaspoon of lemon juice. Or
You could try using sour cream or Greek yogurt instead! I would imagine that would work fine! Let me know now it turns out! 🙂
Michelle Woolsey says
My husband has made these cupcakes twice , they are delicious but for some reason they cave in .What is he doing wrong ?
Heather says
Hi Michelle! Glad you liked them! I would try filling the cupcake liners a little less full next time!
Kishari Sing says
Thanks this recipe WAS perfect! The best vanilla cupcakes I’ve ever made–and I broke several cardinal rules about substituting ingredients by making them gluten free. It helped that I used the BEST gf flour mix (Manini’s gluten free) and they were still light and fluffy and delicious! I’m now making them en masse for a friend’s BBQ in a few weeks. Wish I could sent you a photo to show the texture of the gf flour.
I’ve linked my blog below, but I’ve neglected it for a while due to lifey stuff.
Thanks again for my new go to recipe.
[email protected] says
Hi Kishari! I’m so happy to hear you loved the cupcakes! This makes my day 🙂
Angie says
These were amazing cupcakes! How much does this make for a cake and what would be the bake time?
Thanks!
Angie
[email protected] says
Hi Angie! I’m glad you loved the cupcakes! I haven’t baked these into a cake, but since these make about 30 cupcakes it should be enough batter to fill two 8-inch or 9-inch cake pans. The bake time of course would be more. I’d set my timer for 30 minutes and check every 5 minutes after that. If you end up turning it into a cake let me know how it turns out!
Angie says
Will do! I’m definitely going to try it! Thanks for the quick response!
Angie says
Hey! SO..I turned these cupcakes into a cake and it turned out great! I used a conversion chart to figure out the time and checked it a little early. I also made your chocolate cupcakes into a cake using your peanut butter buttercream frosting, it was definitely a family favorite! I also used natural PB (the kind you have to stir) in the buttercream frosting and it tasted great!! I definitely be making these again for another special occasion! Thanks!
Heather says
Awww this means so much to hear you say that!! I’m glad you said it worked out with the natural PB I’ve always been afraid to use it so that’s good to know!! And hearing that it’s a family favorite just makes me smile.