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.
I just made these truly “perfect” brownies, i’ve been searching for the right recipe for some time now! My compliments to the baker, chapeau 🙂 !
Thank you for all your hard work in testing recipes! I have made over 100 cupcakes this week. Half were from my favorite Cook’s Illustrated Devil’s Food cake recipe and the other was Martha Stewart vanilla cupcakes for Minion cupcakes. Not wild about the vanilla cupcakes. I think the oil is the perfect answer!
These are THE ULTIMATE Cupcakes !!! Thank you soooo much for the recipe..!!! .I’ve used granulated sugar instead and they are really super fluffy and light !!!
HI!!! i left a message before when i first made these cupcakes because they are THAT good!!! This is my go to vanilla cake for sure!!
So i wanted to use it for my anniversary cake too…but was unsure of how much it would give me. I know it says if doubled it would make an 8″ cake, but it seemed like it should be enough for more…so i took a chance and doubled the recipe and it made two gorgeous 9″ cakes perfectly!! I filled it with a balsamic / strawberry jam and fresh strawberry filling, with some yummy frosting!!! Sooooooo good! I only had dark nonstick pans so they started browning pretty fast at the first temp…so mid way while turning them i turned it down to 325…they baked for a total of about 28-30 min.
I just wanted to let you and anyone else know that this recipe doubled makes an awesome layer cake!!! It turned out even nicer than i’d hoped! wish i could show you a picture here! I’ve emailed you one just so you can see how great your recipe worked out!! 🙂
Thanks so much for posting!!!!
These are the BEST CUPCAKES EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m going to make them for Easter breakfast, and throw some frosting on top. 😀
Hi Glory.
I’m sure your vanilla cupcake recipe is GREAT.
I’m interisting to try. But, in my country, we used “gram” instead of “cup” for meassuring.
Could you help me, how much gram 1cup is???
I really appreciate your help.
Thankyou.
OMG thank you!!!!! I never thought I would be able to find a recipe like this. This is PERFECT! We didn’t even get a chance to frost them, Everyone ate them right out of the oven. Sweet, light, moist, delicious. You are my hero and have made it into my exclusive recipe box where only perfection gets in. I never need to google vanilla cupcake recipe again. Thank you!!!!
Thanks dear, made those yesterday n they were excellent, too light n fluffy, exactly like d result of a cake mix, only one thing i didnt get is the taste, i think i must use good quality vanilla essence next time.
what i wanted is this, can i double this recipe for a 9″ Fondant cake? as this recipe is too light like a cake box, so can it be right for a fondant cake? plz reply.
Thank you thank you thank you. I have tried so many recipes, but none have turned out even close to this good!!! They are soft, moist, fluffy, and taste amazing!!! Even the next day haha.
A thousand thanks for putting the time and money into this discovery. 🙂
This was the perfect recipe!! I tried several but this one was by far the easiest and the best…..I added just a tad bit more of vanilla but I have no complaints! thank you!