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 made sure to only fill 3/4 of the cupcake liner, but mine still overflowed. Im not sure what I did wrong. They still tasted good though ! 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
I have a few questions… First, could I substitute coconut oil for the vegetable/canola oil? Second, some have indicated that the flavor was not quite as “vanilla” as expected…do you think I could add vanilla bean powder and if so, how much would you recommend? Finally, what would the estimated bake time be for an 8″ or 9″ cake? I am going to use this recipe for a baby shower cake and really want to make sure that it turns out well! Thanks!
I followed this recipe with absolutely no changes and the texture is perfect. The flavor however taste like cornbread. Since I’m making cake pops I hope that won’t be a problem.
i was wondering if this recipe could be used for a cake as well as cupcakes. Thanks
I normally don’t leave comments on recipes, but this recipe was perfect. I am not a big fan of making cupcakes, and usually cheat and use a box recipe but we had a snow day so I did some research and found your website. We made these cupcakes and your cream cheese frosting. If there was room, I would post an email I received from the secretary at my daughters school who received one of the extra cupcakes. She described it as the “most perfect cupcake”. I can’t take credit because I followed your recipe exactly. They were delicious so thank you! My daughter was very proud to bring them into school.
Tried these cupcakes today for the first time – my daughter came home from school and asked for cupcakes.. Since I don’t have a perfect go to recipe for vanilla cupcakes, I did some quick google research and came upon this recipe. I like that it had oil and not butter so decided to try it (my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe also has oil). I don’t keep cake flour at home, neither buttermilk so substituted the cornstarch+ all purpose flour for the cake flour and vinegar+whole milk for buttermilk.
The recipe yielded 15 cupcakes and took around 17 mins to cook. They did smell slighlty eggy when I took them out of the oven, however the taste was delicious.. the vanilla taste is so delicate and the cupcakes light and beautiful (inspite of the substituted ingredients). No eggy smell after they had cooled down. This recipe will be my standard vanilla cupcake recipe from now on ! Will also try it as a cake… Thank you Glory for sharing this wonderful recipe
I just want to say that I’ve also also been looking for “the perfect vanilla cupcake” recipe…… And I’ve found it!!!!! I made these cupcakes for a dinner party and everyone LOVED them. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us!
Hi
Do you think that I instead of oil could use some yogurt instead. ?
I’m really looking for a fat free cupcake/cake recipes.
Generally the words “cake” and “fat free” don’t belong together =) Feel free to experiment by reducing the oil a bit, but fat in baking helps with texture, not just flavor. Also, generally cupcakes that are lower in fat tend to stick to the baking liners, so that’s another thing to keep in mind. You may want to look for a recipe for an Angle Food cake, since they are virtually fat free.
DO NOT NOT NOT overfill these! When she says 2/3 full… She means it. I found out the hard way… But on the positive…DELISH!!!!
I ve tried your recipe and the cupcake wont swell
why??
Hi Pricilla, It’s sometimes hard to know exactly how to help without being with you in the kitchen. I’d suggest double checking the ingredients, and the directions. Also, make sure your baking soda and baking powder are fresh. I might suggest increasing the temperature of your oven to 375 to pre-heat, and then as soon as you put the cupcakes in the oven, reduce to 350. Best of luck!