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.
Did the original recipe used include an extra 50 or 60ml of whole milk? I cant remember if that belonged to this recipe or not :/
Just made these today with my 3year old. They’re delicious!
How could this be converted to cake? I’m making a layer cake and want to use this recipe, but I don’t know how much of a recipe I’d need. Thanks!
Would love to know baking times for cake versions. Like 6, 8, 9 inches. I just baked this in one 8 inch pan and it took a long time (at least an hour).
Any recommendations for baking these at altitude? I’m in Denver at just over 5,000 ft.
Well I thought for sure with all the comments someone would have already asked the question but they didn’t. Here is mine. I see you state it will also make a great cake batter and you mention a 6 inch cake. I’m going to assume this much batter makes at least 2 layers for 6-inch cakes but does it make any more than two layers? I like to have the pans ready just in case. The amount of batter required for at least 15 or 16 cupcakes is a decent amount of batter. I know a lot of 6-inch cakes are three layers these days. Then of course doubling for 8 or 9 inch layers would be two layers. You’ve tackled the one area where I decidedly lack as far as my baking. I don’t know the science or much chemistry behind baking and honestly, it still at times seems like magic to me. If my health were better and I could stand on my feet for more than a few minutes without agonizing pain I think I would go to pastry school. As long as I’m moving I’m pretty good but its that standing in one spot that just me in. It was almost this bad as a kid and I never understood why my feet would be killing me when standing in line to get on a ride or something like that and everyone else is fine. I now know I’ve had this fibromyalgia in me all my life, just in remission.
I think the thing I like the best about putting anything in an oven versus cooking on the stove is that magic transformation of the mixture. I’m not too shabby at cooking and can turn out some pretty decent meals but baking is my true love. Almost everytime a container of runny, gooey, flowing mess is placed in the oven, sometimes with stuff in it, sometimes not out pops 15 to 75 minutes later this amazing, delicious, beautiful cake or some other pastry. The same is even true with meats and vegetables or potatoes or any conglomeration of items. Just think what some casseroles look like before being baked. We humans wouldn’t touch them for any amount of money but after they’re baked, wow oh wow. With cookies in go blobs which include a variety of ingredients that often have been dropped on a cookie sheet (air flow is my choice. I haven’t had a burnt cookie for YEARS since switching to these. I don’t understand why America’s Test Kitchen show doesn’t like them and this is one of the few times I definitely disagreed with their decision. I often give them as shower or wedding gifts I love mine so much. I wish they were dishwasher safe, as I wish all cake pans were but I guess we can’t have everything in life.) and 6 to 16 minutes later here comes the appropriately crisp or gooey or both cookies.
I’ve been doing all of this for over 50 years and it STILL amazes me. Think about all the things we have to use to accomplish what we do, stand mixers, food processors, blenders, juicers, scoops, spatulas, zesters, reamers, and some other tools I’m sure I’m forgetting to achieve what we do (I haven’t even added cake decorating) and think what the chefs in the royal courts had to work with in France in the 1600 and 1700s and what they produced. Most of the classic French pastries were created a couple of hundred years ago and people today whine and complain and make excuses about all the reasons they can’t do any of it when these chefs only had the bare necessities of life. And cake decorating, holy moly, I’ve baked since I was a little girl standing on a chair helping women in the family but didn’t take any classes till about 8 years ago. I don’t know what happened, but it seemed shortly after I began the “art” or “craft”, whatever folks want to call it just exploded. Wilton used to be THE premier source for supplies, they barely scratch the surface now. They’re so far behind times it downright sad. I can’t keep up with the new techniques, new tools, new designs, and I don’t even try. Ever since cable television really took off, and then the creation of the internet and the web, food had completely changed in the world. It used to be something you ate to live and at times it was special and/or pretty. But now……how would you even begin to explain what food means in the culture of most civilizations today to someone from another planet? Where do you start? So you keep up the great work with the testing and experimenting and the search for the best of the bunch.
Thank you for an amazing recipe. I used the older version many times and I noticed something different today while I was making it. I am waiting for the results from the new recipe.
Dear ma’am,
If i double the recipe to bake a 9 inches round cake, how long should i bake the cake under 180°c??
My cupcakes have not a good flavor .did I do something wrong?
The cupcakes I made were very light but smell eggs Very disappointed