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.
OMG. THANK YOU SO MUCH for this recipe. I too spent a day in the kitchen with a hilarious mess of ugly flat small and wierd cupcakes, trying to find ONE good recipe. Everyone claimed to have the best recipe yet I had failure after failure…one seemed to be egg flavoured butter foam at the end. Ick!
I have made this over and over, with various flavour tweaks (steeping earl grey tea bags into the milk for London fog, adding other extracts and seats, etc) for my small home cupcake business and it’s perfect every time! I also made a cake for fun, perfect too.
Thanks again
As a serial hobbyist, this week I took on the challenge of making cupcakes. Using another popular recipe , my cupcakes would cave-in, would not dome, or they were flat. After four attempts I almost gave up. Then I came across this recipe. Now, I have to admit, I am a guy that has no cooking skills whatsoever. I followed this recipe and my cupcakes (15 cupcakes) turned out marvelous! Beautifully domed and yummy! I took three of them to my neighbors house for them to try. They didn’t believe I baked them. I asked them to try them and let me know what they thought. 30 minutes later they were knocking at my door asking if I had anymore…lol! Now the only thing I did different was I baked them with convection oven at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. I may be becoming a cupcake baking addict! I just need to learn how to pipe the icing. They cupcakes are delicious but boy are they are ugly! Thank you so much for this recipe!
So I tried the cupcake recipe, for my daughter’s 10th birthday at school. I have parents texting me asking me about these cupcakes her kids came home talking about, and the teacher as well! And then for my daughter’s 13th birthday last week, I tried the cake recipe version. Followed directions, and double the ingredients. What I found by doubling the ingredients as not only did I have enough for 29 inch cakes, but three with one doubles batch. I single batch works just fine not doubled for (2) 9 inch cakes. I’ve also realized that the cakes came out a little heavy on the oil side. While super moist I think next time I’m going to cut the oil back At least 1/4 of a cup.
How long do you think I should bake these if I am making mini cupcakes? I’ve made these before for my daughters birthday and they turned out great!
This is the very best recipe for vanilla cupcakes!! I cannot believe how very moist they are!! You really came up with an outstanding recipe!! Thank you
Hoping to make this recipe as mini cupcakes tonight…have you tried? How long should I bake them? Thanks
Love your vanilla and chocolate cream cheese frosting recipes! So good!!
Tried these, they are AMAZING! Used Greek Yoghurt instead of sour cream, turned out just fine 🙂 My frosting however was waaaaay too soft. It was fine, but then I added cream cheese to it, which made it too soft. I guess I need to add more powdred sugar then? But I really don’t like my frosting that sweet. Are there any other options?
What’s the best way to store them? I’d like to make them the day before I need them?
Hi Jessica, Just keep them loosely covered (generally I put them in a Tupperware type container, but with the lid slightly cracked) for up to a full day in advance.
Hello! I was wondering…can you easily sub out the vanilla for almond extract? Or would it be too much/ too little? Thanks and lovely recipe!
Almond would be a great addition, but I might suggest keeping 1 tsp. of vanilla and then doing 1/2 tsp. or 1 tsp. almond extract.
I am excited to try this recipe but wanted to ask if you tried using cornstarch in any recipes as I’ve heard that is the secret to the best vanilla cupcakes? thank you.