Everyone loves cupcakes! You just need this recipe for vanilla cupcakes. It has a fluffy, melting texture and is very handy to make.
This easy vanilla cupcake recipe is packed with vanilla flavors and is perfect for any festival. Airy and moist, it’s topped with a simple vanilla buttercream frosting. After trying this recipe, you’ll never want to use a box of frosting again!
Each bite is exquisitely soft, and juicy, with just the appropriate balance of sweetness. Sponge cake characteristics are present in these delicious vanilla cupcakes that also have a creamy sweet frosting.
Bake these muffins for parties, holidays, birthdays, and so many other festivities. Change the bright sprinkles out for seasonal ones. Add colorful sprinkles like red and green for Santa, black and orange for Halloween, etc.
Perfect Vanilla Cupcake Recipe [Easy]
These vanilla cupcakes have the following qualities:
- They’re soft and fluffy with a comfy silky crumb
- They’re infused with graceful buttery and vanilla flavors
- They’re beautifully shaped with a nice golden dome
- They are much softer than classic cupcake recipes.
- They’re less sweet
- It’s more secure to make than every standard “cream butter and sugar” recipe.
- They stay fresh and moist for four days (minimum).
Ingredients for Vanilla Cupcakes recipe
Cake Flour: We use all-purpose flour. When measuring flour, use a spoon and level it. Make sure not to use the measuring cup to scrape out the contents of the bag. You won’t unintentionally weigh out too much if you do this. If we were interested in keeping these cupcakes healthy, you can use whole wheat.
Softened butter: Rather than using molten butter or oil, a base of softened butter and sugar frequently aids in producing a soft, biscuit structure. Make sure the butter is at the right room temperature.
Baking Powder: These cakes rise and grow puffy thanks to baking powder and baking soda.
Salt: Only a dash of salt to counteract the sweetness.
Butter: The finest butter to use is unsalted since you can control how salty it is. To ensure that it mixes well with the other ingredients, ensure the cream is at ambient temperature.
Oil: Choose a neutral-flavored oil, such as canola or vegetable oil. These cupcakes are exceptionally moist and creamy thanks to the oil. Just a few tablespoons are required.
Sugar: Granulated sugar is used to impart sweetness.
Vanilla extract and vanilla beam: Enhances each flavor while adding the recognizable “vanilla cupcake” flavor. When baking, pure vanilla extract is always advised.
Egg: Two large eggs are required, which add richness and aid in binding the components.
Milk: Whole milk adds richness to the cupcakes, although limited or reduced-fat milk can be used. Milk gives the cupcake batter moisture, making it more moist and delicate.
Sprinkles: My favorite part! You’re able to incorporate all of your favorite sprinkles, I like to sprinkle the cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles.
Tip: Before starting, make sure ALL chilly ingredients are at room temperature. Otherwise, your batter may split, and the results won’t be good. Find out why it’s crucial to use components in baking that are at room temperature.
Tips for the Best Cupcakes
Ingredients at Room Temperature: To maintain a uniform consistency in your batter, your eggs, buttermilk, and butter must all be at room temperature.
Buttermilk and flour should be added in alternate batches to keep the mixture homogeneous and well-combined. The creamed butter can become saturated and separate if you add all the wheat or buttermilk at once. Between each addition, stir thoroughly.
Use the appropriate measuring cups for both wet and dry components to ensure accurate measurements.
Cupcake liners should only be filled about two-thirds full; more than that will cause a muffin top to overflow. If you divide the recipe equally among the 12 cupcakes, there should be sufficient batter. Using an Ice Cream Scoop with a trigger release makes portioning easier.
How to Make Vanilla Cupcakes?
- Use a hand beater rather than a stand mixer. For small-batch recipes like this, a handheld beater that you can maneuver about the bowl works better than a huge bowl for a stand mixer. To make sure that mixture comes up evenly with a stand mixer, you’ll need to thoroughly wipe down the sides of the base. This recipe doesn’t call for extra batter!
- Beat the yolks and sugar — Beat the eggs and sugar together for a full 7 minutes, or until the mixture is thick and glossy, becomes white, and triples in size
For just a soft, fluffy crumb, the aeration produced during this phase is essential. Japanese sponge cakes, which are famed as being among the goofiest in the world, are where this technique originated.
- Combine the salt, baking powder, and flour in a bowl.
- In three separate additions, gently add this wheat mixture to the egg mixture, mixing each addition for just five seconds on Speed 1. Don’t panic if there are a few streaks of unmixed flour on the bowl; the flour should just be barely combined. Here, less mixing is key!
- Are using a microwave or a burner to heat milk and butter until they are both melted. I was skeptical, so I attempted the vanilla cakes with cold, softened butter in milk and discovered it did not rise. Warm milk assists in the rise of these cupcakes.
- Pour some batter into boiling milk to temper it. This does two things: Tempering is the process of lowering the temperature of hot milk so that it won’t “cook” the eggs. It also lightens the viscosity of the warm milk (see above – it gets frothy) to make it merge with the remainder of the beaten egg mix more quickly. It’s important to keep beating to a minimum so as not to destroy the cake-rising bubbles we formed in Step 2.
- Beat the eggs at the lowest speed for 15 seconds while gradually adding the milk mixture back in. Clean the bowl’s sides, then mix the batter for 10 seconds until it is smooth.
- Use an ice cream spoon with a lever to fill muffin liners with batter; I find this to be the simplest method. The recommended serving size for cupcakes is 1/4 cup, which is the industry standard.
- Important Hint: Don’t overfill!
For a nicely formed cupcake with a delicious golden dome, only fill the cupcake liner 1/3 to 2/3 of the way up. Too full results in an unattractive overflow, and occasionally it may even sink. Instead of overfilling, it is preferable to UNDER fill.
Why might cupcakes sink from being overfilled?
The sponge creeps upwards on the paper as it climbs because the liner provides support. It loses the support as it crested, overflows, or goes just above the cupcake liner, which can lead to the middle sinking.
- Bake the cake for 22 minutes, or until it is golden and a wooden skewer in the middle comes out clean.
- Removed after 2 minutes – If you wait longer than that, the muffins will continue to cook and could overcook. Rest for only two min to let the cool somewhat, then remove them from the muffin tray right away. Cakes are little, thus they are easily overcooked!
How to Decorate Cupcakes:
When your cupcakes have reached room temperature, you may start decorating them. This is a fantastic vanilla cupcake base that works well with almost any frosting and topping. Using a piping bag and our preferred Wilton 1M Tip, we pipe icing on the cake. Choose your favorite icing from our wide selection:
Vanilla: Our go-to frosting for cupcakes is vanilla.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream: Extra work is well worth it.
Chocolate Cream Parmesan: You’ll adore the flavor and color of the blackberry frosting. Chocolate Cream Parmesan Frosting is whipped and luscious.
Sprinkles: Add sprinkles of any shade for different holidays and occasions. For Christmas, add red and green sprinkles, and for Halloween, black and orange.