This classic, easy Vanilla Cupcake Recipe is soft, springy, and can be prepped and baked in under 30 minutes! My vanilla cupcakes are moist with a soft crumb and are made with all butter and no oil for the best buttery flavor. Sweet but light and crowned with a decadent, whipped chocolate buttercream frosting, I think you’ll love these!
My Favorite Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
My typical reaction to being offered a vanilla cupcake is to not-so-subtly glance over the dessert table to check if there are any chocolate cupcakes available before accepting. If there aren’t, I’ll graciously (and totally gracefully, I’m sure) devour one. I’m not exactly the kind of person to turn down sugar, after all, but vanilla has never been my go-to flavor.
But every good baker needs a good vanilla cupcake recipe, and this space was lacking one. Yeah, I have a vanilla cake that many people have successfully converted into cupcakes, but I wanted something a little different to share. But it needed to be good. Really, really, really good.
After months of working to perfect this recipe, about 8 Google Doc pages full of notes, and multiple test runs past my taste-testers, this is it. With its light, moist crumb, its buttery, vanilla-infused flavor, this vanilla cupcake recipe is my new go-to. Like, I would actually pass up a chocolate cupcake for one of these.
Ingredients for Vanilla Cupcakes
My vanilla cupcake recipe uses all basic ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry:
- Butter. Often when making cupcakes I like to use oil for the best texture and a moist cake. This cupcake recipe, however, was carefully crafted to be made with all butter and still be perfectly soft and moist with a light, flavorful crumb!
- Sugar.
- Brown Sugar. We’re using both granulated and brown sugar. The brown sugar will make the cupcakes slightly heavier and it enriches the flavor and makes them more moist. I love the addition but if you don’t have brown sugar handy this vanilla cupcake recipe will also work if you substitute more granulated sugar for the brown sugar.
- Eggs. Just one is all you need, actually.
- Vanilla Extract. We’re using a generous 1 ½ teaspoons for 12 cupcakes. These cupcakes have a great vanilla flavor (but it’s not overpowering).
- Flour. I use all-purpose flour, cake flour can be substituted.
- Baking Powder.
- Baking Soda.
- Salt.
- Buttermilk. Another key ingredient that helpsmakes these vanilla cupcakes soft and moist. If you don’t have buttermilk handy, you can make my easy buttermilk substitute instead.
That’s literally all you need for these perfect vanilla cupcakes. They results are delicate and light but still sturdy enough to hold a heavy crown of chocolate frosting. They’re moist and sweet without being over-sweet, they’re just all around perfect, honestly.
How to Make The Best Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
My vanilla cupcakes are easy to make, and practically fool-proof.
- Cream together butter and sugars. These ingredients should be beaten together until well-combined and light and fluffy.
- Stir in egg and vanilla extract. Make sure these are well incorporated.
- Whisk together dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
- Alternate adding dry ingredients and buttermilk to butter mixture, stirring by hand after each addition. Do this part by hand! Well, with a spatula, you know what I mean. Everything should be well-combined, but avoid over-mixing
- Portion into 12-count muffin tin and bake.
- Decorate! Try my cream cheese frosting, coffee frosting, or Oreo frosting for a fun twist, or go with raspberry buttercream!
While you’ll need to stir the ingredients by hand for the second half of the recipe, you will need a a stand mixer or electric hand mixer for the first half. Creaming together the butter and sugars is critical for the best light and fluffy texture, and it’s not easy to properly do this by hand.
What Makes a Cupcake Moist and Fluffy?
There are actually quite a few things that go into this, but I wanted to share the top three things that help make your vanilla cupcakes moist and fluffy.
Using Room Temperature Ingredients
This helps your ingredients to combine properly when mixing. Ingredients of different temperatures will still combine, but they may not end up as well incorporated as you hope, leaving you with an unevenly mixed batter and a cupcake that’s dense.
Mixing, but not over-mixing
When we cream together our butter and sugar and beat in our egg, we’re creating air bubbles in our batter. These are key for a light moist cupcake. When we add in our flour and buttermilk, we start bursting those air bubbles. If you over-mix at this point and too many of your air bubbles collapse, your cupcakes will be dense and dry.
Don’t under-mix either, though! This is just as bad and could leave you with cupcakes that fall apart or flour clumps in the middle of your vanilla cupcakes because the ingredients aren’t properly distributed
Baking for the right amount of time (and not a minute longer).
These cupcakes will take 17-18 minutes to bake completely. The top should spring back if lightly touched and a toothpick in the center should ideally come out with a few moist crumbs or clean. If you leave them in the oven for too long, a toothpick will still come out clean but the cupcakes will be dry and crumbly when you bite into them.
Another thing worth noting: make sure your oven is actually at the right temperature. Many ovens are actually not calibrated correctly and run hotter or cooler than they indicate, and this is why I keep several inexpensive thermometers in my oven, to make sure the temperature is correct at all times. If your oven is too hot, it will bake your vanilla cupcakes too fast and dry them out!
Whew, are you sick of hearing about vanilla cupcakes yet? Thanks for sticking with me through all that. If you try out this recipe I’d love to know what you think!
More of My Favorite Cupcake Recipes
- Easy Chocolate Cupcakes
- Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Funfetti Cupcakes
- Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes
- Piñata Cupcakes
Easy Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened (85g)
- ¾ cup sugar (150g)
- ¼ cup light brown sugar (50g)
- 1 large egg room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ⅓ cup all-purpose flour (167g)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup buttermilk room temperature preferred (175ml)
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting¹
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (170g)
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
- 2 cups powdered sugar (320g)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons heavy cream (30ml)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a 12-count muffin tin with paper liners. Set aside.
- Combine butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl -- and use an electric hand mixer) and beat on medium speed until well combined and light and fluffy.
- Add egg and vanilla extract and beat well.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Remove butter/sugar mixture from stand mixer and use a spatula to gradually fold in about ¼ of the flour mixture until just combined.
- Add about ¼ cup of the buttermilk and use spatula to fold in until just combined.
- Continue to alternate until flour mixture and buttermilk are completely combined -- mix thoroughly but be sure not to over-mix or your cupcakes could end up dense and dry.
- Fill cupcake liners ⅔-¾ of the way full with batter (do not over-fill, if you have any leftover batter discard it) and bake on 350F (175C) for 17-18 minutes or until tops spring back when gently touched (the tops will be fairly flat, these do not puff up in the oven like muffins) and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs or clean.
- Allow cupcakes to cool completely in pans before frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- In a microwave-safe bowl, microwave chocolate chips at 15 second intervals, stirring between intervals, until chips are completely melted. Set aside and allow to cool slightly (about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally).
- Cream room temperature butter with an electric mixer. Stir in slightly cooled chocolate and beat well.
- Gradually add sugar, scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl occasionally.
- Sprinkle in salt and vanilla extract, stir well.
- Gradually add heavy cream, increase speed to high and beat for 1 minute, pausing halfway through to scrape down sides of bowl.
- Spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with tip of choice (I used a large French tip) and pipe on cooled cupcakes.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
I originally shared this Vanilla Cupcake Recipe 05/15/2017. Post has been updated and a video added 03/25/2019. The recipe remains the same; even though I tried to improve upon it I found it was pretty much perfect as written!
Marisol
Can I substitute sour cream for buttermilk? and if so, how much sour cream would it be?
Sam
I haven’t tried it, but you could make my birthday cupcakes with or without the sprinkles instead. That recipe uses sour cream. 🙂
Marisol
Ok, thank you, I will do. I love your recipes, they are my go to recipes and are always a huge hit. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge 🤗
Jackie
Ive made 60 of these for my bff’s baby shower. It was a lot to do same day of event bc I only have 1 oven and small kitchen. They turned out great, phew!
I’m making 60 again for my brother’s wedding 🤗 wondering, can i make these 1 day or 2 in advance and keep them fresh if I just wait to frost the day of event? Any help and advise is appreciated!!
Sam
That’s a lot of cupcakes! I’m glad you enjoyed them! These will stay fresh for several days in an air tight container at room temperature. 🙂