Everyone loves cupcakes! This is the only vanilla cupcake recipe you will need. They are super easy to make and the texture is light, fluffy, and melt-in-your-mouth good.
Watch the video tutorial below and you will be a pro in no time. We love these with our Cupcake Frosting because a cupcake isn’t a cupcake without frosting.
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Watch Vanilla Cupcakes Video Tutorial!
These cupcakes are perfect for birthday parties and baby showers and they always disappear fast which is why I always make a double batch for gatherings. They are quick and easy to make and homemade cupcakes taste way better than boxed cupcake mix.
Ingredients for Vanilla Cupcakes:
This recipe makes exactly 12 cupcakes and requires simple ingredients: all-purpose flour, butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, baking powder, salt and vanilla. The combination of softened butter and buttermilk creates an amazingly soft cupcake crumb that just melts in your mouth. Also, if you haven’t tried our (2-ingredient) Homemade Vanilla Extract, it will take your baked goods to the next level.
How to Make Vanilla Cupcakes:
These cupcakes are easy to master and you will be making bakery-quality cupcakes in no time.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a second bowl (or bowl of your stand mixer), beat together softened butter and sugar on medium-high speed 5 minutes until thick and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs 1 at a time, mixing to incorporate with each egg then blend in vanilla and scrape down the bowl.
- Reduce mixer to medium speed and add the flour in thirds, alternating with adding the 1/2 cup buttermilk and beating well between additions.
- Pour batter into 12 lined muffin tins, filling 2/3 full. Bake in the center of the oven at 350˚F for 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes in the pan then remove cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tips for the BEST Cupcakes:
- Room Temperature Ingredients – eggs, buttermilk and butter must be at room temperature to keep your batter an even consistency.
- Alternate Adding Flour and Buttermilk – this keeps the mixture uniform and well blended. If you add in all of the flour or buttermilk at once, it can saturate the creamed butter and cause the mixture to separate. Mix well between each addition.
- Measure Correctly – be sure to use the proper measuring cups for wet and dry ingredients. Watch our video on measuring ingredients to ensure great results every time.
- Don’t Overfill – Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full or they will overflow and cause a muffin top. If you divide evenly between 12 cupcakes, you should have exactly enough batter. A trigger release Ice Cream Scoop makes portioning easier.
How to Decorate Cupcakes:
Once your cupcakes are cooled to room temperature, it’s time to decorate. This is a great vanilla cupcake base for just about any kind of frosting and toppings. We pipe frosting on with a pastry bag and our favorite Wilton 1M Tip. We have so many frosting options so pick your craving:
- Vanilla Cupcake Frosting – our go-to cupcake frosting
- Swiss Meringue Buttercream – well worth the extra effort
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting – whipped and decadent
- Blackberry Frosting – you’ll love the flavor and color
Common Questions:
Can I Make Cupcakes Ahead? Once cupcakes are at room temperature, cover and keep at room temperature overnight or refrigerate if storing for longer. After cupcakes are frosted, refrigerate until ready to serve. Cupcakes are great served chilled or at room temperature because they don’t harden with refrigeration.
Can I Use This Batter to Make a Cake? We’ve had great results turning it into a Vanilla Cake. You would need to double the recipe for two 9-inch cake layers.
Can I Substitute the Buttermilk? Plain kefir will also work well instead of buttermilk. You can also make your own buttermilk at a ratio of 1 cup whole milk to 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice. Combine and let it sit 10 minutes to curdle then stir and use.
How Long to Bake Cupcakes? Bake until the tops are springy and a toothpick inserted int the center comes out clean. These were perfectly baked at 350˚F for 22 minutes in a conventional oven.
More Cupcake Recipes:
Who can resist a cupcake? They’re just so cute and easy to love. We enjoy getting creative with cupcakes and they are one of the easiest desserts to make. These are our top-rated cupcake recipes:
- Moist Chocolate Cupcakes – this is a great base and so easy
- Pumpkin Cupcakes – with a marshmallow-soft frosting
- Honey Cupcakes – with a cherry filling
- Dark Chocolate Cupcakes – with white chocolate frosting
Perfect Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, or plain kefir, room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cupcake/muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Set flour mix aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed 5 minutes until thick and fluffy, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition then scrape down the bowl. Add 2 tsp vanilla and beat to combine.
- Reduce mixer speed to medium and add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with the buttermilk, mixing to incorporate with each addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed and beat until just combined and smooth, and don't overmix. Divide the batter evenly into a 12-count lined muffin or cupcake pan, filling 2/3 full.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes at 350 °F, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before frosting.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
This recipe was first published in June 2012 (below is the original photo). After testing countless batches, we improved the recipe, swapping out oil for softened butter and took out the baking soda to create a super soft crumb. Everyone agrees, these are the best cupcakes. Just read the reviews!
P.S. Thank you all for trying this recipe and sharing it with the people you love.
I haven’t made them with oil, I’ve made them twice now with 1/2 cup of mostly melted unsalted-butter and kept all other ingredients the same and they tasted delicious! Possibly a bit more buttery than the original, but I also always top off my cupcakes with butter-cream frosting, so that could be the cause as well
Holly, its good to know that using butter works as well. Thanks so much for sharing! The butter cream frosting does sound decadent and nice.
Wow they look super cute and i was wondering if you could just all purpose flour instead of Canadian or cake flour.
Wow they look super cute and i was wondering if you could just all purpose flour instead of Canadian or cake flour.
My sister has with good results but I recommend sifting it if using all purpose.
I just have to come back and say thank you for this PERFECT recipe.I have used it over 6 times past month as my daughter loves it and the rest of the family! I just love it especially when i use with cocoa powder.I use approx.1/2 cup cocoa powder and the balance is flour and then result is amazing:)
It’s great to know that it works well with cocoa! Thanks so much for sharing that 🙂
Oh my goodness!!! These really are the best vanilla cupcakes I’ve ever had! I don’t even usually like vanilla anything but I had to stop myself after eating two in a row! I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out perfect! Excellent recipe! I just made 48 for a birthday party and everyone couldn’t stop talking about them! Thank you for the recipe 🙂
You are very welcome Rachel :), and thank you for such a great review.
This is absolutely without a doubt the best cupcake recipe ever! I have made them countless times, my kids love them! Thank you! Is there anyway to adapt this recipe to make vanilla cake?
I haven’t tried it, but the original author said it would work as a cake. She said to double it for an 8 or 9″ two layer cake
This is my new favorite vanilla cupcake recipe! I used all-purpose flour (because I couldn’t find cake or Canadian flour), and the cupcakes still turned out light and fluffy. They have a nice flavor to them, not too sweet. My oven took 16 minutes to bake them. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
You are welcome Danielle and thank you for the great review. I’m glad that they worked out with all-purpose flour as well :).
Eek! The batter is not thin! I’m worried! But I double checked my measurements, not sure what I did!
You didn’t leave out the buttermilk? What is the consistency of your batter? What kind of flour did you use?
Well they turned out great. I just panicked I guess! Maybe it was the flour – I live in canada and just used all-purpose . But they taste great so no worries
I’m so glad it worked out 🙂
i got rave reviews for these!They were soft n moist n just perfect.
That’s fantastic! I’m so happy you enjoyed the cupcakes. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your good report with me 🙂
Hey so I tried this recipe and it tasted pretty good! Of course, i had no baking powder in the kitchen pantry so i improvised and looked up online for substitues for baking powder. I found out that you can use molasses and baking soda to substitue for baking powder and boy did it work! In the end my cupcakes looked more like… pumpkin flavored cupcakes on the outside in appearance, but they tasted SOOO good! The vanilla molasses cupcakes turned out to be sweet with a moist texture that made you think of heaven. Thanks for sharing this great recipe and I hope to use more of your recipes in the near future.
That’s great to know that it works well with that substitution! Thank you so much for sharing and I’m so glad you enjoyed the cupcakes! 🙂
Have you tried using this batter to make a cake instead of cupcakes?
I haven’t tried, but according the the original recipe author, you can make it an 8 or 9″ two layer cake if you double the ingredients.
Was the cooking time any different for cake?
Without testing it, I couldn’t say exactly. Try to do the toothpick test at 14 minutes
this recipe was terrible. it tasted like none of the ingredients were mixed together, and we mixed it for a good amount of time. and when we took the cupcakes out of the oven, they imediatly sunk and caved in. very disapointed.
I haven’t had that experience. Did you change anything in the recipe? It’s possible you might have overmixed it since you are only supposed to mix until just combined. Is it possible you might have flipped the baking soda and baking powder ingredient measurements?
Hate to tell you love, it’s not the recipe at fault, I guarantee. The are heavenly! You did something wrong for sure!
Altitude adjustments?
I haven’t really done enough research to advise, but I found a REALLY great guide. I hope this helps: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/high-altitude-baking.html
Hi, I was wondering if we had to use an electric mixer? Are we able to just use a hand mixer?
You can probably use a hand mixer if you mix a little longer 🙂
I’m gonna make these for the 4th of July. Can’t wait to see how they turn out! Your pictures are beautiful Miss Natasha!
Thank you for your sweet compliment! I hope you love the cupcakes!
Natasha, these cupcakes are so adorable I am so making these for the 4th of July !
Thank you Kayla 🙂 Enjoy them!
Looks very yummy!
Are you able to use this recipe to make a 9″ round cake?
I haven’t tried it myself but the original recipe author says you can double it and make a two layer cake.
i was having trouble with recipes that inlude butter because i dont have a mixer but this recipe is truly perfect
I’m so glad you like it! I can see how that would be tough without a mixer. For a while I was convinced that I didn’t need one and now I don’t want to imagine my kitchen without one 😉 do you have a hand held electric mixer?
I originally tried this recipe because it was the best rated recipe that I could find online for vanilla cupcakes, now I can see why! Delicious! I used all purpose flour and the milk/vinegar substitute for the buttermilk and they still turned out good, I got a lot of compliments on the flavor when I brought them to work today. I definitely recommend this recipe. I went and got buttermilk and cake flour today so I can make it exactly as the recipe calls, I know they will be even better than the last batch.
Yay!! That’s fantastic! Thank you so much for such a great review! I’m so happy you liked the cupcakes 🙂
Hi hi! I made these cupcakes and the texture came out really soft but really dense. Is the texture supposed to be dense?
Thanks,
Ellen
They are supposed to be very soft and slightly crumbly. What kind of flour did you use? Was there anything that you did differently from the instructions?