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.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
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
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.
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
I have made these cupcakes 3x now and they keep falling in the middle, the first batch was not that bad, the last batch was not great at all. I have to pipe on tons of icing bc they don’t look that great.
Adrienne, are you possibly in high elevation area? Also are you using exact measurements for the dry ingredients (filling up the scoop and scraping the top, etc.)
I’d like to inquire what kind of leaves did you use for the decor? Is it mint? Thanks!
Irina, in this recipe I used basil leaves. Mint would work great too :).
Hi Natasha! Thank you so much for your recipe. I just made these and they taste wonderful! Unfortunately when the 14 minutes was up I opened the oven to find them dripping over the edges onto the bottom of the oven. :-/ I live at 8,000 feet and followed your recipe exactly. Do you have any suggestions for cooking them at high altitudes? Thank you again!
Amanda, 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 or http://www.goodlifeeats.com/2011/09/high-altitude-baking-tips-for-cupcakes.html. Also search comments below the recipe (look for the word “altitude” to find readers suggestions). Hope this helps :).
These were AWESOME! Completely perfect and easy to make! I made them with a strawberry butter cream frosting that I found here: http://addapinch.com/cooking/strawberry-buttercream-frosting-recipe/ The frosting was easy to make, I made the sauce using frozen strawberries. I made one alteration on the cupcakes, I used olive oil instead of canola oil.
I would marry these cupcakes if it was legal. Thank you for the fantastic post!
Marry them huh? lol. I’m so happy you loved them and thank you so so much for sharing the link to the strawberry frosting. That sounds amazing! I can’t wait to try it. 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Can i substitue buttermilk with half and half cream?
You really need the buttermilk in this recipe to activate the baking soda or the recipe wouldn’t work.
no wonder so many comment on this cupcakes. Just make 3 batches of it, SO GOOD, thank you for sharing recipe.
Thank you for the great review Katrina and you are very welcome :).
Made these for my son’s 1st birthday, and they were wonderful! Not one left! Made a second time around this week, and ran out of eggs (I only had 1 egg instead of the two eggs needed). I used the last egg I had, then subbed 1/4 cup of mashed banana for the second egg. Husband and kids thought this was even better than the first time! A hint of banana in the cake with the cream cheese frosting. Yum, yum! This is my go-to recipe from now on for vanilla cupcakes. Pinned it too to my board. Thank you for this!
I totally love the idea of adding banana! Thank you so much for sharing that substitution with me! 🙂
Just made these and they are the best cupcakes and icing hands down!!!
Just curious though would they taste just as good w a diff oil? canola isn’t the best for you,
Yes, I’ve made them with extra light olive oil (not extra virgin) with great results. Hope this helps 🙂 and thanks for the great review.
Very good recipe. I’ve been looking for a good vanilla cupcake recipe!
I’m so happy you liked it! Thanks Ava 🙂
These cupcakes are a huge hit – I make them for my daughter’s birthday every year. My partner loves them but would prefer a cake. How do I change this recipe into a cake?
Thank you!
The original recipe developer wrote that you could double the recipe and make two 9-inch cake rounds to make a round cake. I haven’t tried that myself but I imagine it would work well. 🙂 I’m so glad you like the cupcakes!
These are so easy to make! Made these today with exact recipe. I used Swan’s Cake Flour and Canola Oil.
I think I’ll add a bit more vanilla syrup next time. But that’s because I love a really strong flavor. Despite that minor thing, this is an awesome recipe!
Took me about 5 minutes of prep work. I made both mini and standard cupcakes. The minis came out a tad dry (my fault – forgot to adjust time). The liners remained dry and easy to peel away.
Both standards and minis came out awesome. They rose really well, were moist, had a good flavor (just not enough for my sweet tooth!), and were just overall amazing.
This will definitely be our new cupcake recipe!
Another note: Second batch of minis were perfect at 10minutes. Standards for me were good at 12 or 13.
Thank you for the great review Kelly and for sharing, I’m glad you enjoyed them :).
Cupcakes are ok, taste too much like a muffin for me though.
They should be fluffy and quite a bit lighter than a muffin. What kind of flour did you use?
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that I tried this recipe and the cupcakes were dropping and wouldn’t cook correctly .. I thought I did something wrong so I tried it again and it came out the exact same way ! .
Hi Shantell! I’d love to help you figure out what could have gone wrong. Do you possibly live in a high elevation area – this can adversely affect results. Also, did you measure out the ingredients exactly using dry ingredients measuring cups/spoons?
I used the milk/vinegar substitution for buttermilk and I think that’s what contributed to the weird aftertaste I’m currently getting. I used skim milk, and about a teaspoon and a half of vinegar. To anyone who might be doing the same thing — might want to make the trek to the store for real buttermilk. I tossed all of this batch.
I have tried it with the vinegar/milk subtitute without any aftertaste, but I agree it’s best with buttermilk :). Thanks for sharing your experience! Was there anything else that you could have done differently?
Sadly, they turned out really awful for me as well, and I had to throw out the batch. Skim milk and lemon juice definitely doesn’t work.
Perfect and super easy 🙂
Thank you so much Lyudmyla 🙂
Hi Natasha,
Thanks so much for this recipe. I made these today and they were by far the best cupcakes I have ever had. Absolutely the lightest, fluffiest cupcakes ever, and not super sweet, but more elegant in flavor. I didn’t have canola oil so I used extra virgin olive oil. The flavor of olive oil was a bit strong so I wouldn’t do that again, but they were still good! Next time I will try the canola oil. Oh, and I made a simple vanilla buttercream frosting.
Tiffany, thank you so much for such a sweet review and you are welcome :).
Hey Natasha,
This recipe looks wonderful. I am going to try it for my daughter’s birthday party this Saturday. Will they hold up well if I bake and frost them Friday afternoon?
Thanks!
Yes, absolutely! Just refrigerate the cupcakes if they are frosted since it is a dairy based frosting. 🙂
PERFECT INDEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hello from Athens, Greece! My laptop blacked out last month so all my “go to” saved recipes are gone. That turned out to be a great thing actually…….since I found your site and decided to try your recipe. Easy, fast, few ingredients and just the perfect result. The batter made 18 golden picture perfect cupcakes and made me the favorite mommy at my 4 yr old’s Xmas show last night. He was so proud and all his classmates said….”that was the yummiest!” To all the moms looking for a perfect cupcake without alot of fuss, this is definitely the one! Thanks so much and Happy Holidays!
Hope, thank you so much for a great review! That is a bummer about your laptop, but I’m glad to hear something good came out of it ;). Hello from Idaho! 🙂
Tastes good and moist. Must be all the oil. You have to double your cupcake liners though as the oil seems to seep through. Made my liners look like blotting paper
Hello Natasha from Texas! I wanted to share this with you. I have never baked cupcakes from scratch, for my best friend’s engagement party I wanted to surprise her with something so I told her I’d take care of ordering cupcakes for her when I really planned on baking it for her. Found your recipe online tested it for a week, used my colleagues at work as my guinea pigs and the final results were amazing! Everyone at work enjoyed it! On the day of her party she couldn’t believe I baked it, she thought it was made from professionals! Thank you so much for sharing your recipes, I plan on trying your moist chocolate cupcakes next. I’m already passing out your recipes to family members 🙂
That’s wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing my recipes with your family. I’m so happy you all loved the cupcakes! 🙂