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Learn how to make the best vanilla cupcake recipe from scratch! This is my go-to recipe for soft, moist and fluffy cupcakes – you never need to use a box mix again. These are buttery cupcakes with a classic bakery flavor and go perfect with any frosting.

Perfect vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and rainbow sprinkles on top

Why You’ll Love My Recipe

I’ve made this recipe more times than I can count, and they always come out amazing. This homemade cupcake recipe is as consistent as a box mix, but it’s from scratch: never dry and always with flat domes that hold as much frosting as you want. It’s a bakery-quality cupcake right in your own kitchen!

The secret to these perfect vanilla cupcakes is the that I use melted butter, which gives lots of buttery flavor but get moist and fluffy like when you use oil. Unlike a box mix, these cupcakes use real vanilla and buttermilk to ensure a moist texture that melts in your mouth.

Ingredients for a recipe arranged on a marble surface, including bowls of melted butter, sugar, and flour, plus eggs, buttermilk or milk, vanilla paste or extract, salt, and baking powder. Each item is labeled in bold text.

Ingredients in Vanilla Cupcakes

  • You do not need to use cake flour! Regular grocery store brand all-purpose flour is totally fine.
  • I always start with melted Unsalted butter to keep the cupcakes moist. If you use salted butter, reduce added salt in the recipe by 1/4 tsp.
  • I love the flavor of vanilla bean paste, but you can substitute a good quality pure vanilla extract.
  • Using buttermilk instead of regular milk adds acidity to the batter, which breaks down gluten strands. This results in a much softer cupcake with a fine crumb that stays moist for a longer period. It’s not needed to activate the leavening (we use baking powder, not baking soda), so it makes it easy to substitute with milk or nondairy milk. Learn how to make your own buttermilk!

Variations

  • Make gluten free vanilla cupcakes by using 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour.
  • Make dairy free cupcakes using any nondairy milk and vegetable oil.
  • Substitute brown sugar for granulated sugar to make brown sugar cupcakes.
Perfect vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream cut in half to show fluffy inside

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Dorothy’s Expert Cupcake Tips

  • For a tender and velvet like crumb ensure your eggs and buttermilk are at true room temperature. Cold ingredients will not emulsify properly, which leads to a dense or greasy cupcake rather than a light and fluffy one.
  • You know cupcakes are done baking when a toothpick comes out clean from the center. Know that every oven bakes differently – so keep an eye on them towards the end of baking so they don’t be come dry and over baked.
  • To keep your cupcakes light and fluffy, be sure to measure your flour properly – using the spoon and level method (or weigh it using grams). Too much flour will make them tough and dense.
  • I never have issues with this cupcake recipe doming. However, if you have issues, you can bake your cupcakes at 325°F instead of 350°F. A slightly lower temperature allows the cupcakes to rise more evenly without the edges setting too quickly and creating a high dome.
Close up of perfect vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream and topped with rainbow sprinkles

Storing and Making Ahead

Store frosted cupcakes in an airtight container. These will last on the counter a few days, or longer in the refrigerator (but they taste best room temperature.

To keep your cupcakes moist, store your cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature as soon as they are completely cool. The container traps the natural moisture and prevents the cupcakes from drying out.

You can freeze the cupcakes too – even frosted. To freeze frosted cupcakes, place in an airtight container. If you don’t have a big enough container, place them on a cookie sheet and freeze for an hour or two, then put them in gallon size bags. Just be sure to remove from the bags before thawing so the frosting doesn’t get smashed.

To make the cupcakes ahead of time, you can store baked cupcakes wrapped tightly and buttercream frosting in an airtight container in the refrigerator or freeze both for up to a month. To use chilled or thawed frozen frosting, let it come to room temperature. You may need to add a bit of milk and stir to get a frostable consistency.

5 from 33 votes

Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe

By: Dorothy Kern
This is the most perfect Vanilla Cupcake Recipe ever! It's an easy recipe from scratch, homemade, moist and fluffy and simple. You can make this gluten free or dairy free and it's the perfect all-purpose cupcake recipe that's amazing with vanilla buttercream.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 14 cupcakes
Close up of perfect vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream and topped with rainbow sprinkles
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Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

  • 1 ½ cups (186g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, , melted
  • 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or vanilla bean paste
  • ¾ cup (178ml) buttermilk, (or combine 3/4 cup milk + 1 teaspoon white vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes)

For the frosting:

  • 1 cup (113g) unsalted butter, , softened
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups (452g) powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract
  • 1-2 tablespoons heavy whipping cream

Instructions 

  • Preheat oven to 350°. Line cupcake tins with liners (makes 12-15).
  • Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
  • Add melted butter to a large bowl and mix in sugar with a hand mixer for 30 seconds until thick and yellow. Add eggs one at at time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
  • Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Don’t over mix!
  • Divide batter among liners, filling 2/3 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. (Mine took less than 20, so check at 15!) Cool completely before frosting!
  • To make the frosting: Beat butter until creamy. Beat in salt and 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until crumbly. Beat in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream. Add more cream as needed for desired consistency.
  • Frost cupcakes by placing frosting in a pastry bag. I like the 1M tip, it gives pretty swirls. Add sprinkles for fun!
  • Note: you can make the frosting the day before, but let it come to room temperature before using.

Notes

  • No need to fill the cupcakes, I just wanted a little extra. These cupcakes would be great with chocolate frosting, and the vanilla buttercream would be good with any flavor cupcake!
  • If you make the frosting alone, without the cupcakes, you can use salted butter if that’s what you have on hand. Just leave out the salt!
  • You can substitute any kind of milk (or nondairy milk) for the buttermilk.
  • You can substitute gluten-free 1:1 AP flour
  • You can substitute oil or melted vegan butter sticks for a dairy-free cupcake.
  • Optional Filling: Use lemon curd or caramel sauce or homemade whipped cream for filling the cupcakes if desired. The original recipe included whipped cream filling – to make that beat 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream with 2 tablespoons powdered or granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until stiff peaks form.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cupcake | Calories: 480kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 102mg | Sodium: 159mg | Potassium: 84mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 51g | Vitamin A: 821IU | Calcium: 46mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

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What frosting is best for Vanilla Cupcakes?

Every cupcake needs frosting! With vanilla cupcakes, you have a lot of options. I’ve included my favorite vanilla buttercream frosting recipe in the recipe card, but here are some of my other favorite frosting recipes you could try:

I like to pipe the frosting using a 1M tip to make pretty swirls. Add some sprinkles to dress it up!

How to make Vanilla Cupcakes

process shot of birthday cake being made.

1. You can use a hand mixer or an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to mix the cake batter. We don’t need to traditionally “cream” the butter and sugar because the butter is melted.

process shot of birthday cake being made.

2. Add eggs and extract before adding dry ingredients. The mixture will be smooth.

cake batter in glass bowl with flour and hand pouring milk into batter on marble background.

3. Mix all the dry ingredients first – use the spoon and level method to measure flour accurately. The key is not to overmix the batter. Mix only until the flour is absorbed.

process shot of birthday cake being made.

4. Once you have your vanilla cake batter, it’s a blank canvas. You can add sprinkles to make funfetti cupcakes or use mini muffin pans to make mini cupcakes.

Optional Filling

If you want to fill your baked and cooled cupcakes you can do so – these are fantastic filled with lemon curd or homemade whipped cream, or even caramel sauce.

It’s easy to fill cupcakes by adding the filling to a piping bag with a skinny round tip – just press it into the top of the cupcake and press to fill.

If you want to fill the cupcake with something more solid, like making piñata cupcakes or strawberry shortcake cupcakes, just cut a small round out of the top and fill as desired, topping the hole with some of what you removed.

Favorite Cupcake Recipes

Dorothy Kern

Welcome to Crazy for Crust, where I share recipes that are sometimes crazy, often with a crust, and always served with a slice of life.

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5 from 33 votes (24 ratings without comment)

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192 Comments

  1. These were delicious! I always make these complicated, fancy cupcakes, but my father in law prefers vanilla everything. And this recipe made me really appreciate how amazing a plain vanilla cupcake can be! And it still felt fancy, with the vanilla specks and the filling.

    My only suggestion… piping the filling in didn’t work very well because the cupcakes very pretty dense (in a wonderful way). Next time I would “core” the cupcakes and then add the filling. I added vanilla paste and a little vanilla extract and thought the flavor was great. I didn’t have butter extract, so I added almond to the frosting. Also, the frosting tasted really salty at first, but after sitting a few hours, it was the perfect compliment to the cupcakes. 

    Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply

  2. I just baked these tonight. I will start with what I liked: the ease of recipe, moisture & color. Not to mention your pics are beautiful! But something seems to be off? I didn’t like the texture- I enjoy a more “airy” cupcake with rise. I don’t know if I needed more salt or vanilla than the recipe called, but these tasted quite bland to me. I’m sure they make a great base for other flavored cupcakes, but unfortunately this wasn’t “perfect vanilla”. 

    Reply

    1. Well, they are less airy, but that’s how I prefer my cupcakes. Did you use vanilla bean paste as called for? That usually gives the punch of vanilla that’s needed.

      Reply

    1. Sorry, I don’t use grams. Google told me that 1 stick of butter (4 ounces) is 227 grams, but you may want to double check that.

      Reply

    1. The batter is more liquidy than a box mix or a recipe that uses softened butter (the melted butter makes them thinner). But they should bake up just fine. Did they bake up ok?

      Reply

      1. no they didnt they were like tough and tasted funny n they didnt raise for like a half hour

      2. Is your baking powder fresh? That would cause the cupcakes to not rise. Check the expiration date on it. The only other thing could be the addition of too much milk? Other than that I’m sorry, I’m not sure what could have happened. I’ve made these successfully several times.

  5. Okay, so it is half past 12 at night, and I am baking these cupcakes! And I must say, these are by far the best vanilla cupcakes I’ve ever made 🙂 Thanks so much for the recipe, I’m going to make them for my mom’s 50th birthday next week 😀

    Reply