Vanilla Cupcakes from Scratch – A Homemade Recipe

This is a basic recipe for super moist vanilla cupcakes from scratch. If you are new to baking and are looking for a good, homemade cupcake recipe, this is a perfect recipe for you. 

Super moist vanilla cupcakes from scratch

The ingredients are basic, the making method pretty easy too, so all in all, this is a fairly easy made from scratch vanilla cupcake recipe to master. And the best part is, you get cupcakes that are so wonderfully moist and fluffy! 

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How to Make Vanilla Cupcakes from Scratch

Ingredients

These are the basic ingredients you need to make the vanilla cupcakes from scratch :

• Self-raising flour + baking powder + salt
• Butter
• Castor sugar
• Eggs
• Milk
• Vanilla essence

And these, for the frosting:

• Butter
• Icing sugar
• Vanilla essence
• Milk (optional)

Decoration

• Sprinkles
• Fondant flowers (white fondant tinted in Americolor Plum food color)
• Plunger flower cutter

Mixing the homemade vanilla cupcakes batter

1. Cut butter into small pieces and put it into your mixing bowl. Add sugar and cream both until light and fluffy for approximately 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl constantly.
2. Add in the eggs. Start with one egg, beat it well until you do not see any traces of egg before adding the next egg. Beat again until all traces of the eggs are no longer visible.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt into the creamed mixture in 4 batches.
4. Alternate the flour with milk. Fold these in until well incorporated.
5. Finally, add in the vanilla essence and give the moist vanilla cupcakes batter a quick mix until it’s all smooth.
6. Scoop or spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake casings, and fill each casing to about two thirds full. The vanilla cupcakes will rise quite substantially when baking so it is important not to overfill the casings. Bake the cupcakes until well risen and golden brown in color. Remove from the oven and let them cool in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing them onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Super moist vanilla cupcakes from scratch

• As soon as the vanilla cupcakes turn just slightly warm, cover them in a container and let them continue to cool down, covered. 
• Make sure the cupcakes are completely cooled down before frosting them. I frosted mine with a simple swirl of buttercream and decorated them with a small fondant flower.

Decorating the homemade vanilla cupcakes

1. Buttercream pairs really well with this made from scratch vanilla cupcakes. To make the frosting, cream the butter until soft. Sift in the icing sugar and continue to beat until the frosting turns fluffy. Add the vanilla essence (and milk if the frosting is too stiff) and beat again until the buttercream turns light and fluffy. Fill the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star piping tip ( I used tip number 1G).
2. Pipe simple swirls on each cupcake.
3. After that, add some sprinkles on. You can use any sprinkles you like, and I used sprinkles from Fancy Sprinkles.
4. Next, tint some white fondant with Americolor Plum food color and roll it thin. Cut out simple 5-petal flowers using a flower cutter. I used the largest of my flower plunger cutter set.
5. And then set them in a flower former for a few minutes so that they set in a curved shape. You can use any other surface that is curved to form the fondant flowers.
6. Attach one flower onto each cupcake, right at the point where you lifted your piping nozzle off the cupcake when piping the buttercream swirl earlier. To attach the flower, simply press them lightly into the icing. The flowers are also an easy way to cover the frosting swirls joints.

Super moist vanilla cupcakes from scratch

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Notes

Highest quality ingredients

• Make sure your ingredients are of good quality and fresh.
• Fresh self-raising flour and the baking powder will ensure your cupcakes rise well and a good quality vanilla essence will give you the best, aromatic cupcakes, so it is important that your ingredients are of the best quality.

Cream the butter and sugar well

• For the recipe measurement below, you would need to cream these for a good 3 minutes, constantly scraping the sides of the bowl.
• Also, make sure the butter is at room temperature, firm but soft enough to be cut into small cubes. If it is cold and hard, you would need to cream it for a longer time. Well creamed butter and sugar will produce soft and fluffy cupcakes so it is important not to cut this process short.

All ingredients should be at room temperature

• This is particularly important for butter, eggs and milk. Cold ingredients can cause your batter to curdle. If that happens, fold in the flour until the batter is no longer curdled before adding any milk to it. 

Add flour and milk into the cake batter in alternate order

• For the recipe amount above, add the flour in four batches and the milk in 3 batches, starting and ending with flour. That way, you will be able to mix the flour well into the batter and don’t end up with uneven batter. 

Do not overmix the cupcakes batter

• Flour and milk are best folded into the batter by hand, and if you prefer to use a mixer, use a very low speed and avoid over mixing. Over mixing can cause the texture of your cupcakes to become hard. 

Do not overbake the cupcakes

• The baking time will depend ultimately on the size of your cupcakes. Larger cupcakes tend to take longer than smaller ones.
• The best way to ensure the cupcakes are not overbaked is to check the cupcakes a few minutes before the baking time is up. Insert a skewer in the center of one cupcake. If there is no wet batter sticking to it, the cupcakes are done (ideally, there should be a few soft crumbs sticking to the skewer). 

Storing the moist vanilla cupcakes

• As soon as the cupcakes have cooled down (ideally they should be just slightly warm) if you do not intend to use them immediately, keep them in an airtight container and refrigerate them to retain their moist texture.
• These cupcakes can last at room temperature for a good 4 to 5 days (provided they are handled without any trace of water/moisture). If you wish to keep them longer, store them in the refrigerator and bring them to room temperature before serving.

Super moist vanilla cupcakes from scratch

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Recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes from Scratch

Here is the full printable version of my vanilla cupcakes from scratch.

And that is how I make and decorate my homemade vanilla cupcakes from scratch. Give this vanilla cupcakes recipe a try and let me know how it goes!

Super moist vanilla cupcakes from scratch

Here are my other posts you might want to check out:

• Super Moist Vanilla Cake
• Easy Cupcakes with a Floral Theme
• Small Batch Strawberry Jam
• Marble Pound Cake
• Birthday Cupcakes

Happy baking 🙂