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. The ingredients are basic and the making method is easy. With a wonderfully moist and fluffy texture, these cupcakes are simply perfect.
And if you are looking for an equally moist and fluffy vanilla cake recipe, check out this vanilla cake recipe. For more delicious cupcake recipes, check out these salted caramel pumpkin cupcakes, coffee cupcakes with coffee buttercream and pandan cupcakes.
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❤️Why You Will Love This Recipe
- The recipe makes fluffy cupcakes with delicious vanilla flavor.
- It is an easy cupcake recipe with simple ingredients and yields deliciously moist cupcakes.
- These easy vanilla cupcakes make perfect treats for snacking as well as for special occasions like birthday parties.
- This is a bake from scratch recipe for easy homemade vanilla cupcakes.
📋Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- Self-raising flour + baking powder + salt - mix these and sift them together.
- Butter - I use salted butter. Unsalted butter will also work for this recipe but add a small extra pinch of salt in the recipe.
- Granulated sugar (caster sugar) - the cupcakes are best made with fine sugar. Coarse sugar will leave sugar specks on the surface after baking.
- Eggs - use large eggs (whole eggs).
- Milk - use whole milk.
- Vanilla extract - adds a lovely flavor to the cake. For best results, use pure vanilla extract.
For the Frosting:
- Butter - I use salted butter. The salt enhances the taste of the buttercream.
- Powdered sugar (icing sugar) - make sure to sift the sugar first to break any lumps.
- Vanilla extract - to flavor the frosting.
- Milk or heavy cream (optional) - only need to use this if the buttercream is stiff and not of piping consistency.
For the Decoration:
- Sprinkles
- Fondant flowers (white fondant tinted in Americolor Plum food color)
- Plunger flower cutter
*Refer to the recipe card below for full list of ingredients and exact quantities. For best results, use a digital kitchen scale where applicable*
🧾Substitution and Variations
- Self raising flour can be substituted with all purpose flour and baking powder. For every 225g of all purpose flour, add one and half teaspoons of baking powder. Mix well and sift at least 3 times before using. To make 190g of self raising flour (as per the recipe card below), add two thirds of a teaspoon of baking powder to 190g of all purpose flour.
- Whole milk in the cupcakes can be substituted with skimmed milk. You can also use almond milk or oat milk.
- Milk in the buttercream frosting is optional. You can replace it with heavy cream if you wish.
- Vanilla extract in both the cupcake batter and vanilla frosting can be replaced with scraping from vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste. For one teaspoon of vanilla extract, you can replace with scrapings from half a vanilla bean pod or 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste. To use the vanilla bean pod, you need to cut it open and scrape the insides with a small knife. Use the scraping and discard the pod.
- Vanilla buttercream frosting can be replaced with any of your other favorite frosting that is of a pipeable consistency. Some good options are chocolate buttercream, strawberry buttercream (replace vanilla extract with strawberry extract), cream cheese frosting or chocolate ganache.
This recipe has not been tested with other substitutions or variations. If you do try, please let me know in the comments section below!
👩🏻🍳How to Make
Step 1: Mix the cupcake batter. Add butter and sugar into a bowl (image 1) and cream butter and sugar light and fluffy for approximately 2 to 3 minutes (with an electric mixer). Scrape the sides of the bowl constantly.
Add in the eggs (image 2). Start with one egg, beat it well until you do not see any traces of egg before adding the next one.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt into the creamed mixture (wet ingredients) in 4 batches. Alternate the dry ingredients (flour mixture) with milk. Fold these in until well incorporated (images 3 & 4).
Finally, add in the vanilla extract and give the moist vanilla cupcakes batter a quick mix until it's all smooth (image 5). Scoop or spoon the batter into cupcake liners until about two thirds full.
Note: The vanilla cupcakes will rise quite substantially when baking so it is important not to overfill the paper liners.
Bake the cupcakes in a preheated oven 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 (image 6).
Note: As soon as the vanilla cupcakes turn just slightly warm, cover them in a container and let them continue to cool down, covered.
Step 2: Make the buttercream. Cream butter until soft in a large bowl. Sift in the powdered sugar and continue to beat until the frosting turns fluffy. Add the vanilla extract (and milk / heavy cream if the frosting is too stiff) and beat again until the buttercream turns light and fluffy.
Step 3: Pipe the buttercream swirls and decorate with sprinkles.
Fill the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star piping tip ( I used tip number 1G) (image 7). Pipe simple swirls on each cupcake (image 8).
After that, add some sprinkles on. You can use any sprinkles you like, and I used sprinkles from Fancy Sprinkles (image 9).
Step 4: Make and attach the fondant flowers. Tint some white fondant with Americolor Plum food color and roll it thin.
Cut out simple 5-petal flowers using a flower cutter (image 10). I used the largest of my flower plunger cutter set. Set the flowers in a flower former for a few minutes so that they set in a curved shape (image 11).
Note: You can use any other surface that is curved to form the fondant flowers.
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 (image 12).
💡Expert Tips
- 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 extract will give you the best, aromatic cupcakes, so it is important that your ingredients are of the best quality.
- For soft and fluffy cupcakes, cream the butter and sugar well. For the recipe measurement below, you would need to cream these for a good 2 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.
- It is important to use room temperature eggs and butter. 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.
- 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.
- The flour and milk are best folded in 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.
- Overbaking could result in dry cupcakes. 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).
💭FAQs
A good recipe is the starting point.
Next is making sure all ingredients are measured accurately. For best results, it is always recommended to use a kitchen scale instead of measuring cups.
With the above two points in place, you have to make sure not to overbake our cupcakes. Overbaking could lead to dry texture.
Test the cupcakes at least a few minutes before the baking time is up by inserting a cake tester or skewer in the center of a cupcake. If the tester comes out without any wet batter sticking to it, the cupcakes are done.
You can also test by pressing the top of the cupcakes. It the top springs back when you lift your finger, the cupcakes are baked and can be removed from the oven.
Another factor is during the cooling process. Keep the cupcakes covered with a kitchen towel as you cool them. This too helps to prevent dry texture and keep the cupcakes moist.
When you cream the sugar and butter to make the cupcakes, make sure to cream them until they are light and fluffy.
Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl half way through to make sure no butter is left unmixed.
For the recipe below, cream the butter and sugar for a good 2 minutes before adding the eggs.
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 the unfrosted cupcakes 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.
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📖Recipe
Vanilla Cupcakes from Scratch (Perfectly Moist!)
For best results, use the metrics measurements. US customary measurements have not been tested and are only meant for guide.
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 190 g self raising flour
- 100 g butter
- 175 g granulated sugar (caster sugar)
- 2 eggs
- 140 ml milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
Buttercream
- 150 g butter salted
- 300 g powdered sugar (icing sugar) sifted
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk optional
Decoration
- Sprinkles
- Fondant flowers
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170°Celsius. Prepare cupcake liners.
- Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, for approximately 2 minutes. Scrape the sides of the bowl constantly.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt into the creamed mixture in 3 batches, alternating each batch with milk. Start and end with the flour. Mix until the flour is well incorporated.
- Finally, fold in the vanilla extract.
- Pour batter into prepared cupcake liners (see Note 1) and bake for 20 minutes, until the cupcakes are well risen and have turned golden brown.
- Remove the cupcakes from the oven and let them cool in the tin for 5 minutes before removing them onto a wire rack to cool further (see Note 2).
- To make the frosting, beat butter and powdered sugar until fluffy.
- Add vanilla extract and continue beating until the buttercream is all light and fluffy. Add milk or heavy cream if it appears too stiff. Start with small quantities of liquid to avoid the buttercream from becoming runny.
- Fill the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe a large swirl on top of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles and add a small fondant flower on the side.
Notes
- The vanilla cupcakes will rise quite substantially when baking so it is important not to overfill the paper liners.
- As soon as the vanilla cupcakes turn just slightly warm, cover them in a container and let them continue to cool down, covered.
Carla
Hi I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong but I can never quite fill 12 cupcake cases with a normal 12 cupcake recipe or even 24 which this apparently is? Is there anything I could be doing wrong ? If I even them all out the same it doesn’t look like enough mixture
Priya
Hi Carla,
It could be that you are using larger cupcake casings. I baked mine in cupcake casings measuring 4 cm in diameter at the bottom and 7 cm in diameter at the top, with a height of 2.5cm. And I filled each casing to about two-thirds full only. Hope this helps.