These Vanilla Cupcakes will easily become your go-to cupcake recipe! These soft, buttery cupcakes are completely from scratch using the reverse creaming method. It’s the best vanilla cupcake you will ever taste!
Top these with my Perfect Buttercream for the perfect birthday cupcake!
Everyone Needs a Vanilla Cupcake Recipe That Always Turns Out Perfect!
Today we’re taking it back to basics! This vanilla cupcake recipe is one I shared many years ago, back in 2013 but I thought needed an update. The recipe remains the same, but I wanted to include some more tips and tricks for ultimate cupcake success. PLUS, I felt like they needed some pretty new pictures!
A classic vanilla cupcake might seem like a basic or no-brainer type of recipe to bake, but I will tell you that it took me many years to perfect! There was a lot of trial and error that went into this recipe to get the texture moist, light, and soft! So many recipes I have tried in the past have been too dense, or too dry, or too too oily. But this one is soft, buttery, and light in texture with the perfect dome.
How To Make The Best Vanilla Cupcakes
The trick I use in this vanilla cake recipe is the Reverse Creaming Method. I have used this in a few other recipes on my site, like my Confetti Cupcakes and LOVE how they turn out. Reverse creaming produces an ultra-fine crumb, which makes these cupcakes super tender!
What Is Reverse Creaming?
Reverse Creaming is when you mix the butter into the dry ingredients before mixing in the remaining ingredients and liquids. Generally when you bake a cake you cream the butter and sugar together to start and then add the dry ingredients in alternating additions with the wet.
Reverse creaming evenly combines the butter into the dry ingredients creating a coarse sand texture, coating all the dry ingredients with fat, and then add in the remaining ingredients. We’re always told when making cake batter NOT TO OVER MIX! because over-mixing batter can cause more gluten to form, creating a denser, less light and airy cake. BUT reverse creaming coats the flour in fat which minimizes gluten formation. This also creates smaller air particles being formed in the mixing, producing a finer crumb, and a perfect dome.
Ingredients:
- Cake flour
- All purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking powder
- Kosher salt
- Room temperature butter
- Large eggs
- Milk
- Vanilla extract. I like to use pure vanilla to impart the most vanilla flavor. Adding vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste will really amp this up too!
Let’s get started, the process is super easy, but just make sure to follow a few quick steps to ensure perfection!
- Prepare oven and muffin tin. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add the cake flour, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and stir together using paddle attachment for 1 minute on low speed.
- Add butter and eggs. With mixer still on low, drop in butter, a few cubes at a time, continuing until all butter is in and mixer resembles coarse sand. The add in the eggs one at a time until combined.
- Add milk and vanilla. With mixer still on low slowly pour in milk and vanilla. Turn the mixer to medium and beat for 2 minutes until batter is smooth, scraping sides of bowl as necessary, making sure batter is well combined.
- Add batter to cupcake tin and bake. Fill liners 2/3 full (about 1/4 cup batter) and bake for 15-20 minutes until centers are set and toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool and decorate! Allow to cool completely before frosting.
What Frosting Recipe Should I Use On Vanilla Cupcakes?
- Buttercream. Of course this is my go-to on vanilla cupcakes! It’s a traditional American Buttercream made with butter and powdered sugar/confectioners sugar and it’s what I have frosted on the cupcakes in the pictures featured here!
- Chocolate Frosting. A vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting is a classic, and my Creamy Chocolate Frosting Recipe is the BEST!
- Perfect Party Frosting. This recipe is a marshmallow buttercream with sprinkles INSIDE! It’s a fantastic recipe!
- Pumpkin Butter Frosting. This is a great recipe to give your cupcakes a fall twist!
- 2 Ingredient White Chocolate Buttercream. Creamy, decadent, with the perfect amount of sweetness, this recipe is silky and rich!
- Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Cream Cheese Frosting
Feel free to get creative with your frosting. I used a Wilton 1M tip for the swirls in these photos, and it’s my go-to piping tip! And of course don’t forget the sprinkles!
Print
My Favorite Vanilla Cupcakes
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 24 cupcakes 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This vanilla cupcake recipe is easy, soft, and moist! The perfect birthday cupcake topped with a tall swirl of frosting!
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cup cake flour
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup butter, room temperature, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
- Prepare oven and muffin tin. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line muffin tin with cupcake liners and set aside.
- Combine dry ingredients. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment add the cake flour, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and stir together using paddle attachment for 1 minute on low speed.
- Add butter and eggs. With mixer still on low, drop in butter, a few cubes at a time, continuing until all butter is in and mixer resembles coarse sand. The add in the eggs one at a time until combined.
- Add milk and vanilla. With mixer still on low slowly pour in milk and vanilla. Turn the mixer to medium and beat for 2 minutes until batter is smooth, scraping sides of bowl as necessary, making sure batter is well combined.
- Add batter to cupcake tin and bake. Fill liners 2/3 full (about 1/4 cup batter) and bake for 15-20 minutes until centers are set and toothpick comes out clean.
- Cool and decorate! Allow to cool completely before frosting.
Notes
Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cupcake
- Calories: 168
- Sugar: 15.2 g
- Sodium: 90.9 mg
- Fat: 4.7 g
- Carbohydrates: 28.5 g
- Protein: 3 g
- Cholesterol: 31.2 mg
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Would this be good for a cake also? Thank you!
Yes!!
Would this be good for a cake also? Thank you!
Is the butter salted or unsalted?
I made 108 of these for our wedding last weekend! I made them 3 weeks in advance and froze them and they came out of the freezer like they had just been baked! Best vanilla cupcake recipe I’ve ever made!
These are wonderful! I am what I call an “approximate baker”. I don’t measure well, I never seem to be able to pull together all of the proper ingredients, and STILL these turned out amazing 🙂 I used entirely “regular” flour, I didn’t use buttermilk (normal milk), I added who knows how much baking soda (4+ ?? teaspoons) and I tried to double the batch which apparently is much to full for my mixer. Despite all of these poor decisions, the cupcakes turned out great! So excited since it is midnight and my daughters party is at 10 AM…. Someday I will go back and make this properly, I am sure they will be even that much better, however, it is nice to know this recipe will accommodate my haphazard style of baking and still turn out wonderfully!
what if I need to omit the cake flour??
You could use regular all purpose instead, the texture will be slightly different, but it will still work!
I bet you don’t read comments anymore, but I am going to try your recipe right now. Wish me luck and I’ll be back with feedback 🙂
Good luck!! I’d love to know how they come out!!
I tried this recipe and I was very disappointed. I have previous baking experience and followed the recipe as stated, but my cupcakes did not dome, they had flat sunken tops after they started cooling and they didn’t taste good, too floury. Is there an error in the recipe as far as using cake flour and all purpose ? Was it intended for the baker to use one or the other?
i have to say these are probably the BEST vanilla cupcakes I’ve ever tatsted and made! I did not have any cake flour so I used all purpose, which made them more dense, but that didn’t affect the flavor at all, it just made them
More dense in a good way. These were so buttery and full of vanilla flavor they were SO GOOD! I made a cream cheese frosting and coated them with coconut flakes and they were absolutely delicious! Held up well to my buttercream! THIS IS THE RECIPE I will use from now on!
I made these cupcakes for the first time after looking for the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe, and they came out great. They were perfectly dome shaped, nice texture and great flavor. This will definitely be a go to recipe. If I wanted them to have a little more moisture, should I add a little more butter or milk?