Our classic white vanilla cupcake recipe is made with vanilla cake batter and topped with a whipped vanilla buttercream frosting. Using cake flour, butter, and oil these cupcakes are moist and delicious. Perfect for celebrations!
My kids go crazy for vanilla cupcakes, especially one topped with sprinkles. If I’m being totally honest, I’m more of a chocolate cupcake gal, but even I can’t resist these cupcakes. They remind me of the white vanilla cupcakes I used to gobble up as a child. The classic fluffy vanilla cupcakes with creamy buttercream, topped with irresistible rainbow sprinkles, yum. They are perfect for birthday parties!
The batter is made without egg yolks to keep the cupcake a warm shade of vanilla. They’re moist and perfect celebration cupcakes with sprinkles on top.
Vanilla cupcakes are a great base to add your own flavors. Top it with chocolate frosting or fill the center with lemon curd or caramel! There are so many options for creating your own version of these.
You can even make them into charming flowers!!
How to Make Vanilla Cupcakes
Table of Contents
Supplies
Ingredients
- Cake Flour
- Whole Milk
- Buttermilk
- Egg Whites
- Sugar
- Butter
- Vanilla Extract
- Baking Powder + Baking Soda
- Corn Starch
- Salt
Directions
- Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
- Beat butter and sugar on high in an electric mixer for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in egg whites one at a time, with the mixer on medium speed. Beat until incorporated.
- Combine whole milk, buttermilk and vanilla extract in a
liquid measuring cup and lightly whisk.
- Alternate the dry and the liquid ingredients into the butter and sugar mixture.
- Scrape the sides of the bowl and continue to mix until the batter in fully incorporated.
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- Line a cupcake tin with cupcake wrappers.
- Place two scoops of vanilla cupcake batter into each cupcake paper. About 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake the cupcakes for 15 minutes. Always start with less time, check on them and then continue baking if needed.
- Let them cool before frosting.
Is white cake the same as vanilla?
White cake and yellow cake are both vanilla cakes. White cake is made without egg yolk making the color of the cake white.
Tips for Making the Best Cupcakes
Use High-Quality Ingredients
- This makes a huge difference in the outcome of the cupcake. Try to buy King Arthur flour, whole grass-fed organic butter, organic eggs, Nielsen-Massey Vanilla, organic milk, etc.
Don’t Over Mix
- Once the butter, eggs, and sugar are beaten until light and fluffy, the rest of the ingredients should not be mixed on high. This will create a dense cupcake. When the flour goes in the mixer should be set to low.
Preheat the Oven
- A certain amount of heat applied quickly is required to activate the baking soda in the recipe. This will make the cupcake rise to be light and fluffy and not flat.
How can I make my cupcakes more moist?
Adding in a little oil to the cupcake batter will result in a more moist cupcake. Other ingredients like sour cream and butter will also create a moist cupcake. We like to use two ingredients like butter, buttermilk, and oil when making cupcakes.
How long with cupcakes stay fresh?
Cupcakes will stay fresh for about 1 week covered. Store unfrosted cupcakes at room temperature in an airtight container. You can also freeze unfrosted cupcakes for up to 3 months!
Furthermore, cupcakes frosted with buttercream and just a little
Pro tip – Only frost the number of cupcakes you will be serving for ultimate freshness!
More Cake and Cupcake Recipes You’ll Love!
Pumpkin Spice Sunflower Cupcakes
Chocolate Dragon Fruit Cupcakes
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Classic Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes
- 2 1/2 cups cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp corn startch
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup butter, room temp, unsalted
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 5 large egg whites
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Sift together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside.
- Beat the butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy. About 5 minutes.
- Add in egg whites one at a time and beat until mixed.
- Using a fork whisk together liquid ingredients: milk, buttermilk and vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup.
- Alternate the dry and wet ingredients into the butter mixture beating on medium until incorporated.
- Fill cupcake molds 3/4 of the way full.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. If they need more time leave them in for another few minutes. Do not over bake.
- Let them cool and then frost with our simple buttercream frosting recipe!
Sarah says
I made these for a bridal shower and they were a hit! I subbed sour cream for buttermilk because that’s what I had on hand.
I also whipped the egg whites to stiff peaks and folded them in to the batter at the end just to make them extra fluffy and with that, they made a full 24 cupcakes. If anyone else is trying to just get a couple additional cupcakes with this recipe – that will work!
They were moist, flavorful and delicious!
Eden says
Thank you Sarah for the kind review! So happy these worked for you and what a great idea to whip the egg whites first!!
C.J. says
These were easy and delicious, but taking the paper off was a struggle / not sure what could have caused that?
Sara Welch says
Haven’t found a cupcake I didn’t like, but these were exceptional! Looking forward to baking these again this weekend for my daughter’s birthday!
Anna says
I am obsessed with these cupcakes! They are so fluffy!
Laura Reese says
I love vanilla cupcakes and this recipe did not disappoint. Delicious. Thanks for the easy directions and stunning photos.
Fatema says
Hi there, Is it possible to get this CLASSIC VANILLA CUPCAKE RECIPE in grams measurement rather than cups.
Thanks.
Amy says
The only reason why I’m not rating this as five stars is because I had to make some substitutions to fit my sons dietary needs (he is lactose intolerant). I’ve never made a cake or cupcakes from scratch before but all the preboxed mixes contain milk, so I thought I’d give it a shot and I’m so glad I did! He loves these cupcakes and so do we!!! I subbed: lactose-free whole milk for the milk and dairy-free butter (Country Crock Plant-Based Butter made from Almond Oil) for the butter. I didn’t have any cake flour on hand, so I combined all purpose flour and cornstarch (for each one cup of cake flour: sub 1 cup of all purpose flour minus 2 tablespoons of flour, plus 2 tablespoons of cornstarch). The dairy-free butter and sugar didn’t get real ‘light and fluffy’, but I kept going and I’m so thrilled with how these turned out. His whole preschool class devoured them for their Christmas party today, and now I have this amazing recipe to use for his birthday in a few weeks too! Thanks so very much!!
Eden says
Amy this is wonderful to hear that with all of those alternations it turned out delicious! So happy this recipe could be a base for that and happy the class loved them. Thank you for sharing!
Stephanie says
These cupcakes were so good! I made them for my sister’s bridal shower and everyone loved them!
GAG says
CUPCAKES PRETTY TASTY [EVEN WITHOUT FROSTING BECAUSE I COULDN’T HELP MYSELF! THANK YOU FOR RESPONDING IN TIME FOR ME TO BAKE FOR COMPANY TONIGHT.
Eden says
Oh yay! Thank you for pointing those out for us! Happy you liked these!!
Krissy Allori says
Moist and delicious! I’ll be using this recipe for my vanilla cupcakes going forward.
Kristyn says
Wow! Those look so moist & soft! Vanilla cupcakes are the best Best part is that delicious frosting!
Katerina @ diethood .com says
This is definitely the perfect cupcake!! So fluffy and delicious!!