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.
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. We made these super fun Lucky Charms Cupcakes using our vanilla cupcake recipe.
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
Supplies
Ingredients
- Cake Flour
- Whole Milk
- Egg Whites
- Sugar
- Butter
- Vanilla Extract
- Baking Powder
- Vegetable Oil
Directions
- Beat butter and sugar on high in an electric mixer.
- Sift the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
- Combine the eggs whites, oil, vanilla extract and whole milk in
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 12-15 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 and oil when making cupcakes.
How long with cupcakes stay fresh?
Cupcakes will stay fresh for about 1 week covered. Store unfrosted cupcakes 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 amount of cupcakes you will be serving for ultimate freshness!
Unique Cupcake Recipes
Pumpkin Spice Sunflower Cupcakes
Chocolate Dragon Fruit Cupcakes
Let us know if you make this vanilla cupcake recipe by leaving a comment and review below! We love to hear what you think. You can also tag your photos @sugarandcharm on all social channels!
Classic Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes
- 2 1/4 cup cake flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/4 cup whole milk
- 4 large egg whites
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Sift together flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.
- Beat the butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy.
- Using a fork whisk together liquid ingredients: egg whites, oil, milk and extract in a bowl or 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 12-15 minutes. Start with 12 minutes, check on the cupcakes and 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!
This is definitely the perfect cupcake!! So fluffy and delicious!!
Wow! Those look so moist & soft! Vanilla cupcakes are the best Best part is that delicious frosting!
ME AGAIN.
WHEN DO YOU ADD THE OIL?
Hi! With the liquid ingredients… updated 🙂 Thank you!
Moist and delicious! I’ll be using this recipe for my vanilla cupcakes going forward.
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.
Oh yay! Thank you for pointing those out for us! Happy you liked these!!
These cupcakes were so good! I made them for my sister’s bridal shower and everyone loved them!
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!!
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!