Everyone loves cupcakes! This is the only vanilla cupcake recipe you will need. They are super easy to make and the texture is light, fluffy, and melt-in-your-mouth good.
Watch the video tutorial below and you will be a pro in no time. We love these with our Cupcake Frosting because a cupcake isn’t a cupcake without frosting.
This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure policy.
Watch Vanilla Cupcakes Video Tutorial!
These cupcakes are perfect for birthday parties and baby showers and they always disappear fast which is why I always make a double batch for gatherings. They are quick and easy to make and homemade cupcakes taste way better than boxed cupcake mix.
Ingredients for Vanilla Cupcakes:
This recipe makes exactly 12 cupcakes and requires simple ingredients: all-purpose flour, butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, baking powder, salt and vanilla. The combination of softened butter and buttermilk creates an amazingly soft cupcake crumb that just melts in your mouth. Also, if you haven’t tried our (2-ingredient) Homemade Vanilla Extract, it will take your baked goods to the next level.
How to Make Vanilla Cupcakes:
These cupcakes are easy to master and you will be making bakery-quality cupcakes in no time.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt.
- In a second bowl (or bowl of your stand mixer), beat together softened butter and sugar on medium-high speed 5 minutes until thick and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs 1 at a time, mixing to incorporate with each egg then blend in vanilla and scrape down the bowl.
- Reduce mixer to medium speed and add the flour in thirds, alternating with adding the 1/2 cup buttermilk and beating well between additions.
- Pour batter into 12 lined muffin tins, filling 2/3 full. Bake in the center of the oven at 350˚F for 20-23 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool 5 minutes in the pan then remove cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tips for the BEST Cupcakes:
- Room Temperature Ingredients – eggs, buttermilk and butter must be at room temperature to keep your batter an even consistency.
- Alternate Adding Flour and Buttermilk – this keeps the mixture uniform and well blended. If you add in all of the flour or buttermilk at once, it can saturate the creamed butter and cause the mixture to separate. Mix well between each addition.
- Measure Correctly – be sure to use the proper measuring cups for wet and dry ingredients. Watch our video on measuring ingredients to ensure great results every time.
- Don’t Overfill – Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full or they will overflow and cause a muffin top. If you divide evenly between 12 cupcakes, you should have exactly enough batter. A trigger release Ice Cream Scoop makes portioning easier.
How to Decorate Cupcakes:
Once your cupcakes are cooled to room temperature, it’s time to decorate. This is a great vanilla cupcake base for just about any kind of frosting and toppings. We pipe frosting on with a pastry bag and our favorite Wilton 1M Tip. We have so many frosting options so pick your craving:
- Vanilla Cupcake Frosting – our go-to cupcake frosting
- Swiss Meringue Buttercream – well worth the extra effort
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting – whipped and decadent
- Blackberry Frosting – you’ll love the flavor and color
Common Questions:
Can I Make Cupcakes Ahead? Once cupcakes are at room temperature, cover and keep at room temperature overnight or refrigerate if storing for longer. After cupcakes are frosted, refrigerate until ready to serve. Cupcakes are great served chilled or at room temperature because they don’t harden with refrigeration.
Can I Use This Batter to Make a Cake? We’ve had great results turning it into a Vanilla Cake. You would need to double the recipe for two 9-inch cake layers.
Can I Substitute the Buttermilk? Plain kefir will also work well instead of buttermilk. You can also make your own buttermilk at a ratio of 1 cup whole milk to 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice. Combine and let it sit 10 minutes to curdle then stir and use.
How Long to Bake Cupcakes? Bake until the tops are springy and a toothpick inserted int the center comes out clean. These were perfectly baked at 350˚F for 22 minutes in a conventional oven.
More Cupcake Recipes:
Who can resist a cupcake? They’re just so cute and easy to love. We enjoy getting creative with cupcakes and they are one of the easiest desserts to make. These are our top-rated cupcake recipes:
- Moist Chocolate Cupcakes – this is a great base and so easy
- Pumpkin Cupcakes – with a marshmallow-soft frosting
- Honey Cupcakes – with a cherry filling
- Dark Chocolate Cupcakes – with white chocolate frosting
Perfect Vanilla Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk, or plain kefir, room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cupcake/muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 1/4 cups flour, 1 1/4 tsp baking powder, and 1/2 tsp salt. Set flour mix aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed 5 minutes until thick and fluffy, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Add eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition then scrape down the bowl. Add 2 tsp vanilla and beat to combine.
- Reduce mixer speed to medium and add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with the buttermilk, mixing to incorporate with each addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed and beat until just combined and smooth, and don't overmix. Divide the batter evenly into a 12-count lined muffin or cupcake pan, filling 2/3 full.
- Bake for 20-23 minutes at 350 °F, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool to room temperature before frosting.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
This recipe was first published in June 2012 (below is the original photo). After testing countless batches, we improved the recipe, swapping out oil for softened butter and took out the baking soda to create a super soft crumb. Everyone agrees, these are the best cupcakes. Just read the reviews!
P.S. Thank you all for trying this recipe and sharing it with the people you love.
Seems to be some confusion about whether it’s better to make cupcakes in a dark pan vs a light colored cupcake pan. What are your views?
Hi Judith. Light pans bake gentler, but I’ve used both successfully. The oven can play a role too, and the quality of whatever pan you’re using. It’s best to get to know your oven and purchase good quality pans. To view my favorite, click on “shop” in the drop down menu above. I have a whole category for bakeware.
Hey there! Love all your recipes and my baking students have so much fun watching your videos!
Question for you, can you speed up cooling time by placing them in the refrigerator or will that have any effect on density?
Hi Jessica! They can dry out faster in the refrigerator. The butter in the batter will solidify and they will be firm until you let them sit at room temperature to warm up again.
The tops will also get sticky.
Tastes great. For some reason when I made my batter it was more cloudlike than yours. Yours was thick as you said, not sure if I over mixed it or what 😆
Hi Miranda. It’s hard to say without being there. It could be that it was over mixed.
I’m glad you still enjoyed the recipe.
Hello Natasha! Can i add gel food coloring? It’s a homemade one, i did add mine cold and the batter kind of separated
I think its because of the cold temperature? Thank you! The taste is amazing
Hi Bernardo. I’m not sure. I’ve only tried gel food color purchased from the store.
Okay, do you put it along with the eggs?
Just add it with the wet ingredients.
Hi Natasha, I love making these cupcakes, but every time I make them they are very dense and not light and fluffy, I follow your recipe. what could be the reason they are coming out dense ?
Hi Raj. The number one reason this happens is due to using too much flour. Please watch my How to Measure Ingredients (Wet and Dry) VIDEO here. You can also click on the “metric” button in the recipe card and use a food scale to measure your flour in grams.
Also- make sure to not over mix your batter and use baking powder that is not expired or old.
I keep on making them. They are perfect. All who didn’t like them probably didn’t follow the recipe. Too bad for them. I also add chocolate chips and they still turn out perfectly!
If I had read the comments before I made them I would have passed on this recipe, but I didn’t and I made them – and they came out wonderfully! Mine were light and fluffy. Nice butter flavor and great texture. Baked without a dome which will make them easier to frost. I’m guessing those who had trouble with the recipe probably didn’t beat their butter enough. I made sure my butter was nice ans fluffy, which aerated the mixture and that’s why they turned out light and not dense. I beat my butter for an extra minute or two and gave the butter and wet ingredients mix a nice mix on high before I added my flour and buttermilk. I think that made all the difference and this is a standard baking technique that I use when working with a recipe that calls for creamed butter. Dense cakes often are either overmixing dry ingredients or not beating butter enough.
I also weighed my ingredients and did not use volume, which also helps.
Make these all the time -grandkids love them
cupcakes are delicious but frosting was runny 🙁
Hi cd, I’m glad you enjoyed the cupcakes but what kind of frosting did you use and did you make any substitutions? Did you use HEAVY whipping cream – that has a higher fat content and is better for frostings than regular whipping cream.
Can I add cocoa powder to these to make them chocolate? If so, how much would you recommend?
Hi Kyra! I haven’t tested that to know how to adjust the recipe without altering the stability and texture of the cupcakes. You would likely need to remove some flour if you’re adding cocoa powder so you don’t end up with dry and crumbly cupcakes. Let us know if you experiment.
Also- try my go to Easy Chocolate Cupcake Recipe .
Thanks Natasha! I’ll probably skip the experiment this time since I’m baking a few dozen cupcakes for my daughter’s 4th birthday. I’ll try your easy chocolate recipe instead. 😊
So good 👍 👏 👌 🙌 😋 😍 👍 👏 👌 🙌 😋 😍 👍
This did not taste good
Hi Gerald. I’m sorry to hear you didn’t like it. I would love to help troubleshoot if you could give me more details.
Hi, I want to double the recipe do I use the same ratio to double the recipe is the ratio of the ingredients the same? And by the way, I I love your cupcake recipe. My family asked for it on 4 July.
Hi Beverly. Yes, if you’re doubling the recipe you need to double all of the ingredients. You can change the number of servings at the top of the recipe card which will convert the ingredients list for you.
I’m happy to hear you love the recipe. Have a happy 4th of July!
I’ve done these a couple of times and they always come out perfect!
Delicious cupcakes but not as moist as I was hoping still recommend.
Hi Kara, thank you for your review. Typically over-baking can dry out cupcakes and every oven is created different so you might pull them out a couple minutes sooner next time.
Hi there! Should I use 1% low-fat buttermilk or whole milk buttermilk? Or does it matter? Thanks!
Hi Chey! Both will work just fine. I hope you love the recipe!
amazing cupcakes, best i have ever made
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Jodi!
How many days in advance can I make the cup cakes ?
Hi Leckrani, I have that answer and more tips under the “”Common Questions: Can I Make Cupcakes Ahead?”” secion of the recipe post. I hope this helps.