This homemade vanilla cupcakes recipe makes perfectly moist, completely irresistible cupcakes! These light and fluffy cupcakes are topped with creamy vanilla buttercream and sprinkles for the ultimate sweet treat.
These homemade vanilla cupcakes are a certified mood-booster. They’re buttery, fluffy, and topped with silky-smooth vanilla buttercream that hits all the right notes. Pour a cold glass of milk or a hot cup of coffee, then dig into one of these cupcakes for complete vanilla bliss.
Vanilla cupcakes may seem a little too “classic,” but honestly, sometimes that’s just what you need. You can make these cupcakes casual or dress them up with sprinkles (or make homemade funfetti cupcakes), so they’re a great treat to make for everything from birthday parties to lazy Saturday afternoons when you’re craving something sweet. I truly can’t say enough good things about these cupcakes! I also have my all-time favorite homemade chocolate cupcakes that you can make, too.
What Makes These Homemade Cupcakes Different From My Other Vanilla Cupcake Recipes?
If you’re familiar with my recipes, you know that this is not the first time I’ve shared a version of vanilla cupcakes. I’ve spent countless hours making many, many cupcakes and taste-testing them, too (a sacrifice, I know, but someone has to do it). But my quest for the best vanilla cupcakes for every preference has paid off. And this recipe is absolutely classic. So, how are they different?
- Back to basics. Unlike this version, this fluffy vanilla cupcake recipe is made without sour cream. And unlike white cupcakes, this recipe uses whole eggs instead of only egg whites, so they’re more velvety in texture.
- Butter-based instead of oil. Even though I love my oil-based moist vanilla cupcakes, you’ll notice that butter gives these vanilla cupcakes a richer flavor. I still include just a little bit of oil to help with moisture.
- Extra fluffy. I make these classic cupcakes using a tried-and-true creaming method based on my vanilla layer cake recipe. It creates lighter, fluffier cupcakes. I love how the combination of soft and buttery vanilla cupcakes with creamy vanilla frosting just melts in your mouth.
Cupcake Ingredients
These fluffy vanilla cupcakes use basic ingredients that you most likely have in your pantry already. See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
- All-purpose flour – Measured correctly using a kitchen scale or the spoon and level method to avoid overmeasuring.
- Baking powder – Make sure that your leavening is as fresh as possible. If it’s been open for a while or if it’s past its expiration date, your cupcakes won’t rise properly.
- Butter – I like to bake with unsalted butter and add salt separately. If you’re using salted butter, I’d suggest adding half the amount of salt given in the recipe.
- Sugar – Granulated white sugar is best here.
- Vegetable oil – Even though this is a butter-based recipe, I like to add a couple tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil. It makes the overall crumb more tender.
- Vanilla extract – Please use real vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla. You’ll taste the difference!
- Eggs and milk – Bring these ingredients to room temperature. This way, they blend more smoothly into the batter and the cupcakes bake more evenly.
How to Make Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes
Basically, this homemade cupcake recipe is the result of everything I’ve learned over years of making vanilla cupcakes and cakes, all wrapped up in one simple recipe.
- First, prepare the dry ingredients. To start, preheat your oven to 350°F and insert liners into your cupcake pan. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla extract until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs next, one at a time, mixing after each addition.
Add half the dry ingredients to the batter, and slowly add the milk. The batter may look a bit curdled, but that’s OK.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients, scraping the sides of the bowl. Mix until smooth. Do not overmix.
Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full.
Bake at 350ºF for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool before frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream for Cupcakes
This creamy vanilla buttercream frosting is super easy to make in one bowl.
- Cream the butter and sugar. Start by adding butter to a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add half of the powdered sugar and mix until it’s smooth and well combined.
- Add milk (or water). Next, add the salt and 1-2 tablespoons of milk or water. Mix again until well combined. Then, add in your remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth. You can add more milk or water to alter the consistency if you’d like.
- Pipe the frosting. Pipe or spread your frosting onto your cupcakes, decorate to your liking, and enjoy! See my in-depth tutorial on how to frost cupcakes, and check out the Decorating section below for more suggestions.
Scale the Recipe
You may have noticed that these cupcakes are loaded with frosting. That’s because I made one and a half times the frosting called for in the recipe. My opinion is that you can never have too much frosting, especially when it comes to this particular vanilla buttercream. If you follow the recipe for these cupcakes, you’ll end up with less frosting than what’s pictured, but still enough to frost all of the cupcakes.
Tips for the Best Homemade Cupcakes
- Make sure to cream the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla completely. This ensures that the cupcakes turn out fluffy and that they’re not too dense.
- Measure your flour correctly. Dry cupcakes are often the result of overmeasured flour. Measure using a digital kitchen scale if you have one. If not, spoon the flour from the bag into your measuring cup. Then, level off the cup. Don’t scoop directly from the bag, or you’ll pack down the flour and end up with too much.
- It’s a good idea to add a bit more milk or water if your frosting comes out too thick. Do this a little at a time to avoid thinning it out too much. See how to get the right consistency.
- Let your cupcakes cool completely before you frost them. If you don’t, the buttercream will melt and all your pretty piping will be ruined. You want the frosting to stay smooth and velvety.
Decorating Vanilla Cupcakes
It’s not hard to make these cupcakes picture-perfect. But there are tons of easy ways to dress them up and make them even prettier!
- Sprinkles: Add your favorite festive sprinkles to make these cupcakes a beautiful party treat.
- Fruit: Top them with a slice of strawberry, a few blueberries, or any other fruit of your choice.
- Oreos: Garnish these cupcakes with an Oreo cookie or sprinkle them with crushed Oreos!
- Candy: Make these cupcakes even sweeter by adding your favorite pieces of candy.
- Pretzels: Turn these cupcakes into a sweet and salty treat by adding crushed pretzels or mini pretzels.
If you’re sprinkling a topping on the cupcakes, make sure to do it right after you pipe your frosting. This way, your sprinkles or crushed Oreos will stick perfectly!
More Frosting Options for Vanilla Cupcakes
If you’d prefer to decorate with another flavor of frosting, I love these cupcakes topped with chocolate frosting, brown butter buttercream, or this homemade strawberry frosting.
How to Store Frosted Cupcakes
- Store airtight. If your cupcakes somehow last longer than one day, place them into an airtight container, and they’ll stay good for up to 3 days in the fridge or at room temperature.
- Freeze the unfrosted cupcakes. You can freeze the vanilla cupcakes before they are frosted. Cover each cupcake in plastic wrap, then place them in an airtight covered container or freezer-safe Ziploc bag. They’ll keep in the freezer for 2 months. Just make sure to thaw them in the fridge before serving.
- Make the frosting ahead. The frosting by itself will last 3-5 days if covered and refrigerated. Just scoop it into an airtight container and close it securely before placing it in the fridge. When you want to use it, bring it back to room temperature, stir it until smooth, and use it like you normally would.
More Homemade Cupcake Recipes
Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe
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Ingredients
Vanilla Cupcakes
- 1 ¼ cups (163g) all-purpose flour (measured correctly)
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (84g) unsalted butter (room temperature)
- ¾ cup (155g) sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) vegetable oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup plus 2 tbsp (150ml) milk
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup (224g) unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 4 cups (460g) powdered sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons (30-45ml) water or milk
- Pinch or two of salt
Instructions
Vanilla Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and prepare a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
- Add the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and beat together until light in color and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time.
- Now it’s time to add the eggs. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until mostly combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until mostly combined.
- Slowly add the milk and mix until well combined. The batter will look curdled, but that’s ok.
- Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Do not over mix the batter.
- Fill the cupcake liners about 3/4 full and bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove cupcakes from the oven and place on a cooling rack to cool.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- Add the butter to a large mixer bowl and beat until smooth.
- Carefully pour in about half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth and well combined.
- Add the vanilla extract and 1-2 tablespoons of the water or milk and the salt to the frosting and mix until well combined.
- Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add additional milk or water as needed to get the right consistency.
- Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. I used Ateco tip 844.
- Cupcakes are best when stored well covered for 2-3 days.
Video
Nutrition
The nutrition facts provided are calculated using a third-party tool and are estimates only. Actual nutritional content may vary based on the ingredients and brands you use, as well as portion sizes. For accurate results, please consult a registered dietitian or nutritionist.
Morning! noticed you said cream instead of milk. Are you using a heavy cream in place of the milk?
You can use water, milk, cream – any of them are fine. But yes, I use heavy whipping cream when using cream.
These were great! Made them today for Valentine’s Day. Curious if you have any lower calorie cupcake recipe recommendations?
Glad you enjoyed them! I don’t have lower calorie ones. I actually tried making a recipe several years ago and to really create something with significantly lower calories, you had to make changes that made a cupcake that was totally unappealing, in my opinion. So I didn’t continue with it.
Made these today, well last night (they kept great). Today I made the icing, and used your cupcake frosting tutorial to get fantastic little peaks! Amazing recipe, they are the perfect classic vanilla cupcake. Great flavour and texture, the icing got lots of compliments too. Thank you so much for sharing!
So glad you enjoyed them!
i enjoyed them so much thanks for teaching us how to make them!!!!!!!
I made these for the Super Bowl. I colored the frosting with gel color & decorated with football flags & cupcake wrappers. They turned out so cute, great recipe!
So glad you enjoyed them!
Perfect! Like your VANILLA CUPCAKES recipe. Looks Delicious! Thanks for sharing this recipe with us.
I made these once and they came out amazing!!! I am getting ready to make again, and I was wondering if I can add defrosted frozen strawberries into batter? If so, do I need to change any of the recipe?
Glad you enjoyed them! The strawberries would sink to the bottom of the cupcakes. I’d suggest trying these Fresh Strawberry Cupcakes, which are very popular and have great reviews. They are more dense than these cupcakes, but you kind of need them to be more dense for the strawberries to not sink.
I really loved your recipe and the cupcakes turned out amazing! I was just wondering if I could use this recipe to make it as a cake. Would I need to add any ingredients and what would be the cooking time? Thank you!
Yes, you can. You can check out this recipe where I make it into a three layer cake if you want – https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/berry-mascarpone-layer-cake/
I’ve never been a huge fan of cupcakes before (too dry or heavy). But I had leftover chocolate icing from a cake and looked for a recipe to use it. I am so happy I found your website! They are by far the best cupcakes I’ve ever tried. They are moist and fluffy and super easy to make! Can’t wait to try again with your frosting recipe, and experiment with other flavours. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe! xx
I tried this as my first time cupcakes and it turned out perfect! Also am only into easy to make yet interesting food and this is a hit for that. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Hi, can I substitue extra virgin olive oil for vegetable oil? Also do we need to use a stand mixer for this recipe? I don’t have a stand mixer or hand mixer–what should I do?
Thank you!
Hi Samantha! I don’t have a stand mixer either and done this by hand with a whisk with no problems! The batter is super easy to make if you follow the steps as per the recipe. I haven’t tried to make this frosting and it might need a bit more work though. I’ve made chocolate buttercream by hand and you just need to make sure the butter is soft enough (especially if your kitchen if too cold, just place it in a warmer room) and be a little patient. Hope this helps 🙂
Wow I love this recipe. Absolutely wonderful
These really WERE easy and delicious! Mine do not look as fabulous, but they’re still really good. I made the frosting orange flavored with some grated zest and orange juice.
Hi! Is it possible for me to use salted butter instead of using the unsalted butter+salt method?
Certainly
Hi! Your recipe is amazing. I’m new to baking and the recipe was so easy to follow. I’m also gluten free (celiac) so I substituted Bob’s Red Mill GF flour. After one bite, my husband looked at me and said “These are not gluten free, right?” That’s a huge compliment in our house! We’re so used to everything being GF but too dense or too different that normal flour products. We have finally found a recipe we will be using from now on! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Wonderful! Glad they were a hit!
Thanks so much! This recapie is amazing and all my family loved them!
So glad to hear that!