Homemade vanilla cupcakes are tender, moist, and made entirely from scratch. These yellow cupcakes are topped with a sweet and velvety American buttercream frosting.
This recipe for vanilla homemade cupcakes makes the perfect birthday cupcake. Made with simple, easy to find ingredients, these cupcakes turn out perfect every time.
They're incredibly moist, tender, and soft - the perfect homemade cupcake recipe. And after many reader requests, I've even made this recipe into a sheet cake - vanilla sheet cake (with directions for 3 pan sizes!).
I've topped these cupcakes with an American buttercream frosting. Another great option is my chocolate buttercream frosting. Buttercream frosting is very sweet, like a bakery frosting. If you'd like a less sweet option, try making a light homemade whipped cream for topping your cupcakes instead.
Cake flour
Yes, this recipe can be made with all-purpose flour. However, your cupcakes will turn out with a coarser texture when using all-purpose flour, which is why I highly recommend using cake flour instead.
Using cake flour will give you a more tender cupcake. Cake flour is made for baking cakes, so why not grab a box to keep on hand in your home?
I like to use Swans Down cake flour, because it's easy to find in all of my local grocery stores. One box is only a few dollars, and in my experience, makes a world of difference when baking cakes.
Room temperature ingredients
For this recipe, you'll need room temperature eggs, milk, and butter.
Room temperature ingredients are important because your ingredients will cream together smoothly, without lumps. This helps to ensure your cupcakes turn out perfectly, every time.
Simply place these ingredients on the counter top about an hour before you begin baking.
Cupcake tips and tricks
Be sure not to over-mix your batter, because this adds extra air to your batter. When your cupcakes bake, they will rise quickly, then sink in the middle due to the excess air.
If using a hand mixer, mix your batter on low speed. Or, use a spoon or spatula instead.
I also recommend allowing your cupcakes to cool completely before unwrapping or frosting. Unwrapping a warm cupcake will cause the cupcake to stick to the paper liners.
Frosting a warm cupcake may melt your frosting, especially if you're using a butter based frosting like buttercream.
Portioning cupcake batter
Portioning cupcake batterI use a large cookie scoop to make sure each cupcake is the same size. If you don't have one, it holds 3 tablespoons of batter.
This recipe will make enough batter for 15 cupcakes using my measuring method above. If you only have a 12 cupcake pan, do not distribute all of the batter between 12 cupcakes. Your batter will spill over the edges when baking.
Instead, Evenly fill your 12 cupcake liners, bake, and discard the rest of the batter (or bake a second batch of 3). I like to keep a 24 cupcake pan on hand for these occasions.
Cupcake Frostings
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting - sweet, traditional buttercream frosting
- American Buttercream Frosting - sweet, traditional buttercream frosting (this recipe is included below)
- Whipped Buttercream Frosting - fluffier than a traditional buttercream
- Homemade Whipped Cream - light and much less sweet than buttercream
Any buttercream frosting is great for piping or knife decorating - they're very easy to work with. Traditional buttercream frostings are also very sweet, so you could use less (if you want) to top your cupcakes.
For years I've used this simple Wilton Cupcake Decorating Kit to decorate my cupcakes. It comes with four piping tips, bags, and easy to read instructions. I also purchased this additional coupler to make it easy secure the piping tips and to change out tips halfway through decorating.
Whipped cream is a less sweet option that can easily be dolloped on top of each cupcake.
Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
Yellow Cupcakes
- 1 ½ cups cake flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ½ cup milk room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
American Buttercream Frosting
- 4 cups confectioner's sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Yellow Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cupcake pan with liners, set aside.
- In a bowl, sift or whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add butter and sugar. Beat until creamed and fluffy.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated and smooth.
- Add half of your dry ingredients to butter mixture. Stir until just combined. Add half of milk, again stirring until just combined. Repeat once more, adding remaining dry ingredients, and remaining milk, stirring until just incorporated.
- Portion batter between 15 cupcake liners, filling about halfway full. Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove pan from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes before transferring cupcakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.
American Buttercream Frosting
- In a large bowl, add room temperature butter and beat until creamy, about 1 minute.
- Add confectioner's sugar and slowly mix until ingredients are fully combined. Then, whip at high speed for 2-3 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
- Add vanilla extract and heavy cream, then whip until fluffy, another 1 to 2 minutes.
- Pipe or spread frosting with a knife onto cupcakes and serve.
Equipment Recommendations
Video
Notes
- Cupcakes are best served the same day of baking, but will remain moist for up to 48 hours when covered in a sealed container.
- This recipe can be made with all-purpose flour instead of cake flour, but the texture will be coarser and cupcakes will not turn out as tender. I highly recommend using cake flour.
- The frosting recipe will make enough to pipe tall, dramatic frosting onto each cupcake (like shown in the photos). If you'd like to make less frosting and spread on with a knife, cut the recipe in half.
I've tried this recipe twice and both times I made exactly 15 cupcakes. Both times batter spilled over the sides and the cupcake sank in the middle. But they taste amazing! I double checked my ingredients and measurements and they match the recipe. Any idea on what to tweak? I love the flavor but they keep turning out ugly.
Thanks!
Hi Jaclyn! My first thought is that maybe the batter is being over-mixed, which will whip air into the batter, doing two things. First, there will be a larger amount of batter in each cup, which will cause them to overflow when they bake. Second, once they start baking, the cupcakes will deflate, causing the middles to sink. I've had this happen to me before, and I was over-mixing the batter. Do you think that might be it?
Heather,
I just made these cupcakes today & they are fabulous. Made the 1-2-3-4 cake on the Swans Down Cake Flour box & even though it tasted just fine the cake texture was too heavy for me but these cupcakes are spot on for taste, texture & ease of making.
I think the secret is as suggested not over mixing.
Thank you
Hi Leslie, glad to hear the cupcakes turned out great for you!
Hello, is this a recipe that is ok to double or triple?
Yes, you can double or triple this recipe. If you click on the servings you can adjust the ingredients for as many cupcakes as you need!
It states to use 2 eggs but in the video it shows egg whites. Which one is correct?
This recipe uses two eggs.
There is a video for my white cupcakes recipe which uses egg whites, you can find that recipe here:
https://thetoastykitchen.com/easy-white-cupcakes/
OH MY DELICIOUS!!!! I made your cupcakes and buttercream frosting for my grandfather and neices Birthday today! I've never made homemade cupcakes or buttercream before and this recipe was easy to follow and just what I was looking for. I will definitely be making these again. Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
Jessica, I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe! Thank you for the wonderful review!
This recipe is fool proof ! Delicious and easy! I only had 3cups of powdered sugar for the icing and it worked fine. Sweet enough so of you're not exact don't fret ! These are yummy ! Thank you !
Ok these tasted pretty darn good. I have to say I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out because
1) I didn’t have any cake flour on hand and had to sub with some regular flour and corn starch
2) I didn’t have any baking powder either
3) I started making your white cupcake recipe and then realized it required too much egg white which I felt like was a waste being in the covid-19 era that we currently live in and the fact that supply is just a tad bit scarce to come by these days not to mention the fact that I didn’t know what to do with all that egg yolk. So I ended up switching to this yellow cupcake recipe instead even though I had already mixed my 2 teaspoons of “baking powder” into my “cake flour.”
As you may have noticed I am not one to read through directions thoroughly prior to actually baking. 🙃 So being that I had already made a few mistakes to begin with, this turned out extremely successful as everyone in my family gobbled one right out of the oven.. my cupcake did have a hint of a cornbread taste due to the fact that I had to sub in corn starch but it was still light and fluffy and delicious! Will definitely make again. Thanks!
I'm glad you enjoyed the cupcakes, and that they turned out with substitutions! If you ever want to try the white cupcakes with egg whites, you can purchase a container of egg whites at the store, so you're not wasting yolks.
I may need to add a few egg yolk recipes to the site as well 🙂
Hi Heather. Thank you for your small batch Cupcake recipe I really loved them, mine came out 12 Cupcakes. I followed the recipe exactly but🙈 I added the 1/2 cup all purpose flour instead of the full 1 1/2.cups of cake flour. I was scared how they will turn out. But Thank God they were amazing.. Thank you again will try your recipe from now on😊
Hi I am just about to bake mine do u have any idea if I can cut the amount of eggs down by two?
Also how long can the cupcakes sit before eating? Thx 😁
Cupcakes are best served the same day of baking, but will remain moist for up to 48 hours when covered in a sealed container. Your cupcakes should be cooled to room temperature after sitting for about an hour.
Hi Lauren, this recipe requires two eggs, I do not suggest reducing or eliminating the eggs needed for the recipe. The eggs provide structure to the cupcakes, and combined with the flour give the cupcakes their needed height and texture. If you don't have the eggs needed for the recipe, I'd recommend searching for a recipe that does include the ingredients you have on hand. Since baking is so precise, I do not recommend altering the recipe. Hope this helps!
Hi I tried these they came out really dense just delicious !!! I used margarine and brown sugar as that’s all I had and I only have a large toaster oven . They came out like a pound cake .. I refrigerated the batter as i was unable to finish baking last night . This evening will have a go at the icing and baking the rest . Thank you! Love from Trinidad 🇹🇹
Hi Ana, I'm glad the cupcakes tasted great! Margarine has more water than butter, and brown sugar will add more moisture to the batter than granulated sugar, which is potentially why the cupcakes turned out a bit dense.
I haven't tried baking them in a toaster oven but that may have affected the outcome as well. I hope you enjoy the rest!
Made vanilla white recipe exactly. Taste is great but they were DRY. Any suggestions?
Baked 18 minutes exactly and they were light golden on top.
Hi Michelle, I'm sorry to hear that your cupcakes turned out dry! My first thought is that maybe your oven runs a little hot, so your cupcakes baked a little faster than mine did. If you try the recipe again, I'd start checking your cupcakes at 15 minutes instead.
I followed the recipe to the T. My cupcakes looked and tasted amazing (I got 12 out of the batter but I have a bigger cupcake pan). My husband and I felt they were a little too sweet. Any recommendations on lowering the sweetness of the cake but keeping the frosting rich?
Hi Brie, I'm glad you enjoyed the cupcakes! I haven't tested this, but you could probably reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup without affecting the quality of the cupcake. I also have a whipped buttercream frosting https://thetoastykitchen.com/whipped-buttercream-frosting/ that may taste slightly less sweet due to the addition of more heavy cream.
The cupcakes are the best. They turned out perfect.and they taste good
Hi can i add maybe 1/4-1/2 cup of milk? i feel as the batter is too thick.
Hi Angie, I wouldn't recommend adding more liquid because the cupcakes may turn out too wet and dense when baked. As long as you can spoon the batter into your cupcake pan it should be fine!
Can I use this recipe to make a cake? Would it still turn out?
Hi Leslie, I haven't tried making these cupcakes into a cake, but if you give it a try let us know how it goes!
*update* I have made this recipe into a cake, you can find the full post here: https://thetoastykitchen.com/vanilla-sheet-cake/
So I tried this recipe as a cake, it would have turned out great except that the top of the cake stuck to the pan even though I greased it. I will try it again but I will put parchment paper in the bottom first. Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Jennifer, buttercream frosting is one of the sweetest types of frostings to use on cakes. I'd suggest making a homemade whipped cream instead - it uses very little sugar.
Can i use Almond milk instead of cows milk?
Yes, almond milk will work!
Made these tonight, it was my first time making any cupcake/cake from scratch. Recipe was easy to follow and these turned out DELICIOUS! The cupcakes are slightly crumbly yet still very moist, and they're just sweet enough. Really love them and will be making this one again no question! Thank you!! 🙂
That's fantastic!! So glad you enjoy them 🙂
The cupcakes were delicious. I had no problems making them, and your directions were spot on!