There’s nothing worse than eyeballing an adorable cupcake that looks too good to eat….stuffing it in your face….and realizing that actually, it really was too pretty to eat and should have been left alone. If there’s one thing I hate doing, it is sacrificing taste for appearance. So imagine my joy to be able to share with you the only vanilla cupcake recipe I’ve been making for the last year. It is so moist, so delicious, and so perfect in any application. Frosted up cute like these polar bears and snowmen cupcakes or simply garnished with frosting and a few sprinkles – either way, the cupcake is beautiful and gloriously tasty. These cupcakes are the best and are my go-to cupcakes (for non-chocolate purposes, of course).
In addition, I wanted to share a quick and easy buttercream frosting that I use all the time. Yes, I love this magical frosting, but the vanilla buttercream recipe, below, makes an equally frequent appearance because not only is it simple, it has a divinely creamy, silky texture that beats out all other easy buttercream frostings. I use this recipe on my kids’ birthday cakes and on most cupcakes I make, especially if I am going to pipe any decorations. It’s fantastic.
Incidentally, both of the cupcakes pictured above are from the brilliant Hello, Cupcake series. Those books make me look like a cupcake-decorating rockstar.
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 for light, aluminum or silicone muffin pans or 325 for dark, nonstick muffin pans. Line about 16-24 muffin cups with liners and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the bowl as needed. Mix in eggs and egg yolk one at a time and then mix in the vanilla. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Combine. Add 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix. Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Mix. Add the final 1/4 cup of the buttermilk. Mix and then add the final 1/3 of the dry ingredients. Mix until combined and the batter is smooth. Spoon out batter into lined cupcake pan, filling only halfway or just barely over halfway.
- Bake for about 15-18 minutes (depending on the heat of your oven based on the type of muffin pan you have), until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out with moist crumbs. Don’t overbake!
- Remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely. Frost as desired!
Recipe Source: adapted from Becca H., a reader, who got it from a Parade magazine
Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Printable Version
*Note: you can substitute milk for the heavy cream but the frosting will be missing an element of silky creaminess.
*Makes about 4 cups of frosting
INGREDIENTS:
½ cup (1 stick, 8 tablespoons) butter, softened to room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature
16 ounces powdered sugar (about 3 ½ cups)
¼ cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS:
In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or the bowl of an electric stand mixer, beat the softened butter and cream cheese together until it is light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Mix in the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar gradually and mix in fully after each addition. Cream at low speed until well blended and creamy. Pour in the heavy cream and whip until the frosting is light and fluffy.
Recipe Source: adapted from The Recipe Girl
The best! Making minis today. Going to dye the frosting red and make little trees. the frosting is the super-yummy!
I love the addition of heavy cream to lighten this frosting. However, I wonder if the small cream cheese amount gives it a cream cheesy taste. I am looking for a new vanilla buttercream, but am not sure I want one to taste too much like cream cheese. Does this one? Also, I saw you had your eye on that Ina Garten chocolate buttercream. I’ve made it several times. It is delicious, but the amount of coffee she calls for is very strong and turns it very mocha-like instead of chocolate (we prefer it plain). I use dried egg yolks for the raw yolk.
Teresa – I don’t think this frosting has a strong cream cheese taste. The small amount of cream cheese helps stabilize the frosting. Thanks for the advice on the Ina Garten frosting!
Made the cupcakes and frosting over the weekend, followed all directions and I think these are the BEST. The texture is unreal. Made exactly 16 cupcakes filling each tin half or less than half. Tend to frost lightly could have easily halved the frosting and kind of wish I had because I cannot bring myself to throw out leftover frosting and will HAVE to make a second batch today
Also, because something about dough just fascinates me I loved the texture of this dough even before they were cooked. Thank you as usual! Now to find a chocolate recipe recipe as good!
[...] Vanilla cupcakes are far from boring when they’re decorated to look like polar bears and snowmen. A little creativity goes a long way on these! The “bear” is made from a donut hole frosted and coated with shredded coconut, and the snowman is covered in sanding sugar to make him glisten like freshly-fallen snow. However, the best part lies within — this vanilla cupcake is both rich and luscious, and the frosting is “the best EVER.” All in all, these are an unforgettable combination! Source Mel’s Kitchen Cafe [...]
[...] Vanilla cupcakes are far from boring when they’re decorated to look like polar bears and snowmen. A little creativity goes a long way on these! The “bear” is made from a donut hole frosted and coated with shredded coconut, and the snowman is covered in sanding sugar to make him glisten like freshly-fallen snow. However, the best part lies within — this vanilla cupcake is both rich and luscious, and the frosting is “the best EVER.” All in all, these are an unforgettable combination! Source Mel’s Kitchen Cafe [...]
[...] Vanilla cupcakes are far from boring when they’re decorated to look like polar bears and snowmen. A little creativity goes a long way on these! The “bear” is made from a donut hole frosted and coated with shredded coconut, and the snowman is covered in sanding sugar to make him glisten like freshly-fallen snow. However, the best part lies within — this vanilla cupcake is both rich and luscious, and the frosting is “the best EVER.” All in all, these are an unforgettable combination! Source Mel’s Kitchen Cafe [...]
[...] Vanilla cupcakes are far from boring when they’re decorated to look like polar bears and snowmen. A little creativity goes a long way on these! The “bear” is made from a donut hole frosted and coated with shredded coconut, and the snowman is covered in sanding sugar to make him glisten like freshly-fallen snow. However, the best part lies within — this vanilla cupcake is both rich and luscious, and the frosting is “the best EVER.” All in all, these are an unforgettable combination! Source Mel’s Kitchen Cafe [...]
these are adorable! what are the candies on the snowman? specifically his hat? I’m thinking of doing them for my son’s 4th b-day next month.
Katie – the nose is a candy orange slice cut in pieces. For the hat, I used nabisco chocolate crackers that are shaped like an octagon (I can’t remember the exact name). It’s been a few years so I don’t know if they are still available but you could use any type of chocolate cracker that could be cut into pieces.
I was sure that all those people comparing these cupcakes to “cornbread” were surely nuts but now, having made them myself, I can kind of see why! I wouldn’t describe them like cornbread at all (I guess I like my cornbread to taste like corn, which these definitely do not!), but the texture of the cupcakes is definitely more sturdy than you’ll get from a box, and they’re not overly sweet. So if “sturdy” (though not dense) and “not overly sweet” translate to “cornbread” in your book, than don’t make these. But if you want a nice, substantial cake that’s not too sweet, these are fine. If you want a nice, light-textured white cake that taste more like (but better than) a box mix, I recommend the recipe for white cake from the America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book.
I didn’t love the frosting recipe, but it wasn’t bad. It just tasted like run-of-the-mill frosting to me. Nothing special.
I made these last night with a different buttercream frosting – I probably could have left the frosting off, the cupcake is amazing just by itself! I messed up and put 16 tablespoons of butter in by mistake – to compensate I added a heaping tablespoon of flour and a heaping teaspoon of sugar to the recipe. I had to cook them about 5 minutes longer, but they came out delicious. I might make them this way from now on!
I don’t know what happened to some of the posters’ batches that came out tasting like cornbread, but I’ve heard this can happen with vanilla cupcake recipes. There’s a few tricks I’ve learned that I deployed for this recipe, so I will share them here in the hopes that it will prevent another cornbread cupcake disaster:
- While your butter should be soft, if you are using a stand mixer you do not need for it to be room temperature when you begin the recipe. Slightly soft will be fine. You want it to be room temperature AFTER you’ve creamed the butter and sugar, and stand mixers add heat.
-Don’t underestimate how long it takes to cream butter and sugar. Give it a good five minutes to let it get soft and fluffy.
-Let your eggs get to room temperature before adding to batter.
-When you alternate your dry ingredients and buttermilk, make sure you end with the dry ingredients. Stated in the recipe, but it bears repeating. Don’t overmix the batter after alternating the dry ingredients and buttermilk. It has something to do with the formation of gluten, which changes the texture of your cake.
-Stand mixers don’t need to run at a high speed – Keep the speed pretty low to avoid overmixing (and to extend the life of your machine).
I want to say LOVE THIS RECIPE. I’ve tried all kinds of vanilla cupcake recipes, but I have to say this is one of the best. The only thing I did different was added more extract(vanilla-nut). LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE IT!!!!!! =)
Hi Mel – Do you think doubling this recipe would give me enough for a 2-layer round cake?
Sally – You’ll have to experiment but it’s worth a try. If anything there might be too much batter…
Made a trial batch as I have an up coming event and wanted a good cupcake. These are delicious and even better the second day. I added a teaspoon of coconut flavoring to the frosting. My hubby loved them too. Will make this recipe often. Makes about 15 to 18.