Hands down, the best Vanilla Cupcakes I’ve ever had. Soft vanilla cakes topped with luscious cream cheese frosting and plenty of funfetti sprinkles, perfect for birthdays.
Party time 🎉
Introducing my favourite Vanilla Cupcakes topped with luscious cream cheese frosting and plenty of funfetti sprinkles. These light and fluffy vanilla cupcakes are buttery and oh-so-sweet.
If you’ve been looking for a good Vanilla Cupcake recipe that you can make for any birthday or celebration, this is for you.
Out of all the cupcake recipes on Sweetest Menu, I can’t believe I haven’t shared my Classic Vanilla Cupcake recipe with you.
This is my go-to whenever I need to make cupcakes for birthdays or celebrations – well, these and my favourite Double Chocolate Cupcakes.
These cupcakes are made with butter for flavour and a little sour cream (or yogurt) for extra moisture, which makes them light, sweet and tender. And the only way to make them completely irresistible is to slather them with thick, buttery, cream cheese frosting.
I’M DONE.
TIPS FOR MAKING PERFECT VANILLA CUPCAKES
- These Vanilla Cupcakes are really easy to make. You will need an electric mixer.
- Start with room temperature butter. It’s really important to make sure your butter is soft – not fridge cold – otherwise it will be harder to beat and your cupcakes won’t be as light and fluffy.
- Start by beating together the butter, sugar and vanilla. You’ll want to keep mixing until the mixture is pale and creamy – it will take a few minutes. Then add your room temperature egg.
- Next, add your flour and baking powder, along with your milk. I recommend using full fat or whole milk.
- The final ingredient is sour cream or you can use natural Greek-style yogurt – don’t use a light or reduced fat yogurt and don’t leave this ingredient out – it will make sure your cupcakes are soft and moist.
- Mix until just combined – but make sure you don’t over mix. The batter will be thick and creamy.
- Bake cupcakes for approximately 18 minutes or until golden brown and spring back lightly to the touch. Try not to over bake the cupcakes so they don’t become dry.
TIPS FOR MAKING CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
- You will need a hand mixer or stand mixer to make this frosting. Make sure you use a full fat block of cream cheese – not a light version or the spreadable kind.
- For seriously creamy frosting, make sure both your butter and your cream cheese are at room temperature.
- Once you beat together the butter and cream cheese, you need to add 3 cups of icing sugar, along with 1 tablespoon of milk.
- The frosting should be smooth and creamy. If it’s too thick, you can add a touch more milk.
MORE CUPCAKE RECIPES TO TRY:
- Double Chocolate Cupcakes
- Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes
- Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Caramel Cupcakes
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Cupcakes
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. Hungry for more? Join me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for more amazing recipe ideas.
Let’s Bake
My Favourite Vanilla Cupcakes
Soft vanilla cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting.
Ingredients
Vanilla cupcakes
- 115 grams (1/2 cup or 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 150 grams (3/4 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 175 grams (1 and 1/4 cup) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- Pinch of salt
- 120 ml (1/2 cup) whole or full fat milk
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) full fat sour cream or Greek yogurt
Cream cheese frosting
- 115 grams (1/2 cup or 1 stick) butter, softened
- 250 grams (1 and 1/4 cup) full fat cream cheese, softened, roughly chopped
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 375 grams (3 cups) icing sugar or powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 tablespoon milk
- Funfetti sprinkles, to decorate
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. Line a 12-hole muffin pan with cupcake liners.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar and vanilla together using an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add egg and beat briefly until combined. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
- Add half the flour mixture and all the milk and slowly mix together on a low speed. Add the rest of the flour and the sour cream and mix briefly until smooth and creamy. The mixture will be thick.
- Spoon out the cake batter into your prepared liners and bake in the oven for approximately 18-20 minutes or until golden. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
- To make the cream cheese frosting, add butter and cream cheese to a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla. Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, and continue to beat until smooth. Add milk and beat briefly.
- Transfer frosting to piping bag fitted with a large round tip. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Decorate with sprinkles.
Notes
You can also use this recipe to make mini cupcakes. It will make 24 cupcakes.
Nafisa says
Do you use muffin cases instead of cupcake cases please
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, I just use regular cupcake cases.
Nafisa says
Will all your cupcake recipe be ok if I use muffin cases instead please
Jessica Holmes says
Yes you can!
Nafisa says
Hi. I wanted to find out if your vanilla cupcake are moist and fluffy as I’ve tried most cupcake recipe they seem to come out densed so I can please advise me. Thank you
Jessica Holmes says
Yes they are!
Nafisa says
Thank you will be trying them out soon and will post a pic of it.
Jessica Holmes says
Can’t wait to see!
Danielle says
Can I use baking marg instead of butter please? Xx
Jessica Holmes says
I haven’t tried but butter will give better flavour!
Myria says
My son absolutely loved this cupcakes and he is hard to satisfy when it comes to cakes! Thank you for the recipe!
Jessica Holmes says
Love hearing that Myria!
Yolanda says
Hi there, can you bake & freeze the cakes in advance before frosting?
Jessica Holmes says
Yes you can but I always find cupcake liners don’t stick very well when they have been frozen and then defrosted.
kat says
This is a fantastic recipe! I used greek yoghurt and made mini ones and they turned out perfectly. My mini cupcake tin must be extra mini though because I had enough extra batter to still make an extra regular sized cupcake! Which is fantastic because I took the mini ones to an event so I could scoff the other (for quality control) and pretend I have the self control of a saint. 😉
This was so easy to follow and clear. When I was about to put the mix in the papers I thought: “Seems very thick…” and then I looked back at the recipe and it was like you had read my mind haha. I will be bookmarking for future use. Thank you so much! Every recipe of yours I have tried has become a new go-to!
Jessica Holmes says
Aw love hearing that Kat! Thank you so much for your kind review!
Prats says
Love it! My favorite cupcake so far 🙂
Jessica Holmes says
Yay!
Charlotte says
Hi there!
Do you need to use the Philadelphia block cream cheese for this? I can only find the one in the tub and not sure if. It’s the same! Really want to make this for my daughters 2nd birthday 🙂
Charlotte
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Charlotte, yes I usually use the block of cream cheese for my baking (not the spreadable kind) if possible!
Grace says
The cupcakes were extremely delicious. I wasnt a huge fan of the cream cheese frosting. The recipe makes an enormous amount of icing, so i decided to make another batch of cupcakes to try use up the icing. Only problem is I ran out of plain flour so substituted with SR flour (epic fail) the cupcakes overflowed onto the baking tray
Jessica Holmes says
Glad you enjoyed them Grace! Sorry to hear you didn’t like the icing. And yes, using self raising flour would mean the cakes would have had too much raising agent.
Malaika says
Hey, do you think i can use regular plain yogurt instead of sour cream/greek yogurt? Because we don’t get those very easily here, and if we do it’s a bit expensive. Or maybe there are any other substitutes? Thank you
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, if it’s a nice thick yogurt and not too sweet, I think it’ll be fine! ☺️
janet wappel says
I have a conventional oven (not a fan). What oven temperature & time should I use? I’m making these for my granddaughter’s birthday, so wanted to be sure they’re perfect! Thank you!
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Janet, you can bake them at 180c if you like and check them around 15 mins or just follow the recipe as is. Every oven is different (and often the heat can be a little off) so you’ll know they’re ready when they spring back lightly to the touch or a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Hope you love them!
Zara says
Hi Jessica! Do you use a fan oven or conventional oven when baking these cupcakes?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Zara, I usually use a fan oven.
Katie says
Hi Jessica – can this recipe be used to make just one larger cake? I really love the sponge when I make these but I need to make a cake not cupcakes! Thanks, Katie 🙂
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Katie, absolutely! That would be delicious, you could just need to adjust the baking time.
Ingrid Vollbracht says
For mini cupcakes, how long in the oven?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Ingrid, check them around the 12-14 minute mark.
Josh says
These cupcakes were delicious!
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you enjoyed them Josh!