Thursday 18 June 2009

Vanilla Cupcakes

photo credit: castsugar.blogspot.com


If you're looking for a good old cupcake, the kind of cupcake that brings you back to childhood, the kind that just can't go wrong, you're looking for vanilla cupcakes. These delicious cupcake treats are the most traditional you can get. Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting are extremely loved and can be found in pretty much any cupcake bakery you can imagine.
The recipe I am about to give you for vanilla cupcakes is my own personal recipes. I developed it from months of experimentation and studying other cupcake recipes.
These vanilla cupcakes are extremely moist and full of rich vanilla flavors. They are just the right amount of sweet and vanilla and I think you'll find these vanilla cupcakes completelly irresistible. The recipes is so easy to follow and will yield between 2 dozen and 30 vanilla cupcakes.

Vanilla Cupcakes

1 3/4 cups of cake flour
1 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) of salted butter
2 cups of sugar
1 heaping TBSP baking powder
4 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup of plain yogurt
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 350 and line your cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
In a bowl mix together cake flour, flour, sugar, and baking powder. Make sure these are combined well. With an electric mixer on medium speed, add butter. It will be easier to cut the butter into small squares at room temperature. Don't just add the whole stick.

In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, yogurt and vanilla extract. Add this to the dry vanilla cupcake ingredients and beat until combined but don't over beat!

With the vanilla cupcakes batter, fill lined cupcake tins until about 2/3 full. Bake for about 15-20 minutes (give or take a few). You will know your vanilla cupcakes are done when you pat on the tops and they spring back up at you. If they sink then the vanilla cupcakes need more time. If this is too confusing, you can always use the old toothpick in the center trick and that should do it.

As far as frosting the vanilla cupcakes goes, I would suggest using the buttercream frosting recipe. Decorate your vanilla cupcakes with colored sprinkles, sugar candies or fruit.

Vanilla cupcakes can be used on any occasion, whether it be your wedding day, a holiday, a birthday, or just for fun! They're great to make with kids and the whole family will really enjoy these treats! If you'd like to make a vanilla cake using the vanilla cupcakes recipe, go right ahead. The recipe works both ways. The vanilla cake will take longer in the oven than the vanilla cupcakes, mind you, so make sure you keep a watchful eye on it if you decide to go that way.

If you'd like to color your vanilla cupcakes for a holiday such as Halloween, the fourth of July or Christmas, just add a few drops of coloring to the wet ingredients before you whisk and you'll have colored vanilla cupcakes in a jiffy.

The great thing about this recipes is that it's so easy to add to. Vanilla cupcakes taste great with chocolate chips, blueberries, etc. If you want a really great treat, when you're vanilla cupcakes are about halfway done in the oven, say 10 minutes or so, you can cut up peach or plum slices and place one on top of each vanilla cupcake. You can also cut up a peach or plum into small pieces and add it to the batter to transform your vanilla cupcakes into peach cupcakes or plum cupcakes!

Experiment! Go Wild! This recipe will fill all of your cupcake needs.

Hope you enjoy your vanilla cupcakes!

24 comments:

  1. Hi!
    Is there any chance you could give us the cup measures in metric? I've been scouring the web for a 1cup flour to metric conversion and every site seems to have a different measure. Please help! My sweet tooth and I are dying to test out your cupcake! :)
    -Bella, South Africa

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  2. Sorry Bella, I don't know metric conversions! But if you use the same conversion for all of the ingredients you should be fine. Here's a chart to use: www.jsward.com/cooking/conversion.shtml As long as you follow this chart only, your ratios will all be the same and the recipe should come out perfect! Good luck!

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  3. 1 cup is 250 ml

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  4. Just wondering why you put the sugar with the dry ingredients. I thought you said that sugar is a wet ingredient when you bake? I tried these and they overflowed and made a mess of my oven. Is this because I mixed the wet and dry ingredients together for too long? I will try again. Also, do you have to bake all the cupcakes right after you mix it or can I do two separate batches in the oven, will this mess them up?

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  5. Hi Katie,
    Sugar can be used as dry or wet, but is often mixed in with the wet.
    As far as your cupcakes overflowing goes, this happens when you fill your cupcake tins up too much. Generally you should fill between 2/3 and 3/4 and you shouldn't have a problem. I've made these cupcakes many times and have never had an overflow. But if you're having difficulty for some reason, you should place a cookie baking sheet under your cupcake pan to catch the spill. It should minimize cleanup.
    Good luck!

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  6. Hi,
    I'm going to make your recipe today. Can I put the unbaked 'dough' (don't know the right word for it) in the freezer or fridge and bake the cupcakes on the day I want to serve them? Or should I better freeze the baked cupcakes?
    Ciao,
    Shelly

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  7. Hi, I haven't tried your recipe yet, but I'm going to on Friday. I seem to have two problems with vanilla cupcakes (but chocolate works fine).
    1. The cupcakes always sink down (even when I bake them longer). Then they end up being over cooked and still sink in the middle.

    2. The vanilla cupcakes stick strongly to the cupcake liner. I end up pulling half the cupcake off when I peel the liner.

    Any tips before I attempt your recipe? I've already tried 3 different recipes calling for different flours, or crisco vs butter, etc.

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  8. I made these cupcakes for a coworker's birthday with the buttercream frosting and they were a huge hit! They were super easy and came out perfectly Thank you for a great recipe!

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  9. I made these again tonight, but my friend wanted lemon cupcakes, so i put half the milk as lemon juice and added a bit more to taste. They are still light and fluffy and moist! I am making the cream cheese frosting to top them with, I'm sure that will be delicious as well.

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  10. Hi, I just made your cupcakes today and they were delish but one problem, they all sunk in the middle! Is this from over mixing? Please help because I want to make these for my daughters 1st bday next weekend and want to wow everyone. Thanks!

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  11. Hi Ivy and Derrett - They could have sunk in the center for a few reasons. Over mixing could have been the problem. Make sure you don't overmix, and it's best to combine the wet and dry ingredients right before you are ready to put them in the oven. Also make sure you're using a *heaping* TBSP of BP. Make sure the oven is preheated to the right temp before you bake them, and halfway through baking them you should rotate the tray 180 degrees, since I have yet to come by an oven that bakes completely evenly.

    I hope that helps! These cupcakes usually come out perfectly. Good luck!

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  12. Hi there, i tried this recipe after a couple of others abd it's definitely the best yet very light! Here is the metric conversion:
    220g self raising flour
    160g plain flour
    225g butter, softened
    340g caster sugar
    1 tbsp baking powder
    4 large eggs
    125ml whole milk
    125ml natural yoghurt
    2 tsp vanilla extract

    180 degrees/gas mark 4 oven, approx 20 mins. Perfect!

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  13. OMG!!!after browsing for so many nights looking for the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe for my daughter's 4th bday ,i finally found one!thanks to you!! i made them last night and they're so yummy!!!it was perfect...i didn't have any problem at all with the "sinking in the middle" thing....they are delish...

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  14. Hi,

    I am very excited to try this recipe...I have been searching for the best vanilla cupcake receipe for some time now. I just have 2 question's...can you use self-raising flour and omit the baking powder or is it best to stick with the plain flour and baking power? Also with the plain yoghurt, can you use vanilla yoghurt or does it have to be plain/natural yoghurt?

    Thanks :)

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  15. I've been trying cupcake recipes for years and these are the best yet! Totally awesome! Thanks so much. I'd thought making 24 was a bit generous, but everyone is wolfing them down!

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  16. Hey, I just had a question. How do you know if they are over beaten? How long should you roughly beat them for? Thanks, i cant wait to try them!

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  17. I just made both the chocolate and the vanilla. The chocolate ones came out perfectly! Possibly the best cupcake I've ever tasted. The vanilla ones all sank in the middle. The batter was extremely thick when I put it in the pan and I'm wondering if that had anything to do with it. I rotated it and the oven was already warm from the previous batches. They still taste wonderful, but I want to know what happened. I read your previous comment about the baking powder. I suppose I could try more of a "heaping", but I just wonder if it had to do with the thickness of the batter.

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  18. I followed the recipe to a tee and they came out great! The cupcakes are delicious. My kids loved them. Thanks for sharing!

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  19. These turned out PERFECT! Great texture and taste! I did not have a problem with the cupcakes sinking in the middle.

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  20. The best VANILLA cupcake ever. It turned out perfect. I made it a lot of times.
    I just have a problem, I made with apple filling and cinnamon frosting it was delicious but it has a lot of sweet, Can I reduce the sugar amount?
    Thanks a lot
    Rehab

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  21. 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup yogurt? This can't be right

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  22. Well, it is. Not sure why it "can't be right"...It's not unusual to find milk and yogurt in the same recipe.

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  23. i love those cupcakes! they are my go-to vanilla cupcake recipe!

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  24. Just made them tonight, followed the recipe to a tee and they came out perfect. The big test for me will be tomorrow. If there still nice and fluffy, then they are the perfect vanilla cupcake. To be continued...

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