If you're on the hunt for the perfect vanilla cupcake, this homemade recipe is it. These cupcakes bake up soft, fluffy, and full of rich vanilla flavor—just the thing for birthday parties, bake sales, or when that sweet tooth hits. Topped with a dreamy Swiss Meringue Buttercream, they’re the kind of treat everyone will love.
Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes
We all know how much better homemade cupcakes taste.
Homemade cupcakes are just as easy to make as a boxed mix and you probably have all the ingredients you'll need on hand to get started.
The only baking equipment you will need a mixing bowl, a handheld mixer, measuring cups, measuring spoons and a cupcake pan.
The homemade vanilla cupcake ingredients are basic baking ingredients like all-purpose flour, sugar, butter, egg whites, pure vanilla extract, salt, and baking powder.
Such simple ingredients but when combined in just the right quantities can yield an amazing sweet treat like a dainty little cupcake.
And if you are going to make homemade cupcakes you should also make homemade frosting to finish off the cupcakes in all their glory.
I frosted these homemade vanilla cupcakes with homemade Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting.
Don't worry Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting is easy to make.
If you are a little intimidated with the thought of making a Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting you can use a simpler homemade buttercream frosting instead.
You can find directions to make a simple buttercream frosting recipe on my Captain Marvel Cupcakes recipe.
Follow the direction until the step where you add food coloring to make white buttercream frosting.
Favorite Cupcake Sprinkles
(affiliate links below)
If you are making cupcakes for a birthday party and you are looking for some pretty sprinkles to decorate them with I wanted to share my favorite cupcakes sprinkles with you.
Sweet Tooth Fairy sprinkles are relatively new to the retail market.
When I first started seeing them they were only available in a small tube.
If you only need to decorate a small batch of cupcakes or a birthday cake the small tubes work out well. Now they are available in 8 oz bags.
They have beautiful sprinkle mixes like the Sweet Tooth Fairy (affiliate links) Sea Glass Sprinkles that I have used here for these Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes.
You can find a bunch of differently themed cupcake sprinkles like Galaxy Sprinkles, Unicorn Mix Sprinkles, and Pool Party.
Did you see the Unicorn Ice Cream Cake I made last summer?
I bought the American Crafts 21 Piece Face Kit Sweet Tooth Fairy Cake Decorating kit that included the unicorn horn, ears, and eyes to decorate it with.
How To Make Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups of all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 cup of milk
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (I used my homemade vanilla extract)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. degrees.
- Line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners and set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar to the butter and beat with a mixer until combined.
- Add ½ the egg whites to the bowl of creamed butter and sugar and beat until combined. Add the remaining egg whites to the bowl and beat for 2 minutes on medium.
- Alternately add half of the flour and half of the milk to the bowl of wet ingredients beating one minute between each addition.
- Add the vanilla extract to the bowl and beat for 2 more minutes.
- Line a cupcake pan with cupcake papers and fill each cupcake well two-thirds full.
- Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove the baked cupcakes from the oven and place the baking pan on a cooling rack. Cool for 10 minutes before transferring the cupcakes to the cooling rack.
- Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.
- Frost with Swiss Meringue Buttercream frosting and decorate as desired.
Helpful Products to make Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes recipe
(affiliate links)
- Cupcake Pan: I have two and it makes baking 24 cupcakes so much easier
- Handmixer
- Cupcake Paper Liners
- Cupcake Scoop: this is how you get all of your cupcakes to be the same size
- Frosting piping bags
- Large open Star piping tip
- Sprinkles: Sweet Tooth Fairy Sea Glass Sprinkles
Print or Pin the Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes recipe below
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Homemade Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract (I used my homemade vanilla extract)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. degrees.
- Line two cupcake pans with cupcake liners and set aside.
- Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl beat the butter until creamy. Add the sugar to the butter and beat with a mixer until combined.
- Add ½ the egg whites to the bowl of creamed butter and sugar and beat until combined. Add the remaining egg whites to the bowl and beat for 2 minutes on medium.
- Alternately add half of the flour and half of the milk to the bowl of wet ingredients beating one minute between each addition. Add the vanilla extract to the bowl and beat for 2 more minutes.
- Fill each cupcake paper two-thirds full.
- Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
- Remove the baked cupcakes from the oven and place the baking pan on a cooling rack. Cool for 10 minutes before transferring the cupcakes to the cooling rack.
- Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting.
- 24 Cupcakes
Aleisha
My go to cupcake recipe!!
Marisa F. Stewart
Delicious homemade vanilla cupcakes are the gold standard of cupcakes. You can so so much with them and everyone loves vanilla. And your Swiss Meringue looks so good I'd love to just have a big spoon and eat away. So fluffy!! YUM! I will definitely have to make these cupcakes soon.
Lois Christensen
Nothing beats a homemade cupcake with perfect icing! Looks delicious and fun for a party or just the holiday weekend.
Jolina
There's just something about vanilla cupcakes. They're everyone's favourite and they're so easy to dress up or down. I love making and eating them!
Veena Azmanov
Cute and surely a party option. Can make some this Easter for friends and family.
Denise
These look absolutely perfect! I need to work on my baking skills. I would love to make something that looks absolutely perfect like this. I'm off to check out how you make Swiss meringue frosting. YUM!
Gloria
You can never go wrong with a vanilla cupcake. Perfect for any occasion. Love the sprinkles. These are great for celebrations, or just as an afternoon treat.