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Vanilla cupcake recipe by Edible Times

Easy Classic Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Dense and delicious! A quick and easy cake recipe that gives you a tangy, wonderfully vanilla cake with a sturdy crumb. 

  • Total Time: 35 minutes
  • Yield: 12 cupcakes 1x

Ingredients

Scale

Batter

  • 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1½ teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup granulated sugar
  • 4 ounces/1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
  • ½ cup greek yogurt (or sour cream or creme fraiche)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste* (or seeds from one vanilla bean pod, or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Buttercream

  • 8 ounces/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature (two sticks)
  • 3-4 cups confectioner’s sugar (around 12 oz)
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons heavy cream

Instructions

For Cupcakes

  1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Line your pan with liners, or if baking cakes grease the pans with butter or coconut oil, then line with a parchment circle cut to fit the bottom.
  2. In a large bowl combine flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Beat on low briefly to combine. Add butter, and mix on medium speed until coarse crumbs form, less than a minute. Blend in the sour cream, and you’ll find yourself with a lumpy batter.
  3. Whisk together egg, egg yolk, and vanilla bean or paste in a small bowl and add to batter. It will be very thick and sticky.  Divide evenly among cups in the pan (I like my ice cream scoop for portioning).
  4. Bake for 18-20 minutes for standard cupcakes (12-14 for mini), or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove cupcakes and cool completely on a rack.

For Buttercream

  1. With a hand mixer or a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whip butter on high speed for at least three minutes, until it is light in color and doubles in volume.
  2. In one cup increments, beat in sugar (use more or less depending on taste and how sweet you like).
  3. Beat in salt, vanilla, and last the heavy cream.
  4. For a fancy yet incredibly easy touch, load your buttercream into a pastry bag (or large baggie, corner snipped) fitted with a star or drop flower tip and pipe buttercream in large swirls onto cupcakes. 
  5. Store covered for up to three days. Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen as long as you can take the taunting from inside your freezer!

Notes

This recipe can easily be doubled for more cupcakes, or baked off in either two 6-inch, or one 8 or 9-inch cake pan until a toothpick comes out clean, between 25 and 30 minutes.  When doubling the recipe, make sure to evenly distribute batter between pans.. because if it looks the same it bakes the same!

 

  • Author: Christina
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Category: Sweets
  • Method: Mixing + piping
  • Cuisine: Dessert

Keywords: cupcake, easy cupcakes, vanilla cupcakes, easy buttercream, greek yogurt