The Ultimate Vanilla Cupcake Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper liners.
• Beat sugar and butter together in a bowl using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Mix in baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Alternate adding flour and milk, stirring until just combined. Fill prepared pan with batter.
• Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned on top, about 18 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Steps:

• For the cupcakes: Position two racks in upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with 18 cupcake liners.
• Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl until combined. Add the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, beating to blend between additions and occasionally scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until completely combined and smooth. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.
• Divide the batter evenly in the prepared muffin tins. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcakes comes out clean, rotating the tins halfway through baking time, 18 to 20 minutes.
• Cool the cupcakes in the tins on a rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the tins and cool on the rack completely.
• For the frosting: Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Reduce the speed to low and gradually mix in the confectioners' sugar until completely smooth. With the motor running, add the heavy cream, vanilla and salt. Increase the speed to high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.
• Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag or large resealable plastic bag fitted with a large star tip. Decoratively pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes.

Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 350'F and line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.
• Lightly beat the eggs with a fork. Add them to a bowl containing the flour, butter, sugar, vanilla and salt.
• Beat with a mixer until light and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add mixture to greased cupcake liners, 2 tbsp per liner.
• Bake the cupcakes for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Serve.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). In a small bowl, combine sugar and seeds from the vanilla bean. (For those of you who are new to using vanilla beans, check out this video to learn how to get the seeds out of the bean.) Using the back of a spoon, move around the bowl and apply pressure to break up any clumps of seeds and to better infuse the vanilla flavor into the sugar. Set aside. In a medium-sized mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer, mix together cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the vanilla bean sugar and mix until well combined. Add butter and mix on medium-low speed for three minutes. Because there is so little butter, you'll end up with a very fine crumb texture. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and beat on medium speed until just combined. Slowly add milk and mix on low speed until just combined. The batter will be liquid. (Don't worry, you didn't do anything wrong. It's supposed to be that way.) Fill cupcake liners just over 1/2 full. Bake for 14 minutes and then test to see if they are done. They are done when a toothpick comes out without wet batter stuck to it. The cupcakes should appear white with specks of vanilla bean. They should not turn a golden brown. If they are not done, test again in two minutes. If they are still not done, test again in another two minutes. When the cupcakes are done, remove them immediately from the tins and leave them on a cooling rack (or just on your counter if you don't own a cooling rack) to cool. Tips: Because everyone's oven is just a bit different and your liners may be a slightly different size than mine, I highly recommend that if you have time, you bake a test cupcake before baking your whole batch of vanilla cupcakes. Read my FAQ on filling cupcake liners to learn how to do a test cupcake and why it's useful. Frosting You can frost the vanilla cupcakes with any frosting that you choose. Check out my top ten frostings for some ideas to get you started. However, for the full vanilla experience, I suggest frosting with vanilla bean buttercream frosting.