Best Vanilla Cupcake Recipe That's Real Easy!
This Vanilla Cupcake recipe is an absolute workhorse. I've baked 1000's of cupcakes using this recipe and they come out tops every time. It's so easy to make, and freezes perfectly too!
Equipment
- 7cm round cupcake pans
Ingredients
Ingredients (Cupcakes):
- 2 Eggs
- ¾ cup Sugar White
- 2 tsp Vanilla Essence
- Pinch Salt
- ½ cup Sunflower Oil
- ½ cup Milk
- ½ tsp Spirit Vinegar White
- 1 ¼ cups Cake Flour
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Soda (Bicarb)
Ingredients (Icing):
- 80 grams Butter
- 80 grams White Margarine
- 80 grams Cream Cheese
- 1½ tsp Vanilla Essence
- 480 grams Icing Sugar/Confectioners Sugar
- Splash Milk (if required)
Instructions
Oven Temperature:
- 180 degrees Celsius or 360 degrees Fahrenheit.
Method For Cupcakes
- Beat the eggs with an electric mixer until they become foamy (roughly 45 seconds to a minute).
- Add the sugar and beat until it's well combined (roughly 45 seconds to a minute+). The mixture will become slightly paler in color.
- Add the vanilla essence, salt, oil and *milk & vinegar to the mixture, and beat until combined (about 30 seconds).*Place the vinegar into the milk, give it a stir for roughly 30 seconds, and then place it into the mixture. You'll notice that the milk slightly curdles, that's perfect and how it should be!
- Sift in the flour, and beat until there aren't any lumps (lumps are bad)!
- Add the baking powder and baking soda (bicarb) by stirring it in (don't over-mix it, otherwise it won't rise nicely).
- The mixture should be slightly runnier than toothpaste, not too thick or not too thin!
My Baking Tips
- The most important aspect of a good bake is to get your cupcake casings perfectly centered in the cupcake tray. If they aren't centered, the cupcakes will rise more on one side while baking, and won't have a perfect form.
- Once you've perfectly lined the cupcake tray (7cm cup size) with standard sized cupcake casings, scoop +/-45ml's of the mixture into each casing using a ¼ cup measuring spoon. This helps in avoiding any spillage onto your cupcake tray, and gives you equal sized cupcakes for an even more perfect bake!
- Place the cupcake tray in the center of your oven, and bake at 180° C or 360° F for 12 - 15 minutes (until just golden on top).
- Leave the cupcakes to cool for about 10-15 minutes, and remove them from the cupcake trays. Now, for my best kept baking secret of all time, which makes the best vanilla cupcake recipe even better...
- Place the cupcakes (un-iced) in a sealed plastic container overnight and ice them the following day. The cupcakes will be super moist the next day - I'm not sure how it happens - but it definitely does the trick! Keeping your kids hands off them will be another story, but I'll leave that up to you - I'm sure you can come up with an ingenious plan!
Method For Icing:
- Beat the butter, white margarine, cream cheese and vanilla essence together until combined and smooth & creamy. Add the sifted icing sugar, and beat until smooth. Adjust the thickness of the icing with milk (*ONLY ONCE YOU'VE THOROUGHLY MIXED IT), otherwise you may make it too runny. If you're going to pipe the icing onto the cupcakes, it should be as thick as toothpaste. If you make it too runny, it won't keep it's shape!
- Place the icing into a piping bag, and ice the cupcakes... enjoy!