Moist Vanilla Cupcakes (one-bowl)
These one-bowl moist vanilla cupcakes are light, airy. And they simply melt in your mouth with or without frosting. This recipe uses simple ingredients you probably already have on hand. And the batter takes five minutes to mix and 20 minutes to bake.
Both my moist chocolate and vanilla cupcakes are delicious on their own, but you can also top them with my one-bowl buttercream frosting recipe. A great treat for a simple evening tea, a last-minute kids get-together, or decorated beautifully for a party celebration.
Why make these cupcakes?
- The batter takes just 5 minutes to mix, and all you do is throw everything in one bowl and combine.
- I have used a hand mixer in the video, but a bowl and whisk are all you need.
- The recipe is very forgiving, and a little undermixing or overmixing is not an issue. This means it is perfect to do with kids.
- The cupcakes freeze beautifully, making them perfect for saving in the freezer for later use.
Ingredients and substitutes
- Flour – Regular all-purpose flour is all you need for these cupcakes.
- Fat – I like to use unsalted butter and oil. While butter adds a nice flavor, the oil helps keep the cupcakes moist. And if salted butter is all you have, use it. But omit salt in the recipe. Also, it is very important that the butter is at room temperature. Soft is better than firm, or it will be lumpy in the batter.
- Sugar – Fine-grain white sugar works best for one-bowl recipes. This helps the sugar dissolve easily in the batter. And if coarse-grain sugar is all you have, pulse it in the food processor for a few minutes.
- Eggs – Always use large eggs, about 50 to 60 grams each. Make sure they are room temperature, or the cold eggs will curdle the batter.
- Buttermilk – Makes the cupcakes moist with a tender crumb.
Step-by-step: Vanilla cupcakes
One-bowl cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C) or Gas Mark 3.
Pro tip – The batter gets ready very quickly. But make sure the oven is preheated well. - Line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners and set aside.
- Next, add all cupcake ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. Combine well until you have a smooth batter. You can also use just a bowl and a whisk.
Pro tip – It is essential that all ingredients are at room temperature. Otherwise, you will have a lumpy batter. - Then, divide the batter between 12 cupcake liners using an ice cream scoop or a 1/3 measure cup.
Pro tip – These make 12 regular-size cupcakes; you can also make 8 large cupcakes in baking cups.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the center comes clean.
Pro tip – Turning the baking pan halfway through will ensure they bake evenly (I forgot, as you can see in the video – some baked with side domes). - Cool cupcakes completely before you decorate.
Pro tip – It is essential to cool cupcakes or cake completely before frosting, or the frosting will melt.
One-bowl buttercream
- Add all buttercream ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer.
Pro tip – You can also use a bowl and whisk, but I think a stand mixer or mixing bowl with a hand mixer would be easier. - Combine well. Once all the powdered sugar has been incorporated, whip for 3 more minutes, until light and fluffy, like whipped cream.
Pro tip – When whipped, the buttercream will become light and airy, with a consistency similar to whipped cream.
Assemble
- Place buttercream in a piping bag with your favorite piping tip. I use a star tip.
Pro tip – You can also color this frosting with as many colors as you want. - Then, pipe a swirl on each cupcake, starting from the base and moving towards the top, as shown in the video.
- A few sprinkles and your cupcakes are ready to be served! Enjoy!
Tips for Success
- The one thing you want to take note of is the temperature of your ingredients. You want all the ingredients to be at room temperature.
- If the butter is not at room temperature, it will not cream well, but will be lumpy.
- On the other hand, if the butter is too soft (or melted), the batter will be denser rather than light and fluffy, resulting in dense cupcakes.
- The same goes for eggs. Cold eggs will curdle the batter.
- Don’t overmix the batter, as this will make dense cupcakes. Instead, mix until everything is well combined.
- Preheat your oven properly before baking the cupcakes. And, bake at the right temperature given in the recipe.
- Don’t overbake cupcakes since they become dry easily. Similar to cake, cupcakes are done when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Always cool the cupcakes completely before you frost them. This will prevent the frosting from melting and sliding off the cupcakes.
- These cupcakes today were frosted with my one-bowl vanilla frosting, but they are also perfect with so many other frostings. Cream cheese frosting, Strawberry Buttercream, whipped cream, American, French, German, Swiss, or Italian buttercream.
- Store properly – Store the cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze for up to three months.
Frequently asked questions
How long will these cupcakes keep?
Cupcakes are always best on the day they are made. Store the cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze for up to three months.
How do I prevent cupcake liners from peeling?
There are a few things you can do – I discuss in this post how to avoid cupcake liners peeling after baking.
How to bake even-sized cupcakes?
There are a few things you can do to bake similar-sized cupcakes – we discussed that in detail here – How to bake same-size cupcakes.
Can I make these eggless?
This recipe works best with eggs. And yet, I also have an eggless vanilla cake recipe that works beautifully for chocolate cupcakes.
Moist Vanilla Cupcakes (one bowl)
These one-bowl moist vanilla cupcakes are light and airy. And they simply melt in your mouth with or without frosting. This recipe uses simple ingredients you probably already have on hand. And the batter takes five minutes to mix and 20 minutes to bake.
Video
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp (60 g) Unsalted butter room temperature
- ¼ cup (60 ml) Oil (flavorless)
- ⅔ cup (130 g) White sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 1 ½ cup (190 g) All-purpose flour
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- ½ tsp Baking soda
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ⅔ cup (160 ml) Buttermilk
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
One bowl buttercream
- ½ cup (113 g) Butter unsalted, room temperature
- 2 cups (240 g) Powdered sugar
- ¼ cup (60 ml) Whipping cream (32%)
- ½ tsp Vanilla extract
Method
One-bowl Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C) or Gas Mark 3.
- Line a muffin pan with cupcake liners, and set aside.
- Add all the cupcake ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer. You can also use just a bowl and a whisk. Combine well until you have a smooth batter (in the video, I used a hand mixer).4 tbsp Unsalted butter, ¼ cup Oil , ⅔ cup White sugar, 2 Eggs , 1 ½ cup All-purpose flour, 1 tsp Baking powder, ½ tsp Baking soda, ¼ tsp Salt , ⅔ cup Buttermilk, 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- Divide the batter between 12 to 14 cupcake liners using an ice cream scoop or a 1/3 measure cup.
- Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes clean.
- Cool cupcakes completely before you decorate.
One-bowl buttercream
- Add all buttercream ingredients to the bowl of a stand mixer.½ cup Butter, 2 cups Powdered sugar, ¼ cup Whipping cream, ½ tsp Vanilla extract
- Combine well. Once all the powdered sugar has been incorporated, whip for 3 minutes more until light and fluffy, similar to whipped cream.
Assemble
- Place buttercream in a piping bag with your favorite piping tip. I used a star tip.
- Pipe a swirl on each cupcake, starting from the base towards the top, as shown in the video.
- A few sprinkles and your cupcakes are ready to be served! Enjoy!
Notes
- The one thing you want to take note of is the temperature of your ingredients. You want all the ingredients to be at room temperature.
- If the butter is not at room temperature, it will not cream well, but will be lumpy.
- On the other hand, if the butter is too soft (or melted), the batter will be denser rather than light and fluffy, resulting in dense cupcakes.
- The same goes for eggs. Cold eggs will curdle the batter.
- Avoid overmixing the batter, as this can result in dense cupcakes. Instead, mix until everything is well combined.
- Preheat your oven properly before baking the cupcakes. And, bake at the right temperature given in the recipe.
- Don’t overbake cupcakes since they become dry easily. Similar to cake, cupcakes are done when a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Always cool the cupcakes completely before you frost them. This will prevent the frosting from melting and sliding off the cupcakes.
- These cupcakes today were frosted with my one-bowl vanilla frosting but they are also perfect with so many other frostings. Cream cheese frosting, Strawberry Buttercream, whipped cream, American, French, German, Swiss, or Italian buttercream.
- Store properly – Store the cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze for up to three months.
delicious, moist, easy and fast! this recioe delivers on every level!
I filled 12 cupcakes with 1/3 cup of batter in each cup, they all overflowed when baking. I would make 13 or 14 cupcakes next time.
Thank you, Glynnis.
How luscious and tasty! My little girl loves cupcakes so I need to make her bake this for us!
Quick and easy, always a winner in my book. I didn’t have milk so substituted it with half-cream and half-water, and it came out perfect and tasted even better. The cream makes cakes moist as well, so I just split the wet and dry ingredients and then combined them. Thank you for the recipe, I love it will have to make another batch for my kids.♥
Thank you for the lovely feedback Ann.
Vanilla cupcakes are my favorite! Thanks a lot for this awesome recipe! love it!
We’ve got a birthday coming up shortly and I’ll be making these to celebrate! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
You make it super hard for me to continue reading without craving for this treat! LOL Thank you for sharing this. It will go perfect for my son’s birthday this weekend!
These look so delicious and yummy! Can’t wait to give this a try! So excited to give this a try!
Hi…love your recipes. ..was wondering if anyone has made this recipe eggless. …could I use flax meal in place of eggs…thanks 🙂
I have not tried eggless with this recipe Ana. Sorry can’t tell you if it will work with flax meal or not.
You are amazing and very talented. Would love to learn from you. Hopefully I would love to be receiving recipes from you.
Join the mailing list hun so you can receive updates on new post from both my blogs