Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing
These cupcakes were so delicious and taste like specialty bakery cupcakes! Your book club is sure to go wild over them! If you're looking for food ideas for Then There Was You, look no further!
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes:
- 1 ¾ cup flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup canola oil
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 2/3 cup whole milk
For the Vanilla Buttercream:
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup whole milk
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
For the cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F.
- Mix all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar) in a bowl.
- Add in softened butter until you have a fine crumb texture.
- In a separate bowl, mix the eggs, sour cream, oil, and vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to the flour and butter mixture until just combined.
- Slowly, mix in the milk. Do not over mix. The batter should be fairly liquid.
- Fill cupcake liners just past ½ full.
- Bake for 14-18 minutes, testing ever 2 minutes after 14 for doneness.*
- Remove from baking tin and place on cooling rack.
For the icing:
- Beat the butter with a mixer until smooth—at least 3 minutes.
- Mix in powdered sugar on a low speed a little at a time.
- Add in milk and mix. (You can switch steps 2 and 3 if preferred).
- Add in vanilla and salt and mix until incorporated.
To finish:
- Put finished icing into a piping bag and swirl onto cooled cupcakes.
Notes
*These cupcakes finished at 17 minutes for full cupcakes and 11 minutes for mini cupcakes in my oven. They will be slightly golden but more white than you might be used to seeing since they are vanilla.
If you’ve never tried it, I highly recommend using this vanilla bean paste in your recipes. It takes the vanilla flavor to a whole other level! Just substitute 1 for 1 for regular vanilla extract.
I bought a piping kit from my local grocery that was a near fail. The tips were far too small. Luckily the cupcakes turned out somewhat whimsical and tasted so great, I didn’t care. But don’t make my mistake! For a large cupcake swirl, use these 1M tips.
This icing recipe is enough for 2 dozen cupcakes if you only want a medium amount of icing (as in pictures), but for lots of icing like cupcake shop cupcakes, you will need to double the recipe.
