vanilla frosting recipe

Light and fluffy buttercream frosting made without powdered sugar.

Whipped Buttercream Frosting

all-purpose flour

milk

vanilla extract

salted butter (at cool room temperature1)

sugar

salt

In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk together over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. It will be the consistency of a thick paste2. Make sure that you whisk the flour and milk together well before you begin cooking it to avoid lumps. 

Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. This step is key. If your mixture is warm, it will melt your butter, and you'll end up with runny frosting.&nbsp;

Stir in vanilla.

While the mixture is cooling, cream the butter, sugar, and salt together until light and fluffy on medium high-high3, about 5 minutes4. Make sure that you scrape down the sides and really incorporate the butter and sugar to avoid gritty frosting.

Then add the completely cooled milk mixture.

Beat it for about 5 more minutes on medium-high to high until it looks like whipped cream. It may look separated at first, so keep beating it until it comes together and looks like a whipped cream.

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/oosAEJDo.mp4

Whipped Buttercream Frosting is the best frosting ever! This frosting is made without powdered sugar. It has the rich creaminess of a buttercream & the light, airy texture of a whipped cream frosting!

These Moist Vanilla Cupcakes are super easy to make and so moist - for days! They are my new favorite vanilla cupcake!

Moist Vanilla Cupcakes

(325 grams) all purpose flour

(414 grams) sugar

tsp baking powder

(240 milliliters) milk

(120 milliliters) vegetable oil

tbsp vanilla extract

eggs

(240 milliliters) water

(112 grams) salted butter, room temperature

(95 grams) shortening

(460 grams) powdered sugar

tsp vanilla extract

water

Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C) and prepare a cupcake pan with liners.
2

. Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to a large mixer bowl and combine. Set aside.

. Add the milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and eggs to a medium sized bowl and combine.

. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and beat until well combined.

. Slowly add the water to the batter and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to make sure everything is well combined. Please note that the batter will be very thin.

. Fill the cupcake liners about half way and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs.

. Remove the cupcakes from oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

. To make the frosting, combine the butter and shortening in a large mixer bowl and mix until smooth.

. Add 2 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.

0. Add the vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of water or milk and mix until smooth.

1. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.

2. Add remaining water or milk as needed and mix until smooth.

3. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. I used Ateco tip 844.

It’s good I even gave it a star it’s horrbile it tastes like a cookie and I even followed the instructions nothing like vanilla you also have to put less then half mine cane literally out of the pan 

Great recipe ! The only thing I adjusted was the sugar , I used half a cup less. Came out perfect and so easy. What I love is the tops aren’t hills, they are nice and flat , perfect for piping ! Thanks for sharing ! 
I’m going to try and use the same recipe but convert to make chocolate cupcakes,see how that goes. 
Xx South Africa 

Hi Lindsay 

Do you think I can sub the milk for coconut cream or coconut milk ? 

I made these tonight. They came out excellent. My husband loved them also. I will always make this recipe. Tomorrow I will figure out an easy icing to make which I may have the ingredients in the house. Running low on ingredients. Not a good time to go shopping....

This is the BEST cupcake recipe ever. This is my third time making them and everyone loves them &lt;3

Made these today and they were great! The icing was amazing 👌🏼 and the cupcakes weren’t too sweet at all. I did the same thing as another lady who commented and just mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl, then added all the wet ingredients to save on dishes. Worked just fine. Some of y’all out here saying these were straight up disgusting or awful...I don’t know who hurt you, but don’t take it out on the recipe 😆
User error is common, check your measurements and ingredients carefully. 
Thanks for the recipe, the kids and I enjoyed them 🧁😋

I use this recipe everytime I need to make cupcakes or a cake. I love how light and airy it is, and super moist! Personally I think it's fail proof. I have never had these come out bad, so if yours does it must be human error. 10/10 recipe! Thank you

I get 24 , both times I used this recipe and I got the same amount

Hi Lindsay, 

I am definitely not a Baker, but this recipe is winner!  I usually do the box cakes and cupcakes, I decided to try your recipe. I baked the cupcakes for 20 minutes and they turned out perfectly. My husband and son thoroughly enjoyed theirs. I made my own version of frosting with purple colouring and chocolate sprinkles. Very sweet which is what I love. 

I have already saved your link to my phone and can't wait to try your other recipes. 

Thanks  a million again all the way from South Africa.

Candice xxx

I'm also from South Africa and this is my Go-To recipe for vanilla cupcakes! They're always moist and fluffy! Yum.

I usually just doctor up a boxed white cake mix, but I tried this recipe today and I’m sure glad I did. So amazing! I will use a real vanilla bean next time for extra flavor. 

Hi, i made this and it turned like a puto cake.. i haven't tried any vanilla cupcake before so i do not know if i got it right or not.. :)

This is the best cupcake recipe I've ever tried, thank you so much for sharing it. All my friends and family loved it :)

I am an experienced baker, but I have yet to find the absolute perfect-every-time, moist, vanilla cupcake recipe.  I looked at the ingredients in this cupcake recipe and thought, this is it! I measured everything in grams and mls, but they came out so gummy. They also have very little flavour which I thought was strange since they have a full tablespoon of vanilla. Maybe it’s the amount of oil in them. Off I go to search again!

Thanks for sharing your recipe, my baby is turning one soon and I was going to order a cake, however during these times I'd rather make it. Can I substitute the sugar with brown sugar?

Bruh. I loved this recipe!! I've had a hard time with mimicking the same texture as my chocolate cakes and this is finally it!!😍😍 love how this recipe calls for oil and water, keeps things light moist and not dense. I also like the icing recipe. seems the shortening helps with a more professional look and I did a multiple color with it and it help up nicely.  I read a lot of other comments and saw some complaints, but I dont understand the reasons behind them if you executed the recipe correctly.  Will be using this recipe for now on! Thank you!!

I followed to a tee and cupcakes were very heavy dense.  Not moist or fluffy.  Not sure what went wrong.  Flavor was good

Did you ever try freezing them?  Did they freeze well? 

This is my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe ever! Would it hurt to add lemon juice and lemon zest to the batter as well? I want to make lemon cupcakes but don’t want to change the recipe because it’s so good! 

The recipe for both the frosting and cupcakes/cake are great. I've made this twice now, using half the cake batter to make a three small 6 inch cake layers and twelve cupcakes. The cake is moist and texture is on-point. The frosting is the perfect compliment to the cake and super easy to make. Rave reviews from everyone that has tasted this cake! I've been looking for a great go-to vanilla cake recipe for a while and this is a winner. :) Thank you!

So moist and delicious!  Made these on a Wednesday night for a Saturday wedding and they were excellent!  Thank you!

Thank you for this recipe !!!! What a hit ... delicious ???? and is definitely going into the the book of keeper recipes ????

Disappointing recipe! Followed recipe to the letter and they came out dense and undercooked even after 25 minutes in the oven - after 17 minutes they were raw! I’m a pretty good baker so don’t know what went wrong here but I think I’ll be sticking to cupcakes that use the creaming method as this has always worked - I was hoping the oil would make moist cupcakes but now will stick to normal fluffy ones from here on :(

I love vanilla flavor too much. Thanks for sharing with us this such a great moist vanilla cupcakes.

Not happy with the recipe at all. Never made a batter that ended up so watery,  they were moist but rubbery . I had to actually add another 1/2 cup of flour to get the batter to thicken somewhat and that didn't help either. I baked 2 dozen with this recipe and the cupcakes didn't have a nice crown or dome after baking. I had let the rest of the batter sit for like 1/2 hour just enough for just two more cupcakes and they seem to get a nice dome shaped crown after I baked those but the rest...hate to say it not a good recipe,

I love this recipe and they store really well. The cupcakes are delicious and my family loved the cupcakes, I had to hide them to make sure that i had something for later. The first batch they ate the whole thing within twenty minutes. Overall, everyone loved the cupcakes and they deserve a five-star review.

Made these cupcakes for my sons baker baker day at school and the teacher said the children loved it!! So I was in the mood to make chocolate cake followed this recipe and added what was left of the cocoa in the tin and coffee to the water and definitely the best cake I ever had... Thanks so much!! A winner!! 

Hi, I am from Mozambique. I tried your cupcakes for a party and they came out stunning. Thank you so much for this recipe. I am a first timer baking cupcakes and the recipe was simple and easy to follow 10/10. I made a little twist on top for the decoration since I didn’t use frosting, so instead I used the same batter and added cocoa powder and made little swirls on top. Wish I could send you pics to have a look at it.

I loved these cupcakes. I had to make 500 cupcakes for my senior project and I used these cupcakes. I had to quintuple the batter but they came out perfectly! I can't wait to sell these cupcakes to the public, I'll definitely be mentioning your name and website when I present these &lt;3

That so so delicious.. Thanks for your sharing!!

What a lovely recipe. Everything worked a treat. Being from Australia I had to look up what shortening was and all purpose flour. Cakes turned out lovely and moist and the icing on top delicious.
This will be my goto recipe for vanilla cupcakes. Thank you

Just want to let you know that I just made these, and followed your directions exactly, and they came perfect ! So good I can’t stop eating them (neither can my husband lol)

Great recipe! I halved the recipe and made into mini cupcakes and they came out lovely! Thank you for sharing!

Hello! 

I loved your recipe I changed it up and used a cream cheese icing instead. I found that it worked great, but my cupcakes didn't grow  much even with only filling it half way. Why would it come out spongey is that normal? Like it tastes really good. 

10/10 on your recipe. :)

horrible formula! wayyyyy to much liquid made the formula the texture of crepe mixture. when the cupcakes were taken out of the oven after 15 mins, they were bouncy and tastes dreadful! i really wanted to like this recipe because of all the reviews but i have never made anything so bad!!!

Holy cupcakes! These are perfect! I used gluten free flour and rice milk, bunged all the dry ingredients into a bowl, and added the wet ingredients straight on top, and used the cups measurement. P.ERrrr.FECT.

Hello! I am a kindergarten teacher at an international school in Thailand. Our 100th day of school is in two days and I was in a pinch to find an easy but delicious recipe to bake 100 cupcakes. I LOVE this recipe! All 100 cupcakes came out beautifully. I even swapped the vanilla for coconut, strawberry, and almond in different batches. I cant wait to see how they go over with the kids....if I can get my husband to stop eating them. Thanks for the recipe!

Hi, these are the most delicious cupcakes I have ever made or eaten. I made them several times already and I have zero problems making them, they're super easy and super moist, even if I take them out of the oven a little bit too late. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!

What a waste of my time and ingrediencies. Looked flat, tasted so sweet and chewy. Do not waste your time.

This is my new “go-to” cupcake recipe! Simple, dense,  and delicious! I love it! 

I’m never ever going to make other than this one recipe!! Quick, easy and delicious!
Thank you!

These cup cakes are amazing love the taste and great texture i must say a little hard to get in to the cupcake molds but i made it. I am all the was from Australia all my friends are asking for the recipe. so all i tell them is go to easy vanilla cupcake recipe the one with the little heart. my 12 year old daughter can make them all by herself and she adores your cupcakes!!!

To be honest, I was not a fan. The texture was like angel food cake and they stuck to my cupcake liners.  :(

cupcakes came out great but they were a tad too sweet, I would just recommend cutting  back on the sugar and using 1 1/2 cups instead of two

I tried this recipe yesterday. Instead of cupcakes, I halved the recipe and split the batter between two 6" round pans and baked them at 350 for 25 mins. They came out great! I loved how easy this recipe was to do. Thank you!

Hi, Thanks for the recipe, really!! One of the best I tried, I love that I can get creative by replacing the water with something else. Up to now I replaced the water with grated apples, with grated pumpkin and with pureed blueberries. Today I am heading home for a strawberry batch! :)

Absolutely in love with this recipe! I love how easy the batter is to work with because it’s so thin. And the texture is just amazing. I’ve had people comment that they remind them of their grandmothers oil cake they had as children. 

I’m about to dive in and make 600 mini cupcakes using this recipe for an event! Wish me luck!! Lol

Amazing! The cupcakes are super moist and flavorful. The frosting is going to be my go to recipe for everything- so tasty!  The directions were easy to follow and everything turned out perfect! 

These were great! I even used gluten free flour to accommodate a family member and they were still delicious.

This is my favorite vanilla cupcake recipe! I’ve made it several times now and they’re always a hit. Sometimes we fill them with fresh fruit or add some to the frosting. They also freeze wonderfully, for anyone who wants to bake ahead. Thank you for this one!

I baked this cupcake for the first time a few years ago, and my family requests them all the time now. They’re so yummy! I’m making them for my nieces birthday party this upcoming weekend and wanted to try to use some kind of filling in them. I’m still doing a buttercream frosting, because it’s always a hit, but any suggestions for a creamy filling that’s not too tricky to make? I searched through your recipes but was overwhelmed with the options! (It’s a unicorn theme party)
Thanks!

Thanks for the recipe I was desperate. Some of my family members do not consume dairy and that represents a challenge for me when it comes to baking a vanilla cake or cupcake. I have tried some vanilla dairy free cakes and cupcakes before and they were a little tough and/or they tasted like a pancake. Yours are the best so far. they are moist and they taste like a vanilla cake should. Thanks so much :) 

Just tried this recipe for a party I am doing and it is perfect. The icing tutorial was fabulous. So happy I know the recipe will work for my event. And perfect number of cupcakes too, I will only need to do one batch!

I wanted to love this recipe as it seemed so easy but sadly they turned out far too sweet and stuck to the cake cases as some other posters found! I followed the recipe in grams as I find it to be more accurate. Hoping I can adjust this in some way to lessen the sugar content

I made these cupcakes, right to the recipe.  They were very dense and heavy.  Not much flavor to them considering the amount of vanilla in the recipe.  Very oily, I would never make them again.

Hi Lindsay i love this recipe! Wanted to know if I can use this recipe to make a rainbow cake. I live in Nepal, and we don’t get cake flour here, and for some reason my butter based  cakes or cupcakes turn out super dry but not this recipe! So wanted to make rainbow cake, and wondering if I could use this recipe 😊

This was a delicious cupcake recipe. I reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup and used coconut oil. The cupcakes came out light and airy with a beautiful crust. I devoured 3 immediately! Thank you for the recipe!

Tried this cupcake recipe today, following the measurements and instructions carefully. The cupcakes’ texture was dense and gummy, although the flavor is pleasant enough. I’m not throwing them out as they are adequate to give to the kids as a snack, but I wouldn’t serve them to guests at a party we’re hosting tomorrow because of the funky texture.

These cupcakes are AMAZING!!! So light and fluffy, and just the right amount of sugar. If I could give 10 stars I would! 
Delicious!!! 😋😋😋

I impulse decided to make cupcakes this evening and wanted to find a simple vanilla that didn’t use buttermilk, sour cream, or only egg whites. I found this recipe and it made PERFECT cupcakes. I have to admit, I unintentionally made two mistakes - I used half all purpose and half cake flour and doubled everything else but accidentally only used the one cup of water. Luckily, they came out super fluffy and with perfect little domes. Excellent!

Really moist and lasted well for days. Making again today.

I’ve just baked these and this is my fav vanilla cupcake recipe from now on! I can’t wait to try this in pans as a layer cake with sprinkles in the batter for my daughters birthday next!
 thank you so much 

Hi Lindsay,
Your recipe is fantastic. My daughter and I can't stop eating them! I am appalled at some of the comments on here. I am a professional baker and know how much time and love goes into trying to find the perfect recipe. You rock!

I used foil liners AND paper ones as well. Both worked like a charm!

Delicious! My daughter and her friend made these on their own this afternoon. They are really lovely - very moist. It made 18 regular cupcakes and several bite size ones as well. 

Have you doubled this recipe at all? I would like to try but nervous that it won’t work.

I’ve made this a couple times and they’re a huge success. They’re so moist and fluffy, with tons of vanilla flavour. 

I LOVE this recipe. My son and nephew had a joint christening plus and sisters 40th in the same weekend and I made 190 of these cupcakes (yes 190). Afterwards I said I didn’t want to see another vanilla cupcake for at least a month and I didn’t even last a month before I was back at it again. EVERYONE loves these cupcakes and I get asked to make them often and have also made layer cakes with this recipe too. 

I made these last night with my daughter and I must say they are amazing. Thank you for such a great recipe. It made exactly 24 and they are nice and moist. 

I followed the recipe to the T, in grams and the cupcakes came out like pancakes (dense and sticky) and are wayyyyyy too sweet! I think the sugar is way off among other things.
Thanks for sharing though

Made these today for a friends birthday and they are fantastic!   I filled them with raspberry filling from your raspberry cake recipe  and used the mascarpone frosting from your berry cake.   Topped with some crushed pistachio's.    Perfection!

I'm now tempted to try all three of your vanilla cupcake recipes.....

Lisa

Delicious and easy to make. I used store bought frosting, but the cupcakes were moist even after being in the fridge for a couple days. Thank you :)

Lucky you, there were still some left the next couple days LOL mine were gone in 2 hours

I used this cupcake  recipe because it had oil instead of butter making it easier to adapt.  I used almond milk instead of the milk due to a severe allergy to protein in milk.  I left off your frosting.  I had to bake them a couple extra minutes probably because of the alterations I made, but they turned out okay, not as good as it would be with dairy of course but the sacrifice had to be made.  Good recipe.

Cupcakes are delish!  We however did get a sticky gummy top but once covered with icing you couldn't tell. 

I think the top came out the way it did because the sugar didn't mix in all the way. 

We had enough batter for 24 cupcakes and the second batch came out less sticky as I continued to stir it. 

They are moist and soft

Just made these cupcakes, based on weight measurements as I think cup measures might be slightly different here in Aus. They were so so moist &amp; tasty. Thanks so much!

I love this recipe sooooo much it is so moist and delicious, and it is my new favorite recipe to bake!

Thank you for this recipe! I'm a bread baker but can never seem to get cake right. Your recipe was so easy and good I feel I've arrived!

Hi! I have a quick question......   Could I use this recipe for cake???? It's so good that I HAVE to use it whenever I'm making cupcakes. I haven't made cake in a while but figured I should for easter. 

Thanks!

Emily

I love this recipe !
Fluffiest Cupcakes I have ever tasted !
And so easy !
Thank you

I made this recipe, but replacing the milk and water for 2 cups of almond milk and replacing the 1/2 of vegetable oil for melted coconut oil. I didn't know if they would turn out given the substitutions I made, but they turned out amazing! Moist and fluffy, with a nice, but not overpowering, vanilla flavour. Definitely a keeper!

“These cupcakes turned out good! They were very sweet! We made strawberry icing!”—Ella, age 6

Hi, I made this for our super and it was a winner. I added a teaspoon of Coconut cream and durian when adding the cream. It was delicious. My mom thinks its amazing!! Very yummy. Thanks for the recipe.

Prepared your yummilicious cup cakes last weekend.They were just superbly utterly delicious.My son just gobbled everything in 2 days😂..Thankyou for the recipe😍..I’m going to keep this recipe in my list..

These are the very best vanilla cupcakes I’ve had. They are so easy to make, and I don’t even have to use an electric mixer. They are so squishy and moist. I have tried many cupcake recipes and these are by far my favorite. 

This was the best cupcake I’ve ever made!! I used 1/2 cup of water because I got scared of how thin the batter was. Still turned out amazing! Thank you for the recipe!! 

really yum, thanks. keep doing what your doing Lindsay!!!
you are killing the game hun. dont let the haters get you down!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have made these three times and they were awesome every time. I used coconut milk to make them dairy free and it worked just fine. The first time I followed the recipe other than the coconut milk - delicious vanilla cupcakes. 
The second time I subbed the water for fresh squeezed orange juice and added the zest from the oranges - yummy orange cupcakes. 
The third time I used lemon extract and lemon juice (about 1/3 c with 2/3 c water), I would have liked to use lemon zest but I ran out. These were very light on lemon flavor but still delicious and moist.
I don't understand how anyone can say the cupcakes don't have good flavor. They are so easy to make and taste yummy. They are also fun to add flavors to. It's easy and predictable. Total win.

I did really good with these cupcakes but these other cupcakes i tried i wasted a lot of ingredients and time it was horrible but these ones are DELICIOUS and awesome i am just gonna stick to these and make these all the time i wanted to try and make something else that would be fun for my little sisters but the funfetti one was WAY too hard for me cause im only 12 and these ones are easy. Do you have any recipes i should look at that would be easy for my cause if you do i would really like that.  This one is easy but the other one wasn't, nothing went right on the other one.

i tried to make these and they did not turn out well. the cupcakes were sticking to the paper and the frosting just plain disgusting. maybe it’s because there was no butter in the cupcakes? or maybe it was the shortening. 

Certainly if you don't care for the shortening, you can replace it with additional butter. As for the cupcakes, and oil based cupcake isn't for everyone. If you'd like to try a butter based cupcake, I'd recommend this new recipe - https://www.lifeloveandsugar.com/easy-homemade-vanilla-cupcakes-recipe/

Let me first say that I’m not a great baker, a good cook, but baking is a challenge because one has to follow an exact recipe... well this is such a simple one that even I didn’t have a problem following it. Simple and so so so moist!!!! I cannot stand dry cakes/cupcakes and this was just perfect. I cannot wait to share these yummies with the rest of the family tomorrow when I go to visit! 

Just a side note, I used 1 tsp of baking soda instead of baking powder as I didn’t have any on hand 

I made these yesterday for the first time and they were a hit. They were just as described and half of them are already gone! 

Hi! My name is Bella and i am an 11 year old girl going into Middle school this year!During quarantine i have developed a VERY fond love of baking and decided to try baking these!I made half of the cupcakes as cupcake cones and the other half as normal cupcakes, and i have to say these were the MOST DELICIOUS cupcakes i have Ever had!I really thought they were were even more delicious in the cupcake cones because it gave them a bit of a crunch!I am so excited because now i have a easy, Delicious moist cupcake on my first try! The only sad part was i made only 12 because i had never done this and i didn't want it to go to waste if no one liked it! I have to say That was the WORST mistake of my life(other than not discovering this recipe sooner) They were gone in about 2 hours with me eating them all LOL
this gives me hope to DEFINITELY bake these again
Thanks, 
Bella

Hi Lindsay! This cupcake recipe is amazing!! I’ve made it numerous times and I love how moist the cupcakes are, and when you pair them with frosting they taste even better! Do you think that this recipe would be good to use to make a full sized cake? If it is, what size pan would you recommend?

https://content.jwplatform.com/videos/GzfWFTOB.mp4

These Moist Vanilla Cupcakes are super easy to make and so moist – for days! They are my new favorite vanilla cupcake!

Easy Moist Vanilla Cupakes

This vanilla buttercream frosting recipe is light, airy, and has a strong vanilla flavor!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

unsalted butter (room temperature)

confectioners' sugar

Beat butter on high speed with an electric mixer for about three minutes until light and airy.

Mix in powdered sugar a little bit at a time.

Add vanilla extract and salt and continue to beat for another minute.

If desired, add more vanilla to taste or more confectioners&#x27; sugar to make the buttercream frosting stiffer.

https://embed.mediavine.com/videos/jt7gacupogs9pqzbq6jz

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Top 4 vanilla frosting recipe recipes from across the web

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The most viewed vanilla frosting recipe recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine