These vanilla cupcakes are so easy to make, simply mix all of the ingredients together and bake. They’re perfect for birthdays, cake sales, tea with your friends and any other celebration you can think of.
I mentioned when I shared my recipe for caramel cupcakes a couple of weeks ago that I’m working on creating a mix-and-match cupcake index with all my sponges, buttercreams and fillings in one place so you can create your own cupcakes using any combination you can think of. However, when I made a start on it I realised that two of my go-to cupcakes recipes (vanilla and chocolate) didn’t exist on here in cupcake form (they’re only on here as larger birthday cake recipes). Whilst it’s really easy to convert these particular recipes from large cakes, to save you the trouble of working out what to adjust I decided that I’d publish them as cupcakes too.
One of the reasons I started this website is that I’ve got a terrible memory for recipes and I wanted somewhere to write them down so I could make them again and again. Whilst I remake my own recipes all the time (this one in particular gets made a lot), it’s not often that other people make my recipes for me to eat. I think it only happened for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was a slightly nervous moment for me (because I always worry that someone reading a recipe won’t interpret it how I’d intended), but I have to say that I think they cooked them better than I do 🙂
Have you ever cooked someone else’s recipe for them to eat, or vice versa? How did it go?
Easy Vanilla Cupcakes
These vanilla cupcakes are so easy to make, simply mix all of the ingredients together and bake. They’re perfect for birthdays, cake sales, tea with your friends and any other celebration you can think of.
Ingredients
- 165 g self-raising flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- 3 medium eggs
- 165 g soft margarine
- 165 g caster sugar
- A few drops of vanilla extract
- 1½ tsp milk
Extras
- 12 cupcake cases
Instructions
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Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
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Place your cupcake cases into a muffin tin.
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Sift the self-raising flour (165g) and baking powder (1½ tsp) into a large bowl. Add the remaining ingredients (3 medium eggs, 165g soft margarine, 165g caster sugar, a few drops of vanilla extract and 1½ tsp milk) and mix until fully combined (either by hand or using an electric mixer on a low speed).
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Divide the mixture equally between the muffin cases (I use a cupcake scoop to help split it evenly).
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Bake for 18-20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool in their tins for about 10 minutes and then move them to a wire rack to cool fully before decorating.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
If you’d like to top them with vanilla buttercream you can find the recipe here.
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a comment and rating at the bottom of the page to let others know what you thought.
Free From/Suitable For…
The ingredients I used to make this recipe are all free from the following allergens. However, please check any labels carefully for allergens you need to avoid as brands can vary and product recipes can change over time.
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Tree Nut-Free
- Peanut-Free
- Sesame-Free
- Soya-Free
- Sulphur Dioxide & Sulphite-Free
- Lupin-Free
I’m sharing this recipe with the following blog challenge… #CookBlogShare with Easy Peasy Foodie.
Hello Charlotte – I love that these are really easy and taste fab. I’ve made them a couple of times when I’ve had guests pop round and have had good comments (plus I love the animation on your video). Keep up your good work.
Hi Charlotte, I love these cakes and make them sometimes with my two sons who enjoy helping me bake. We love topping them with all sorts including your delicious buttercreams. Julie
Hi Charlotte
I love your recipes and have baked them many times. Could you tell me how much ingredients I would need to bake 36 cup cakes ? Do I just need to times the ingredients for the 12 by 3?
Many thanks
Karen
Yes, that’s exactly what you’d need to do.
Thank you
Hi I would just like to say how amazing your recipes are. I am new to cake baking and I have tried some recipes until I found yours I will only now follow your recipes. so thank you for sharing and also the calculator is fab thank you Charlotte.
Hi Charlotte- this recipe is really lovely! I saw that someone asked a question about freezing and why they came away from the cases – did you have any luck with that? I have a lot to make over the next couple of days and ideally would like to freeze a couple of batches just to keep up! Thank you! Paula
Hi Paula, I haven’t had a chance to test that out yet. I’ll pop it to the top of my to do-do list but I probably won’t have it done before you need to freeze them. Sorry.
No problem! I’ll try it and let you know 🙂
Hi you said 140 for fan isn’t that low my oven is fan and I’m not sure what temperature to do
140C for a fan oven or 160C for a conventional oven. If you’re using F then it’s 280F fan or 320F conventional.
Beautiful Cupcakes Charlotte! I wish I could pipe icing like that! x
Thanks Kate, it’s one of only two styles I can do, although I’ve just been given some new nozzles so I’m looking forward to branching out.
The cupcakes look scrummy.what are the best paper cases mine seem to come away from the cupcakes if I freeze. Any ideas anybody.your buttercream looks great.will be doing some at the weekend.
I’m not too sure but I’ll ask on my Facebook page and Twitter and see if anyone has any suggestions.
These look so tasty but simple. Going to try this recipe with my daughter over the half term xx
These are so beautiful! Everyone needs a go-to vanilla cupcake and vanilla frosting recipe, and this is totally a winner!
I completely agree, they’re probably the cakes I make the most as they’re always popular at cake sales.
I love your piping skills…these look amazing. I would be terrified if someone cooked my recipe in front of me! I’m always scared when I publish a post that someone will come back saying it doesn’t work or was horrible. Thankfully, it’s only happened once in four and a half years and that was on one of my most popular recipes so that can’t be bad ;)!
It’s happened to me a couple of times but as with yours on a recipe that I’ve also had loads of great feedback on. It’s quite helpful sometimes as I have found that by getting to the bottom of why it didn’t work I learn more and more about cooking and I’ll go back and add extra tips into my recipes to hopefully help others.
Such pretty cupcakes – I can never get over how neat and even yours are – you have clearly got it down to a fine art! I sometimes get my husband to make my recipes. It’s really useful as he is a very different cook from me (he is not very confident, follows the recipe exactly, chops everything up first and tidies up as he goes along – I am the complete opposite of this!) It is really interesting to see how something I thought was really obvious, is really not – it helps me make my recipes better as I think about how he would interpret what I have written. Thanks for linking your gorgeous cupcakes up to #CookBlogShare 🙂 Eb x
I’m very well practiced in two piping styles, I really want to learn some more. I think if I wanted for Jon to test out my recipes I wouldn’t get anything published as he’s always really busy.