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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.

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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.

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.

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?

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.

 

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5 from 4 votes

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.
Active Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 12 cupcakes

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

RECIPE VIDEO

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Pre-heat your oven to 160ºC/140ºC fan.
  • Place your cupcake cases into a muffin tin.
  • 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).
  • Divide the mixture equally between the muffin cases (I use a cupcake scoop to help split it evenly).
  • 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.

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.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION

Calories: 207kcal | Carbohydrates: 23.7g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 11.1g | Saturated Fat: 2.9g | Sodium: 200mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 14.2g
Any nutritional information shown is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you want to learn more about how this is calculated.

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.

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

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’m sharing this recipe with the following blog challenge… #CookBlogShare with Easy Peasy Foodie.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ginny says

    14 June 2019 at 10:00 am

    Hi, I have just found your website and the recipes look great I will be making the birthday chocolate cake next weekend and plan to do these yummy looking cakes also however I’m not a fan of margarine I presume unsalted butter will be fine and it should be softened also. Can’t wait to try them x

    Reply

    • Charlotte Oates says

      15 June 2019 at 2:05 pm

      Yes, butter will be fine. It needs to be soft so leave it out of the fridge for an hour or so before you make the cake. If it’s too hard it won’t mix in properly and you may find your cake ends up greasy.

      Reply

  2. Alicia says

    4 March 2019 at 5:34 pm


    Really simple to make and delicious. Gorgeous with the white chocolate buttercream (topped with milky bar buttons!).

    Reply

  4. Sophia Brown says

    20 September 2018 at 6:47 am

    Amazing recipes!! After a failed batch of caramel cupcakes – tasted good but split over the cases – I persisted careful not to overfill next time around. (I bought a metal ice-cream scoop (what you call a cookie scoop) from $2 shop – This is the keyword perfect measuring !!) I made another batch (also using your caramel recipe) plus a batch of vanilla cupcakes. Just made delicious buttercream too. Both have turned out brilliantly and more to the point, taste delicious. I got about a tray and a half for patty cakes which I guess would be 12 muffins. Thanks Charlotte.

    Reply

  5. Suzanne Broy says

    3 August 2018 at 9:26 pm

    Loved the recipe but mine always seem to spill out the top of the cupcake cases – is this just a case of having put too much mixture in or is it a temperature issue?

    Reply

    • Charlotte Oates says

      4 August 2018 at 4:57 pm

      It sounds like there’s too much mixture for the cases, they should be about 2/3 full. What type of cases do you use. I usually use muffin cases which are a little larger for my cupcakes.

      Reply

  6. Pat says

    19 June 2018 at 9:15 pm


    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.

    Reply

  7. Julie says

    20 May 2018 at 9:04 pm


    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

    Reply

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