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Vanilla cupcakes lined up after baking

Vanilla Cupcakes

Tender, evenly-domed vanilla cupcakes from a reverse-creamed batter — sour cream and milk powder give a rich crumb that's still bakery-light.

Prep Time30 min
Cook Time18 min
Total Time1 hr 15 min
Yield12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. Preheat and prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F on convection. Line 12 wells of standard muffin tins with cupcake liners. Ensure butter, eggs, sour cream, and milk are all at room temperature before starting.

  2. Whisk dry ingredients: In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together flour, baking powder, milk powder, salt, and sugar until evenly distributed. Scrape the bottom corners of the bowl.

  3. Reverse cream the butter and oil: Add butter and oil to the dry ingredients. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until the mixture looks like coarse, sandy streusel with no large butter chunks remaining — about 2-3 minutes.

  4. Combine liquids: In a 2 cup measuring cup, whisk together the milk, vinegar, and sour cream until smooth. Then whisk in eggs and vanilla.

  5. Mix in liquid mixture: With the mixer on low speed, slowly stream in the liquid mixture. After about half is added, pause for a few seconds to let the batter smooth out, then continue streaming the rest. Scrape the bowl thoroughly, bottom and sides, and mix on low for another 10 seconds to ensure everything is combined. The batter should look smooth and slightly thin with maybe a few small lumps.

  6. Portion batter: Immediately weigh 50g of batter into each liner.

  7. Bake: Bake on the middle rack until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs, about 18 minutes.

  8. Cool in pan, then rack: Remove pans from the oven and let the cupcakes rest in the tins for 10 minutes. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

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