Easy Vanilla Cupcakes

There is honestly nothing better than a really decent, basic vanilla cupcake recipe that you can use time and time again. This recipe of mine is as simple and user friendly as they can get, and trust me, I have trialed many recipes before this!

What I love most about a basic vanilla cupcake is that you have so much room to play around with additional flavours in the frosting or spread. This most recent batch I made was for Valentines Day as a treat, and so I decided to do two of my favourite flavours - salted dark chocolate, and a caramel peanut butter.

In this blog post I will be sharing with you my perfect vanilla cupcake base recipe, as well as my vanilla based buttercream with the added steps I took to add in the flavours of the salted dark chocolate and caramel peanut butter. So you can either take the vanilla recipe as it stands, or learn to add your own desired flavours to spice it up each time!

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Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 15-20 mins Total Time: 30-40 mins Yields: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups (325g) all purpose flour

• 2 cups (414g) sugar

• 3 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 cup (240ml) milk

• 1/2 cup (210ml) vegetable oil

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

• 1 cup (240ml) water

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 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.

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

4. Add the wet ingredients (excluding the water) to the dry ingredients and beat until well combined.

5. Then slowly add the water to the batter and mix on low speed until well combined. Scrape down the sides to ensure it is all well mixed. *The batter will be very thin.

6. Fill the cupcake liners about half way and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick comes our clean.

7. Keep the cupcakes in the hot pan and allow to cool almost fully (until it is cool to touch) in the pan first.

8. Then remove the cupcakes from the pan and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

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Vanilla Buttercream Frosting:

Prep Time: 10 mins Servings: 12 Cupcakes

**double recipe to frost 24 cupcakes + divide finished butter cream into 2 separate bowls if you want to make different flavours.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 4 cups (460g) powdered sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 2–3 tbsp (30-45ml) water or milk

• Salt, to taste

Instructions:

1. Cream the butter in a large mixer bowl and beat until smooth and creamy.

2. Add about half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth and well combined.

3. Add the vanilla extract and 1 tablespoon of water or cream and mix until smooth and well combined.

4. Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until combined.

5. Add more water or cream until desired consistency is reached, then add salt to taste.

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Salted Dark Chocolate Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 200g of desired dark chocolate (I would highly recommend Lindt 70% dark chocolate, as the quality is important for the taste.)

• 2 tsp course salt

• Pinch of course salt for topping

Instructions:

1. Break your chocolate up into a microwavable bowl, leaving at least 2 blocks aside for the toppings of the cupcakes. Microwave the chocolate in 30second increments, mixing it in-between until completely melted. Leave aside to cool (it must be cool to the touch).

2. *You can use a tsp of melted chocolate to spread on each vanilla cupcake as a solid chocolate layer before the buttercream.

3. Once your melted chocolate is cool, scrape it into your bowl of ready made vanilla buttercream and whisk it up with your electric mixer until combined.

4. Then add in your 2tsps of salt and mix again until combined, add more salt if a saltier taste is desired.

5. Add your chocolate buttercream into a piping bag and pipe it onto 12 of your cupcakes.

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Caramel Peanut Butter Frosting:

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp smooth peanut butter

• 1 tub of caramel spread

• Bar of peanut brittle

Instructions:

1. Spoon the peanut butter into your bowl of ready made vanilla buttercream (add more peanut butter if desired). And mix with electric mixer until combined.

2. Use the caramel to evenly spread onto the tops of the vanilla cupcakes as a layer before the frosting.

3. Then add about 1 tbsp of caramel spread into your piping bag, lining the sides all around the bag (this will create the intertwined caramel ribboning to your frosting).

4. Then add your peanut butter frosting to the piping bag and decorate your heart out!

5. *Crunch up the peanut brittle and use it for the toppings.