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These cupcakes are tender and delicious, vanilla flavored and topped with light whipped cream cream cheese frosting. Yes, the frosting contains both cream cheese and whipped cream, it is light, fluffy and pipes well onto cupcakes.
I like to make cupcakes, but I never spend enough time to decorate them. I wish I had the patience to take the time and practice piping frosting onto cupcakes. But, no – every time use a random cupcake decorating tip and technique and my cupcakes look ok. They are tasty anyways, why should I care about how they look?
I made these cupcakes for a friend’s bridal shower 2 weeks ago. I know, I almost always make cupcakes for an event, but they really are the easiest, fastest and good looking dessert I can make. I mean they definitely take less time to make than baking a cake!
These cupcakes are very easy to make, but the only suggestion I have is that you use buttermilk. I was told that buttermilk in the recipe could be substituted with 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 tsp lemon juice. Add lemon juice to the milk and let sit for 5 minutes. Then use instead for buttermilk. I have never done this, so I’m not sure how well it will work in this recipe.
The success that buttermilk has when used in baked goods is due to its acidity. It breaks long strands of gluten and also prevents walnuts and muffins to get blue tinge in muffins (coffee cakes). It really helped achieve soft, rich and creamy cupcakes.
Buttermilk produces tender baked goods, that rise well and have moist crumbs. The problem is that I do not always have buttermilk in my fridge and I’m planning to try the suggested substitution next time and see what happens.
Although I love my Original Yellow Cupcakes Recipe, (with white chocolate frosting), I knew for sure I was doing white colored frosting, since it is a bridal color. Plain cream cheese frosting is one of my favorites, but I decided to try something a little different.
I remember seeing this Cupcake Frosting Recipe on one of my favorite blogs I follow – Natasha’s Kitchen. It is a cream cheese and whipped cream frosting, which worked perfect for my vanilla buttermilk cupcakes. The frosting was not runny, but make sure you are using room temperature cream cheese and cold heavy cream. I’ve also read some complaints about this specific frosting recipe, but it turned that people were not using enough powdered sugar and it turned way too runny. I’m also planning to try this frosting on a cake. Confession: I’ve never used store bought frosting…
I hope you enjoy these vanilla buttermilk cupcakes with cream cheese and whipped cream frosting!
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Vanilla Cupcakes
Ingredients
Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup canola oil
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
Cream cheese and Whipped Cream Frosting
- 8 oz (225 gr) softened cream cheese
- 2 cups powdered sugar, (preferably sifted)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/5 cup heavy cream
Instructions
Vanilla Buttermilk Cupcakes:
- Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Line a cupcake tim with paper cupcake liners.
- In a medium bowl combine flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and set a side.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer beat eggs for 30 seconds, then add sugar and beat for another minute.
- Add vanilla and oil and beat for 1 more minute.
- Start adding buttermilk and dry ingredients in 3 increments alternating. This way everything gets evenly incorporated and you achieve a fluffy batter. Beat until smooth, but do not over beat. This batter is pretty thin.
- Transfer batter to cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 full.
- Bake at 350 F for 14 minutes. Let cupcakes sit in the tin for 3 minutes, then transfer to cooling rack and let cool to room temperature.
Cream cheese and whipped cream frosting:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer beat heavy cream on high for 1-2 minutes (do not over beat). Refrigerate.
- In a second bowl beat cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla until incorporated. Start on low and increase speed. Make sure you scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure all cream cheese is incorporated.
- Carefully fold whipped cream into cream cheese mixture.
- Fill a piping bag (use your favorite tip) and pipe frosting onto cool cupcakes.
- Keep cupcakes refrigerated.
Notes
For the cream cheese and whipped cream frosting, make sure that cream cheese is at room temperature and heavy cream is cold.
If it happens that you make the frosting in advance, keep refrigerated.
Keep cupcakes refrigerated.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi Mira! I made a test of these this morning for a function I have coming up this weekend. Every other recipe I’ve tried, even from super pro bakers, is dry. These are nice and moist and delicious. The only problem I’ve come across is that I followed everything to a T and the tops of the cupcakes are a touch goopy. So I put them back in for a few more minutes and the tops are still a touch goopy. The rest of the cupcakes are cooked just fine, it’s just their little tops. Any tips on how to tell when these are done baking? Should there be any browning on the edges? Or will the tops dry up upon cooling and sitting out for a bit? (they’re literally still cooling on the counter right now)
Hi Laura, Thank you! I have never had an issue with the tops being goopy with this recipe, but I know that things like this can happen. Did you pre heat the oven to 350 F for at least 30 minutes before you put the cupcake tin in the oven? There could be some browning on the edges and if the tops are a little goopy, let them dry until they cool off. I’d hate to tell you to bake them longer, because they might become too dry and not as delicious. No more than 2-4 more minutes. Sometimes the moisture of the ingredients differs and this may cause the goopiness on top. How to tell when they are done baking – toothpick inserted should come out clean. There could be some goopiness in the middle and a little browning around the edges. Let me know how they turned out after cooling.
I tried the recipe and they dipped a lot in the middle and the cupcake stuck to the wrapper and was a bit crunchy around the edges. ☹️
Hi sorry for your experience!
Possibly you used old baking soda/powder (that has been open for a while)?
Also the batter could have been over mixed, you may have hot spots in your oven, or the cupcakes just needed longer baking time since they sank in the middle.
This is my go to recipe and I never have issues with it.
Sorry you did not like it!
These are absolutely the best cupcakes I have ever eaten. They have great vanilla flavor; they’re tender with a little crispiness at the edges, and the inside has the best texture. This will be my go-to recipe from now on. I appreciate that you use the method of adding the liquid and the dry ingredients in increments. The only thing I would mention is that I had learned some years ago to always end with adding the dry mixture last, so there’s no liquid that didn’t mix in. I somewhat overfilled my cupcake liners so I added three minutes to the baking time. (at 14 mins my finger still left a dent on top). Thank you, thank you so much, my dear!
Hi there. Is it possible to use buttercream icing instead of cream cheese? Thank you.
Yes, buttercream icing will work
I used this recipe to create a 2 layer 6 inch funfetti cake and it worked! Love this texture
Great! Glad the recipe worked for you 🙂