Best Birthday Cupcakes are the perfect dessert recipe for your special celebration! A light and moist homemade vanilla cake is topped with the perfect whipped buttercream and colorful sprinkles for a sweet treat everyone will love.
Best Birthday Cupcakes Recipe
What’s a birthday celebration without the Best Birthday Cupcakes?! Whether it is Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes, Bunny Cupcakes or this simple vanilla cupcake recipe, cupcakes are perfect for celebrating any special occasions. Pair it with some Strawberry Lemonade and you have got a sweet treat that is to die for!
I am sharing this cupcake recipe video in celebration of my five year blog birthday! It is hard to believe that I have been sharing recipes with you on this little blog of mine for five whole years now. I guess the old adage holds true though, ‘Time flies when you are having fun!’.
How to Make Moist Cupcakes
I have a confession to make. OK, I lied, I have two confessions to make. First of all I don’t often bake. I don’t enjoy it as much as cooking where I can haphazardly toss things together and make it work as I go. Baking is a science and requires diligent measuring and testing. With that said, when I do bake, I want it to be something amazing and completely worth the effort. Hence these Best Birthday Cupcakes!
My second confession is that I only started using cake flour a couple years ago! SHOCKING I know! OK, maybe it’s not so shocking seeing I already admitted I am not a huge baker.
What is Cake Flour
The idea of stocking my overflowing pantry with a third flour option in addition to my all-purpose and whole wheat flours seemed unnecessary. Apparently cake flour has a slightly different protein content and that makes a difference in the texture of the cake crumb. I was skeptical…
I am here to tell you that I was SO wrong. My family can tell you that I don’t often admit I am wrong, so please know this is a very serious deal! 😉 I decided I should give cake flour a try recently when I was working on making the best birthday cupcakes and wanted to see if it would make a difference.
Cake Flour Recipe
On the first try, I instantly realized it created such a like and airy crumb to the cupcake that was better than anything I could have achieved with all-purpose flour. I will officially never use anything but cake flour in cakes again. So I implore you to take the leap and give cake flour a try! Don’t forget this amazing buttercream either. Canned frosting doesn’t even come close to comparing.
Birthday Cupcake Ideas
When I made these cupcakes for my sister’s birthday while she was home last weekend, her husband stole one while we were waiting for dinner to be made. After the first bite he exclaimed, “I think these are the best cupcakes I have ever eaten!”. NO JOKE! I thought surely he is just overly hungry and that is influencing this proclamation.
Cupcake Birthday Cake Recipe
That was clearly not the case, because he continued to insist throughout the weekend that these were the best cupcakes ever! They now want me to make these for their daughter’s upcoming baptism, which I happily agreed to as the godmother.
These cupcakes are truly the perfect treat for any special occasion and will certainly please a crowd!
Best Birthday Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 c. salted butter
- 1 1/2 c. sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 1 c. milk
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tsp. almond extract
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 1/2 c. cake flour or 2 1/4 c. all-purpose flour, but you will get a lighter cupcake with cake flour
- ½ tsp. baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 batch buttercream
- 1/4 c. rainbow sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°.
- In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until smooth. Add the egg, extracts, milk and sour cream and blend until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and beat slowly until well combined and only a few lumps remain.
- In lined cupcake pans, fill each cup ¾ full. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cupcake comes out clean. Set aside and allow to cool completely.
- Top each cupcake with buttercream and sprinkles. Enjoy!
- *Tip* Add the sprinkles after each cupcake is frosted so they stick well to the buttercream.
Buttercream Icing Recipe for Cake Decorating
More dessert recipes perfect for celebrations!
Mini Strawberry Lemon Pies
Peanut Butter & Chocolate Dream Bars
Happy happy birthday to your blog! I have been enjoying following you on instagram and can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
These look tasty! Happy Birthday!
They’re lovely! The perfect way to celebrate 🙂
Happy birthday! Your cupcakes look delicious too!
I was the same way when I started using cake flour. I never thought something as simple as flower could change my cakes so much! I’m also a believer now! These cupcakes are so simple and so beautiful! Thanks for sharing.
Yes! I just wish I would have started years ago.
In the instructions you’ve listed brown sugar but I don’t see that in the ingredients. Am I missing something?
Sorry about that, I’m not sure how I ended up with that typo, but I fixed it. Thanks for letting me know!
What % milk do you use? Thanks! Trish Pines
I actually used Skim because it is what I had on hand, but you could use 1% or 2% without seeing any difference really.
My husband is not a huge sweets guy and he absolutely loved these cupcakes, pretty sure he ate about 4 of them in a row!
Use brown sugar instead of white flour?
Do you mean brown sugar instead of white sugar? If so, no you should not make that substitution. It will significantly impact the texture of the cake.
It’s confusing because the ingredients list sugar bu the instructions call for brown sugar. IA m assuming to just use regular sugar.
Hi Anna, sorry about that. I see now that the instructions said brown sugar for some reason. You are correct, it should be regular white sugar. I have updated the recipe accordingly. Thanks!
If I only have unsalted butter can I add 1/4 tsp to each stick ?
I would rather use vanilla instead of almond extract do you th8nk it would be ok? I d9nt wan5bmy cupcakes to tas5e like almond!
That would be totally fine, it’s a personal preference. Hope you enjoy them!
Can you please let me know how to store these cupcakes? I need them for tomorrow, can i go ahead and make the frosting or wait till tomorrow?
The frosting can easily be stored for a couple days refrigerated. Just make sure to take it out of the refrigerator a couple hours before you need it, so it comes to room temperature and pipes nicely. I store my cupcakes in large tupperware containers.
Is this correct, you use salted butter and salt?
Yes!
Is this correct, you use salted butter and salt??
Sorry I didn’t know my first comment went through!
Does it matter what kind of salted butter I use? I bake often and have never used salted and added salt so wantcyo make sure it’s not too much.
Just regular salted butter!
Made these tonight….Incredibly delicious! The buttercream frosting is so yummy!!
You have great write up, I always read your blog. and I must say you are doing good job, plz do write like this.
Can you use margarine in place of butter?
It should be fine using margarine, you just won’t get quite the same flavor you would from butter.
You have answered my vanilla cupcake prayers!!!! I’ve searched high and low and THIS IS IT!!!!!!!! These were amazing and moist!
Ahhhh so happy to hear you loved them!
Does butter have to be room temperature?
It does work best to have it at room temp, or at least close.
Can you substitute yogurt for the sour cream?
Yes, I just wouldn’t swap it out non-fat yogurt seeing it has a much thinner consistency.
I have made this recipe twice now. First time, I used unsalted butter (what I had on hand) and forgot to add any salt at all. They tasted like cornbread. So, I made another batch. This time with salted butter and the added salt. Still tastes like cornbread. I didn’t have cake flour, but made my own (1 cup ap flour, take 2 tbsp out, add 2 tbsp cornstarch). What am I doing wrong??
I’m at a lost as to why these would taste like cornbread for you. I would think you would need to use Masa corn flour for them to ever taste like that. I have made these with regular All-purpose flour and they still tasted great.
I made a 3rd batch. Brought all my ingredients to room temp and used ap flour. They were a hit 🙂
Mine totally taste like cornbread too and are a gross texture. Used regular flour as we don’t have cake flour and followed all directions. I think it probably requires cake flour as the texture and taste are just off on these.
I will be using ap flour when making these. Do I need to sift the flour?
I never sift my flour
Hi Danielle!
I made these today and they are absolutely delicious – but a bit crispy around the edges of the tops. I baked for 20 minutes at 350. Any thoughts on how to avoid the crisp?
Perhaps if you add some humidity to the oven, like a small pan of water, the edges might be softer.
My cupcakes never rose in the oven. The centers fell in and they stick to the paper liners. What did I do wrong.?
It’s difficult to troubleshoot without more information. Are you certain you used all the correct measurements for all of the ingredients?
This is a delicious recipe! We had fights over who got to lick the beater and the bowl.
Can this recipe be halved to make only 12 cupcakes instead of 24?
You should be able to!
Do you think this recipe would convert well to 2 9” cake pans? I’m baking my own birthday cake! 😃
It should, yes!
I love how they turned out.
I’m excited to share them at work. Made them for a co-worker’s birthday.
Hi! Im looking to get the texture (not flavor) of a boxed cake mix cupcake. An open crumb and melt in your mouth. I love baking from scratch but my cupcakes using cake flour just dont have the texture i want. I will like to try this recipe. Which flour will give me this? APF or cake flour?
Thank you.
Cake flour is the key to making these delicious! I paired them with Danielle’s homemade buttercream and they were EPIC! Get the cake flour!!
WOW! My daughter made these for my grandaughter’s bday party and I had to swipe the recipe! I plan on surprising her with them in a month for her bday. YUMMY!
Did any one get a tingly tongue from the canola oil? And mine stuck to the wrapper…any suggestions?
Sorry not canola oil…
I substituted butter for canola oil. Cakes came out great. I think I need to look for cake flour though for a much softer cake
Could I substitute the almond extract for other extracts such as lemon or strawberry for a different flavor? I made these and they were WONDERFUL, hoping to use this recipe for many other flavors.
I’ve never tried it with different extracts.
Hello,
Hope all is well!
Does it matter what salt you use?
sea salt or iodized salt are fine, just so long as they are fine
Thank you.
The recipe came out great. My family loved the cupcakes.
So glad everyone enjoyed it!
These were perfect with the right amount of sweetness and super yummy.
These are truly the best cupcakes we have ever made. Wow! So good! Thanks!
If I only have unsalted butter can I add 1/4 tsp to each stick ?
Loved these changed the almond extract to strawberry flavoring and used Wilton icing color to color the cupcakes pink.