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!
Cupcake Birthday Cake Recipe Video
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.
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
Kristen Chidsey says
May 17, 2016 at 11:37 amHappy 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.
Megan @ MegUnprocessed says
May 19, 2016 at 11:33 amThese look tasty! Happy Birthday!
ashley - baker by nature says
May 20, 2016 at 9:30 amThey’re lovely! The perfect way to celebrate 🙂
Sabrina Modelle says
May 20, 2016 at 12:20 pmHappy birthday! Your cupcakes look delicious too!
Rochelle Warner says
May 27, 2016 at 6:40 amI 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.
Danielle Green says
May 28, 2016 at 12:48 pmYes! I just wish I would have started years ago.
Kimberly says
May 28, 2016 at 11:23 amIn the instructions you’ve listed brown sugar but I don’t see that in the ingredients. Am I missing something?
Danielle Green says
May 28, 2016 at 12:49 pmSorry about that, I’m not sure how I ended up with that typo, but I fixed it. Thanks for letting me know!
Trish Pines says
June 1, 2016 at 12:51 pmWhat % milk do you use? Thanks! Trish Pines
Danielle Green says
June 1, 2016 at 1:09 pmI actually used Skim because it is what I had on hand, but you could use 1% or 2% without seeing any difference really.
Ashley says
June 2, 2016 at 12:05 pmMy husband is not a huge sweets guy and he absolutely loved these cupcakes, pretty sure he ate about 4 of them in a row!
Stacey says
July 20, 2016 at 10:59 amUse brown sugar instead of white flour?
Danielle Green says
July 21, 2016 at 8:35 amDo 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.
Anna says
August 25, 2016 at 6:26 pmIt’s confusing because the ingredients list sugar bu the instructions call for brown sugar. IA m assuming to just use regular sugar.
Danielle Green says
August 26, 2016 at 7:58 amHi 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!
Dona says
December 24, 2016 at 8:14 amI would rather use vanilla instead of almond extract do you th8nk it would be ok? I d9nt wan5bmy cupcakes to tas5e like almond!
Danielle Green says
December 24, 2016 at 8:15 amThat would be totally fine, it’s a personal preference. Hope you enjoy them!
Maggie lavay says
February 3, 2017 at 11:55 amCan 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?
Danielle Green says
February 3, 2017 at 11:59 amThe 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.
Amber says
June 12, 2017 at 12:45 pmIs this correct, you use salted butter and salt?
Danielle Green says
June 12, 2017 at 12:46 pmYes!
Amber says
June 12, 2017 at 12:46 pmIs this correct, you use salted butter and salt??
Amber says
June 12, 2017 at 12:50 pmSorry I didn’t know my first comment went through!
Amber says
June 12, 2017 at 12:56 pmDoes 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.
Danielle Green says
June 14, 2017 at 10:36 amJust regular salted butter!
Deb says
June 24, 2017 at 1:10 amMade these tonight….Incredibly delicious! The buttercream frosting is so yummy!!
CakenGifts.in says
July 1, 2017 at 3:27 amYou have great write up, I always read your blog. and I must say you are doing good job, plz do write like this.
PL Black says
August 15, 2017 at 9:36 amCan you use margarine in place of butter?
Danielle Green says
August 30, 2017 at 12:47 pmIt should be fine using margarine, you just won’t get quite the same flavor you would from butter.
Vanessa says
August 27, 2017 at 1:55 pmYou have answered my vanilla cupcake prayers!!!! I’ve searched high and low and THIS IS IT!!!!!!!! These were amazing and moist!
Danielle Green says
August 30, 2017 at 12:59 pmAhhhh so happy to hear you loved them!
Marissa says
September 20, 2017 at 8:13 amDoes butter have to be room temperature?
Danielle Green says
September 20, 2017 at 12:33 pmIt does work best to have it at room temp, or at least close.
Teri says
November 14, 2017 at 11:58 amCan you substitute yogurt for the sour cream?
Danielle Green says
November 14, 2017 at 2:00 pmYes, I just wouldn’t swap it out non-fat yogurt seeing it has a much thinner consistency.
Susie Dochterman says
January 8, 2018 at 10:02 pmI 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??
Danielle Green says
January 10, 2018 at 12:24 pmI’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.
Susie Dochterman says
January 18, 2018 at 8:43 pmI made a 3rd batch. Brought all my ingredients to room temp and used ap flour. They were a hit 🙂
Dola says
February 1, 2018 at 1:34 pmI will be using ap flour when making these. Do I need to sift the flour?
Danielle Green says
February 1, 2018 at 7:16 pmI never sift my flour
Sarah says
August 9, 2018 at 8:03 pmHi 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?
Danielle Green says
September 4, 2018 at 9:25 amPerhaps if you add some humidity to the oven, like a small pan of water, the edges might be softer.
Helen says
August 24, 2018 at 8:51 pmMy cupcakes never rose in the oven. The centers fell in and they stick to the paper liners. What did I do wrong.?
Danielle Green says
August 28, 2018 at 3:46 pmIt’s difficult to troubleshoot without more information. Are you certain you used all the correct measurements for all of the ingredients?
Linda says
August 30, 2018 at 11:52 pmThis is a delicious recipe! We had fights over who got to lick the beater and the bowl.
Miri says
September 19, 2018 at 4:32 pmCan this recipe be halved to make only 12 cupcakes instead of 24?
Danielle Green says
September 25, 2018 at 11:48 amYou should be able to!
Jordan says
October 7, 2018 at 4:49 pmDo you think this recipe would convert well to 2 9” cake pans? I’m baking my own birthday cake! 😃
Danielle Green says
October 9, 2018 at 12:15 pmIt should, yes!
Claudine says
February 17, 2019 at 6:36 pmI love how they turned out.
I’m excited to share them at work. Made them for a co-worker’s birthday.
Naty says
April 21, 2019 at 8:19 pmHi! 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.
Julie Evink says
May 20, 2019 at 12:35 pmCake flour is the key to making these delicious! I paired them with Danielle’s homemade buttercream and they were EPIC! Get the cake flour!!
Coleen Koehl says
May 20, 2019 at 12:35 pmWOW! 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!