White Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream
I’ve been searching for a go-to white cupcake recipe for a while now. I feel like any baker should have go-to recipes for a few classics. White cake, chocolate cake, brownies, pie crust, chocolate chip cookies, and sugar cookies are the ones I would like to have a go-to recipe for.
To have a go-to recipe is a huge deal. It means that no matter what other recipes you see of that type, you’re not even interested in trying them because you know that your recipe is awesome. It’s the recipe that you learn by heart and don’t even need to read because you’ve made it so many times. It’s the recipe that everyone loves and asks for when they taste it. It’s a recipe that people request over and over again even though they know you love to try new recipes and your to-bake list is a mile long.
The go-to recipe can make your life easy. But getting to a go-to recipe is not easy. Trying multiple recipes, making tweaks, having restless nights contemplating ingredients are all part of the process. At least that is what the process has been like for me. I’ve tried multiple white cake recipes and I’m still not completely sold. This one is great. I love the texture of this cake, but I really want a cupcake that will rise up a bit. I like domes on my cupcakes. Maybe I’m asking too much to have a delicate tender cake that also produces a dome on top. This will be my go-to-for-now white cupcake recipe until I can find one that has everything I’m looking for. But don’t let me give the wrong impression. These cupcakes are AMAZING! Everyone really enjoyed them.
I got this recipe from Bridget over at The Way the Cookie Crumbles. Have you seen her blog? It’s awesome. I love her photographs and her comparison posts! She inspired me to do a sugar cookie comparison post a couple years ago and I took her advice on the outcome of the red velvet cupcake comparison post with great results. So I’ve been wanting to try her white cake recipe. She combined the favorite parts of a couple recipes to make her own. How cool is that?
Note – this recipe calls for 6 egg whites. Bridget recommended actually separating out the eggs as opposed to using liquid egg whites. I made these the same day I made the lemon bars since those called for 7 egg yolks so it worked out perfectly for me. Another great idea is to make some creme brulee with the yolks!
One Year Ago: Sugar Cookie Bars (a go-to bar recipe for sure!)
Don’t forget about my giveaway. Be sure to enter by Midnight this Friday for your chance to win a Make-Ahead Meals Cookbook.
White Cupcakes
These white cupcakes are perfectly tender and moist.
Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients:
1 cup + 2 Tbsp whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature
2 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups + 2 Tbsp sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp table salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1 batch buttercream
Directions:
Set oven rack in middle position. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.
Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.
Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.
Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15-17 minutes. (If baking layer cakes, this recipe will make two 9-inch layers. Bake for 23-25 minutes).
Cool completely prior to frosting.
Recipe from The Way the Cookie Crumbles
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
Thank you so much for this idea and the tutorial! I made a purple ombré cake this weekend and it was a big hit for my daughter’s 4the birthday party!! I used your raspberry curd recipe and basic vanilla buttercream and it was so yummy! Next time I make it I will splurge on better food coloring because the colors were pretty muted.
I also made it a little easier on myself by going darkest on top to light-that way when I frosted I started at the bottom with the lightest frosting and then made the frosting darker for the next layer… Helped me so that I’d didn’t have too many bowls of frosting an piping bags going.
How far in advance do you think is okay to frost it? I’m making the cake for a baby shower Saturday evening, but we have another event during the day. Do you think Friday would be okay to frost it? I just don’t want the frosting to get hard! Thanks!!!
What color purple did you use and how much for each color?
beantownbaker — January 3rd, 2013 @ 10:16 am
I didn’t actually pay attention, I just added purple until I liked the colors. Sorry I can’t be more helpful…
The links for the cake and icing are no longer available. Is there any way to get them?
beantownbaker — January 3rd, 2013 @ 10:16 am
It looks like some of my links died with my redesign. I will try to get this fixed today.
Thanks for the superb idea! I’ve never tried piping flowers, thinking it would be too complicated. Your video laid those fears to rest – I was so thrilled with the results of the purple rose cake I tried last night, and I used your curd recipe to make an orange marmalade curd filling – so delish I sneak the leftovers with a spoon!! Thank you!!
beantownbaker — January 22nd, 2013 @ 7:42 am
So glad to hear that the video was helpful for you! Roses are definitely easier than most people would assume.
Orange marmalade curd sounds amazing!!
I made a cake inspired by this one for a bridal shower a few weeks ago! I wanted to try the passionfruit curd but I couldn’t find the fruit puree at my grocery store 🙁 I’ll keep looking in other stores!
beantownbaker — March 9th, 2013 @ 3:02 pm
Bummer. It is a somewhat item to find in the store…
I’m totally inspired by this cake. It’s so beautiful! I want to make it later this week for my birthday! I was thinking of filling it with Apricot Jam though… Do you think I could try to make a curd from the jam, rather than the fruit puree you used? Or would it be fine to simply fill it with the jam?? I appreciate your opinion on this!! Thanks 🙂
beantownbaker — March 18th, 2013 @ 10:59 am
I’m not sure that making the curd from jam would work. I think I’d just use the jam as-is. Let me know how it turns out for you!
I made this cake on the weekend for my daughter’s birthday in pink ombre. Not only did it look amazing, it was seriously the yummiest cake I’ve ever tasted. Your instructions were spot on and so easy to follow. The measurements were exact and it all came together beautifully! Thank you so much for sharing.
PS I couldn’t get the passionfruit puree either but used lemon curd, which worked wonderfully.
beantownbaker — April 23rd, 2013 @ 7:46 am
So glad you enjoyed the cake and the instructions were helpful for you! Happy birthday to your daughter 🙂
Hi,
I plan on making this for my daughter’s baptism in June – just a quick question – do you think white roses would have worked on the top of the cake?
Thanks!
Anna
beantownbaker — April 25th, 2013 @ 7:44 am
Definitely! You could do it in all white or any gradient of colors you want. Let me know how it goes.
Hi,
I wanted to do this cake idea in a ‘1’ shape cake tin for my daughters first birthday. Do you think it would be too difficult? Also, do you reduce the cooking time by a quarter if you are doing 4 layers? Thanks in advance!
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 1:06 pm
Sorry for not responding sooner, I didn’t see this comment until now…
I’ve never baked this cake in a shaped cake tin. Are there instructions for baking times with the tin? If you already made this, how did it turn out?
Jen, spectacular. Thanks for joining the cake extravaganza. Cheers
beantownbaker — June 10th, 2013 @ 1:04 pm
Thanks!
Hii … I really falling in love with your purple ombre cake, wanna make it for my birthday but I am little bit confuse with the baking time, if we use 9inch baking pan, how long we need to bake it and in what temperature? Thank you
beantownbaker — June 20th, 2013 @ 7:00 am
If you follow the link for the White Cupcakes in the recipe, it says to bake the cake layers for 23-25 minutes at 350.
Hi! I made this cake this weekend for my daughter’s baptism – it turned out pretty good! It didn’t look quite as good as yours….but it wasn’t too shabby! Did it in shades of purple too as my daughter’s name is ‘Violet’! THANKS for the inspiration! Would post a picture but there doesn’t seem to be that option here.
beantownbaker — June 24th, 2013 @ 7:23 am
So glad you enjoyed the recipe! There is no way to post a picture on here, but I’d love to see it! Feel free to post it on my Facebook page!
May I ask what tip you used to pipe these roses?
beantownbaker — August 25th, 2013 @ 6:32 pm
I use a large star tip. I’m not at home right now to get the exact number of it… Also, I made a video about how to pipe a rose here
I made an ombre cake (pink and purple) twice by using your white chocolate buttercream recipe. I cut the powdered sugar to three cups instead of five since most desserts are just too sweet. I used a different white cake recipe and instead of the passion fruit curd, I used a Swiss meringue buttercream as a replacement. I get rave reviews from the decoration (nice tip) and surprisingly, so easy to make the rosettes. It’s true, best to invest in a cake decorating turn table. Thank you for posting this recipe and doing a DIY video, really helped!
beantownbaker — August 28th, 2013 @ 7:27 am
Thanks so much for the note. Glad to hear the video helped. The rose covered cake is such a statement that really isn’t very difficult to execute.
Thanks so much for using the Rose technique that I created and originally shared on my blog in 2011. Please do feel free to reference my blog when talking about the Rose Cake. http://iambaker.net/rose-cake-tutorial/
I am sure you can understand why I would ask that, as I know you would want to be credited if someone took an idea of yours and blogged about it. Thanks!
Which tip did you use to make this cake?
Hi,
I’m thinking to make this cake for my niece’s birthday but I’m wondering if there’s possible to decorate from the top to bottom.
I hate the thought wasting icing if I have to make three different shades from the start. If I could start from the top with white (or the ligthtest) and gradually add more colour for the next row.
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks.
Ant.
beantownbaker — April 18th, 2014 @ 10:41 am
I think that would work just fine. Great idea to frost it from the top down. I’ll definitely do that next time.
What tip do you use to make the roses?
After making the curd, when do you use it when assembling the cake?
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:22 pm
The curd goes between the layers of cake.
This cake looks absolutely perfect! I’ve been looking for some really cute cakes for ages and I think I’ve definitely found one 😉
Love
what could I use as a replacement for te gyro puree? I’m having trouble finding it where I live.
Thanks!
What brand did you use for the coloring ?
For the Goya puree, I found a can (looks like a soda can) passion fruit “cocktail” , is that what the recipe is calling for ? or is it in the frozen section and passion fruit concentrate by Goya? I want to follow this recipe exactly.
Hi, thank you so much for the wonderful recipe and inspiration, i made a purple ombre cake following your recipe for my daughter’s birthday party. Only change was that i filled it with lemon curd, everybody loved the cake. Thank you for the detailed recipe and instructions!..:)
I made this for my daughter’s 2nd birthday and it not only looked great, but tasted great too! Your recipes were so easy to follow (white cake, coloring the layers, making the rosettes). It was my first attempt at a layered cake and doing any sort of decoration and I received lots of compliments! Thank you so much for sharing this!
Looking forward to making this cake for my daughter’s birthday. I’m starting off today with the curd as per your suggestion to split the work. Can you please clarify if the fruit pulp needs to be defrosted prior to using it and if the curd goes into the fridge right after making (still hot)? I’m just starting to get into the world of baking and these may be obvious answers but they are unknowns for me. Thank you.