Classic Vanilla Cupcakes

Instructions

1. 1

   Heat the oven and line the pan

   Set a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 350°F (175°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners. Give the oven a full 20 to 30 minutes to come up to temperature — cupcakes get most of their lift in the first few minutes, and a half-heated oven gives you flat, dense tops.

2. 2

   Whisk the dry ingredients

   In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together for a good 15 seconds. You're not just combining — you're breaking up any clumps of leavener, which otherwise bake into bitter little pockets.

3. 3

   Beat the butter, oil, and sugar

   In a large bowl, beat the softened butter, oil, and granulated sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until pale and noticeably fluffy. Scrape the bowl down once partway through. This step is whipping air into the fat, and that air is half your rise — don't rush it.

4. 4

   Add the eggs and vanilla

   Beat in the whole eggs one at a time, then the extra yolk, mixing about 20 seconds after each. Add the vanilla and mix to combine. If the mixture looks curdled or split, your eggs were too cold; keep beating for another 30 seconds and it will usually come back together.

5. 5

   Alternate the flour and buttermilk

   With the mixer on low, add about a third of the dry ingredients, then half the buttermilk, then another third of the dry, the rest of the buttermilk, and finally the last of the dry. Stop the moment the last streaks of flour disappear. Overmixing here develops gluten and gives you tough, tunneled cupcakes — a few seconds of finishing by hand with a spatula is safer than ten extra seconds on the mixer.

6. 6

   Fill the liners

   Divide the batter among the 12 liners, about 3 tablespoons each, filling them roughly two-thirds full. An ice cream scoop with a trigger makes this fast and keeps every cupcake the same size, which means they all finish baking at the same moment.

7. 7

   Bake

   Bake for 17 to 20 minutes, until the tops spring back when you press one lightly and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. Start checking at 17 minutes. Vanilla cupcakes go from tender to dry in about two minutes, so err on the early side.

8. 8

   Cool completely

   Let the cupcakes sit in the pan for 5 minutes, then lift them out onto a wire rack. Leaving them in the hot pan longer steams the bottoms. Cool all the way to room temperature before frosting — even slightly warm cupcakes will melt buttercream into a slick.

9. 9

   Make the buttercream

   Beat the softened butter alone on medium-high for 4 to 5 minutes, until it's very light and almost white. Add the powdered sugar about a cup at a time on low speed, then the vanilla, cream, and salt. Turn the speed up and whip for 2 minutes more. If it's stiff, add cream a teaspoon at a time; if it's loose, add a few tablespoons of powdered sugar.

10. 10

    Frost and serve

    Spread the buttercream on with a small offset spatula, or pipe it with a large star tip for a bakery swirl. This amount of frosting is generous — enough for tall piped swirls on all 12. Serve at room temperature.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  Pull the butter, eggs, and buttermilk out an hour ahead. Room-temperature ingredients emulsify into a smooth batter that traps air; cold ones split and bake up dense.

• 2.

  No buttermilk? Stir 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar into a scant 1/2 cup of whole milk and let it sit 10 minutes until slightly thickened.

• 3.

  Weigh your flour if you can. Scooping straight from the bag can pack in an extra 20 to 30 grams, which is the single most common reason homemade cupcakes turn out dry.

• 4.

  The extra egg yolk is doing real work — it adds fat and emulsifiers that keep the crumb soft for days rather than hours. Don't skip it.

• 5.

  Fill liners two-thirds full, no more. Overfilled cupcakes dome sharply and spill over the edges, and a mushroomed top is hard to frost neatly.

• 6.

  For a deeper vanilla flavor, swap in 2 teaspoons of vanilla bean paste for an equal amount of the extract in the batter — you get the flecks and a rounder, less alcoholic taste.

• 7.

  Rotate the pan front-to-back at the 12-minute mark if you know your oven has hot spots.

Equipment

• 12-cup standard muffin pan
• Paper cupcake liners
• Electric hand mixer or stand mixer with paddle attachment
• Medium and large mixing bowls
• Whisk
• Rubber spatula
• Ice cream scoop or large spoon
• Wire cooling rack
• Piping bag with large star tip or small offset spatula
• Kitchen scale (recommended)

Storage