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These Mini Cupcakes are my favorite traditional cupcake recipe but bite size! The classic vanilla cupcakes with any frosting (especially chocolate) are great for parties of any kind – little 2-bite cupcakes that taste amazing.
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes
Who doesn’t love a mini version of something great? I make my favorite cupcakes mini by using a mini muffin pan and mini cupcake liners. These soft cupcakes are traditional and delicious, but tiny! Made from my vanilla cupcakes, I love serving these are large gatherings because they make more and people feel like they can eat a few since they’re small. They’re so good with the perfect tender crumb and sweet flavor.
Ingredients Needed
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the main base of most desserts, like cupcakes!
- Sugar: This recipe calls for granulated sugar. If you are making frosting, you may need powdered sugar (also known as confectioners’ sugar).
- Buttermilk: Check the recipe card to learn how to make buttermilk at home! But you can also use any kind of milk (or nondairy milk).
- Vanilla: I love using vanilla bean extract but liquid vanilla extract works great too.
- Butter: I always start my yellow cake batter with melted unsalted butter – it keeps the cupcakes nice and moist.
How to make Mini Cupcakes
- Make your cake batter in a large mixing bowl following the instructions.
- Divide batter among mini cupcake liners, filling 2/3 full. I like using a 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to divide the batter.
- Bake until a toothpick comes out clean.
Variations
- You can make mini cupcakes out of my chocolate cake or chocolate cupcakes recipe – just figure you’ll get about 2-3 times the amount of mini cupcakes, and the baking time will be shorter.
- Make an easy chocolate frosting with powdered sugar, cocoa powder, butter, and heavy whipping cream. These are also delicious with vanilla buttercream or cream cheese frosting.
Expert Tips
- If you do not want to use buttermilk, you can substitute for any other kind of milk, even nondairy.
- You can even make these into funfetti cupcakes by adding some sprinkles.
- To get good mini piping on the cupcakes, I used Wilton 1M open star tip for the piping bags.
FAQs
Can you freeze these cupcakes?
You can! Freeze these cupcakes in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
Mini Cupcakes Recipe
These are a classic cupcake recipe, but MINI! You can make double the cupcakes and they are so fun. Add any frosting of choice on top!
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 4 minutes
Total Time 24 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (186g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter , melted
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- ¾ cup (178ml) buttermilk (or combine 3/4 cup milk + 1 teaspoon white vinegar and let sit for 5 minutes)
Frosting Options:
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Peanut Butter Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°. Line mini cupcake pans with cupcake liners.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
- Add melted butter to a large bowl and mix in sugar with a hand mixer for 30 seconds until thick and yellow. Add eggs one at at time, beating after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
- Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Don’t over mix!
- Divide batter among liners, filling 2/3 full. Bake for 9-14 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool completely before frosting.
- Frost cupcakes as desired (chocolate frosting shown piped using a Wilton 1M open star tip).
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- You can substitute any kind of milk (or nondairy milk) for the buttermilk.
- You can substitute gluten-free 1:1 AP flour
- You can substitute oil or melted vegan butter sticks for a dairy-free cupcake.
- Store cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature (if it’s very warm, refrigerate but serve at room temp).
- Cupcakes can be frozen with or without frosting
Recipe Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 70kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 33mg | Potassium: 26mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 83IU | Calcium: 11mg | Iron: 0.4mg
Nutritional information not guaranteed to be accurate
