Birthday Cupcakes

Struggling to find some birthday cupcake ideas? There’s no going wrong with the classic vanilla cupcake, fun colorful sprinkles, and whipped buttercream frosting! Everyone is familiar with these classic cupcakes, but they’ll still devour them nonetheless.

Ingredient Info

• Powdered Sugar – This is the ideal type of sugar for a frosting. It’s light, sweet and will create that lovely whipped frosting texture. While for most ingredients I think store brands are just as good, I do find that C&H Powdered sugar really provides the best results.
• Flour – When measuring flour for any baked goods, be sure you spoon the flour into the measuring cup, level it off, and then add it to the recipe.
• Sugar – White granulated sugar is the best type of sugar for a vanilla cupcake.
• Butter – Make sure that the butter has been softened to room temperature to ensure the texture of both the frosting and cupcake batter comes out correctly. Unsalted butter is best for this recipe.
• Eggs – Room temperature eggs are ideal, but not required.
• Oil – Vegetable oil is ideal but you can substitute for canola oil instead.
• Milk – Use whatever kind of milk you prefer or have on hand.
• Vanilla Extract – While I prefer vanilla, you could swap it out for almond extract.
• Sprinkles – Rainbow sprinkles, of course, are a classic for birthday cupcakes. Feel free to use whatever kind of colorful, themed sprinkles you want. I prefer to use jimmies style sprinkles, as they usually hold their color. The one type of sprinkle I don’t recommend is nonparelis. They tend to bleed color into the batter, but are fine for sprinkling on the frosting.

Step By Step Instructions

1. Start by preheating the oven to 350°F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Let the oven preheat and set the tin aside while you start on the batter. Grab a large mixing bowl and add the flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk that together until combined.
2. In a separate large mixing bowl, add the oil, softened butter and granulated sugar. Beat that together with an electric hand or stand mixer until combined.
3. To the butter mixture, add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
4. Grab the bowl of the dry ingredients, add a portion of it to the wet mixture and stir to combine. Add a portion of the milk and stir to combine.
5. Repeat, and alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk until everything has been added and your cake batter is smooth.
6. Fold in the rainbow sprinkles using a silicone spatula.
7. Grab the lined cupcake tin and fill each liner up until it’s about 2/3 of the way full with batter. Bake it in the oven for about 16-18 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of the cake.
8. While that bakes, start on the buttercream frosting. Grab a large mixing bowl and add the softened butter and vanilla. Beat that together with an electric hand or stand mixer until smooth. Add the powdered sugar in portions and continue to beat it together until its light and fluffy. If you want, you can add food coloring to the frosting.
9. Take the cupcakes out of the oven once they’re ready and let them cool completely before frosting. You can fill up a piping bag with the frosting or spread it on the cupcakes with a knife. Top the cupcakes with some optional sprinkles and serve!

Tips and Advice

Storage – Store the leftover cupcakes covered at room temperature for 2-3 days or in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Equipment

You’ll need a couple of simple baking tools to make this recipe.

• Large Mixing Bowls
• Cupcake Tin
• Cupcake Liners
• Measuring Cups and Spoons
• Electric Hand Mixer or Stand Mixer
• Silicone Spatula
• Piping Bag and Tips

FAQs

Recipes You’ll Love

Have a few more mouths to feed? Here are some other fantastic treats you can serve at your next birthday party!

• Cookie Truffles
• Funfetti Cupcakes
• Funfetti Cake
• Strawberry Cupcakes
• Rainbow Cake
• Ice Cream Cake
• Unicorn Cake
• Funfetti Cinnamon Rolls