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Everyone needs a basic cupcake recipe they can put together fast. Just one bowl and plenty of great variations for birthdays and school parties! Perfect for beginning bakers! Total time 20 minutes Jump to Recipe Pin Recipe

Who doesn't love a sweet bite now and then? If you're looking for a particular flavor, unique decoration, or just plain cake you're gonna love this list!

Jump to: 🧁 Chocolate

🧁 Spice

🧁 Fruit

🧁 Velvet

🧁 Holiday

🧁 Unique

🧁 Coconut

🧁 Vanilla

💭 Tips

📖 Recipe

💬 Comments

Cupcake recipes have come a long way in the past few years. Plain chocolate and vanilla cupcakes have evolved into creative, unique bites of cake in a range of flavors.

You can get them filled or unfilled, decorated to look like mermaids, or topped with mile high frosting. No matter how many we have we eagerly hunt for more!

Here are my picks for the best cupcake recipes you'll find anywhere!

🧁 Chocolate

Is there anyone that doesn't like chocolate cupcakes? You'll find that recipes including cocoa taste more chocolatey than those that use melted chocolate.

🧁 Spice

Spice cupcakes remind me of fall! Apples, cinnamon, and pumpkin are warm cozy flavors.

Cream cheese frosting is great on any of these - for an easy garnish dust with some cinnamon after frosting.

Bourbon and Spice are absolutely a no brainer as far as I'm concerned. What a great combination! Carrot If you love carrot cake you'll love it in the single serving size! Orange Spice is one of my favorite flavor combinations. Chai Latte I am addicted to chai lattes in the winter ... having it in a cake form is beyond everything I could imagine. Snickerdoodle mimics one of my favorite cookies... after all - you can never have too much cinnamon. Pumpkin is the flavor of fall and these are warm, spicy goodness with cream cheese icing.

🧁 Fruit

Black forest cupcakes

Fruit gives cakes moisture as well as flavor. Follow the instructions carefully or you could end up with a too-wet dough that won't bake properly.

Expert Tip: If you're using pie filling in the center gently press the bottom down on the inside of the cupcake after hollowing it out but before filling it so that it's compressed. It helps the bottoms not get soggy.

Lemon is tart and tangy and mouth-wateringly good. These are lemon with lemon buttercream. Apple Pie so easy! Made with cinnamon roll dough and a crumble topping. Caramel Apple are melt in your mouth good with a spiced apple cake topped with caramel buttercream. Easy Black Forest are like the cake! Chocolate with a cherry pie filling and rich whipped cream topping. Strawberry have a bright pink strawberry buttercream to top the bright pink strawberry cake. They'd be perfect for a girl's birthday or baby shower. Strawberry Lemonade if you love sipping strawberry lemonade in the summer you'll want to have these on hand all year! Bananas Foster triple banana flavor in this amazing cupcake inspired by the famous New Orleans dessert. Hummingbird is a classic southern cake and these are the perfect little bite! Lemon Meringue lemon cake filled with lemon curd and topped with a golden meringue. Lychee Rose look so beautiful and delicate! Definitely an exotic choice. Orange Creamsicle brings back happy summer memories! Orange and vanilla is such a yummy combination. Peaches and Cream are one of our favorites. The cake is vanilla with just a touch of peach flavor then peach filling and cream cheese frosting. Definitely a must try! White Chocolate Raspberry are two of my favorite flavors in one delicious bite.

🧁 Velvet

There was a time when there were only red velvet cupcakes but these days you can find that velvety texture in almost any color imaginable.

Most of the time the recipe will call for buttermilk.

Expert Tip: If you use a paste food color instead of a liquid you'll get a deeper flavor without that weird chemical food color taste.

🧁 Holiday

Cupcakes are perfect for taking to holiday parties or sending to classroom parties at school. Decorating them can be as easy as adding holiday-themed sprinkles.

🧁 Unique

Pink lemonade cupcakes from Bowl Me Over

If you can imagine it someone has probably created it. Use these unique cupcake recipes as they are or as inspiration to come up with your own ideas!

🧁 Coconut

Coconut gets it's own section because, well, coconut. I could do a round up of 50 best cupcake recipes and have them all this tropical flavor - I like them that much!

Expert Tip: Toasting coconut in the oven or microwave is easy and it adds extra flavor and texture. You can also substitute coconut milk (the thick kind in the can) for milk in the recipes to give them even more flavor.

Coconut Pie Cupcake are for you if you love coconut pie as much as I do! Filled with coconut mousse and topped with cream cheese whipped cream. Samoas I love these cookies and looking at the cupcake version I'd say I'll love it just as much. Coconut overload! These are made with coconut milk and coconut and more coconut! Blackberry Coconut are SO pretty! The flavor combination is amazing but they are just as beautiful as they are delicious.

🧁 Vanilla

Ever heard the term plain vanilla? Well these cupcake recipes are anything but plain!

Expert Tip: If you really like lots of vanilla flavor you can substitute and equal amount of vanilla sugar for the sugar called for in any recipe.

Vanilla pretty, moist, and delicious - really that's all you want in a cupcake, right?

French Vanilla have lots of vanilla flavor. Add the frosting of your choice.

Copycat Twinkies (with sponge cake, from scratch) really do taste like Twinkies. The secret is in the sponge cake!

One Bowl Vanilla means that they're easy to make, easy to clean up, and super easy to eat!

Cream Soda makes these easy cupcakes extra vanilla-y.

White Cupcakes (Wedding cake) - These are all purpose white cupcakes that are SO good. They work as well for winter holidays as they do for weddings and showers.

It's an amazing list of recipes, isn't it? Which are you going to try first?

💭 Tips

Expert Tip: To make vanilla sugar just add a couple of vanilla beans to the sugar canister and let sit for a few days. You can actually do that with all kinds of things like orange zest, lemon zest, lavender... all kinds of things.

These expert tips will help you make perfect cupcakes every single time!

Baking powder and baking soda lose strength as they get older. It's best to replace them after six months.

Make sure all ingredients for your cupcake recipes are at warm room temperature unless otherwise instructed.

Scrape the sides of the bowl often with a rubber spatula when you are mixing your ingredients.

Make cupcakes all the same size by using an ice cream scoop to put the batter in the muffin tins. They will bake more evenly.

Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before frosting.

Almost any unfrosted cupcake recipe can be frozen for up to 3 months.

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 Recipe

5 from 1 vote Easy Cupcake Recipe with Variations Print Add to Collection Go to Collections Everyone needs a basic cupcake recipe they can put together fast. Just one bowl and plenty of great variations for birthdays and school parties! Perfect for beginning bakers! Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Servings: 12 Calories: 350 Author: Marye Audet-White As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Equipment Needed Stand mixer Stand mixer Ingredients 1x 2x 3x 3 cups all-purpose flour 3 cups all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups sugar 1 3/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon salt

4 eggs 4 eggs

3/4 cups butter, melted and cooled 3/4 cups butter , melted and cooled

, 1 cup milk 1 cup milk

1 tablespoon vanilla 1 tablespoon vanilla

2 cups frosting, your choice 2 cups frosting , your choice Variations 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles, for funfetti 1/2 cup rainbow sprinkles , for funfetti

, 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips, for chocolate chip 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips , for chocolate chip

, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, for nut 1/2 cup chopped pecans , for nut

, 1 tablespoon lemon zest, for lemon 1 tablespoon lemon zest , for lemon

, 1 tablespoon orange zest, for orange 1 tablespoon orange zest , for orange

, 1/2 cup Maraschino cherries, finely chopped, for cherry 1/2 cup Maraschino cherries , finely chopped, for cherry Instructions Preheat oven to 350F.

Line 12 muffin cups with paper or silicon liners.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together.

Add the eggs, melted butter, milk, and vanilla.

Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

Fold optional ingredients.

Fill each paper liner 3/4 full.

Bake until the cakes are lightly browned, spring back lightly touched or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 18 minutes.

Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting. Notes To make vanilla sugar just add a couple of vanilla beans to the sugar canister and let sit for a few days. You can actually do that with all kinds of things like orange zest, lemon zest, lavender... all kinds of things.

Baking powder and baking soda lose strength as they get older. It's best to replace them after six months.

Make sure all ingredients for your cupcake recipes are at warm room temperature unless otherwise instructed.

Scrape the sides of the bowl often with a rubber spatula when you are mixing your ingredients.

Make sure the cupcakes are completely cool before frosting.

Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen for up to 3 months. Nutrition Calories: 350 kcal | Carbohydrates: 54 g | Protein: 5 g | Fat: 12 g | Saturated Fat: 8 g | Cholesterol: 33 mg | Sodium: 273 mg | Potassium: 130 mg | Fiber: 1 g | Sugar: 30 g | Vitamin A: 387 IU | Calcium: 53 mg | Iron: 1 mg Sign up for the emails and never miss another recipe!! I'M IN! We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear. We'll never share your email or send you spam. Pinkie swear.

First published August 2010. Last updated June 2020 for readability, to add a recipe, and take care of broken links.