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These never-fail gluten free cupcakes are incredibly moist, tender and rich with vanilla flavor. A rich cupcake with a perfect crumb that tastes like it came from your favorite bakery.
From a 3-year old's special birthday party to weddings, baby showers, and everything in between, these cupcakes have been making gluten-free and gluten-eaters alike smile for years. The search is over!
“Just made these cupcakes today for a wedding. I received nothing but praise. Everyone questioned whether they were gluten free or not! Thank you for the great recipe. This is the 8th recipe I tried trying to make gluten free that tasted good. I assure you, I won’t have to look any further. I will be looking on your site first going forward.”
My take
Nicole's Recipe Notes
- Texture and taste: The most soft, fluffy and tender crumb with a rich and buttery vanilla flavor like they came from a bakery.
- Quick and easy: Just whisk dry ingredients, cream the butter, sugar and eggs, then alternate adding buttermilk and flour. No sifting!
- No dome: These cupcakes bake up with a perfectly flat top, so they're ready for you to pile on frosting or pour on icing.
- Simple, but not boring: When the texture is right, everyone loves a vanilla cupcake. Make some with chocolate frosting, others with vanilla, and add sprinkles for a celebration.
- Make ahead: The plain cupcakes freeze so well, for at least 3 months, so they're perfect when your gluten free kid has a last minute birthday in school!
Cupcake ingredients
- Baking powder and baking soda – these ingredients help your cupcakes rise and give them that light, airy texture
- Salt – the ultimate flavor enhancer, salt really brings out the taste of the sugar and vanilla
- Butter – also helps with the texture and aroma of the cupcakes, but also adds richness and serves as a flavor delivery system
- Granulated sugar – these cupcakes are sweet thanks to the sugar, but this ingredient also works as a tenderizer
- Eggs – we use 1 egg and 1 egg white to give the cupcakes structure and contribute to the rise
- Vanilla extract – this is what gives the cupcakes that awesome flavor that reminds you of birthday cake
- Buttermilk – use regular milk or buttermilk, though I find that buttermilk results in the most tender cupcakes with the crumb you want to press into the tines of a fork
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy free
These cupcakes and buttercream can easily be made dairy free by using vegan butter (my favorite brands are Melt and Miyoko's Kitchen), or butter-flavored nonhydrogenated vegetable shortening in place of butter.
These cupcakes are more tender with buttermilk. If you're dairy free or don't have buttermilk, you can make a buttermilk replacement with half milk (dairy or nondairy) and half plain yogurt (dairy or nondairy) by volume. For just milk, any unsweetened, unflavored nondairy milk will work.
Egg-free
Try replacing the egg with a chia eggs, Bob's Red Mill egg replacer, or Just Egg plant-based refrigerated egg replacer. Avoid a “flax egg,” because it would add a strong, unwanted flavor.
How to make gluten free cupcakes
- Whisk together the dry ingredients (gluten free flour blend with xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, and salt), and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, an egg, egg white, and sugar until well-combined and fluffy
- Beat in half the dry ingredients, then the buttermilk, then the remaining dry ingredients.
- After each addition, beat until just combined.
- After adding the last of the dry ingredients, mix by hand into a smooth, soft but thick cupcake batter.
- Line the wells of a standard muffin tin with greaseproof liners.
- Fill the wells 2/3 of the way full with batter. You'll have enough batter left over to make about another 3 to 4 cupcakes after.
- Bake at 325°F for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden brown.
- Let cool in the tin for about 5 minutes, and then fully on a wire rack.
My Pro Tip
Expert tips
Use room-temperature ingredients
Room-temperature ingredients combine better, so let your egg, egg white, butter and milk or buttermilk come to room temperature first. If you haven't planned ahead, flat egg in warm water for 10 minutes, chop up your butter so it warms faster, and microwave the milk or buttermilk at 50% power for 20 seconds.
Don't over-beat the batter
When you over-mix your batter or mix it using a high setting, you'll add too much air, which will cause tunnels and holes in your cupcakes.
Don't over-fill the muffin tin
Just be sure not to overfill the wells of the cupcake tin (2/3 of the way full is absolutely perfect). This prevents the dreaded cupcake explosion, where your cupcakes spill over the edges of the wells of the muffin tin.
An easy way to get uniformly sized cupcakes is to use a greased ice cream or muffin scoop. It ensure a perfect portion every time.
Don't over bake
Bake your cupcakes at no more than 325°F, and only until the tops spring back when pressed very lightly in the center. The toothpick test is not the best test for doneness here, and can easily lead to overbaking.
Cool before frosting
If you're going to frost yours, you really do have to let them cool completely first. If you don't, your frosting will melt and make a sticky mess.
Properly measure your gluten free flour
For perfect results the first time and every time, measure dry ingredients by weight, using a simple digital kitchen scale. Measuring by volume, using a cup, usually means overmeasuring flour. Plus dry measuring cups aren't standardized in size, so your “cup” might be different from mine.
Gluten Free Vanilla Cupcakes Recipe
Equipment
- Stand mixer or handheld mixer
Ingredients
For the vanilla cupcakes.
- 1 ½ cups (210 g) all purpose gluten free flour blend, (See Recipe Notes) (Click thru for full info)
- ¾ teaspoon xanthan gum, omit if your blend already contains it
- 2 tablespoons (18 g) cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 (50 g, weighed out of shell) egg, at room temperature
- 1 (25 g) egg white, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup (5 ⅓ fluid ounces) milk or buttermilk, at room temperature
For vanilla buttercream frosting.
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more as necessary
- ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Milk by the teaspoon, as necessary
Instructions
For the cupcakes.
- Preheat your oven to 325°F. Line 16 wells of standard muffin tins with cupcake liners or grease the wells, and set the tins aside.
- In a small bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and whisk to combine well. Set the bowl of dry ingredients aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or a large bowl with a handheld mixer, place the butter, sugar, egg, egg white and vanilla, and beat at medium-low speed to combine. Increase the mixer speed to medium-high and beat until it appears whipped (about 2 minutes).
- To the large bowl with the butter mixture, add the dry ingredients in 3 batches, alternating with the milk or buttermilk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Beat lightly after each addition until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter should be light and fluffy.
- Fill the prepared wells of the muffin tin about 2/3 of the way full of the batter. Shake the tin back and forth to evenly distribute the batter in each of the wells.
- Place the tin in the center of the preheated oven and bake until the cupcakes are very lightly golden brown and spring back when pressed lightly in the center (about 20 minutes). Don’t over bake.
- Allow the cupcakes to cool for at least 5 minutes in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining cupcake batter. Cool the cupcakes completely before frosting and/or decorating.
For the frosting.
- In a large bowl with a hand mixer or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, place the butter. Beat on medium speed until creamy (about 30 seconds).
- Add the 1 cup (115 g) of confectioners’ sugar, the salt, vanilla, and 1 teaspoonful of milk, and beat on medium speed until well-combined (about 1 minute).
- Beat in more confectioners’ sugar until the consistency is thick but not stiff. Turn up the mixer speed to high and beat for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
- Transfer the frosting to a piping bag fitted with your favorite piping tip. Pipe the frosting on the cooled cupcakes, or use two spoons to scoop a dollop onto each cupcake.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The best gluten free frosting
I've included a recipe for traditional vanilla buttercream frosting, and it's always a favorite. If you'd like something a little lighter, and a bit less expected, try our “Best” Vanilla Frosting. It's a cooked flour frosting that can be made in stages.
Instead of relying upon confectioners' sugar for the proper consistency, a cooked flour frosting has significantly less sugar than buttercream. And it's soft and velvety, but still stable at room temperature.
I haven't ever tried making it with dairy-free butter, I'm afraid. I bet it would work with butter-flavored Spectrum nonhydrogenated shortening, though.
Key frosting ingredients
- Butter: Butter at room temperature adds flavor and forms the base of your buttercream frosting
- Confectioners' sugar: Adds sweetness and thickens the whipped butter so you can pipe in onto your cupcakes. It's powdered sugar plus some cornstarch to keep it from caking.
- Vanilla: Adds depth of flavor so the frosting doesn't taste greasy or flat
How to make the frosting
- Beat the butter just until smooth and creamy.
- Add the confectioners' sugar, salt, vanilla, and some milk to make it easier to beat together.
- Beat until creamy, then turn the mixer up to high speed and beat for about 5 minutes.
- The frosting should be light and fluffy, and should hold its shape when you scoop it. Add more confectioners' sugar if needed to thicken it.
- Place it in a piping bag with a metal tip, or a zip-top bag with the corner cut off, and pipe or spread onto cooled cupcakes.
Storage instructions
Cover any unfrosted cupcakes tightly with plastic wrap, or cover any that have been frosted, and they should stay fresh for about 2 days at room temperature. Don't refrigerate them, though, as that dries them out.
Once they're cool, unfrosted cupcakes freeze very well. Just wrap each of them individually in freezer-safe wrap and store them in a sealed container or zip top freezer bag. They'll stay fresh as frozen for up to 3 months.
Defrost at room temperature or speed them up by microwaving them for 20 seconds at low power. You can freeze frosted cupcakes, too, but you'll need to defrost them at room temperature because the frosting will melt in the microwave.
FAQs
Yes, you can use vanilla bean paste instead, just note that it's going to have a stronger flavor than the vanilla extract. When substituting, include the same amount of paste as you would vanilla extract.
Yes — just adjust your baking time as mini cupcakes don't need as much. And testing for doneness is the same: Press lightly on the top of a cupcake. If it springs back up, the cupcakes are ready.
No, this recipe isn't quite right for making a cake. Instead, try my Classic Gluten Free Vanilla Cake recipe. The ingredient ratios are much better for baking in a larger pan.
The most common reason that gluten free cupcakes sink is that your oven ran too hot, so the outside cooked before the center developed the proper structure to support it. So when the cupcakes cool, they cave in.
If your oven temperature is too low, your cupcakes will probably rise reliably, but won't rise very high. The only really reliable way to gauge oven temperature is with a standalone oven thermometer that you replace often. That's what I do!
Have you tried this recipe with Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF flour? It says it *should* work and I’ve made this recipe before and don’t recall seeing that flour recommended. I previously used Cup4Cup flour and these cupcakes turned out phenomenal. Now with the Cup4Cup reformulation, I’m trying to find an alternative GF flour that can be bought from the grocery store. Seems like Bob’s Red Mill is the only one in this blog but I’m still hesitant it might not turn out as well?
I’m afraid I haven’t tested this recipe with Bob’s Red Mill’s 1-to-1 flour blend, which is why I say it should work if you add more xanthan gum. They have greatly improved the blend, but you can still get a bad batch, and it still has a strange aftertaste, so it simply won’t turn out quite as well as a higher quality blend. That doesn’t mean it won’t turn out at all, but the aftertaste will be particularly noticeable in a simple recipe like vanilla cupcakes.
Can you substitute arrowroot for cornstarch in this recipe? Thanks!
Hi, Lisa, sure that should work just fine. They are usually good substitutes for one another in a situation like this.
I’m confused in earlier post it said cup for cup so I got it but now it says the blend doesn’t work anymore so I’ve made an expensive purchase that can’t be used! Isn’t some way to fix I t like adding powdered milk? I hate throwing money out the door
Yes, I know that’s it’s very disappointing that they’ve changed the blend, and I was devastated by it! It’s a very recent thing that Cup4Cup has changed their formula, and I’ve indicated that the change has not been for the better on the all purpose gluten free flour blends page on the blog, Deb. They didn’t just remove powdered milk, they reformulated it entirely and I don’t have access to their proprietary formulation, so I can’t tell you how to “fix” it, I’m afraid. You can try it, and if you don’t like it, you can try reaching out directly to that company, which I have no connection to.
Hi Nicole
are you saying that I only substitute cornstarch in the Cup 4 Cup mix, but not in the Better Cup 4 Cup mix, and that I use it as is in all the cake recipes here? Is that right? Because I want to try more of your unique recipes.
Hi, Aya, the mock Cup4Cup blend contains an overabundance of cornstarch, which my “Better Than Cup4Cup” blend corrects. So when you’re making this recipe using my mock Cup4Cup, you’ll use more of the mock Cup4Cup in place of the cornstarch, by the gram. If you’re using the corrected blend, the Better Than Cup4Cup, you’ll use cornstarch as a separate ingredient. You’ve got it. :)