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These gluten free cupcakes have the classic vanilla flavor and texture you want for birthdays, weddings, baby showers, or any celebration where no one should miss out.
They’re simple, reliable, and easy to frost, decorate, and serve! Plus, there's a simple buttercream frosting recipe below for the perfect bakery-style pairing.
Table of Contents
- Why this recipe works
- Cupcake ingredients
- How to make gluten free cupcakes (step by step photos)
- How to make vanilla buttercream frosting (step by step photos)
- Frosting ingredients
- How to make the frosting (step by step photos)
- Expert tips
- Ingredient substitutions
- Storage suggestions
- Vanilla Gluten Free Cupcakes Recipe
- FAQs
“Just made these cupcakes today for a wedding. I received nothing but praise. Everyone questioned whether they were gluten free or not!”
Why this recipe works
The cupcakes bake up with a light, even crumb that stays moist without ever feeling heavy. The vanilla flavor is simple and classic, so they taste like the cupcakes everyone expects.
The batter is easy to make, with no sifting or special steps: just mix the batter, scoop it into the tin, and bake. Plus the cupcakes rise with flat tops that are perfect for frosting.
They’re easy to dress up with vanilla frosting, chocolate frosting, sprinkles, or nothing extra at all. You can also freeze the plain cupcakes for up to 3 months, so they’re ready when you are.
Cupcake ingredients
Here's what you'll need to make this recipe at home, plus an explanation of the role each ingredient plays in the perfect cupcake:
- Gluten free flour blend: Provides most of the structure for the cupcakes. I recommend Better Batter's original blend, Nicole's Best multipurpose with the added xanthan gum listed in the recipe, or Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 in the blue bag with 1/2 teaspoon extra xanthan gum since it has some, but not enough to prevent a crumbly result that goes stale faster. Since this is such a simple recipe and it's best not to rest the batter, it's especially important to use something with superfinely ground and sifted rice flours to avoid any of that telltale grit that gluten free baked goods can suffer from.
- Baking powder + baking soda: Help the cupcakes rise and stay light and airy, and brown gently around the edges.
- Salt: Enhances other flavors and balances sweetness.
- Butter: Adds richness and moisture to help create that soft, tender crumb, plus lots of buttery flavor.
- Granulated sugar: Sweetens the cupcakes and keeps them moist by locking in moisture.
- Egg + egg white: Give structure and help the cupcakes rise evenly and the extra egg white helps them hold their shape without collapsing as they cool.
- Vanilla extract: Adds depth of flavor.
- Buttermilk: Adds moisture, gentle tang, and reacts with the leaveners to help the cupcakes rise. You can also use regular milk, but I'd recommend reducing the amount by about 1 teaspoon since regular milk has more moisture and could make the cupcakes cave in as they cool.
How to make gluten free cupcakes (step by step photos)
Making these gluten free cupcakes is as simple as whisking, creaming, and alternating the wet and dry ingredients. Here's a visual overview with some explanation of why each step is important:
Whisk the dry ingredients
In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the gluten free flour blend, xanthan gum (if needed), baking powder, baking soda, and salt. This is we ensure that there are no bitter clumps of leaveners and that the cupcakes rise evenly. Then set those dry ingredients aside because we'll add them later.
Combine the wet ingredients with the sugar
In a large mixing bowl, place the butter, sugar, egg and egg white, and vanilla, and beat them together until fluffy and well-combined. This helps dissolve the sugar in the butter first to create some lift, but not as much as it would if you creamed the butter and sugar together first separately. That might create too much rise, and the cupcakes could dome like gluten free muffins.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients
To the bowl with the egg and butter mixture, mix in the whisked dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with buttermilk in two parts in between. Start and end with dry. This is the best way to ensure that everything is combined well without overmixing, which could lead to too much rise or a stringy mixture.
Portion the batter
Scoop the soft but thick raw cupcake batter into a lined muffin tin, filling each well about 2/3 full. This way they'll rise to about the top of each liner. Plus, baking in liners will help the cupcakes keep their shape and ensure that nothing sticks to the muffin tin.
Bake at 325°F
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when gently pressed. Don't overbake or the cupcakes can turn out dry.
Cool completely
Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes just so you don't collapse them when they're too warm, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
How to make vanilla buttercream frosting (step by step photos)
This classic vanilla buttercream is smooth, stable, and pipes beautifully. It’s naturally gluten free and the perfect match for these cupcakes.
Frosting ingredients
Here's what you'll need to make a simple buttercream frosting, but you can use any gluten free frosting you like best:
- Butter: Room temperature butter provides the creamy base for buttercream frosting. It adds buttery flavor, traps air well when beaten, dissolves the sugar, and creates a smooth texture. We use unsalted butter so we can control exactly how much salt we add.
- Confectioners' sugar: Sweetens and thickens; it also helps the frosting hold its shape by dissolving quickly and easily into the butter, and creates structure by thickening the dairy both with the finely ground sugar and the bit of added starch it contains (usually cornstarch).
- Vanilla extract: Adds depth of flavor.
- Milk (as needed): Helps thin the frosting to piping consistency since it can be hard to get the amount of sugar added exactly right.
How to make the frosting (step by step photos)
This is a visual overview of how to make a simple vanilla buttercream frosting,
Cream the butter
Unlike in the cupcakes, we want to beat the butter until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes, to add air to it which helps make it spreadable and easy to pipe.
Add the sugar, vanilla, and a splash of milk
Beat in just 1 cup of confectioners' sugar for 1 stick of butter at first until well-combined, then add in vanilla which will contribute some moisture. If the buttercream seems at all crumbly or seems to stiff to spread smoothly on a cake or cupcake, beat in some milk.
Whip until fluffy
Turn the mixer to high and beat for about 5 minutes, or until the frosting is light and airy.
Adjust consistency
The frosting is ready to use when it doesn't grip the side of the mixing bowl too tightly. Add more sugar to thicken or a few drops of milk to loosen, but go slowly. Try piping some right back into the mixing bowl, and if you see frayed edges it needs a bit of moisture. If it doesn't hold its shape, it needs some more sugar.
5. Frost your cooled cupcakes
Use a piping bag or just scoop with a spoon, but be sure not to frost warm cupcakes, or the frosting will melt rather than holding its shape.
Expert tips
Use room-temperature ingredients
Cold butter, eggs, or milk won’t mix evenly and can cause texture issues.
Don’t overmix
Mix just until the batter is smooth. Overmixing adds too much air and can create tunnels.
Scoop evenly
Fill cupcake wells about 2/3 full to prevent overflow and ensure even baking.
Bake just until done
At 325°F, bake until the tops spring back when lightly pressed. Skip the toothpick, as it can be misleading here and lead to overbaking if you wait until it's completely clean.
Cool completely before frosting
Warm cupcakes will melt your frosting. Let them cool fully for best results.
Measure by weight
For reliable results, use a digital kitchen scale instead of measuring cups, especially for the flour which is very easy to overmeasure. Plus, you don't want to use what your measuring cups say is a cup, you want to measure exactly as I, the recipe developer, did to get my exact results.
Ingredient substitutions
Dairy-Free
Use block-style vegan butter (like Melt or Miyoko's brands are best) or butter-flavored nonhydrogenated shortening in place of butter.
For the best texture, replace buttermilk with a mix of half plain yogurt and half nondairy milk by volume. You can also use just unsweetened, unflavored nondairy milk, but the crumb will be a little more condensed.
Egg-Free
Replace the egg with a chia egg, Bob’s Red Mill egg replacer, or Just Egg. Avoid flax eggs because they add a strong flavor that doesn’t work well here.
Storage suggestions
Room temperature
Store unfrosted or frosted cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days. Avoid the fridge since it dries out cakes, especially when they're made with butter instead of oil.
Freezing unfrosted
Once completely cool, wrap each cupcake tightly in freezer-safe wrap, then place in a sealed container or zip-top freezer bag. Freeze for up to 3 months or the flavor might taste a bit off.
Freezing frosted cupcakes
You can freeze them fully frosted, too. Let them defrost at room temperature, and don’t microwave or the frosting will melt.
To serve from frozen
Unwrap and let sit at room temperature until thawed, or microwave unfrosted cupcakes at 50% power in 20-second bursts.
Vanilla Gluten Free 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
For best results, use Better Batter original blend or Nicole’s Best multipurpose blend with added xanthan gum as directed. Bob’s Red Mill gluten free 1-to-1 also works well as long as you add ½ teaspoon xanthan gum to the dry ingredients to prevent crumbling. To make your own blend, see the All Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blends page. Nutrition information: Approximate nutrition information is per cupcake, excluding frosting.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
FAQs
Yes, vanilla bean paste works well and has a stronger flavor than extract. Use the same amount as you would vanilla extract.
Yes, just reduce the baking time. They’re ready when the tops spring back when lightly pressed.
That usually means the oven was too hot, so the outside set before the inside had time to build structure. Use a standalone oven thermometer to be sure your oven temperature is accurate. Or you may have added too much moisture by using milk instead of buttermilk.
Yes! Freeze them (unfrosted or frosted) as soon as they’re completely cool. Defrost at room temperature for best results.
You can. Just divide the batter evenly across more tins, and rotate them during baking for even results.
No, this recipe doesn't have enough structure to hold its own as a full cake. Instead, use our vanilla gluten free cake recipe. It calls for a few more steps, but go see the comments. You'll see it's worth it!
Loved this recipe!! Using it again for my son’s birthday party. I wasn’t able to find Better Batter but used King Arthur measure for measure. I think the trick was weighing the dry ingredients because it seems to be a denser flour than better batter, when I weighed it out 1.5cups would have been way too much but in grams it was perfect! Moist, not crumbly at all. My favorite is always when my husband asks “this is gluten free?” Thank you!
I’ve never had cupcakes crumble apart the way these did. Also, the batch did not make 16 cupcakes. It made 14. I needed 16, and now I have to remake a whole different recipe because I have 14 crumbly cupcakes rather than 16 decent ones.
Heather, that sounds frustrating, and my first guess is that you used an inferior gluten free flour blend. Perhaps you also didn’t use any xanthan gum? Since you didn’t give any details about how you proceeded, I’m only able to guess. Please see the all purpose gluten free flour blends page on the blog, which is linked in this recipe and every other that calls for that ingredient, for full information on appropriate blends, including calls outs of a few blends that are the worst. The flour blend is the most important part of the recipe, as we’re replacing wheat flour, and that’s why the text of the post references that ingredient again and again.
hi,
i just made your gluten free cupcakes using and im so dissappointed as theyve turned out awful..im trying to work out what ive done wrong.
i do bake quite a bit so felt confident theyd turn out well and the batter looked fantastic.
im in australia and used Yesyoucan gluten and dairy free plain flour which has xanthen gum added.
i added cornstarch as per the recipe.
the cupcakes did overflow so im guessing that i did overfill slightly also.
ill try again another day.
kind regards.
jayne
Jayne, frankly, I’m confused by a 2 star rating. As I discuss extensively on the blog, you can’t use just any gluten free flour blend and get the expected results. Please click the link in the recipe that is connected to the “all purpose gluten free flour blends” ingredient for full information on appropriate blends. And overfilling the wells is, of course, user error.
I’m little unsure if I’m understanding step 4 for the cupcakes correctly. The way it reads to me is that I’m supposed to divide the dry ingredients into three parts, then add part 1 and beat it in lightly, add half the milk/buttermilk and beat that in, add part 2 of the dry and beat it in, add the rest of the milk and beat it in, then finish with part 3 of the dry ingredients.
That’s how I understood the recipe and how I did it, but as I was in the middle of doing so, I was second guessing myself. I thought that maybe I was supposed to add half the dry (part 1), then add the milk (part 2), then add the rest of the dry ingredients (part 3).
The way I did it turned out great. I just thought I’d reach out for clarification, since I intend to make this again and want to make sure everything is right. Because if I did it wrong the first time but it just worked in spite of me, maybe I won’t get so lucky the second time.
These are lovely, and I intend to use them for my wedding.
You did everything fine, Sarah. Don’t worry and enjoy the cupcakes!
I’m so sad! I was so invested in making these for my friend who has Celiac, but I am in Canada and I can’t seem to get my hands on Better Batter flour without having to pay $100+ for 5Lbs of flour. But I also don’t know the cost of trying to make your Mock Better Batter.
Kayla please follow the link to the all purpose gluten free flour blends page that is linked in this and every recipe that calls for one. You’ll find information on how to blend your own “mock” Better Batter.
Hi, how can I make these sugar-free using monkfruit sweetener?
I’ve never tried this recipe with an alternative sweetener, Nina, but they do tend to be drying so the cupcakes will need more moisture. You’d have to experiment.
My cupcakes tasted like cornbread?? But they were very fluffy and delicious just don’t a sweet cupcake. Any suggestions?
That’s your flour blend, Gwen. It’s not one of my recommended brands.
Umm Nicole, I know that this was a response to an older comment, but I actually had this exact same issue today using Better Batter gluten free flour with all ingredients measured with a high precision food scale and followed the instructions to the letter; since Gwen did not name the type of flour that she used, I’m not sure that one can assume that she did not use an appropriate flour blend for your recipe?
Might you know of any other factors that could have caused these results? Over mixing? Under baking? Over baking? Of note, I did not use dairy. I made buttermilk using oat milk and an unsweetened plain coconut yogurt.
I am actually over the moon with the results of this recipe aside from the slight cornbreadish taste. I’ve been attempting to bake gluten free goods for almost a decade now and today was the first time I’ve ever managed to get the crumb and texture of a gluten free baked good to the point of it being good enough for me to eat myself and also be willing to serve it to others who are able to eat gluten.
I had actually tried at least one of your recipes before, but I don’t think I was ever as meticulous at following all of the instructions as I was today.
I have never ever even purchased a gluten free baked good that I’ve ever liked, whether a prepackaged commercial item from the grocery store or at a fancy bakery. All of these gluten free items have tasted terrible and have a gritty, chalky mouth feel. Blech!
All that said, I hope to try this recipe again since it was basically 95% successful as far as I’m concerned. It’d just be nice if I could perfect it and get rid of that cornbread taste? Please do let me know if you have any thoughts and/or suggestions that could help. Thank you!
Generally, when a crumb it tighter than you’d expect, it’s due to overmixing and/or baking in a too-hot oven, which causes the rise to happen too quickly and the baked goods fall as they cool. That’s all I can really offer!
I want to make a Donauwelle cake. How do you think this recipe would do with adding some cocoa and a little milk to half of it to make the swirls? I also think the cherries might add a little extra liquid, would you adjust for that or just dry them off as much as possible? Thanks!
I’m afraid I would not recommend using this recipe in that way, no. You can’t make vanilla batter into a chocolate swirl that simply. You’d really need a recipe for just that. Sorry!
Amazing recipe!! I had to make some cupcakes for Church so I thought to make some GF ones and these were a hit! One little kid said they were the best, and you know what that means when a kid says that!
Indeed I do know how hard it is to get that sort of positive response from a kid. No filter! So glad you loved them (as did that child!)
I made these today, they came out perfectly. Incredibly moist, risen and delicious. I used butter milk in the batter and a white chocolate butter cream and it complimented them perfectly. They are not dry and are very pretty without the wrapper on. I found hitting them on the bench and shaking them to make a world of difference :)
Perfect texture to pipe some ganache in the middle also. Yum!