These homemade cupcakes taste like your classic box cake mix, but better. They are moist, fluffy, and full of rich buttery flavor thanks to the melted butter in the recipe. The milk chocolate buttercream is another classic dessert recipe. It’s so luscious and creamy.
These are the perfect ultimate birthday treat, just like chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting!
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Classic Yellow Cupcakes with Milk Chocolate Frosting
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 22 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours
- Yield: 12 cupcakes
- Category: Cupcakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Homemade yellow cupcakes topped with creamy milk chocolate frosting and extra sprinkles!
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sprinkles
Milk Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 and 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3 Tablespoons half-and-half or milk or heavy cream (I used fat free half + half)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 12-count muffin pan with cupcake liners. Set aside.
- Make the cupcakes: Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside. In another medium bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with a stand mixer (with paddle attachment) or electric handheld mixer until light and foamy, about 2 minutes. While beating, slowly pour in the butter and then the vanilla. While mixing, add half the dry ingredients, then add all the milk, and follow with the rest of the dry ingredients. Do NOT overmix the batter. Gently fold in 1/2 cup sprinkles.
- Divide the batter evenly in the prepared cupcake liners. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.
- Make the frosting: Sift 3 cups confectioners’ sugar & cocoa powder into a medium bowl. Set aside.
- On medium speed, cream butter for a few minutes in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Turn speed to LOW and slowly pour in the dry ingredients. Be careful so that the dry ingredients do not blow everywhere! Mix until sugar/cocoa are absorbed by the butter.
- Turn up mixer to medium speed and add the vanilla and salt. Slowly add in the half + half (or milk or cream) and beat for about 2 minutes or until the frosting reaches a desired thickness. Add the last 1/2 cup of confectioners’ sugar if needed to increase frosting thickness (I did not need it).
- Pipe or spread the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Decorate with additional sprinkles, if desired.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Cupcake Liners | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Icing Spatula or Piping Bag (Disposable or Reusable) with desired piping tips
- Be sure to check out my 10 tips for baking the BEST cupcakes before you begin!
Reader Comments and Reviews
I made these cupcakes and LOVED them – just the right texture and flavor. I chose this recipe because I didn’t have cake flour on hand, and I’m glad I did. They took me back to my childhood. I was not a fan of the frosting – too much butter for me. So, I scraped it off and mixed up a batch using about 2TButter and then added cocoa (more than you called for), vanilla, powdered sugar and milk until the texture was what I wanted. It was sweeter and less buttery which I like, but that’s a personal preference.
These are really easy and have really great butter flavor. I’ve made them for many events. We like these better than the newer yellow cupcake recipe. These have more flavor!
Hi Sally!!! Would this recipe be good to use as piñata cupcakes?
You certainly could! We use and recommend our simply perfect vanilla cupcakes as a starting point for piñata cupcakes.
HI sally , these look good.
can i make these using cake flour instead of all purpose flour spooned and leveled of course. please let me know.
Hey Sally! Is there any way you could update this recipe to reflect the weight measurements? I chose this recipe instead of your other yellow cupcake cuz it uses melted butter and doesnt need the eggs separated but I didnt notice the lack of weight measurements. I have them in the oven now, but is the batter supposed to be pretty thick? I’m used to cupcake batter being relatively thin, so I added a splash more milk. Hopefully they come out all right. And the instructions didnt specify how high to fill them so I went more towards halfway than 3/4 to be on the safe side. Sorry for the novel. Happy Easter!
OK Silly question – when you say cocoa powder, do you mean cocoa powder like the hot cocoa powder? Or the unsweetened cocoa powder?? BTW- I made the pinata cupcakes – I haven’t even gotten to the cutting out the middle & filling yet, I just keep sampling them while I try to decide which frosting – and oh my, they are SOOOOO GOOD!!! Going to do some with the strawberry frosting, some with vanilla and possible some with chocolate, depending on which cocoa I need to use. It’s 12 degrees here, absolutely NO desire to go out to the store. LOL!
It’s soooo cold here too! Stay warm!
The cocoa powder I’m referring to is unsweetened cocoa powder. Not hot cocoa mix.
Hello Amazing Sally!Every time I make one of your recipes everyone wants it too!I really need your help about the baking time when it comes to mini muffins/cupcakes.I just bought 2 mini muffin tins and I d like to give mini cup cakes as presents for the holidays….
Hi, I have a hand held mixer, but I do not have a paddle attachment, I only have a whisking attachment and a dough attachment. Can I use one of them to make the frosting? If not, how do I make the frosting by hand? I actually want to make the triple chocolate layer cake frosting, but I wasn’t able to post a comment on that page.
Thank you,
Kay 🙂
You can use your handheld for the frosting.
We just made these funfetti cupcakes with your vanilla buttercream for one of my twins’ birthday parties last week and they were delicious!!! The funfetti was adorable! They were delicious and perhaps a little dense/dry-ish. Not exactly dry tho, but not super moist..but still very good. The flavor was amazing though. Then, this week for the other twin’s party we made your vanilla cupcake with this chocolate frosting and OMG…BEYOND DELICIOUS! The chocolate frosting is insane it’s so good and the cupcakes were much more light and airy than the funfetti…not sure why. At any rate, both are keepers in my book! Thank you!
I made these with vanilla butter cream with easter decorations on top yesterday. The kids loved them. The colourful center from the sprinkles looked great. Thank you for another great recipe!
Hi I am just wondering but is it okay can using nonpareil sprinkles just any sprinkles in general to make this?
I recommend jimmies instead of nonpareils. Nonpareils typically bleed their color.
This frosting recipe is just unbelievably delicious. We are taking cupcakes to my daughter’s volleyball team tomorrow and they are going to go crazy over these. Great recipe as usual!
Yep, that will be just fine.
Hi Sally, I would like to try baking these cupcakes. If I want to bake 12 cupcakes, does this recipe allows me to easily double the measurement before baking?
Hi Eileen – this recipe makes 12 cupcakes.
Hi Sally, sorry for my typo error. I meant to say 24 cupcakes. If I want to bake 24 in a batch, can I simply double the recipe?
I just made 12 of these and they are soooo good and sooo pretty!
The sprinkles I bought bleed color, so I put 1 teaspoon of dough, 1 smaller teaspoon of sprinkles, 1 teaspoon of dough, etc etc into the cupcake liners, layer by layer. It takes a bit more time but it works!