Sweet and fluffy, this recipe uses two bowls and one whisk plus some measuring cups, yielding just twelve delicious vanilla cupcakes with minimal effort—and minimal dishes.

The story

This whole shelter-in-place thing has been torturous for my weight loss. I was actually on a roll when it started. I’d lost 9 pounds from January to mid-March. In the six weeks since, I’ve lost 1.5 pounds. 🤦‍♀️ Oh well, it’s better than nothing.

It’s not a lack of movement. I’ve been taking long walks and rocking my strength training. I even started running again, eating my own words when I decided that pregnancy was the perfect time to swear off running for life. If you don’t register for a jogging stroller, you just can’t jog anymore, right?

The problem has been the eating. All the snacks. All the takeout from locally owned restaurants. All the food I excuse because I’m running now and doing intermittent fasting.

Also, all the baking.

It’s not like I’m gonna stop. Baking makes me happy and relieves stress. And I have jobs to prep/practice for (like my first wedding cake). Plus I kinda need to bake sometimes if I’m going to run a baking blog. #firstworldproblems

So I’ve been practicing with small batches of recipes. Some recipes turn out the same if you double them or cut them in half. Some don’t. I still hold my breath when I make a small batch of my chocolate cake. The “beat for 2 minutes on medium” part is crucial, best done in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Some mixers are too large to effectively beat a 1/2 or 1/3 recipe. A hand whisk doesn’t work. A handheld electric mixer usually works…but I’ve had that fail on me too.

So if you’re a chocolate lover, hold tight. I’m working on options!

But my vanilla cake works beautifully in a half batch! (Or a 1.5 batch, which is pictured above). You get exactly 12 gorgeous cupcakes. You can mix it all by hand. You only need two bowls, a whisk, and measuring cups/spoons. Easy peasy.

Most importantly, I figured out how to make that soft, fluffy texture simply by tweaking my go-to recipe. This recipe uses slightly less Greek yogurt and has you leave the batter slightly lumpy before baking. Still yummy, but less old-fashioned, moist/dense than my bakery style vanilla cake.

So you can have your cupcakes and eat (a reasonable amount of) them, too.

Tips for this recipe

Sift the dry ingredients

I do this for most of my baking. I’ve done it ever since I made my chocolate cake—in the early days, before it was dubbed Charity cake—without sifting anything and it was weird. Dry, didn’t rise, just not good. Sometimes it feels unnecessary to sift dry ingredients, but I think it’s vital for cakes. Since you’re not mixing until smooth with these cupcakes, you want to minimize lumps before they start.

Leave it slightly lumpy

While this seems contrary to the previous tip, it’s actually what helps these become soft and fluffy. Not quite boxed cake soft and fluffy (that’s usually only achieved with the creaming method of using softened butter), but a light cake all the same. The beauty of this cake is that you can keep stirring until smooth (but not after) and it’s still fine, just a little more dense and old-fashioned (in a good way!).

Check bake early and often

You really don’t want to over bake these. I baked mine for 18 minutes, which was fine the first day but by the third day they had a tinge of dryness. I’d say check around 15 minutes, unless you don’t have a convection oven or if it tends to bake faster than average.

Frost with whatever you have on hand

Since these were quarantine-inspired, I have to assume you don’t have a lot of ingredients on hand. Hopefully you have butter, which is the base for my vanilla buttercream (pictured in this post), white chocolate buttercream (used in the three-layer sprinkle naked cake above), cinnamon buttercream, and Nutella buttercream. It’s also a main ingredient in my chocolate ganache buttercream, marshmallow buttercream, and cream cheese frosting. But even if you have no butter to spare, you could make whipped cream, frost it with jam or compote, try your hand at a marshmallow meringue, make a chocolate sauce, or just melt some chocolate and drizzle it on these. Ooooh, in fact, drizzling melted chocolate and adding some sprinkles sounds divine right now. See? This is why weight loss is so hard right now!

Small Batch Fluffy Vanilla Cupcakes

prep time: 10-15 minutes

cook time: 15-20 minutes

total time: 25-35 minutes

Servings: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

1 eggs,room temperature

3 ounces plain, whole milk Greek yogurt, room temperature (regular yogurt or sour cream would work, too)

½ tablespoon pure vanilla extract

½ cup buttermilk, room temperature

⅓ cup oil (avocado or grapeseed)

⅔ cup sugar (or ¾ cup for a sweeter cake)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour, sifted

¼ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon fine ground salt

Instructions:

Preheat your oven to 325. Line one regular cupcake pan with cupcake liners (or spray with baking spray or even grease with butter and lightly sprinkle with flour—use what you have!)

Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.

In a separate medium mixing bowl, whisk the wet ingredients (eggs, yogurt, vanilla, buttermilk, and oil) until well-blended and no chunks of yogurt remain and oil is emulsified (meaning no oil bubbles form when you stop whisking), about 1 minute. Add sugar and whisk for about 30 seconds to partially dissolve the sugar. Add dry ingredients to the wet, stirring gently with a spatula (or the whisk—cause dishes are annoying when you’re home all day) until just combined and only small lumps remain. Think muffin mix lumps, not chunky.

Pour evenly into your cupcake liners, about ¾ full. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Be careful to check frequently toward the end so as not to overbake. Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack until completely cooled.

Frost and enjoy! Store leftovers on the counter in a tightly sealed container for 3-4 days. If frosting needs to be refrigerated, try to “seal” the cake by getting the frosting to the edge of the cupcake liner, as refrigerating cupcakes dries them out quickly.