This is one of my favorite cupcake recipes! These simple and elegant wedding cake cupcakes are light, fluffy, and moist. They’re flavored with vanilla and almond, and topped with a fluffy vanilla buttercream. Perfect for weddings, bridal showers, and all of the days in-between.
Are you a wedding cake or wedding cupcakes type of person? Or both? I’ve seen weddings with both before! Check out this beautiful cake/cupcake display combo thing I found on Etsy while searching for inspiration for this post.
I personally have always been a wedding cupcakes type of person. I’ve said for the longest time that when I get married I’m going to have a big cupcake display like they do in the show Cupcake Wars (great show btw, I love Florian). I love the idea of not having to worry about cutting a slice of cake for everyone and getting to have a variety of flavors. It doesn’t hurt that cupcakes have always been one of my favorite things to bake.
These from-scratch wedding cake cupcakes are super light, fluffy, and moist. So light and tender that it almost just melts in your mouth. Even my mom, who doesn’t really eat cake, absolutely loved these cupcakes because of how light they were.
They’re flavored with vanilla and almond, and then frosted with a very fluffy vanilla buttercream. The result are simple, elegant, and delicious wedding cake cupcakes.
These would be perfect cupcakes to serve at a wedding, bridal shower, engagement party, and all of the days in-between. Honestly, they’re so good you don’t need to excuse of a wedding to enjoy them!
Ingredients for Wedding Cake Cupcakes
The ingredients are what make these the best cupcakes and so fluffy and delicious! While substitutions are available, you’ll get the best results using exactly what is listed.
For the cupcakes themselves:
- Cake Flour: I highly, highly, highly recommend using cake flour for this recipe for the lightest, fluffiest cupcakes. While there are many cupcake recipes where I use all-purpose flour, cake flour does make a difference here. You can find it with the rest of the flour at the grocery store, and it usually comes in a cardboard box.
- Baking Soda & Baking Powder
- Fine Sea Salt
- Unsalted butter, softened
- Granulated sugar
- 2 large egg whites: Using only egg whites also helps keep the cake very light both in texture and color. Make sure they are at room temperature. If you don’t have time to wait for the eggs to warm up, you can place them into a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes before cracking them open.
- Vanilla Extract: use clear vanilla extract if possible to keep the cake light in color
- Almond Extract
- Buttermilk: using actual buttermilk yields the best results. As a substitute, you can mix equal parts Greek yogurt and milk, but this from experience has resulted in a denser cake. You can also make your own buttermilk by adding a tsp of vinegar to milk and letting it curdle for 10 minutes.
- Whole Milk: we use whole milk, which is fattier, for a richer tasting cake.
For the fluffy vanilla buttercream:
- Unsalted Butter, softened
- Powdered Powdered
- Vanilla Extract
- Heavy Whipping Cream
- Fine Sea Salt
Do I Have to Use Cake Flour?
Ideally, yes! I’d love to say that you can substitute all-purpose flour, but unfortunately it really doesn’t result in the same tenderness. Cake flour is what makes these wedding cake cupcakes so fluffy and light. Cake flour has a lower protein content than other flours (usually around 8% compared to 10%-11% for all-purpose flours). On the contrary, bread flour has higher protein content. This lower protein content makes it harder for gluten to develop, which keeps the cupcakes light and airy.
However, in a pinch, I get that cake flour isn’t something that is just laying around in the pantry (unless you’re me circa 3 years ago when I decided I needed one of every type of flour available in my cabinet haha). To make a substitute, for every one cup of flour, take out 2 tablespoons and add instead 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. In some of my other cupcake recipes, like these funfetti cupcakes, I add some cornstarch to the batter to make the cakes more tender.
This recipe uses 1 and ⅓ cups of flour, so you would take out 2 tbsp + 2 tsp of flour and replace it with and equal amount of cornstarch. Make sure to sift the flour and cornstarch together first to make sure they are thoroughly blended.
Tips for Making the Best Wedding Cake Cupcakes
Use Room Temperature Ingredients: as one of the first steps in this recipe, we quickly warm the milk and buttermilk in the microwave so that they aren’t ice cold when they go into the batter. It’s important that your eggs are also at room temperature. The reason for this is that cold ingredients will cause your butter to curdle, which leads to a dense and poorly-risen cake.
Do Not Over-mix the Batter: also as part of the recipe, we use a flexible spatula rather than electric mixer to finish incorporating flour into the batter to avoid over-mixing. This, like many other parts of the recipe, contribute to keeping the cakes very light rather than dense.
Really Whip the Frosting: There is almost a quarter cup of heavy cream in the frosting (if you’re counting it’s ¾ of ¼ cup hehe aka 3 tbsp). As a result, make sure to really whip the frosting to get it light and fluffy.
Have Fun with Frosting Colors: Yes, the frosting I used for these is white, but don’t let that stop you from adding a drop of pink, or green, blue….whatever your preferred wedding colors are. 🙂
Let me know if you have any questions! Happy to help out in the comments.
Did You Make This Recipe?
If so, I’d love to hear from you! Feel free to leave a comment, rating, or take a picture and share it with me on Instagram @toppedwithhoney. Looking forward to seeing your beautiful wedding cake cupcakes!
If you’re not ready to bake yet, no problem! Simply hover over any image in this post (pick your favorite), or tap if you’re on mobile, and click the pin icon in the corner to save for later.
Have fun baking and check out some other cake and cupcake recipes here!
Let’s also connect on Instagram and/or Pinterest!
Light and Fluffy Wedding Cake Cupcakes
Equipment
- 12-cup cupcake pan
Ingredients
Cupcake Batter
- 1⅓ cup cake flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup + 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ tsp almond extract
- 2 large egg whites, at room temperature
- ¾ cup buttermilk, shaken and and lightly warmed
- 3 tbsp whole milk
Whipped Vanilla Buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F/180°C and line a cupcake pan with liners.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and sea salt. Set this aside for now. In a separate, microwaveable cup or bowl, whisk the buttermilk and whole milk and heat for 15 seconds until very slightly warmed. Set this aside as well.
- In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed for 3-4 minutes until light and fluffy. Pause to scrape down the sides of the bowl if needed. Then, add the egg whites, vanilla extract, and almond, and continue beating on medium speed for 1 minute until smooth and creamy.
- Turn the mixer to low speed and add half of the flour mixture, then all of the milk mixture and beat until mostly blended. Add the remaining flour, turn off the mixer, and use a flexible spatula to fold in the remaining flour until just combined.
- Divide the batter between the cupcake tins, filling until ⅔ full. You may have a bit of remaining batter leftover. Make a 13th cupcake with it if you want!
- Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until cupcakes are just set. Test by gently touching the tops, which will spring back once done. Try to avoid over-baking!Let the cupcakes cool for 10 minutes in the pan before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
- To make the frosting, add all of the ingredients into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Begin beating on medium-low speed to combine everything and then turn it up to medium-high speed. Whip the frosting for around 4 minutes, or until it is very light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl throughout if needed.
- Use a piping tip or knife to frost the cooled cupcakes. Enjoy!
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