These cupcakes are a classic crowd-pleaser. There are so many skills to learn when making cupcakes. You have to cream butter and sugar together, scoop and swipe your flour, make a proper buttercream without over mixing, and then pipe that buttercream onto your gorgeous, fluffy cupcakes. There is not much that excited a room full of 8 year olds like finding out we’re making cupcakes that week. Trust me, this will be a win no matter how perfectly they turn out.

When starting on a baking project with my own little chef helpers, I usually plan to invite them in the kitchen for a few tasks (one at a time, if possible). This helps them have a clear, focused experience helping, and helps you maintain your grip on the situation. For instance, I may invite one kid to help measure and mix the wet ingredients, one to measure and mix the dry ingredients, and then one to stir it all together. Then they all come back in to help scoop them into the muffin tins.

I love using a large cookie scoop for cupcake and muffin batter. It is so helpful for students who are trying to get thick batters to come out of the scoop.

Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients

½ cup butter, softened

½ cup sugar

2 eggs 

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cup milk

1 ¼ cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350*F
2. Combine your butter and sugar in a medium bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. Mix on high until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes).
3. Add in your eggs one at a time. Mix batter in between. 
4. Add vanilla and mix to combine. 
5. Add your baking powder, salt, and flour to your bowl and mix to combine. 
6. Add your milk and mix to combine. 
7. Add ¼ cup of batter to each well of your cupcake tin. 
8. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick poked into a cupcake comes out clean.