My Go-To Cupcake Recipe: With Variations!

DIRECTIONS

• Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl together.
• In a different large bowl, whisk the sugar, oil, and egg whites together.
• Whisk in the vanilla.
• Add the flour mix into the bowl and whisk thoroughly.
• The mix will be pretty crumbly and not sticking together right-- add enough milk/soymilk/etc. to make a nice creamy smooth batter. I just add little by little until it blends. If you add too much and the batter's runny, just add some flour to even it out.
• Pour into a lined Texas Muffin (or regular cupcake) tin, filling each one about halfway.
• Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes or until lightly browned on top.
• Let cool for about 45 minutes, or until no longer warm to the touch, then you can add your favorite frosting.
• VARIATIONS:
• For pumpkin cupcakes, use 1/4 cup oil, lower the vanilla to 1 tsp, and add 3/4 cup pumpkin and 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice. May have to bake a little longer due to all the extra moisture from the pumpkin.
• For rich chocolate cupcakes, add 1/4 cup cocoa powder and lower the vanilla to 1 teaspoons. You can also use 1 cup chocolate Nesquik powder in place of the sugar with the vanilla down to 1 teaspoon because it has less sugar that way but the cocoa powder method tastes far richer.
• For matcha green tea cupcakes, lower the vanilla to 1 tsp and add 15g matcha powder (the kind I buy comes in 5g packets, if you use the loose kind I think it'd be 1 teaspoon or maybe 1 1/2 teaspoons of powder.).
• For rose cupcakes, use 2 tsp rosewater instead of vanilla and add 4 drops of red food coloring. You can also use orange blossom water the same way for orange cupcakes!
• For lavender cupcakes, grind the sugar with 1/4 tsp dried lavender buds in a food processor then follow the recipe as written. A little purple food dye makes for nice presentation.
• For strawberry cupcakes, reduce the vanilla to 1 tsp and replace the sugar with 1 cup of strawberry Nesquik powder.