The only things I love more than cupcakes are bite-sized mini cupcakes! I've included recipes for both mini vanilla cupcakes and mini chocolate cupcakes, as well as my classic vanilla and chocolate buttercream!
Jump to:
Why You'll Love These Mini Cupcakes!
Equal frosting to cake ratio - Hands down the best thing about mini cupcakes is that you get equal parts cake and frosting for the perfect bite!!
Perfect birthday cupcakes - These mini cupcakes are a super fun birthday party dessert that both kids and adults will love!
Easy to customize - You can customize these mini cupcakes to your taste with different flavored frostings, fun colors, different piping tips, or your favorite decorations!
You might also like these bite-sized mini chocolate chip cookies!
Ingredient Notes
There's just a few small differences in the ingredients between the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.
- Cake flour - I always use cake flour in my baked goods because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
- Vanilla bean paste - I love using vanilla bean paste for a more concentrated vanilla flavor. But you can also use regular vanilla extract instead!
- Butter vs Vegetable oil - I like to use melted butter in the vanilla cupcakes for extra flavor. But since cocoa powder can make the cupcakes more dry, I like to use vegetable oil in the chocolate cupcakes to keep them extra moist! You can also use canola oil or a neutral olive oil.
- Cocoa powder - My absolute favorite cocoa powder to use in my baking is the King Arthur Flour Triple Cocoa Blend! It's a blend of natural, Dutch, and black cocoa and is perfect for any baking. But you can easily substitute unsweetened Dutch-processed cocoa instead!
- Dark chocolate - For an extra smooth chocolate buttercream, I like to add a little melted dark chocolate. If desired, you can use milk chocolate instead.
- Sprinkles - I like using rainbow sprinkles for the vanilla cupcakes and chocolate sprinkles for the chocolate cupcakes! But you can decorate the mini cupcakes however you like!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 24 cup mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake liners.
In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar until smooth. Add in the egg and vanilla bean paste and whisk until fully incorporated.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then add in the milk. Once incorporated, add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ full (about 1 tablespoon of batter). Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Frost the mini vanilla cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream and garnish with rainbow sprinkles if desired!
Mini Chocolate Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 24 cup mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake liners.
In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil and sugar. Then whisk in the egg until fully combined and smooth.
Gently mix in half the dry ingredients. Then add in the milk and the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter will be thin.
Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ full (about 1 tablespoon of batter). Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the mini chocolate cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Frost the mini cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and garnish with chocolate sprinkles if desired!
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Mini Cupcake Decorating Tips
My favorite baking pan to use is the 24 cup USA Pan mini cupcake pan!
For mini cupcakes, you need mini cupcake liners! My favorites in different colors are:
- Natural tan mini cupcake liners (my absolute favorite brand of cupcake liners!)
- Chocolate brown mini cupcake liners
- Classic white mini cupcake liners (these are the easiest to find in stores)
I personally like using the different color cupcake liners because they look more seamless, but that's just me being a perfectionist.
Make sure you let the cupcakes cool completely before frosting!!
For these mini cupcakes, I like to use different piping tips to add variety! I love this Wilton Decorating Kit because it has a ton of tips in different sizes.
Sprinkles are a fun, easy decoration for these mini cupcakes, but you could use any decorations you want!
Recipe FAQ's
The mini cupcakes are best the same day, but will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days! However, they taste best when served at room temperature! I like to let them sit at room temperature for about an hour before serving.
Each recipe makes 24 mini cupcakes (so 48 total if you make both)! If you'd rather make full size cupcakes, I have a lot of similar recipes to choose from!
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
More Cupcake Recipes You Might Like!
If you love this recipe, please leave a star rating at the bottom of the page! This provides helpful feedback to both me and other readers.
Also be sure to add us as a trusted site on Google so that our recipes show up more in your searches!
For more delicious, scratch-made recipes you can subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on social media!
Recipe Card
Mini Cupcakes
Ingredients
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, melted
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, substitute vanilla extract
- ¾ cup cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- pinch kosher salt
- ¼ cup whole milk
Vanilla Buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, substitute vanilla extract
- 1-3 tablespoons heavy cream, as needed
- rainbow sprinkles, optional
Mini Chocolate Cupcakes
- ¼ cup vegetable oil, substitute canola oil or neutral olive oil
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- ½ cup cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- pinch kosher salt
- ¼ cup whole milk
Chocolate Buttercream
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled
- 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream, as needed
- chocolate sprinkles, optional
Instructions
- You don't have to make both flavors, you can easily do just one or the other!
Mini Vanilla Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 24 cup mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake liners.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar until smooth. Add in the egg and vanilla bean paste and whisk until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Mix half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then add in the milk. Once incorporated, add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter should be thick.*
- Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ full (about 1 tablespoon of batter).
- Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the mini vanilla cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the room temperature butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
- Add in the vanilla bean paste and beat the frosting on high for 4-5 minutes until lightly and fluffy.
- If needed, add in cream 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
- Frost the mini vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and garnish with rainbow sprinkles if desired!
Mini Chocolate Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 24 cup mini cupcake pan with mini cupcake liners.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil and sugar. Then whisk in the egg until fully combined and smooth.
- Gently mix in half the dry ingredients. Then add in the milk and the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined. The batter will be thin.*
- Fill each cupcake liner about ¾ full (about 1 tablespoon of batter).
- Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack. Let the mini chocolate cupcakes cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream
- Melt the dark chocolate and let cool almost to room temperature. It should be melted but cool to the touch. I prefer to melt the chocolate in the microwave in intervals of 20 seconds, stirring each time.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the room temperature butter and powdered sugar until smooth.
- Add in the cocoa powder and mix until fully combined.
- Set the mixer to low speed and slowly drizzle in the melted chocolate until it's fully incorporated into the buttercream. Beat the frosting on high for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
- If the frosting in too thick, add in 1 tablespoon of cream at a time to thin it out a bit.
- Frost the mini cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and garnish with chocolate sprinkles if desired!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Felicia says
Wow! Yummy and moist. Because of wheat allergy, I substituted cake flour with my homemade version of Bob's Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Flour. I also added 1/2 T. of instant espresso to the chocolate batter. Perfect rise, perfect texture, perfect taste. I got more than 24 mini cupcakes (26-28?) for both the vanilla and chocolate. It was quite fast to use the 1 T. dough scoop to fill the mini cupcake pans. With a metal pan @ 350 degrees F, it took 10 minutes to bake. With silicone pans, it took 16 minutes. I let them cool completely in the pans. They are delicious even without frosting, especially the chocolate. I've now made your vanilla, chocolate, and red velvet. I also adapted the vanilla recipe to make lavender minis by adding 2 tsp. of ground & sifted culinary lavender (dried lavender blossoms). To make lemon minis, I added 2 tsp. of fresh lemon juice + 1 tsp. of lemon extract to the "wet" ingredients. Fab-u-lous! Your recipes are VERY adaptable. Thank you!!!
Jen says
These are by far my daughter's favorite. I do make one small change to the chocolate recipe and I add a tablespoon of coffee. It really blings out the chocolate flavor. She requested these mini ones instead of full size cupcakes to take to cheer practice and they were a hit all around.
Fatima Riaz says
amazing 👏 taste and excellently accurate measurements!!
Megan Malek says
I measured everything out exact but they are quite dry. I’m not sure where I went wrong 😭 they taste good though.