These high altitude birthday cupcakes combine two favorite flavors, with soft vanilla cupcakes and fluffy chocolate buttercream, topped with colorful sprinkles.
You might also love these high altitude recipes for strawberry cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, and mint chocolate chip cupcakes.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Two Favorite Flavors. People love the simplicity of chocolate and vanilla, and when you put them together, they make perfect birthday cupcakes.
Soft and Moist for Days. The fluffy cake is soft and moist for days after baking.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Cake Flour. Cake flour has a lower percentage of protein than all purpose flour, making the cake softer, lighter and fluffier.
- Butter + Oil. The cake uses mostly butter, for the best flavor, with a little oil for extra moisture.
- Milk + Sour Cream.
- Cocoa Powder. For the buttercream, you can use either natural or Dutch processed, but I prefer the richer color and flavor of Dutch processed.
- Granulated Sugar.
- Powdered Sugar.
- Baking Powder.
- Salt.
- Vanilla Extract.
- Eggs.
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line standard-sized muffin/cupcake pans with 18 paper liners.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the melted butter, milk, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk just until smooth and combined.
- Divide the batter between the paper liners, filling them 2/3 full.
- Bake the cupcakes for about 18-22 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched.
- Cool in the pan for several minutes, then gently transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 1 minute, until smooth.
- In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, meringue powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients by spoonfuls. Add the vanilla extract.
- Increase the speed to medium, and whip for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to “stir” and mix for one more minute.
- Use piping tip 1M to pipe swirls of buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes, and top with sprinkles.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common questions with cake making, so that you can be successful in your own baking! I also suggest reading these comprehensive posts on making Perfect American Buttercream, How to Stack, Fill, Crumb Coat and Frost Layer Cakes and How to Use Piping Bags.
Frequently Asked Questions
Store leftover cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2-3 days.
Tip 1M. See this post for a tutorial on frosting cupcakes six different ways with tip 1M.
You Might Also Like
Please check out my Amazon Shop for a curated collection of some of my favorite cake pans from trusted brands, baking tools, ingredients, pretty things and fashion finds. I recommend products that I buy and use every day!
Did you love today’s recipe? Please rate the recipe and let me know in the comments what you thought! Also, be sure to follow Curly Girl Kitchen on Instagram, and tag me when you try one of my recipes so I can see all your delicious creations!
Best High Altitude Birthday Cupcakes
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 2 cups cake flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp coarse Kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled for 10 minutes
- ½ cup whole milk, room temperature
- ½ cup sour cream
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch processed)
- 1 tsp meringue powder (optional)
- â…› tsp coarse Kosher salt
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- sprinkles
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line standard-sized muffin/cupcake pans with 18 paper liners.
- In a bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Separately, whisk together the melted butter, milk, sour cream, eggs, oil, and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk just until smooth and combined.
- Divide the batter between the paper liners, filling them 2/3 full.
- Bake the cupcakes for about 18-22 minutes, until the tops spring back when gently touched.
- Cool in the pan for several minutes, then gently transfer the cupcakes to a cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for 1 minute, until smooth.
- In a bowl, combine the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, meringue powder, and salt. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients by spoonfuls. Add the vanilla extract.
- Increase the speed to medium, and whip for 4-5 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl down several times, until very light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for one more minute.
- Use piping tip 1M to pipe swirls of buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes, and top with sprinkles.
Notes
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