Finally.

Vanilla cupcakes can be a pain the butt. I want that box-mix texture, without the box-mix taste. 

It occurred to me that my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe has oil in it, not butter.

So do boxed cake mixes. 

So I hunted and hunted and baked and baked until I formulated my new favorite vanilla cupcake recipe.

These are soft, bake up nice and flat, stay moist, and they're super easy to boot.

You can substitute coconut oil for the safflower oil, a friend of mine did it and said they turned out great! (Thanks for the tip, Ruby!)

1 cup cake flour

1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 organic eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract vanilla bean paste

1/2 cup safflower oil

1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°

-Whisk together the cake flour, AP flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

In the bowl of a mixer, add eggs and beat 10-20 seconds.  Add sugar and continue to beat on medium speed about 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil, beat some mo'.

With the mixer on low,  add half of the flour mixture. Alternate with half of the buttermilk, then the rest of the flour, and ending with the rest of the buttermilk.

 This batter is thin. Don't freak out. Pour batter into prepared pan.

 Bake for 13 minutes.

BAM.

Enjoy your perfect vanilla cupcakes.