I have tried a few but always seem to go dry after a day?
Would love to read a few 'tried & Tested' ones

This is what I use and, always get rave reviews:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350.
Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together until fluffy. Add vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients (and I sift) into a bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Add the milk. Once mixed, add remaining dry ingredients.

Scoop into cupcake tins (best is about 3/4 full) and bake for 20-25 mins at 350. Let cool.

hi

for the flour, do you use all purpose or Self Raising flour

I simply use AP flour.

Do you use room temperature eggs?

I made some vanilla cupcakes the other day and they were soooo DRY and it asked for 1 egg and 2 egg whites....
I wonder if the egg whites made it dry?

I hate making these (edited) vanilla cupcakes only to get horrible dry ones..

So the more answers to this the better. Pleeeeease

I usually do room temp eggs. I generally take my eggs out when I take my butter out. I sift my flour and, I don't over beat my batter.

Oh, and the other tip is until you know your oven...check the cupcakes more often. My oven is 22 minutes max to perfect but, better to pull them out slightly under than over. I just use a toothpick the first time and checked every minute around the 20 mark and, as soon as I got it to come out semi clean, I pulled them out,.

I was dead set against using a box mix base until I tried this WASC recipe:

http://www.food.com/recipe/white-almond-sour-cream-wedding-cake-69630

It made wonderfully moist cupcakes that stayed moist for a couple days. The box mix smell/taste is gone the following day, so I always make them the day before I need them. I also half and even quarter the recipe.

(For plain white cake, just leave out the almond flavor.)

I was in the same boat as the OP, and thought I'd found the answer with the Magnolia Bakery vanilla cuppies. Unfortunately, those were not reliable, for some reason. Two days ago I tried Martha Stewart's Yellow Buttermilk cuppies, and they are delish. Still good two days later. Today I'm trying Pioneer Woman's basic vanilla cupcake cuz she makes it with shortening, and I find that interesting. They're cooling now, so I'm eager to compare it with Martha's.

I'll be interested to hear your comparison.

=]

I also tried this recipe ... and they were VERY VERY GOOD!!

1 cup white sugar
½ cup butter ( 250 gms)
2 eggs
1 ½ tsp Vanilla extract (i used almost 2)
1 ½ cups Plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup milk ( I used butter milk)
160 degrees fan forced oven (350 i think in US)
Cream butter, sugar and egg until fluffy, add vanilla
Sift all dry ingredients, add ½ dry ingredients to mixture, mix until just combined, add milk
Then add rest of ingredients.
Cook until just dry 15 mins then watch

It was almost like a doughy biscuit mix, i was worried, but they were fabulous! I even kept in fridge for a day and once 'room temp' they were still very very moist and delicious

If you aren't against pudding mix - how about sticking a box of vanilla pudding mix into the cake batter - it makes it sooooo moist

That can mess up a scratch cake though. Some recipes can't handle the extra sugar and weight.

Well I never said it would mess with ALL scratch recipes and I also didn't say it would always not be able to handle it. I never speak in absolutes like that... especially when I don't have a ton of experience.

As for the recipe advice... sorry... not going to screw with a perfectly fine recipe with a pudding packet. It totally moots the point of scratch baking for me. I also have the same aversion to shortening, but that's just me. I'm sure it works fine.. I just don't like using it (shortening that is). You can add coffee creamer to the list of things I won't use too. I have plenty of moist recipes that don't require the addition of pudding mix. I can see though how it could be okay since pudding packets have a lot of emulsifiers in them. I see no need to go there though... If you are going to go the route of adding a pudding packet you might as well just doctor a mix. Of course that's just my silly opinion.

After trying both Martha's and Pioneer Woman's vanilla recipes, I have to stick with Martha's. I'm afraid I just couldn't get into the taste of PW's. I'm sure it was the shortening, but it had an indescribable flavor to it, maybe greasy???..Anyway, I've tried so many vanilla recipes, I'm just happy I found one (MS's) that doesn't make me have some water nearby to wash it down.

This is my favorite:

http://www.marthastewart.com/255457/billys-vanilla-vanilla-cupcakes

Billy's is a famous bakery in NYC. This is so good that you can eat it and enjoy it without frosting.

What did you add? What couple of things?

I tried the Martha Stewart recipe. It was OK but I still love the Golden Vanilla cupcake recipe from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. I'm always on a search for a better vanilla cupcake and end up coming back to this one.

Osgirl, It's funny because I just printed that recipe off the other day. I was thinking of using it for my cousin's bridal shower cupcakes but I wasn't sure how good it was..... that makes me feel a little better. Thanks!

Has anyone tried the King Arthur Flour recipe for Golden Vanilla Cake? I tried it with gluten free flour but haven't made it with regular cake flour yet.
I've had great success with their chocolate fudge cake recipe so I am anxious to make this one.

Here is a link if anyone is interested:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/golden-vanilla-cake-recipe