My favorite vanilla cupcake

Wow... it has been a while since I last posted. Things got away from me, busy life took over, and now it seems like forever since I last wrote a post. 
As an update to our personal life, I am due any day now (!) and looking very much forward for baby #2 to arrive. I am officially on maternity leave and hope to take some of this time to post some of the stuff I've made but just not posted. 
On to the recipe though! I have been looking and looking for a good, reliable, and simple vanilla cupcake (or cake for that matter) recipe. I've tried many but never found one that would truly deliver the same results every time. I like the little dome on top of the cupcake, and I like the cake itself to be moist but with good consistency. AND (not to be picky or anything), I like it when it doesn't take a whole bunch of bowls, I don't need to whip up the eggs separately (which does deliver a good fluffy cake, but man... the extra work...), and I don't have extra mess to clean up!
So, have I finally found the recipe "of my dreams", you ask? I think so! :) So far this recipe has made me very happy, and I can officially say that I can retire the cake box mixes for vanilla/yellow cakes (I've already done that with my chocolate cakes/cupcakes!).
So here is the recipe, from one of my all-time favorite food bloggers Annie from  Annie's Eats . I didn't modify/tweak this recipe at all; it's that perfect (I just omitted the lemon zest for the same reason Annie did too)! :) You can basically pair this cupcake with any frosting you want, which I chose (this time) to frost with a nice chocolate frosting (another recipe that has become my go-to one!)

Vanilla Cupcakes

Make 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup milk

1-1 ½ recipes easy vanilla buttercream frosting (or any other frosting you want)

Directions:

Get your ingredients ready!

Preheat the oven to 350°.  Line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners.  Set pan aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

 In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides and beating well after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla extract. 

With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl. 

Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter (about 2/3 up the cup) and bake for about 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool in pan 5 minutes.  Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Prepare frosting.  Decorate cooled cupcakes as desired.

Recipe from Annie's Eats