Air Fryer Cupcakes
, Updated Nov 22, 2025
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These Air Fryer Cupcakes are so easy to make, cook quickly and turn out perfectly fluffy, moist and delicious! A great way to bake a batch of cupcakes without ever turning on the oven. Add your favorite frosting and sprinkles and enjoy!
Bake the BEST ever cupcakes in your air fryer following my easy air fryer cupcake recipe. They rise beautifully and evenly and taste amazing even without any frosting. I don’t think I will ever go back to baking cupcakes in the oven, that’s how good these are!
Can you bake Cupcakes in Air Fryer
Air Fryers can bake pretty much anything. I have made cakes, muffins, bread and even pavlova in my air fryer and I can’t wait to find out what else I can make in it!
Making cupcakes in an air fryer is so easy – no need to preheat the oven, safer for children to bake their own batch from scratch.
You don’t need any special cupcake pan to make them either. You can use paper cups, cupcake liners or silicone baking cups.
Here’s what you will need
These fluffy vanilla cupcakes use only six ingredients which I bet you already have in your pantry. They are delicious without any frosting but obviously you can add your favorite frosting and sprinkles.
- Self-raising flour (self-rising flour)
- Sugar – superfine sugar (a.k.a caster sugar) is preferable when baking
- Unsalted butter or a baking spread / margarine at room temperature
- Milk – you can use most types of milk, including plant-based
- Eggs – always use eggs at room temperature otherwise your batter may look split or curdled
- Vanilla bean paste or extract
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How to make Air Fryer Cupcakes
Full measurements and instructions can be found on the printable recipe card at the bottom of the page. Please take a look at the steps and video before attempting this recipe!
- Measure all the ingredients into a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric hand mixer until the batter is completely smooth. You might need to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure the ingredients are well combined.
- Use a large cookie scoop to divide the batter between 8 large paper cup cases or a medium scoop if you are using smaller cupcake liners – you will have 10-12 cupcakes.
- Place the cupcakes in the air fryer basket and bake at 320°F (160°C) for 23-25 minutes for large cupcakes and 18-20 for smaller ones. You do not need to preheat the air fryer for this recipe. I can fit up to nine large cupcakes in my Cosori but you can bake them in batches if needed.
- Check the cupcakes are risen, golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If they are not quite done yet you can add a couple of minutes to the cooking time.
- Cool the cupcakes on a wire rack before adding any frosting. Store in a cake container for 2-3 days or wrap well and freeze(without any frosting).
Recipe Variations
This easy recipe makes the best vanilla cupcakes but you can easily tweak it to make different flavors. You can also use your favorite box mix of course but they are so quick to make from scratch.
- For chocolate cupcakes add two teaspoons of cocoa powder and add a tablespoon of coffee or milk to the batter.
- For lemon cupcakes add a tablespoon of lemon juice and the zest of one lemon. Rubbing the citrus zest into the sugar using your fingertips will release the aromatic citrus oil in the zest and impart the best flavor.
Air Fryers can vary in their capacity and wattage so a little trial and error is required to determine the optimum cooking time of any air fryer recipe. When making cupcakes the size of your cupcake cases will also affect the cooking time. If you bake the cupcakes in batches the second batch will bake quicker than the first – adjust the baking time accordingly.
Yes. If you don’t have an air fryer, you can bake the cupcakes in a preheated oven at 350°F (180°C) until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Baking time will vary depending on the size of your cupcake cases – usually 18–20 minutes.
DID YOU MAKE MY AIR FRYER CUPCAKE RECIPE? I hope you loved how well these Air Fryer Cupcakes turned out — no oven, no stress, just fluffy cupcake perfection. If you made them, please leave a comment and star rating below — your feedback helps others find the recipe, and it always makes me smile!
📸 Tag @supergoldenbakes if you share your cupcakes on Instagram or TikTok — I’d love to see your creations and flavor twists!
📌 Pin this recipe so you can come back to it next time a cupcake craving hits… which, let’s be honest, could be any minute now.
Air Fryer Cupcakes
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 2 cups (250g) flour self-rising SEE NOTE 1
- 1 ¼ cups (250g) sugar superfine / caster or granulated
- ½ cup (115g) margarine or softened unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ½ cup (120ml) milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
Simple Vanilla Frosting
- 2 cups (240g) powdered sugar (icing sugar)
- ½ cyo (115g) unsalted butter softened
- ⅓ cup (80ml) cream double / heavy
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
Instructions
- Measure all the ingredients into a mixing bowl. Beat together with an electric hand mixer until the batter is completely smooth. You might need to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula to make sure the ingredients are well combined.2 cups (250g) flour, 1 ¼ cups (250g) sugar, ½ cup (115g) margarine, 2 large eggs, ½ cup (120ml) milk, 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Use a large cookie scoop to divide the batter between 8 large paper cup cases or a medium scoop if you are using smaller cupcake liners – you will have 10-12 cupcakes.
- Place the cupcakes in the air fryer basket and bake at 160°C (325°F) for 23-25 minutes for large cupcakes and 18-20 for smaller ones. You do not need to preheat the air fryer for this recipe.
- Check the cupcakes are risen, golden and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. If they are not quite done yet you can add a couple of minutes to the cooking time. Store in a cake container for 2-3 days or wrap well and freeze(without any frosting).
- Put all the frosting in a mixing bowl and whisk on a low speed setting to combine the ingredients. Increase the speed to medium -high and beat until frosting holds peaks. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large star tip.2 cups (240g) powdered sugar, ½ cyo (115g) unsalted butter, ⅓ cup (80ml) cream, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- Pipe a generous swirl of frosting over the cupcakes add sprinkles and enjoy!
Notes
- Note 1: If your are using all-purpose flour (plain flour) add two level teaspoons of baking powder.
- Don’t overfill the paper cases.
- To make the strawberry frosting in the photos add 2-3 teaspoons of freeze-dried strawberry powder to the basic vanilla frosting.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate, and will depend on quality of ingredients and serving sizes.
Loved this recipe!
Easy, few ingredients and result is lovely buns! Have added blueberries, coconut and glace cherries, all worked fine. I only put half the sugar in as prefer them not as sweet. Many thanks SGB 🎂😋
That’s lovely to hear, many thanks Julie!
Very nice and easy to make.