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Sour Cream Cupcakes

Name: Sour Cream Cupcakes
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 12 servings
Cuisine: Desserts
Ingredients: 1/2 cup shortening; 1 cup granulated sugar; 2 eggs; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/2 cup sour cream; 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour; 1/2 tsp salt; 1/2 tsp cream of tartar; 1/8 tsp ground mace

Light, tender cupcakes with a subtle warmth of mace and a moist sour-cream crumb.

30 minutes

Serves 12

Dessert

14 min prep

23 min cook

Contains common allergens

Egg Dairy Wheat

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Good to know

Ready in under 30 minutes

Matched from this dish's own ingredients and timing. Browse more: 30-minute meals

Instructions

6 steps

1
Preheat the oven to 400°F (205°C) and line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease it well.
2
In a large bowl, cream the shortening and sugar together, then beat in the eggs one at a time until light and fluffy.
3
In a small bowl, stir the baking soda into the sour cream until dissolved.
4
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, cream of tartar, and mace.
5
Add the dry ingredients and the sour cream mixture to the creamed mixture and beat until just smooth. Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.
6
Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the tops spring back when lightly touched and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for a few minutes before transferring to a rack.

Sour Cream Cupcakes — plated and served — Serving moment. How Sour Cream Cupcakes looks plated and ready to eat — a representative photo, not a step in the recipe.

Listahan Family Score™

77/100

Good fit for most families

Allergen-friendly 70

Kid-friendly 85

Weeknight-easy 96

Budget-friendly 86

Great leftovers 56

Pantry-friendly 44

Score reflects how well this recipe fits a typical busy household. In the app, your Family Score is personalized to your household's allergens, kids, and pantry.

Nutrition

per serving

230

Calories

3 g

Protein

29 g

Carbs

11 g

Fat

Estimated per serving. Actual values depend on the brands and portions you use.

Listahan cooking guide

Chef notes & practical guide

Technique notes, ingredient swaps, serve-alongside ideas, storage guidance, and equipment for this recipe.

Cultural context

Sour cream cakes have roots in 19th-century American farmhouse baking, where sour cream was a common by-product of churning butter and was incorporated into cakes to use up dairy before it spoiled further. The acidity in sour cream reacts with baking soda to provide leavening, and the fat content produces an exceptionally tender crumb. Mace, the spice ground from the outer covering of the nutmeg seed, was a common flavoring in colonial and early American baking that appears in period receipt books across New England.

Listahan note

This version relies on cream of tartar and baking soda rather than baking powder, which gives a finer, more even crumb, and the mace adds a warm spice note that distinguishes these from standard vanilla cupcakes.

Technique cues

The combination of baking soda and cream of tartar creates a leavening system similar to baking powder but with a slightly different reaction timeline, producing a tender rise without an overly open crumb.
Shortening creates a more stable, fine-textured crumb than butter because it is 100 percent fat with no water content to create steam; the tradeoff is less buttery flavor.
Ground mace is milder and more floral than nutmeg; it should be measured carefully because even a small excess makes the flavor medicinal rather than warmly spiced.

Kitchen flow

Parallel prep: Line the cupcake tin and preheat the oven while you cream the shortening and sugar, so the pan is ready the moment the batter is finished.
Make-ahead: Bake cupcakes up to 1 day ahead and store unfrosted in an airtight container; frost the day of serving for the best appearance.
Leftover move: Unfrosted leftover cupcakes stay moist for 3 days at room temperature; split them and serve with jam and whipped cream as a shortcake-style dessert.
Cleanup rhythm: Use a cookie scoop for portioning batter into the cupcake liners to keep the counter clean and fill each cup to the same level.

Ingredient brief

Role, handling, and swap guidance for each key ingredient.

1/2 cup shortening

fat and crumb tenderness

Purpose: All-fat shortening coats flour proteins without steam, producing a very fine, stable crumb that holds up well without frosting.

Handling: Use at room temperature so it creams smoothly with the sugar; cold shortening will not aerate properly.

Adaptation: Unsalted butter (same volume) can replace shortening for a richer flavor but slightly denser texture.

1/2 cup sour cream

moisture, tang, and leavening acid

Purpose: Sour cream provides the acid that activates the baking soda, tenderizes gluten strands, and adds fat-rich moisture that keeps the cupcake soft for days.

Handling: Bring to room temperature before mixing so it blends without leaving cold streaks in the batter.

Adaptation: Full-fat plain Greek yogurt works directly; the tang is slightly sharper but the texture is nearly identical.

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

leavening acid and stabilizer

Purpose: Cream of tartar provides a second acid source alongside the sour cream, giving more lift and helping the egg whites (in the whole eggs) whip to a finer bubble structure.

Handling: Sift with the flour, salt, and baking soda to distribute evenly through the dry mixture.

Adaptation: An additional 1/2 tsp lemon juice added to the sour cream can stand in if cream of tartar is unavailable.

1/8 tsp ground mace

warm spice aromatic

Purpose: Mace adds a nuanced floral-warm note that elevates these from plain vanilla cupcakes without announcing itself as a recognizable spice.

Handling: Measure carefully with a proper 1/8 tsp measure; eyeballing this spice leads to over-spiced results.

Adaptation: Ground nutmeg (same quantity) is the closest substitute; it is slightly earthier and less floral than mace.

Technique notes

Fill each cupcake liner only two-thirds full; sour cream batters tend to have a soft rise and will overflow if overfilled.
Test doneness with a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of a middle cupcake, not an edge one, which bakes faster than the center of the pan.
Cool cupcakes in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack so the structure firms up enough to handle without collapsing the sides.

Ingredient swaps

Dairy-free option: Use a dairy-free sour cream or full-fat coconut cream with 1 tsp apple cider vinegar mixed in; let it sit 5 minutes before using.
Gluten-free direction: A 1:1 gluten-free baking flour (with xanthan gum) replaces the all-purpose flour; reduce bake time by 2-3 minutes and check early.
Shortening-free direction: Replace shortening with room-temperature unsalted butter; the cupcakes will be slightly less tender but gain a richer buttery flavor.

Serve alongside

simple vanilla buttercream or cream cheese frosting
fresh berries and a dusting of powdered sugar
lemon curd piped into the center before frosting
whole milk or a latte
chamomile or Earl Grey tea

Serving suggestions only — check pairings for your household's allergens.

Storage & reheating

Store unfrosted cupcakes in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
Frosted cupcakes should be refrigerated and brought to room temperature 30 minutes before serving.
Freeze unfrosted cupcakes individually wrapped in plastic for up to 2 months; thaw at room temperature for 1 hour.

Equipment

standard 12-cup cupcake tin with paper liners
stand mixer or hand mixer
cookie scoop for even portioning
wire cooling rack

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