White Velvet cupcakes from either the Cake Bible or Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. Or the Sour Cream butter cake from the Cake Bible- it’s very flavorful and makes up into fluffy cupcakes. In my mind, vanilla doesn’t necessarily mean white cake, it also includes yellow. Or did they say white?
I would use white chocolate mousseline (Italian meringue buttercream) for the vanilla frosting- better flavor and texture than plain vanilla (you can add a little vanilla extract to make it read “vanilla”). Recipes in either book mentioned above.