If I had to use only one word to describe this vanilla cake it would be flavorful. It's also moist and rich, with a tender, fluffy crumb that's somewhere between a chiffon and butter cake. But, what really sets this cake apart is its flavor.
If you're looking for a go-to vanilla cake recipe for wedding cakes, birthday cakes, shower cakes, anniversary cakes, or just because cakes, that will have everyone who tastes it coming back for more, this is it.
This is My Go-To Vanilla Cake Recipe
This has been my go-to vanilla cake recipe for years and years because it's just so very delicious.
Also, it's sturdy enough to hold up to whatever fillings and frostings you throw at it, the layers always rise beautifully, with a nice flat top that makes stacking and decorating a cinch, and - most importantly - in the hundreds of times I've served this cake, everyone always LOVES it.
Why this Recipe Works:
- Flavor-packed ingredients: butter, buttermilk, egg yolks, plenty of vanilla extract and the tiniest hint of lemon and nutmeg.
- Fold beaten egg whites into the batter right before baking. The extra air from the egg whites helps the cake rise and also gives it a super soft, fluffy texture.
- Buttermilk. Buttermilk adds flavor to this cake and gives it an extra soft and tender crumb.
What's the Difference Between White Cake and Vanilla Cake?
Most white cake recipes are focused on creating a cake that is super white. These recipes call for using all egg whites, a colorless fat like vegetable shortening or oil, and very little (if any) vanilla extract.
Egg yolks, butter, and vanilla might contribute a lot of flavor to cakes, but they also affect the color of the batter. So, if you want a super white cake, you really have to leave them out.
Personally, I could care less about how white my cake is. I just want it to taste good.
Is this vanilla cake still white? Yes. But, it's more of a warm white than a white-white. The recipe includes butter, a few whole eggs and a large amount of vanilla, because flavor, flavor, flavor.
It also contains a smidge of nutmeg and lemon extract, because they accentuate the vanilla and give the cake a warm, rich flavor.
If you're skeptical, I beg you to bake this cake just once as written. The touch of lemon and nutmeg aren't detectable except to make a better tasting vanilla cake.
The recipe only calls for ¼ teaspoon of nutmeg and a ½ teaspoon of lemon extract and the point of adding them is not to make this cake taste like a lemon or nutmeg cake. We are still baking a vanilla cake.
They add a touch of brightness and warmth that will have people telling you it's the best vanilla cake they've ever had.
Why Buttermilk is Important to this Cake's Flavor and Texture
Buttermilk is a magical ingredient. As with butter, whole eggs, nutmeg, and lemon, one of the main reasons to use buttermilk in this vanilla cake recipe is because it adds flavor.
Most recipes that call for buttermilk, like Red Velvet Cake or super fluffy blueberry pancakes, also contain baking soda. Baking soda is a leavener that will help baked goods rise IF it's paired with an acid, like buttermilk.
Baking powder, on the other hand, is a leavener that includes baking soda PLUS acid. To activate it, all you need to do is add a liquid - acidic or not.
In creating this recipe, I found that baking powder gave this cake the fluffiest, most tender crumb. So, the buttermilk in this recipe is not added to help the cake rise. The baking powder and beaten egg whites have that covered.
The buttermilk is there to contribute more flavor and create an even softer texture in this cake.
How to Bake a Vanilla Cake that's Soft, Fluffy, and Tender
There are a lot of different methods for mixing cake batter, each of them serving a different purpose.
This recipe uses beaten egg whites, stabilized with a bit of sugar, to add air to the batter. That extra air helps the cake rise while it bakes and also gives it a super soft, fluffy texture.
When you whip egg whites, the proteins in the whites unfold and then reattach to each other in a way that traps moisture. This process not only ensures a moist cake, it also keeps the proteins from contributing to the structure of the cake, giving it a soft and tender texture.
Here's what you do:
- Separate the eggs, placing the yolks in one bowl and the whites in another.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until frothy.
- Slowly pour in ¼ cup of the sugar, beating as you pour.
- Continue to beat until the meringue is glossy and stiff peaks form when you lift the whisk from the beaten egg whites.
- Fold the beaten egg whites into the batter very gently so that you retain as much air as possible. Do not over mix! The goal here is to mix just until the beaten egg whites are mostly distributed throughout the batter. You should still be able to see a few streaks of egg white in the batter.
Pro tip! It's important to not allow the beaten egg whites to sit around for a long time before folding them into the batter or they will loose their volume.
To ensure the time between beating and folding is as short as possible, gather all of the ingredients for this cake before you begin making the batter. Alternatively, you can use a hand mixer to whip the egg whites right before folding them into the batter.
Make a Layer Cake or Vanilla Cupcakes with this Recipe
Generally, when I bake this vanilla cake, I opt for three thick layers. But, you can also make four thinner layers if you like.
You can also use this recipe to make Vanilla Cupcakes. You'll get somewhere between 24 and 32 cupcakes from this recipe, depending on the kind of cupcake wrappers you use and how much batter you use for each cupcake.
What Kind of Frosting and Filling Should You Use for this Vanilla Cake?
Most of the time, when I bake this cake, I stick to filling the layers and frosting the cake with Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream. It's one of those gorgeously classic combinations that's difficult to beat.
But, one of the best things about Italian Meringue Buttercream is how well it accepts flavorings. In the recipe for Italian Meringue Buttercream, you'll find a long list of options such as fresh berry, lemon, chocolate, caramel, and coconut. All of them are delicious with this vanilla cake.
Three other favorite filling ideas:
Three other favorite frosting ideas:
Pro tip! The only thing I'd be cautious of when deciding how to fill and frost this vanilla cake is adding fresh fruit.
Fruit jam, preserves, or fruit flavored buttercream work really well. But, fresh fruit generally contains too much moisture. As the moisture leaks out of the fruit, it can soak into the cake layers making them kind of soggy and even causing the layers to slip, toppling your cake over.
If you want to serve this cake with fresh fruit, I'd suggesting adding it as an accompaniment when serving. A spoonful of fresh berries that have been tossed in a bit of sugar and lemon juice is a delicious way to top this cake.
More Popular layer cake recipes:
- Gluten Free Vanilla Layer Cake
- Coconut Cream Cake
- Funfetti Cake
- The Perfect Spice Cake
- Lemon Layer Cake with Blackberry Italian Meringue Buttercream
- Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Buttercream and Caramel Rum Sauce
- Classic Red Velvet Cake
- Perfect Devil's Food Cake
- Champagne Cake with Champagne Italian Meringue Buttercream
This Vanilla Cake is a Building Block Recipe.
Building block recipes are tried-and-true recipes that I consider foundational to great home baking. They are the kind of recipes I come back to over and over again, sometimes baking them as is, but often using them as a jumping off point to create something new. > Scroll through all Building Block recipes.
If you give this recipe a try, let me know! Leave a comment, rate it, or take a picture and tag it #ofbatteranddough on Instagram.
Happy baking!
The Most Flavorful Vanilla Cake Recipe
If you’re looking for a go-to vanilla cake recipe (or vanilla cupcake recipe) for wedding cakes, birthday cakes, shower cakes, anniversary cakes, or just because cakes, that will have everyone who tastes it coming back for more, this is it.
Ingredients
- 4 whole eggs, separated, at room temperature (how to quickly bring eggs to room temperature)
- 3 egg whites, at room temperature
- 2 ¼ cups (450g) granulated sugar, divided
- ¾ cup (6oz/ 170g) butter, at room temperature
- ¾ cup (138g) vegetable shortening
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon extract
- 3 cups (360g) cake flour (See note below for a cake flour substitution)
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon table salt (1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt)
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup (8oz/ 227g) buttermilk, at room temperature (how to quickly bring buttermilk to room temperature)
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325 degrees F (176 degrees C). Grease and flour three or four 8 or 9-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with a round of parchment paper. (Here's how to grease, flour and line pans with parchment so the cake won't stick to the pan.)
- Separate the 4 whole eggs, placing the 4 yolks in a small bowl and the 4 whites in a separate medium size bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add the 3 additional egg whites to the other 4 for a total of 7 egg whites. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until frothy. If using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment to beat the egg whites.
- Slowly pour in ¼ cup of the sugar, beating continuously as you pour. Continue to beat until the meringue is glossy and stiff peaks form when you lift the whisk from the beaten egg whites. Set aside. If using a stand mixer, scrape the beaten egg whites out of the mixer's bowl into a seperate bowl.
- Using an electric hand held mixer, or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, shortening, and remaining 2 cups of sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Stop the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl a time or two. Beat in the vanilla and lemon extracts.
- Add 2 of the egg yolks and beat until incorporated, about 20 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the remaining 2 egg yolks, beat for about 20 seconds, until fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg to a large bowl and mix with a wire whisk just to combine.
- Beating on low speed, add the flour mixture, alternating with the buttermilk, in 3 additions, beginning and ending with the flour: ⅓ of the flour, ½ of the buttermilk, ⅓ of the flour, ½ of the buttermilk, ⅓ of the flour. With each addition, beat on low speed, just long enough to incorporate. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- With a rubber spatula, gently fold the beaten egg whites into the batter just until distributed. You should still see some streaks of egg white throughout the batter. Do not over mix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. If baking 3 layers: bake for 40-50 min. If baking four layers, bake for 30-35 minutes. If baking cupcakes, bake for 20-28 minutes.
- When done, the cakes will be golden brown and pulling away from the sides of the pan. To check for doneness, stick a toothpick into the center of one of the layers. Remove the toothpick and look for signs of raw batter. If only cake crumbs stick to the toothpick, the cake is done. You can also scoop a tiny amount of cake from the center of one of the layers to check for doneness. (You’ll be covering the cake with frosting anyway.)
- Let the cakes cool on wire racks for 5 minutes in the pan, then gently turn them out of the pans onto the wire racks to cool completely. If you don’t plan on frosting the layers immediately, wrap each tightly with plastic wrap.
The layers can be stored at room temperature for 1 day, or frozen for up to 2 months.
Frost with Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream, or Classic American Buttercream.
Notes
What If You Don't Have Cake Flour?
To make a substitution for cake flour, replace 2 tablespoons per cup of all-purpose flour with cornstarch. So, for this recipe, add all the flour to a bowl, remove 6 tablespoons, and then add 6 tablespoons of cornstarch. Whisk well to combine.
How To Get the Most From the Beaten Egg Whites:
It’s important to NOT allow the beaten egg whites to sit around for a long time before folding them into the batter or they will loose their volume.
To ensure the time between beating and folding is as short as possible, get all the ingredients measured and prepped before you begin making the batter.
Alternatively, you can use a hand mixer to whip the egg whites right before folding them into the batter.
How Many Cupcakes Will this Recipe Make?
This recipe will make between 24 and 32 cupcakes, dpending on the kind of paper cupcake liners you use and how much batter you use per cupcake. I love using the wave cupcake liners linked below, but their wavy nature means you'll use less batter per cupcake than traditional cupcake liners, giving you more, slightly smaller, cupcakes.
What Kind of Frosting Should You Use for this Vanilla Cake?
Recommended Products
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 16 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 398Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 76mgSodium: 320mgCarbohydrates: 49gFiber: 0gSugar: 29gProtein: 5g
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Jennifer says
Hi Rebecca,
This is the second cake recipe I tried of yours. The first was the strawberry champagne cake with Italian meringue buttercream that I made for my daughter’s 18th birthday. Divinely delicious!! We all enjoyed the vanilla cake was Italian buttercream that I made for my birthday yesterday. As you had recommended, the addition of nutmeg and lemon juice is a stroke of genius! Warmth and freshness in every bite. Thanks so much for sharing your cake recipes. Along with the champagne cake recipe, this is definitely a keeper! As I render pork fat to make lard for pies, I used lard instead of vegetable shortening. Please let me know if the lard makes the cake more dense. I noted on the recipe for the next time that I will not use the stand mixer when alternatively adding dry and wet (buttermilk) ingredients. It is easy to overmix. I love how you decorated your cake. So beautiful. Sigh. I blame my lack of cake decorating skills on my impatience (too anxious to consume cake) and using an offset spatula that probably is a bit too big. If you can offer a tip on how to ice so the buttercream is continuously smooth, showing no “seams”, please feel free to do so. Will look for another of your cake recipes to try!!
Rebecca Blackwell says
Hi Jennifer! First of all - HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope your day was fabulous and 👏👏👏 for making your own birthday cake! I've actually never used lard in a cake recipe, so I'm not 100% sure if it makes for a more dense cake, but my guess is that it would. My understanding about baking with lard is that it generally gives baked goods a more crumbly texture (which is why it's great in pie crust!), so I would expect that using it in cake batter might result in a "less airy" cake. If you make it again with shortening, will you let me know if you notice a difference? I'm super curious now.
To answer your question about getting a smooth finish on your buttercream, there are a couple of tips I can offer: First of all, if you don't have a Cake Turntable and an Icing Spatula, they are worth investing in. I also really like using a cake smoother. Pile the top of the cake with a generous amount of buttercream and use the icing spatula to smooth it across the top and over the sides. As you do, smooth the buttercream over the sides of the cake until the whole cake is covered. Continue to use the icing spatula to smooth the buttercream over the cake, then switch to the cake smoother. Spin the cake on the turntable while holding the flat side of the cake smoother against the side of the cake. This will help you get that smooth side without seems.
Once the buttercream is mostly smooth, I like to get fill a drinking glass with very hot water, dip the icing spatula in the water to make it hot, then use that to smooth the buttercream even more. Dipping the spatula in hot water will make it hot enough to melt the butter in the buttercream ever so slightly, giving you a super smooth finish.
I hope that helps! Please let me know if you ever have any more questions! And thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment for me. I truly appreciate it! xo
Jennifer says
Hi Rebecca,
Merci mille fois!! Thank you a thousand times!! (Canadians learn French as a second language just like Americans can learn Spanish.) Your cake decorating instructions, as with all your recipe instructions, are very clear. I do have the cake turntable and off-set spatula, but will need to get a cake scraper. I will definitely use your warmed up spatula technique. You have such an artistic eye! All the cakes you featured are decorated to absolute perfection! They are so exquisite, like rare pieces of antique jewels. We had another piece of cake the following day and if it could be possible, the cake was even better. I will definitely make this cake again (and again and again), and will substitute the lard for vegetable shortening. Will definitely let you know how lard and veggie shortening compares. ..Thank you!! I had an awesome birthday. The vanilla cake also contributed to making the day special!! Take good care.
RoxAnne Lichlyter says
I will be making this cake soon.I live in NewBraunfels,Tx,just outside San Antonio. The elevation is 630’. From reading past posts, your elevation is a lot higher! Is there something I should do ahead of time to ensure a well bake cake?
Thanks!
RoxAnne
PS..love the Indian motorcycle😉
Rebecca Blackwell says
Hi RoxAnne! Good question! There is no need to make any adjustments to this recipe. For the most part, recipes created at high altitude will work perfectly baked at lower altitudes. In fact, the adjustments made to this recipe to make it successful for folks baking at high altitude will just give your cake a higher rise. I hope that answers your question! Please let me know if you have any other questions! And, I'd love to hear how this cake comes out for you!
xo
PS... We love our motorcycle too! Thank you!
Naomi Heiskell says
I love this recipe and I wanted to know if it would work if I added sprinkles for funfetti cupcakes. I made the funfetti cake recipe you have on your site, but I found it to be too dense, I love this cake but was wondering if the sprinkles would work with it. Thanks!
Rebecca Blackwell says
Hi Naomi! I don't see any reason why sprinkles wouldn't work in this cake. I am curious about the funfetti cake turning out dense, though... the texture of that cake should be similar to this one, so I'm wondering what caused your experience to have been different. Regardless, stirring some sprinkles into the batter of this recipe should work out well. Be sure to use jimmies (not nonpareils). And, add just enough to get the funfetti effect (probably no more than 1 cup). Sprinkles do make a cake sweeter, so adding too many can make the cake overly sweet.
I hope that helps! Please let me know if you have any other questions! And, I'd love to know how this works out for you! xo