What could be more beautiful than a vanilla cake layered with delicate, pink buttercream? Topped with a stunning peony, too? Dear Lord.
How do You Make the BEST Vanilla Cake?
- Use great ingredients! Never add artificial vanilla.
- I use a high quality vanilla extract like Nielsen-Massey but there are tons of great brands.
- My only tip if your shopping around and have no idea what to but is choose a glass bottle!
- Is you want to take the flavor up a notch try using vanilla bean paste. You’ll get lots of vanilla taste and see all the little black seeds mixed in with your batter.
How do You Make Cakes Moist?
To make cakes moist I always use whole milk, and either sour cream or yogurt. Aside from adding a slight tang to balance the sweet Sour cream and yogurt give you a rich, moist flavor that’s hard to beat!
How do you make a cake light and fluffy?
- Fluffiness comes from using the right amount of leavening agent; too much and the cake will collapse, too little and it will be dense.
- If you head over to my German Chocolate Cake post you will see another way to get a moist and fluffy crumb; creaming the butter and sugar coupled with whipping egg whites until they reach the soft peak stage then folding them into the batter.
Is There a Difference Between White and Vanilla Cake
Vanilla cake is flavored with vanilla but a white cake just means that the cake is whiter from using egg whites only. White cakes are often flavored with vanilla but can be flavored with rosewater, lemon zest, orange blossom water, or any number of things!
If you find cake decorating to be a bit intimidating then check out my How to Decorate a Cake post, it has lots of helpful tips and a full how to video.
A Few Tips and Pointers for making vanilla cake
- If you’re not using 6-inch pans, double the recipe for 8-inch pans or triple the recipe for 9-inch pans.
- Raspberry juice will give a beautiful soft pink color with no food coloring.
- If you see little clumps of butter after you mix the wet ingredients don’t panic, it all works out by the time you mix in the dry ingredients. You can even use melted butter and warm the milk and sour cream up a bit if you like.
- You can substitute whole milk yogurt for the sour cream if desired, I do it all the time and can’t really tell the difference.
- To get FLAT layers that are moist inside and out try using cake strips! You can buy a set on the shop page or make your own from foil and paper towels at home. I made a whole blog post on it so check it out if you’re interested!
- If you like a less sweet frosting try my Italian or Swiss meringue buttercream recipes! They’re Creamy, dreamy and oh so delicious.
Steps to Make a Vanilla Cake
How do you make homemade vanilla cake?
1. Butter and flour three 6-inch pans. Preheat oven to 340F. Sift the dry ingredients, including the sugar, together in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the milk, sour cream, butter, vanilla and egg whites together until combined. DOn’t worry if you see little clumps of butter.
3. Add the wet to the dry and mix until combined.
4. Divide the mixture evenly into the cake pans. I like to use a kitchen scale to measure for even layers.
5. Add wet cake strips onto the pans. These will give you a nice flat top perfect for stacking. Bake for 30 -35 minutes or until the centers are set and springy. Let the layers cool in the pans for about a minute or so, then dump each layer out onto a cooling rack.
6. Beat the room temperature butter until light and fluffy. Add the confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, food coloring and heavy cream. Mix together until a desired consistency is reached. Transfer to a piping bag.
7. Pipe buttercream between the cake layer. Cover the cake with a thin layer of buttercream.
8. Use an offset spatula and a bench scraper to smooth the frosting.
If you’ve tried this cake then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how you got on in the comments below, I love hearing from you!
Vanilla Cake
The most moist and perfectly sweet vanilla cake covered in a easy breezy soft pink vanilla buttercream with a striking peony for a stunning accent.
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour 200g
- 1 cup granulated sugar 200g
- 1/4 tsp baking soda 1g, heaping
- 1 tsp baking powder 4g, heaping
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter 171g, room temperature
- 3 egg whites room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract 15mL
- 1/2 tsp salt 3g
- 1/2 cup sour cream 120mL, room temperature
- 1/2 cup whole milk 118mL, room temperature
For the Buttercream:
- 1 lb confectioner's sugar 454g
- 2 sticks unsalted butter 226g
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 118ml
- 1 tsp vanilla extract 5mL
- 1 pinch salt add to taste
- Food coloring if desired
- 1 Peony
- Floral tape
- 1 sprig of sweet pea flowers
Instructions
For the Cake:
Butter and flour three 6-inch pans. I use damp cake strips on my pans for more even baking as well. Preheat oven to 340F.
Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the wet ingredients together.
Add the wet to the dry and mix until combined. Divide the mixture evenly into the cake pans. I like to use a kitchen scale to measure for even layers.
Bake for 30 -35 minutes or until the centers are set and springy.
Let the layers cool in the pans for about 4 minutes, then dump each layer out onto a cooling rack.
For the Vanilla Buttercream:
Beat the room temperature butter until light and fluffy. Add the confectioners' sugar, vanilla, food coloring and heavy cream. Mix together until a desired consistency is reached. Transfer to a piping bag.
For the Assembly:
Pipe buttercream between the cake layer. Cover the cake with a thin layer of buttercream.
Use an offset spatula and a bench scraper to smooth the frosting.
Using floral tape, cover the stem of the peony to form a barrier between the flower and cake. Add to the top of the cake.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- If you’re not using 6-inch pans, double the recipe for 8-inch pans or triple the recipe for 9-inch pans.
- Raspberry juice will give a beautiful soft pink color with no food coloring.
- If you see little clumps of butter after you mix the wet ingredients don’t panic, it all works out by the time you mix in the dry ingredients. You can even use melted butter and warm the milk and sour cream up a bit if you like.
- You can substitute whole milk yogurt for the sour cream if desired, I do it all the time and can’t really tell the difference.
IF YOU LOVE THIS RECIPE TRY THESE OUT!
Lemon Lavender Poppy Seed Pound Cake
I used this recipe, and your SMBC frosting recipe, to make a unicorn cake for my daughter. I have no experience baking a cake from scratch, and very little experience making frosting/icing. However, I followed your recipes exactly (although doubling the recipe to accomodate my 8″ pans) and everything turned out fantastic! The cake definitely had a different texture/density than what I’m used to, but I thought it was the best cake I ever had, and my wife said something similar. The SMBC turned out great too.
I’m just a rookie baker and I’ve been tying many vanilla cake recipes and this by far is my favorite!! I’m actually making it for the second time in a week because it was so yummy we ate it up without putting any frosting on it. I used buttermilk instead of milk and whole milk Greek yogurt instead of sour cream. Now I’ve yet to like any frostings any advice on that I’ve not tried any of yours at this point.
I am 100% going to make this as the next cake I bake! I also want to thank you for including nutritional information for everything you do!! It’s so super helpful!! I’m guessing the nutritional information is only for the cake in this recipe and not including buttercream? Thanks!
Dear John,
I wrote to you a few days ago with some queries, but cannot see that my message has been posted. I hope this one makes it to you. I am writing from the UK. For the icing on this Vanilla Cake, you use heavy whipping cream. Your video shows you adding two splashes of this cream. The recipe says 118 ml. Please confirm how much heavy whipping cream should be added. Also, here in the UK, we do not have anything called ‘heavy whipping cream’. We have extra thick double cream, whipping cream or just double cream (I take it single cream will not do). Please advise.
Many thanks and kind regards,
Pru.
I like this recipe and I wanted to bake it but i was weighing the engredients and I realized that 1 cup sugar it is not 200 gr . The same thing happens with the flour. How should I mesure the engredients?
Thank you so much for sharing
I made this cake for a friend’s baby shower and was told by everyone that it was so moist and delicious! I had even made it the day before and had it sat in the fridge. I’m going to make the funfetti cake for my daughters birthday this weekend. Thank you!!!!
Delicious cake! This is my #1 vanilla cake! My friends and our kids enjoyed the moist and flavour of this cake. Make the cake with different fillings and frosting to create new experiences. Thank you so much for teaching this recipe.
Hi John
Not sure if you’ll see this but I love all of your recipes ur videos are so calming to me. I have an inquiry I would like to use oil instead of butter would I need to decrease another liquid or how would I do this? My grandmother’s 80 is coming and would love to make this
Hi There! I’m not sure to be honest!
Hi John
I made this cake for my daughter’s birthday I made an unicorn theme with SMBC. It was a great hit. And it was my first cake decoration and I’m receiving compliments from all my friends and family. Thank you so much for your recipe. Whenever I decided to make a cake I just come straight to your page and you have lots and lots of it. Thank you so much.
I’ve made this recipe twice now for 2 different 2-tiered cakes. The recipe is a huge hit–people are obsessed with it! The cake is very soft so you have to be careful when you’re taking it out of the pan (both times I had a cake rip) so make sure you gently turn it over and make sure it’s fully released from the sides (I ran a butter knife around it). I’ll definitely be making this recipe again and again. Thanks for sharing!
About two months ago, I used this recipe for the base of a strawberry shortcake. I used two layers for the cake and froze the third layer to use later. I took the 3rd layer out of the freezer today and was blown away that it was just as good as it was fresh! Moist and delicious with amazing vanilla flavor and wonderful texture!
Hi John
Thank you for this wonderful recipe. Your passion towards baking inspires me a lot . Thumbs up 🙂
May I know if there is any substitute for egg in this recipe?
I made this cake for my baby shower and used rubber cake pans. I found that the layers were really thinand I ended up with about seven to eight layers in the cake because they turned out so thin. Would you recommend using metal cake tins, was it the rubber cake tins that didn’t allow it to rise or could I used self raising flour instead of all purpose?
Hi John,
I used your vanilla cake recipe for my daughters birthday cake. I made her a rainbow cake with all seven layers crammed into a 4” hitch cake. My daughter and all our guests were in awe.
One person insisted on the recipe, and I simply gave her your link😀
Thank you for a wonderful blog with amazing recipes – both sweet and savory😃
Turid – Denmark
I want to make this recipe into a rainow cake. Did you just divide the batter into 7 portions? Thank you.
I’ve used this vanilla cake as a base for a tiramisu cake and THANK YOU!!! I’m a self made home baker (through YouTube videos and online recipes) and this has been a game changer! The result of this can be found on my IG page if you’d like to see @lehbakery
I want to get better at cake decorating but decided I need to get the basics down first, so I made this cake with a chocolate frosting, just to practice. My other cakes have always come out very dense but this one was perfectly fluffy, yet still super moist! Thank you so much for this recipe. From now on your blog will be my first stop when looking for cake recipes!
Happy to help!
Best vanilla cake recipe!
Question i have, if i want to add almond extract into recipe so it will be both vanilla and almond extract to this batter how much do you recommend?