Vanilla Cake Recipe (From Scratch)
I have been using this recipe for over ten years for my cake clients with nothing but rave reviews. With the release of my cake decorating book, I found out how popular this cake really has become! This is the cake that turns those “I don’t even like cake” consultations into OMG we need to book you right now clients!
The secret to this perfect vanilla cake recipe is in the way it’s mixed. Prepare to forget everything you’ve ever known about making cake from scratch!
After the cakes have cooled and you can handle them safely, wrap them in some plastic wrap and place into the fridge overnight to let the butter inside the cake to fully harden. This will make the cake a LOT easier to handle for torting (splitting in half), filling with frosting and stacking. I always let my cakes rest overnight before attempting to ice them to avoid cake bulges, cracks and other cake nightmares.
Vanilla Cake Recipe
This Vanilla Cake recipe is the base for most of my cakes. It's got a great crumb, is moist and tender but is dense enough to carve and stack for wedding cakes or sculpted cakes. This recipe makes two 8" x 2" round cakes. I put 23oz of batter in each pan.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword Vanilla Cake Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings
5
cups
Calories 96 kcal
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake Recipe
13 oz bleached cake flour
13 oz granulated sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz butter
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
10 oz whole milk
3 oz vegetable oil
3 large eggs
Instructions
Baking The Cake
Heat oven to 335º F/168º C — 350º F/177º C. I tend to use lower setting to prevent my cakes from getting too dark on the outside before the inside is done baking.
Place room temperature eggs, vanilla and 1/2 cup of milk into a measuring cup and set aside
Weigh out all liquid ingredients and set aside in a bowl
Combine remaining milk and oil in a separate measuring cup and set aside
Measure out dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and place them into the stand mixer bowl.
place dry ingredients in stand mixer bowl
Attach the paddle to the mixer, and turn on the slowest speed (setting 1 on Kitchen Aid mixers). Slowly add chunks of your softened butter until it is all added. Let mix until batter resembles coarse sand.
Add milk/oil mixture into the dry ingredients while mixing on low until just moistened (about half) Add the rest of the milk/oil to the eggs and whisk to break up the eggs.
Add 1/3 of the liquid ingredients while mixing on low until just moistened
Increase mixing speed to medium (setting 3 on Kitchen Aid mixer). Let the mixture mix up until it has thickened and lightened in color. If you do not let the batter mix fully, you will end up with very short, crumbly cakes. M/ix for 2 minutes.
Add in your egg/milk mixture in three parts, letting the mixture combine for 15 seconds in between additions.
Scrape the bowl. This is an important step. If you skip it, you will have hard lumps of flour and unmixed ingredients in your batter. If you do it later, they will not mix in fully.
Lightly rease two 8" cake pans with cake goop. Fill each pan with batter 3/4 of the way full.
I always start by baking for 25 minutes for 8" and smaller cakes and 30 minutes for 9" and larger cakes and then checking for doneness. If the cakes are still really jiggly, I add another 5 minutes. I check every 5 minutes after that until I'm close and then it's every 2 minutes. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs.
Place cakes on a cooling rack and press down the dome immediately with an oven mitt covered hand. After cakes have cooled for 10 minutes or the pans are cool enough to touch, flip the cakes over and remove from the pans onto the cooling racks to cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.
flip cakes out of pans after 10 minutes onto cooling rack
Once the cakes are chilled in the refrigerator (about an hour for this size, longer for larger cakes), tort, fill and crumb coat all at once. If you do not plan on crumb coating the same day, you can leave the wrapped cakes on the countertop. Chilling can dry out your cakes before they are iced, so avoid keeping them in the refrigerator longer than necessary. Cakes can be frozen in freezer bags for later use as well.