The Ultimate Vanilla Cake Recipe: Perfect Every Time

A Classic Vanilla Cake, Made Entirely From-Scratch

This is one of those delicious vanilla cake recipes that every baker should have at his fingertips, and that is what we are all about today. With this simple recipe, you will make just the right and delicious vanilla cake each and every time.

This is one super moist, tender, and fluffy cake. It had this really great strong vanilla flavor and becomes this beautiful light golden color; therefore, do not mix it with my white cake. The cake pairs great with essentially any type of frosting, though classic chocolate icing tastes the best!

While this is almost as easy to make, the flavor and texture of this is infinitely better than that of the box-mix cake. To make sure it turns out right, I encourage you to read all the notes in the instructions below before starting-many thanks for some very helpful tips provided below.

What You Need and making process.

• Oil AND butter.
• Sugar.
• Eggs.
• Vanilla.
• Flour.
• Baking powder.
• Salt.
• Buttermilk.

From my rather extensive testing of several versions and component combinations, the following are necessary to yield a tasty vanilla cake:

It also aids in the flavor and texture of the cake, since a combination of butter and oil makes for a perfect blend. Oil adds to the moisture and keeps the cake fresh without getting dried out. Butter gives flavor to the cake. If only oil were used, the cake would be moist but without flavor. If only butter were used, then the cake would have more of a butter taste but could come out dryer. This recipe can be made with any neutral cooking oil, but usually, I would suggest canola or vegetable oil. If we want complete control over the flavor of the cake, unsalted butter works best.

• Sugar. Just plain granulated sugar works best. On the other side, brown sugar may give it more moisture but can make the cake a little thick and distort the classic flavor of vanilla.
• Eggs. I have always read and found it to be the case that when eggs reach room temperature, it mixes much better with the batter.
• plain vanilla. Well, it’s vanilla cake-so it needs vanilla! Use your homemade vanilla extract here, of course-as I recommend using top of the line name brand extract!
• bread. It was with all-purpose flour that I create this vanilla cake recipe, and it is what I use each time. You could*, on the other hand, use cake flour if you wanted. If substituting by weight, you would use the same amount, but you will have to adjust for the quantity of flour used if you are using measuring cups.
• baking powder. I know it sounds like a lot, but one teaspoon is the right amount for baking powder. Because I have had such varied results in the past with store brands of baking powder, it is always important that it is fresh.
• salt. Any type of table salt is fine.
• Buttermilk. I strongly advise using the real thing, whole milk buttermilk for maximum flavor and moisture. But it doesn’t add quite as much moisture and flavor to this vanilla cake that I like, so I do have a recipe for a buttermilk substitute. Let me just say now for the rest of my life, always use real buttermilk. Just to let you know, baking soda is not needed when you are using buttermilk; it’s just added in here for more flavor and moisture.

** Suggestion** The biggest mistake is when making this dessert, not taking a correct measurement of your flour. If you don’t measure flour properly, the cake won’t turn out properly! Be as accurate as possible; if you have a kitchen scale, use it, and follow the right method.

Keep in mind this is just a quick ingredient overview with some of my reasoning. If you’d like to see the full recipe, please scroll towards the bottom of the page.

Cream, using a stand mixer, the butter, oil, and sugar until well Creamed in the bowl of the mixer. Then add each egg, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla after that and beat well.

Fold in about ⅓ of the mixture once you mix the dry ingredients in another. Proceed and gently fold everything with a spatula. Proceed to add about ½ cup of buttermilk and stir once more.

Now add the rest of the dry ingredients, then mix until just combined before adding the remaining buttermilk. Using a spatula, make sure to not have any lumps in this batter after adding the remaining dry ingredients; don’t overmix!

Divide the batter equally between the two oiled baking pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When the cakes are just about cool, turn them out onto a cooling rack. When they are absolutely cold, then frost them.

Advice: Although a clean toothpick signifies that the cake is done, it can also come out clean from overbaking. If a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs in it, it’s time to remove your vanilla cake from the oven!

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