Vanilla Cake is a CLASSIC cake recipe made with rich vanilla flavor and topped with a creamy frosting, ready in under 60 minutes! Try today!
A layered cake in your favorite flavor, like this Vanilla Cake, is a simple but elegant Cake Recipe perfect for any occasion. Be sure to check out my other classic cake flavors like Red Velvet Cake, Chocolate Mint Cake, Carrot Cake, and of course, Easy Chocolate Cake!
Sabrina’s Easy Vanilla Cake Recipe
Vanilla Cake is one of the best, all-time favorite, CLASSIC cake recipes! The light, tender crumb with warm vanilla flavor and sugary buttercream frosting make a perfectly balanced sweet bite. My no-frills, easy vanilla layer cake recipe may look simple, but it definitely outshines fancier cakes in taste and flavor!
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter , room temperature
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs , room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup whole milk , room temperature
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Classic Buttercream Frosting (recipe)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and flour two 8-inch cake pans.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt then set aside.
- To your stand mixer add the butter and sugar and beat them together until light and fluffy on medium speed, 2-3 minutes, then add in the eggs one at a time 15 seconds apart along with the vanilla, then lower the speed to low. Add the flour mixture and milk, alternating a little of each at a time.
- Pour into the cake pans evenly and bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Once cakes are cooled, frost them with your buttercream frosting.
Video
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
Chef’s Note: Common Baking Issues
How do I make a cake more moist?
- Don’t substitute butter, milk, or eggs for lower-fat ingredients. The fat in this vanilla cake recipe helps keep everything moist and light.
- Try using buttermilk instead of milk because the acid and fat in the buttermilk will work with the gluten to help give your cake a softer, fluffy texture.
- You can add more moisture to the cake by substituting part of the butter with vegetable or canola oil.
- Bring the cake to room temperature before serving it for the best texture. When cakes are colder than room temperature, they are sometimes mistaken for stale or dry. If you take it out of the refrigerator about an hour before you’re ready to serve, it will be room temperature when you cut into it.
Why did my cake fall apart?
- If your cake is falling apart it is most likely too dry. There are a few reasons this might happen. Make sure your oven is cooking at the right temperature because an over-baked cake can easily be dry and crumbly. Try using an oven thermometer and set your oven temperature, then make sure they match so you’re not over-baking anything.
- Measure your all-purpose flour exactly to make sure you’re not adding too much. Try weighing the all-purpose flour or using a knife to level the measuring cup.
- If you’re replacing the eggs or butter in this recipe, make sure you’re not removing all of the fat because it helps keep the texture of the cake soft. I also do not recommend using any butter substitutes, like margarine.
- Make sure you’re not over-mixing the cake batter. Stop mixing when everything is just mixed in.
- If your cake falls when you take it out of the oven, it’s possible that there was too much baking powder used. The baking powder causes the cake to rise really fast, then fall before it’s done baking. Try leveling the baking powder in the measuring spoon with a knife, similar to how we did the flour.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Unsalted Butter: I always use unsalted butter, so I can add the salt myself. Soften it at room temp so it whips better.
- 3 large Eggs: Make sure you also bring the eggs to room temperature before starting. For this recipe, you can use medium eggs to extra large eggs without any adjustments.
- 1 ⅓ cups Sugar: You’ll want to use regular granulated sugar for the light and soft crumb. I don’t recommend brown sugar for this cake because you’ll need to adjust for the extra moisture.
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract: Use real vanilla extract for the best flavor. Liquid extract is better for cakes, but if you also have vanilla bean paste try using the paste in your frosting for an extra creamy vanilla flavor!
- 1 cup Whole Milk: This should also be at room temperature to get the best texture. 2% should be okay in a pinch.
- 2 ¼ cups Flour: For more delicate cakes like white cake, use cake flour because it requires a finer texture, but for this vanilla cake, you can use all-purpose flour without issue. If cake flour is all you have, you can use it for this cake.
- 2 ¼ teaspoons Baking Powder: This is the leavening agent. If you’re out of baking powder, don’t substitute with baking soda—they’re not interchangeable.
- Classic Buttercream Frosting: Making the frosting from scratch adds a nice touch and tons of flavor.
Kitchen Equipment & Tools
- Baking Pans: Use two 8-inch, non-stick cake pans to make this cake. You can also use 9-inch cake pans and lower the baking time by a few minutes.
- Stand Mixer: It is best to use a stand mixer or electric hand mixer to beat the butter and sugar. This whips in a lot of air which makes your cake softer and lighter. A mixer also makes fluffier frosting.
Can This Be Made Ahead?
Yes! Bake the layers up to two days early, let them cool completely, then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and keep them at room temp—or freeze them for a couple of months if you need to. The frosting’s fine to make up to a week in advance too; just store it in the fridge, and when you’re ready to use it, let it soften up and re-whip it to bring back that fluffiness. If you want to assemble the whole thing ahead, go for it—just keep the frosted cake in the fridge, loosely covered, and give it time to come to room temperature before serving so the frosting isn’t too firm.
Baking Tips and Tricks
- Cooling Before Frosting: After the cake comes out of the oven, make sure it cools down completely before frosting. This will take about an hour or two at room temperature or you can pop it in the freezer. You want to make sure the buttercream and cake are the same temperature, or you’ll pull up crumbs when trying to frost.
- Preventing Cake from Sticking: If you’re having trouble with your vanilla cake sticking to the cake pans once they’re done baking, try lining the bottom of the cake pan with a piece of parchment paper. Trace the bottom of the pan on the parchment paper, then cut out the circle and it should fit exactly.
- Sifting Ingredients: Make sure you sift together your dry ingredients before adding them to the cake to make sure everything is evenly dispersed before adding to the wet ingredients. If you don’t have a sifter, you can whisk your dry ingredients together but the texture might be slightly less light in the final cake.
- Mixing Methods: It’s a good idea to make cakes in a stand mixer because it makes sure that everything is incorporated nicely, but you can use a hand-held mixer if that’s what you have.
- Testing Doneness: You can see if most baked desserts are done by inserting a toothpick into the middle. If the toothpick comes out clean, the dessert is done. This works for both cake and cupcakes.
How to Store
- Store: If you’ve frosted the cake with a dairy frosting, it can be kept at room temperature for up to 2 hours. If you’re just making the cake layers, you can store the cake on the counter tightly-wrapped or sealed in an airtight container. If you’ve frosted the cake, it depends on what type of frosting is used. For dairy frostings, like cream cheese or vanilla buttercream, store them in the refrigerator.
- Freeze: Freeze unfrosted cake layers tightly wrapped in plastic for up to 2 months. Defrost at room temperature.
Frequent Questions
Yes, the difference is that vanilla cake uses all purpose flour, whole eggs, and regular vanilla extract. A white cake is made with cake flour, clear vanilla extract and whipped egg whites which not only gives it a whiter color but a much airy, lighter crumb.
No, I would not recommend swapping vegetable or canola oil for the butter in this cake recipe. The butter not only adds flavor but it adds structure to the cake by whipping it with the sugar. Oil would make this cake dense and the crumb would not be as soft.
A vanilla sponge cake recipe will usually have more eggs and less butter than a regular cake. This is why sponge cake has a lighter fluffy texture, and can be used for recipes like this Chocolate Cake Roll. A regular cake like this vanilla cake will have butter, oil, and a more dense sweet texture.
Variations
- Filling: Add a delicious fruit filling to the center of the cake. Pipe a bit of frosting around the edge of the frosting filling. This creates a barrier and shallow well to hold the filling. Spread a thick fruit jam like Strawberry Jam or Raspberry Jam in the well and add the second cake layer. If you want to use a fruit topping like Strawberry Topping, strain most of the syrup so it doesn’t leak out. You could also use Lemon Curd, Chocolate Ganache, or Caramel Sauce, but I would chill it in the freezer for about an hour so that it doesn’t squish out.
- Decorations: Pipe extra frosting as swirly mounds around the top of the cake for an easy decoration. Add decorative sprinkles, chopped or chocolate shavings on top of the mounds or over the top of the cake. You could also press them halfway up the sides.
- Frosting: Instantly upgrade this cake with other frosting flavors like Rich Chocolate Buttercream, Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting or Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting. My recipes usually make about a cup of frosting extra that is perfect for adding some decorations.
- Food Coloring: Another easy way to upgrade the frosting and cake is to add some food coloring. I like gel food coloring because you only need a couple drops to get a bright, vibrant color.
- Spices: Make a lightly-spiced cake by adding a teaspoon of cinnamon, or a baking spice blend like Pumpkin Pie Spice or apple pie spice. You could also use more aromatic spices like nutmeg or cardamom, I would just only add about ¼ teaspoon of these stronger spices.
Related Recipes
More Classic Cake Recipes
Photos used in a previous version of this post:
The amount of compliments I’ve gotten on this cake! Truly the best vanilla cake recipe.
Love hearing this Lucia and thanks so much for the five star review!
This is one of the best recipes I’ve tried for a vanilla cake. It was super light and fluffy. I have made it multiple times always turns out amazing. This time I added a jar of strawberry preserves made an amazing strawberry cake. ?
What a great “add” Jarah and thank you for the five star review.
Are the nutrition facts for one piece or is it for the entire cake?
Our nutrition values are created by a nutrition calculator. Feel free to use your own nutrition calculators with the recipe ingredients. Serving sizes become an issue because people will have ingredients of different sizes. Packaged products are weighed and measured at the time of creation which makes their measurements accurate. The only way to accurately know the measurements of meals is to weigh and divide.