Today I’m so excited to be sharing the very best white cake recipe! This recipe yields a fluffy, snow-white cake that’s light and soft but still sturdy enough to stack or cover with fondant. Read on for plenty of tips for making the perfect white cake, completely from scratch!
We’ve covered chocolate cake, vanilla cake (one of my most popular recipes, thanks to you guys!), and even pineapple upside-down cake, but up until today we’ve been missing a critical flavor: a classic, delicious, white cake!
This is a classic cake flavor and a personal favorite of mine, so when I say up in the intro that I’m excited to share this recipe with you, I really, really mean it. This cake is delicious, and honestly so easy to make… even if you’ve never beaten egg whites before I’m going to walk you through that below so you too can enjoy a perfect, from-scratch white cake.
In case this white cake recipe seems familiar to you, I should probably mention that it is essentially my Funfetti cake recipe, only scaled down to be just two layers (so if you want a 3 layer white cake recipe, just head over to my Funfetti recipe and leave out the sprinkles!).
Let’s dig in to what makes this cake so incredible.
As I mentioned, this cake is fairly simple, but there is an important technique that I want to discuss regarding the egg whites. To keep this cake pure white, we’re not using any egg yolks and instead we are going to beat our egg whites to stiff peaks (if you’ve made my meringue cookies, you’ve beaten egg whites to stiff peaks before). Let me explain how:
How to Beat Eggs Whites to Stiff Peaks for White Cake
- Place your egg whites in a completely clean and grease free bowl. It’s best to separate your whites and yolks in a separate bowl first, that way if a small bit of yolk escapes you don’t have to start over. Even the smallest bit of grease or yolk can ruin your egg whites and keep them from reaching stiff peaks.
- Reaching stiff peaks will take several minutes, just keep beating and you will see them start to take shape!
- Stiff peaks are formed when the whites have increased in volume (see visual below) and, if you pull a beater straight out of the mixture, a peak forms that does not recede back into itself — its holds its shape. Once you reach this point, stop beating, as it is totally possible to over-beat your egg whites.
Fold your egg whites gently into the rest of your white cake batter. I always recommend doing this part by hand. Make sure that you stir enough so that the egg whites are well-incorporated into the batter, but use a light hand so that you don’t deflate the egg whites, or you’ll end up with a dense cake.
While the cake is baking, don’t be alarmed if it seems that the surface is turning too dark. The outside of the cake will actually bake up to a golden brown in the oven, but don’t worry, the cake will be pure white inside once you go to actually slice into it.
What Kind of Extract Should I Use for My White Cake?
I use clear vanilla. Regular (caramel-colored) vanilla extract will work just fine and your cake will still come out mostly white (check out my above-mentioned Funfetti cake, that one was made with standard vanilla extract), but for this white cake recipe I opted for clear extract for a cake with a pure white interior.
Many white cake reicpes also call for almond extract. None of my family members are huge fans of almond extract, so I leave it out, but if you like the taste you can substitute some of the vanilla extract for almond… since almond extract is quite potent I wouldn’t personally recommend using more than 1 1/2-2 teaspoons for this recipe, but feel free to experiment!
Can I use 9″ Cake Pans Instead of 8″
Yes! The baking time will be reduced, though. Start checking your cake at 30 minutes.
Can I Make This Recipe Into Cupcakes?
Yes! Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full (don’t over-fill) and bake on 350F for about 18 minutes (for mini cupcakes, bake for 14-15 minutes). This recipe will yield approximately 30 standard sized cupcakes.
Enjoy!
Treat yourself to a FREE E-BOOK!
How to Make White Cake
The Best White Cake Recipe
This BEST white cake recipe yields a fluffy, snow-white cake that's light and soft but still sturdy enough to stack or cover with fondant.
Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons unsalted butter softened to room temperature 85g
- 2/3 cup canola oil or vegetable oil 160ml
- 2 cup sugar 400g
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- 2 2/3 cup + 2 Tablespoon all-purpose flour 345g
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup milk room temperature preferred (235ml)
- 6 large egg whites room temperature
- Double batch Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 350F and prepare two 8-inch round cake pans by lining the bottoms with a round of parchment paper and generously greasing and flouring the sides. Be sure to shake out excess flour.
-
In a stand mixer (or using an electric mixer), beat butter on medium-low speed until creamy.
-
Add sugar and oil and beat until all ingredients are well-combined and creamy.
-
Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and then stir in your vanilla extract.
-
In separate bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt.
-
Measure out your milk.
-
With mixer on medium speed, gradually alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Stir until each one is almost completely combined before adding the next.
-
Pause occasionally to scrape down sides and bottom of bowl.
-
In separate bowl, combine your egg whites and, with a hand-mixer on high-speed, beat until stiff peaks form.
-
Using a spatula, gently fold your egg whites into your batter. Take care to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl so that ingredients are well-combined, and take care not to over-mix.
-
Evenly divide cake batter into prepared pans.
-
Bake on 350F for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake layer comes out clean or with few crumbs (should not be wet). For best results, rotate your cake pans halfway through baking to ensure even baking.
-
Cakes will be a light golden brown when done baking.
-
Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Run a knife around the inside rim of each pan and invert each onto a cooling rack.
-
Allow to cool completely before covering with buttercream frosting*. I used a double batch of my recipe (linked above) to thoroughly cover and decorate this cake.
Recipe Notes
If you don't like buttercream frosting, my favorite chocolate frosting or favorite cream cheese frosting would also taste great with this recipe!
stephanie says
I’m always searching for a white cake that reminds me of “wedding cake”,,, is this cake dense or more light and fluffy?/ looks yummy 🙂 thanks
Sam says
This one is more light and fluffy. Many “wedding cakes” use almond extract instead of/in addition to vanilla, so definitely check the post notes about adding almond extract to get that signature taste 🙂
Carol Johnson says
Hi Sam,
Is the recipe information at the top correct when it says it makes THIRTY slices? I can’t get my head around sliced an 8 inch cake into so many slices. I don’t think it’s even possible…especially when you love white cake!
Thanks,
Carol
Sam says
OMG, no, that is wrong! I don’t even know how I did that, this recipe makes about 10-12 slices! Thank you so much for pointing that out, Carol, I’ll fix it now!!
Jo Ellen Washburn says
I made this with your buttercream frosting, and it was indeed fabulous.
Sam says
That’s awesome, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Stephie says
This cake looks great and I absolutely love white cake. I will be making this soon, but I was wondering….I’ve seen some recipes where they say to rotate the pans halfway through baking (as yours does). I thought it has also been said NOT to open over door until cake it almost done, so that the cake does not collapse. Is this okay, at halfway bake time? or is there still a chance it could collapse by opening the oven and moving around the cakes? Thank you!
Sam says
Hi Stephie! If your oven bakes evenly I would recommend leaving the oven door closed because you are right, opening the oven door prematurely and unnecessarily can be bad news for a baking cake.
Thinking about it, rotating the pans is much more important with my Funfetti cake recipe where I have 3 pans baking at the same time and they don’t fit evenly into the oven, so rotating is necessary with that recipe, but not really as important if you’re just baking two pans that fit nicely in the center of your oven with a bit of space between them. It shouldn’t be a problem rotating them halfway, but so long as you have an oven that bakes evenly you can probably skip this step. I hope that helps!
Rebecca says
Hi. I made this cake today and it turnt out absolutely amazing, and the taste… WOW, the best cake I’ve baked so far! Thank you for sharing this recipe. I was wondering though, how would I adjust the recipe if I wanted to make 2 10” cakes?
Sam says
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it, Rebecca!! I haven’t made it in a 10″ pan but I think that if I were to do that I would probably increase the recipe by 50% and I believe that would give you enough batter for decent sized layers. I have already scaled this recipe up by 50% and made it into my Funfetti cake, so if you don’t want to worry about doing the math for scaling you can just follow that recipe for ingredient amounts but leave out the sprinkles. Also, the bake time will likely be different, I’m not sure exactly how long it will take so just keep an eye on it as it bakes. I hope that helps!
Cheryl says
Could this cake be baked in a 9×13″ or 7×11′ pan instead? Would like to try this cake.
Sam says
I’d worry that a 7×11 might be a bit too small and it would overflow, but yes you can bake it in a 9×13! It will likely need to bake longer, I’d estimate an additional 5-10 minutes, so just keep an eye on it. I hope that helps! 🙂
Sydney says
This cake looks amazing! I plan to try it out soon. However I was wondering if you’d reccomend using cake flour (I’d guess about 3 cups total?) instead of all purpose flour. I like using cake flour for homemade white/vanilla cakes as it creates a lighter/fluffier crumb than all purpose flour, but I was wondering what your thoughts were about using it for this recipe. Thanks for sharing!!
Sam says
Hi Sydney! I don’t recommend using cake flour with this recipe, this one has been optimized with all purpose flour so I can’t guarantee how it would turn out with cake flour. If you do end up trying it with cake flour I’d love to know how it turns out, though!
Sydney says
Okay thank you! If I do try it out with cake flour I’ll definitely let you know how it turns out! 🙂
Dave says
Is the 2 tablespoons of flour for the pans or does that go in the batter?
Sam says
Goes in the batter, the flour for the pans would be separate 🙂
Jen says
Hi
I need to make a lot of cake. Does this cake freeze well.
Sam says
Hi, yes, this freezes well! Do make sure to allow it to cool completely first and wrap well before freezing.
Chandra says
Can u make this into cupcakes?
Sam says
Yes! Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full (don’t over-fill) and bake on 350F for about 18 minutes. This recipe will yield approximately 30 standard sized cupcakes.
Deb says
Can this recipe be made into cupcakes?
Sam says
Yes! Fill each cupcake liner about 3/4 full (don’t over-fill) and bake on 350F for about 18 minutes. This recipe will yield approximately 30 standard sized cupcakes.