The Best White Cake Recipe
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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!
How to Make White Cake
The Best White Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 Tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- ⅔ cup (160 ml) avocado oil, canola oil or vegetable oil
- 2 cup (400 g) sugar
- 1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- 2 ⅔ cup (345 g) + 2 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (235 ml) milk, room temperature preferred
- 6 large egg whites, room temperature
- Double batch Vanilla Buttercream Frosting, (click link for recipe)
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.6 Tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- Add sugar and oil and beat until all ingredients are well-combined and creamy.⅔ cup (160 ml) avocado oil, canola oil or vegetable oil, 2 cup (400 g) sugar
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and then stir in your vanilla extract.1 Tablespoon clear vanilla extract
- In separate bowl, whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt.2 ⅔ cup (345 g) + 2 Tablespoon all-purpose flour, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt
- Measure out your milk.1 cup (235 ml) milk
- With mixer on medium speed, gradually alternate between adding the flour mixture and the milk to the butter mixture, 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 using a hand-mixer on high-speed beat until stiff peaks form.6 large egg whites
- 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.Double batch Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
Hey Sam is it possible to beat the eggs without a mixer?
Hi Alicia! it is possible but you are going to get one heck of an arm workout, it takes a long! time but it can be done.
I’m trying to make a watermelon flavored cake and am wondering if I can substitute the milk for watermelon juice?
I don’t think it would work, I’m sorry! I think it would be too thin and you’d end up with a gummy kind of cake, as the fat from the milk is necessary for this recipe.
You can get watermelon oil flavoring for candy will work
Thank you for this recipe but are we not mixing egg yolk?
Nope, no yolks in this recipe 🙂
can I put food coloring in the cake batter? I wanted to make a gender reveal cake for my friend
Yup! that won’t be a problem, just be careful not to over-mix the batter 🙂
Sam, I made your “Best White Cake” recipe this afternoon and it turned out great! I followed your instructions to the letter and the result was two perfect, even layers with just the right texture. It is delicious. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Can this recipe be made into cupcakes?
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.
Can u make this into cupcakes?
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.
Hi
I need to make a lot of cake. Does this cake freeze well.
Hi, yes, this freezes well! Do make sure to allow it to cool completely first and wrap well before freezing.
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!!
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!
Okay thank you! If I do try it out with cake flour I’ll definitely let you know how it turns out! 🙂
Is the 2 tablespoons of flour for the pans or does that go in the batter?
Goes in the batter, the flour for the pans would be separate 🙂
Hi Sam,
I tried cake flour, with the few adjustments recommended on the box.
Worked real well.
Wonderful cake!
I added your favorite chocolate frosting.
Wonderful too!!
Mary Rose
Could this cake be baked in a 9×13″ or 7×11′ pan instead? Would like to try this cake.
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! 🙂
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?
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!
Thank you very much for your reply. I will try your funfetti recipe to make 10” cakes, and hope that also turns out well. I will definitely be using the white cake recipe in future for any cake I make. It really was beautiful x
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!
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!
I made this with your buttercream frosting, and it was indeed fabulous.
That’s awesome, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
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
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!!
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
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 🙂