A classic vanilla cake recipe, made completely from scratch! Ditch the box mixes — you’ll love how easy, moist and fluffy this homemade vanilla cake is!
I’m back in cold, snow-covered Pennsylvania after a long, wonderful (if not very warm… we arrived in the midst of a cold spell!) weekend in Florida with family. My cousin and my sister both ran in the Disney marathon and I nearly screamed a lung out on the Tower of Terror 😱.
My sister had a bad cold for the trip but still managed to run the Disney marathon and beat her own time, despite being barely able to even talk. I caught the cold on the way back home and don’t seem to be able to muster up the energy to change out of sweatpants or cook myself anything other than vanilla cake. The endurance gene skipped right over me, I swear.
Orrrrr, maybe it just exhibits itself in different ways. There’s no way I could run a marathon, but I can endure recipe fail after recipe fail after recipe fail until I land on the most perfect vanilla cake recipe there ever was.
Completely cloaked in chocolate frosting, naturally.
This vanilla cake recipe has been a long time coming. The journey began with my pineapple upside-down cake and was continued with my marble cake recipe — if you recall it took me almost a dozen attempts to get the vanilla cake base of those recipes right. A few more tweaks were still needed to make this a perfect standalone vanilla cake recipe, but, after a lot of wasted ingredients, we have arrived.
Looks like I can endure after all.
Tips for making the perfect vanilla cake recipe
- It’s best if all of your ingredients are at room temperature. I like to set out my butter, eggs, and buttermilk early in the morning so that they have reached room temperature by the time I am ready to bake.
- Don’t switch out the oil for more butter. This vanilla cake recipe uses both butter and oil because it gives it the best possible taste while still preserving the soft, fluffy texture that you want. Using all butter will actually likely make your cake more dense and dry. You can, however, substitute vegetable oil for the canola oil without issue.
- Make sure that your vanilla cake cools completely before frosting! If it’s warm at all, it’s likely to melt the frosting, leaving you with a big mess (ask me how I know…).
- Store your finished vanilla cake in an airtight container (like an airtight cake carrier). It will keep at room temperature for several days, or longer if stored in the refrigerator.
Be sure to check out my most recent video where I walk through all the steps to make the perfect vanilla cake, completely from scratch (printable recipe is just below the video).
Make sure that you also check out my favorite chocolate cake recipe!!
Enjoy!
How to Make Vanilla Cake
Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (113g)
- ½ cup canola oil* (120ml)
- 1 1/2 cup sugar 300g
- 4 eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (390g)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/4 cup buttermilk room temperature preferred (300ml)
- 1 batch Chocolate Frosting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (177C) and prepare two deep 8" round cake pans** by lining the bottoms with parchment paper and lightly greasing the sides. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl using an electric mixer) cream together the butter, canola oil and sugar until creamy and well-combined.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Stir in vanilla extract.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Using a spatula and gently hand-mixing, alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk to the butter mixture, starting and ending with flour mixture and mixing until just combined after each addition. The batter should be smooth and completely combined, but avoid over-mixing.
- Evenly divide batter into your prepared cake pans, and bake on 350F (175C) for 30-35 minutes. When the cake is done, the surface should spring back to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out mostly clean with few moist crumbs (no wet batter).
- Allow cakes to cool in their cake pans for 10-15 minutes before inverting onto cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Frost cake using my chocolate frosting and decorate with sprinkles (if desired).
Notes
Nutrition
Hayden says
September 18, 2019 at 1:35 pmAre you avoiding cake flour in this recipe for any reason?
Sam says
September 18, 2019 at 2:06 pmHi Hayden! I don’t use cake flour because it’s not an ingredient I typically keep in my pantry. If you want to try it, I know others have done it with success. 🙂
TSB says
September 17, 2019 at 5:08 amThanks for this recipe, it worked really well. Especially, thankyou for the metric measurements!
I baked it in two six inch tins (aiming for a taller cake) and it took an extra ten minutes (45 total), which was just perfect in my oven. The cooled cakes came easily out of the tins. I used your vanilla butter cream recipe from the funfetti cake, with extra vanilla, for a big vanilla flavour.
Sam says
September 17, 2019 at 9:22 amI’m so happy to hear it was such a success! Thank you so much for commenting, I appreciate it 🙂
Marian says
September 16, 2019 at 11:56 amAfter trying so many different cake recipes, I’ve found that this really is one of the best cake recipes around. I get so many compliments on my cakes. I often use this recipe and add ingredients to change up the flavor of the cake. I’ve made a coconut cake, salted caramel cake, golden milk cake, spice cake and vanilla cake, of course, 🙂 using this recipe as a base. The basic chocolate cake recipe on this website is pretty amazing too. Overall, the cakes are very moist, easy to make and delicious.
Thank you Sam for sharing!
-Marian
Sam says
September 16, 2019 at 12:43 pmThank you so much, Marian! I am so glad enjoy the cakes so much. 🙂
Janet Lawson says
September 15, 2019 at 5:24 pmThe best vanilla cake was fabulous! I enjoyed preparing the delicious cake for my sweet granddaughter‘s birthday. I appreciate the time and effort preparing the video how to prepare the cake. Recommend this is the best vanilla cake. Everyone enjoyed the cake!
Sam says
September 15, 2019 at 9:09 pmThank you so much, Janet! I am so glad you enjoyed the cake! 🙂
Emma Messina says
September 15, 2019 at 4:59 pmCan I make this but with no vanilla?
Sam says
September 15, 2019 at 9:09 pmHi Emma! While the texture will be the same, the flavor won’t be nearly as good. It won’t be a “vanilla” cake anymore so I don’t recommend it.
Heather says
September 15, 2019 at 4:04 pmI’ve made this recipe twice – once as a layer cake and once as cupcakes. (Honestly making it a second time wasn’t on purpose – I didn’t immediately realize it was the same recipe.) The texture is dense but nice, and the vanilla notes are lovely, but both times I’ve been able to taste the flour in the finished product – which is never something I want in a cake. I followed the recipe and am confident in my measurements. This one is almost a cross between a cake and an American biscuit in flavor. I don’t entirely hate it; I even like the fact that it’s less sweet, but it’s just not a classic cake. In fact, it’s gone down as the one blip on my record of making the best cakes in the office for the past decade. They didn’t hate it either – free cake is free cake, right? -but they didn’t love it.
Sam says
September 15, 2019 at 9:12 pmThat’s so odd, Heather! I’ve never been able to taste the flour before, so weird!
Amanda says
September 13, 2019 at 1:48 pmHey! This looks delicious. Would a 10 inch round pan work?
Sugar Spun Run says
September 13, 2019 at 4:09 pmHello, Amanda! Yes, you can bake the Vanilla Cake in a 10″ round pan. I would just keep an eye on the bake time. Enjoy! 🙂
Hlobi says
September 13, 2019 at 10:20 amI’ll definitely try it today! Is it possible to use a different frosting? Thank you for sharing
Nats says
September 12, 2019 at 1:24 pmHi I need to make an eggless cake due to some people being allergic to eggs. Can i swap the eggs out with something else? Or do you have an eggless version
Heather Knepper says
September 11, 2019 at 10:19 amCan this be made into a bundt cake?
Sugar Spun Run says
September 11, 2019 at 2:29 pmHello, Heather! Yes, that should be fine. Just keep an eye on the bake time. I hope that you enjoy the vanilla cake! 🙂
UwU says
September 9, 2019 at 11:52 pmI LOVE THIS CAKE RECIPE SO MUCH!!! Thank you for sharing it!!!
Sugar Spun Run says
September 10, 2019 at 5:39 amThank you so much! I am so happy that you love the vanilla cake. I appreciate you taking a moment to leave a review. Enjoy! 🙂
Matt says
September 9, 2019 at 10:00 pmCould you sub out buttermilk with normal milk?
Sugar Spun Run says
September 10, 2019 at 6:10 amHello, Matt! Yes, you can substitute for buttermilk. I hope that you enjoy the vanilla cake. 🙂
Hannah says
September 9, 2019 at 4:38 pmHello! I was wondering if you had any time recommendations if you’re making cupcakes?
Thanks!
Sugar Spun Run says
September 10, 2019 at 6:28 amHello, Hannah! No variations needed for cupcakes. I would just keep an eye on the bake time, should need about 17-18 minutes. Let me know how they turn out. Enjoy!:)
Vy Tran says
September 8, 2019 at 2:27 pmThis looks so exciting! I have yet to try but will save based on all the raving reviews here. I love that the amount of butter and sugar is not excessive as I have seen in other recipes for the same amount of flour.
Thanks for sharing!
Sugar Spun Run says
September 9, 2019 at 6:29 amThank you, I hope that you give this recipe a try and let me know how it turns out. Enjoy! 🙂