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
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (113g)
- ½ cup canola oil* (120ml)
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar 300g
- 4 eggs room temperature preferred
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (375g)
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ 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 (or see notes for other favorite frosting options) and decorate with sprinkles (if desired).
Notes
Frosting Options
The chocolate frosting I linked to in the ingredients is my favorite pairing with this cake, but here are some other great options:How to Make Into Vanilla Cupcakes:
Fill cupcake liners no more than ¾ of the way full. Bake on 350F for 17-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs or clean. This recipe will make approximately 24 cupcakes.Nutrition
Sharon Firester
Hi Sam,
I followed your directions to a T and both my husband and I do not like the taste of this cake (we are used to the boxed Dunken Hines) and the icing we didn’t like either. My cake and icing look identical to yours, but I guess it’s a matter of taste. Maybe I should have used milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet since that’s the can of frosting we love. We did LOVE your cheesecake, “worst chocolate chip cookies” and your oatmeal cookies, but sorry Sam, I’m just not a fan of this cake recipe. Nonetheless, you did teach me a few tricks on how to get a perfectly shaped cake 😉
Sam
I’m so sad to hear this one wasn’t a hit for you, Sharon! 🙁
Shirley Saulnier
I make this cake using coconut milk and use a 9×13 pan. I heat the oven to 350 and because my pan is dark reduce to 325 and bake for 30 minutes, delicious
Sam
I am so glad you enjoy it so much, Shirley! Thank you for your feedback! 🙂
Anna Bailey
I used this recipe for my first time ever making cake from scratch and made 24 cupcakes! The flavor is great, but my cupcakes seemed a little dry. I did the fork test at 15 and 16 minutes, and they were still doughy. At 17 minutes the fork came out clean and I took them out. Any tips for next time? Very beginner baker here 🙂
Sam
Hi Anna! A fork isn’t always the best option for testing the doneness of a cupcake, I always prefer a toothpick. The cupcakes could also come out dry due to over-mixing the batter. I hope this helps. 🙂
Zrie Carey
If its only a little doughy, you can take it out. Heat that remains will cook it the rest of the way through! If it is very doughy leave it in. Make sure to level out all dry ingredients as the dry ingredients are what makes it dry. Another tip is to tell between moist and dry, as it can be confusing.
Sabrina
Hi – i’d like to use this recipe to make an 11×15 sheet cake. It seems like a could do 1.5x the recipe ingredients for this. could you suggest an approximate cooking time?
Sam
Hi Sabrina! Unfortunately I haven’t tried it so I can’t really give a very good guess. 🙁 If you do try it I would love to know how long it takes so I can pass the information on to anyone else who asks. 🙂
Alaina Diaz
hi, i was wondering if i can half this recipe and bake it into an 8′ pan. also, is this cake good to make cake pops?
Sam
Hi Alaina! If you cut this in half, yes, it will fill one 8 inch pan. I haven’t tried it for cake pops but I don’t see any reason it wouldn’t work. 🙂
Scarlett
Hi,
I made this recipe and I loved the taste! It did come out a bit dense and a little dry though. I should have watched your video first, because I think I over mixed the eggs, oil and butter. They were much whiter than I saw in your video. I also used the mixer to incorporate the buttermilk and flour mixture. Should the batter be a little lumpy or smooth?
Sam
O no! I’m so sorry this happened, Scarlett! In the future I would definitely recommend mixing the flour and buttermilk together by hand. Some lumps are ok in this step. You can see what the batter looks like in the video. I hope it goes better next time. 🙂
Tasrina
Hi I made a 6 inch cake-3 layers with this recipe. It was absolutely amazing! My only issue is it’s little crumbly as I made a semi naked cake with it. The crumbs kept coming out as I tried to crumb coat it even when it was cold.
Sam
I’m so glad you enjoyed it so much! I’m not sure I understand though. To make the crumb layer you add a thin layer to catch the crumbs, then you refrigerate to stiffen up the frosting a little bit, then you can add the outer layer of frosting without getting crumbs in it. I hope this helps. 🙂
Debbie
Can it be made in a 9 x 13? I always make layer cakes but I want a sheet cake.
Sam
Hi Debbie! This works great in a 9 x 13. Others have reported about 30 minutes to bake. 🙂
Dessy
Dryer than the Sahara! I don’t think anything went sideways- I followed the instructions to the T.
I even made my own buttermilk. All ingredients were at room temp.
When finished, at 30 min, my two 8” rounds were bricks and the crumb was like sandpaper when cut. It was awful. And there was a bite of salt twinge in vey bite. I measure everything, exactly.
This was a terrible outcome. Dry, dry, dry. I threw it out. Looking for another recipe.
Sam
Hi Dessy! Did you accidentally use baking soda instead of baking powder, by chance? Something definitely went wrong here 🙁
Caitlin
Wow. I was debating saving myself time and ordering a cake for my son’s birthday but that was honestly the best cake ever. The trick is to absolutely not over stir. I have made it before and got lazy and it came out dense. Not this time. Incredible.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed it so much, Caitlin! 🙂
Leo
I was wondering before making this recipe if it would be better using cake flour instead of all purpose flour. Thanks!
Sam
Hi Leo! You can use cake flour if you’d like but this cake was specifically written to use all-purpose flour. It’s a great cake. 🙂
Brigette
Could this recipe be used for cupcakes? It sounds really good
Sam
Hi Brigette! Yes! Fill liners 2/3 full and bake on 350F (175C) for 17-18 minutes. Enjoy 🙂
Brigette
Thanks so much!
Memory Ayers
I wanted to make this for my sons 16th birthday. But instead I wanted to make a 3 or 4 layered 6 in round cake. Do you think I should adjust the recipe for this or just shorten bake time and have slightly thinner layers?
Sam
This recipe as is will give you enough for 3 6 inch layers with maybe a tiny bit leftover. If you wanted 4 you might want to make the layers just a bit thinner. I’m not sure what the bake time will be, just be sure to keep an eye on them. Good luck! 🙂
TERESA DI MARCO
Made this last night as Pittsburgh is freezing !!
WE LOVE IT.
Followed recipe exactly as written.
Texture is almost like a pound cake (to me) thick but melts in your mouth.
Didn’t have ingredients for icing but it really didn’t matter.
This is a perfect cake for icing.
Great recipe.
Sam
I am so glad everyone enjoyed it so much, Teresa! Stay warm! 🙂
Iver
Hi, My batter is lumpy when I mix by hand. I am afraid to over-mix though so I just leave it! Is that normal? All ingredients are room temp and I sift my dry ingredients.
Sugar Spun Run
Hi, Iver! You should be fine. Keep me posted on how it turns out. 🙂
Susan Persampieri
Hi, I noticed during the video that you only greased the sides of the 2 pans. And not the bottoms….should the bottoms be greased if I am using parchment paper? Also – should the parchment paper itself be greased?
Also, can I add sprinkles to the cake like your Birthday Cake? If so, what amount of sprinkles?
Sam
Hi Susan! If you are using a parchment paper round there really isn’t any need to grease the bottom. The parchment paper won’t stick so you don’t need to grease that either. You could certainly stir in some sprinkles. This is really a matter of preference. I would think about 1/3 cup would be good. I would stay away from nonpareils as they will bleed in your batter. 🙂
Jessica
hi! I’ve noticed that you used two 8in pans, does that mean that this recipe calls for 2 cakes? If I am interested in baking only one cake, would I need to measure out half of the amount listed above? thank you!
Sam
Hi Jessica! This recipe makes 2 8 inch layers. If you would only like 1 8 inch round cake you will want to cut the recipe in half. 🙂
Meredith
Hello. This recipe looks delicious! I want to try it for my son’s birthday. Can you use cake flour instead of AP flour? Would the amount in the recipe need adjusted?
Sam
Hi Meredith! You can use cake flour. If using weights the amounts are the same. If using cups you need 1c + 2 TBSP of cake flour for every cup of flour, so total you would need 3c + 6TBSP of cake flour.
Addison
I followed the recipe exactly and Tried the recipe twice cake came out first time it looked perfect the toothpick came out clean to both cakes so I set them to cool the middle of the cake sank and was undercooked but it was perfectly fine whilst in the oven… The second time it was exactly the same, It was also a very dense and dry cake and it wasn’t even overmixed It was a decent cake but it wasn’t moist or fluffy what so ever
Sam
Hi Addison! I’m so sorry this happened. I’m not sure what you mean by the cakes being done while in the oven then undercooked when removed from the oven. You want your toothpicks to come out with a few moist crumbs so they finish baking in the pan while cooling, otherwise you run the risk of them over-cooking and that would cause the dense dry cake. 🙁 I hope it goes better next time.
Addison Dent
Thank you so much for the advice ill try that next time 🙂
Janice
Addison, my cake did the same exact thing. It passed the toothpick test without doubt but after being out of the oven for just a few minutes, the center sank in and was raw cake dough when I took a knife and cut into the center. I’ve been baking for 50+ years and I’ve never had a cake do that.
Sam
Hmmm I’m really confused as to what could be happening here. Sinking is typically caused by either over-mixing the cake or over-baking the cake, but if it’s raw then it wasn’t over-baked. Is your oven temperature accurate? Silly question, but are you testing the cake in the center and getting all the way to the bottom of the pan with your toothpick?