A perfectly plush, soft, classic vanilla cake recipe made entirely from scratch! It’s so simple to make, and tastes much better than a box mix! Recipe includes a how-to video.
A Classic Vanilla Cake, Made Entirely From-Scratch
Every baker needs a solid vanilla cake recipe in their repertoire, and today’s recipe is just that.
It’s soft, plush, and perfectly moist. Not to be confused with my white cake, this recipe is a beautiful pale golden color and distinctly vanilla flavored. It pairs beautifully with any frosting, although a traditional chocolate frosting is my favorite finish!
Like my chocolate cake, this has been one of my most popular recipes for years (and you may recognize it as the base for both my pineapple upside-down cake and my marble cake). It’s a simple, classic, and incredible vanilla cake. So many of you have tried and loved this recipe, and while the recipe remains exactly the same, I thought it was about time for a facelift with new photos and a new video.
The flavor and texture of this cake is so much better than box-mix, and the preparation is almost as easy. I’ve included a few tips below to help you be successful, so make sure to read all the notes before you get started.
What You Need
After testing many versions and combinations of ingredients, I’ve found that a good vanilla cake needs the following ingredients:
- Oil AND butter. A blend of these two ingredients gives the cake the best possible flavor and texture. Butter provides flavor while oil adds moisture and keeps it from being too dry. A cake made with all oil would be moist but lacking in flavor, and an all-butter cake may have a more buttery taste, but would be more dry. Any neutral cooking oil will work here, but I typically recommend using either vegetable or canola oil. For the butter, unsalted is best so we have maximum control over the flavor of the cake
- Sugar. Plain granulated sugar works best. Brown sugar would add moisture, but would detract from the classic vanilla flavor and even weigh down the cake a bit.
- Eggs. You’ll need four eggs, and it’s best if you bring them to room temperature before adding them (this helps them incorporate into the batter more evenly).
- Vanilla. You can’t have vanilla cake without vanilla! I recommend using a good quality vanilla extract, so if you’ve got a batch of homemade vanilla extract, use it here!
- Flour. I developed this vanilla cake recipe to be work with all-purpose flour and that’s what I always use. However, you *could* use cake flour instead. To substitute by weight, you would use the same amount, but if you are using measuring cups you will need to substitute your flour properly.
- Baking powder. I know a tablespoon of baking powder may seem like a lot, but that’s not a typo. Always make sure your baking soda is fresh and avoid using a generic brand, which I’ve had mixed results with in the past.
- Salt. You can just use plain table salt.
- Buttermilk. I strongly recommend using full-fat buttermilk for the best flavor and texture. While I do have a buttermilk substitute, it doesn’t really make this vanilla cake quite as moist and flavorful as I like it to be, so now I strictly recommend using real buttermilk. And no, you do not *need* to have baking soda in a recipe in order to use buttermilk; we’re using it for its moisture and flavor here!
SAM’S TIP: One of the biggest mistakes you can make with this recipe is neglecting to measure your flour properly. If you over or under-measure your flour, your cake will not turn out right! Use the right method, be as precise as possible, and use a kitchen scale if you have one.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Vanilla Cake
- Cream the butter, oil, and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Then, add your vanilla and stir to combine.
- Combine your dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then add about ⅓ of the mixture into your bowl. Use a spatula to gently stir until just combined. Follow this with about ½ of your buttermilk, and stir again until just combined. .
- Add ½ of the remaining dry ingredients stir, and then add the remainder of the buttermilk. Finish with the final portion of dry ingredients and use your spatula to make sure the batter is smooth–do NOT overmix!
- Divide the batter evenly into two greased baking pans.
- Bake, then use a toothpick to test for doneness. Let the cakes cool in their pans a bit before inverting onto a cooling rack, where they’ll need to cool completely before frosting.
SAM’S TIP: While a toothpick that comes out clean indicates a fully baked cake, an over-baked cake will also yield a clean toothpick. It’s best to pull your vanilla cake out of the oven when a toothpick shows moist crumbs!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! This vanilla cake recipe will make 24 vanilla cupcakes. I’ve included instructions for cupcakes in the recipe notes.
A cake that has been over-baked or one in which too much flour was used will be crumbly when cut into. If you invert the cake too soon or try to handle it while it’s too warm, this could also make it break.
Cakes made from scratch require a bit more care and technique than those that come from a box-mix. When making any cake from scratch, take care to not over-mix, over-bake, or use too much flour, or the cake can end up tasting like cornbread. This applies to any cake that is made from scratch, not just this recipe!
What causes dry cake?
Dryness is typically the biggest complaint bakers have when making a cake from scratch, so I thought this FAQ deserved its own space. There are three main causes for a dry cake: over-measuring the flour (addressed above), over-mixing, and over-baking.
- Do not over-mix your batter! Mixing the batter properly can be tricky and this is often where most mistakes are made with homemade cakes. To avoid over-mixing, thoroughly cream together the wet ingredients, particularly the butter, sugar, oil, and eggs. I highly recommend using an electric mixer for this step! However, once you get to the point of combining your wet and dry ingredients, you need to be gentle and fold by hand using a spatula. Alternate adding the dry ingredients and the buttermilk, folding thoroughly, but not aggressively. The batter will be smooth and mostly cohesive; there may be some small lumps remaining, but that’s fine! Also, remember that while over-mixing can make your vanilla cake both dry and dense, under-mixing has its own risks and should be avoided as well!
- Do not over-bake your cake! Even a minute too long in the oven can cause a cake to be too dry and dense. When baking, place your cake pans on the center rack of your oven and always make sure your oven is running at the proper temperature (most ovens do not, so keep a thermometer in yours!). Don’t check your vanilla cake too early (that can make it sink!), but do keep an eye on it. When your cake is ready to come out of the oven, the center should spring back if lightly touched–it should not deflate or appear jiggly. You can also use the toothpick test to check for doneness. To do this, simply insert a toothpick in the center of your cake; it’s done if the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs (not wet batter). Once your vanilla cake is done, let it cool in the pan for only 10-15 minutes before running a knife around the edge and inverting it onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
SAM’S NOTE: Under-mixing your cake batter, not baking the cake for long enough, or opening the oven door too frequently while the cake bakes can cause the cake to sink as it cools.
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (113g)
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil¹ (120ml)
- 1 ½ cup granulated sugar (300g)
- 4 large 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 click link for recipe, or use one of the other frostings recommended in the notes below
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (177C) and prepare two deep 8" round cake pans² 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 until thoroughly combined 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 thoroughly combined, but there may be some small lumps in the batter and avoid over-mixing (and do not use your electric mixer or stand mixer for this step).
- 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
¹Cooking oil
You may use any neutral cooking oil instead of vegetable or canola oil. I generally don’t recommend olive oil, which is heavier and has a distinct flavor that could affect the end taste result of your cake.²Different size baking pans
- 13×9″ pan: This recipe makes enough for one 13×9″ baking pan. Readers have reported the approximate bake time is 30 minutes.
- Two 9″ pans: Readers have reported this cake takes approximately 25 minutes to bake in 9″ pans.
- Bundt pan: Readers have reported this cake takes approximately 40-45 minutes to bake in a bundt pan
Vanilla Cupcakes:
This recipe will make approximately 24 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.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:Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Demi
Hi, does this cake need to be stored in the fridge? Also, how long will this cake stay good for after baking?
Sam
Hi Demi! It does not need to be refrigerated after baking. It will be good for 4-5 days stored in an air tight container.
Elizabeth
Hello, I baked this recipe for Christmas and I was a bit disappointed with the turn out. After creaming the wet ingredients I barely mixed the dry ingredients just to combine and my cake still came out dense and crumby. It may have stayed in the oven a pinch over but the cake looked just like the one pictured here but it was very dense almost like a pound cake and was not moist or tender at all. My mom and I are still scratching our heads trying to figure out what went wrong.
Sam
Hi Elizabeth! If it was crumby and you think it may have baked too long that would be my guess as well. Unfortunately over-baking is your most likely culprit here. I would try baking it a bit less time and I think you will have better results 🙂
Chris
Your chocolate frosting is darker on the cake here than the link to the frosting recipe…is this due to the amount of chocolate chips you used? Thanks!
Sam
Hi Chris! The amount of chocolate is the same. I find the frosting lightens in color the more I stir it, so I may have just beaten the one in the other photos longer. In fact just looking at the two, the one on the cake even looks slightly denser and the other frosting a bit fluffier, so I think it’s a matter of just being stirred less. However I also photographed the cake in my old house and the frosting photos in my new house, so the lighting is a little different, too. I hope that helps!
Aria
would this recipe be good for cake pops?
Sam
Yes it will be! 🙂
Tracy
Hi, can I use 3 6” pans for this recipe? What temperature should I bake at?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Tracy! You should have enough batter to bake it in three 6 inch pans, but we aren’t sure on a bake time. The temperature will be the same. Make sure you don’t overfill your pans 🙂
Rosemarie
This recipe is absolutely delicious! By far the best “from scratch” recipe I’ve made. After years of searching, I’ve finally found “the one”.
Thank you for sharing the recipe and video. The steps are very important to ensure success. Congratulations on vanilla cake perfection!
Sam
I’m so happy to hear it was such a success for you, Rosemarie! Thank you so much for trying my recipe, and for letting me know how it turned out, I appreciate your kind words! 🙂
Lisa
This cakes crumb is messy. When I cut into my daughters cake the work I put into having fun different colours in between the layers just got messy with crumb. I will be sticking to just butter in future birthday cakes. I’m sure this would be a nice cake if there isn’t any fancy decorating to be done.
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened, Lisa! Was it crumbly and dry? The most common causes of a dry cake are over-baking or over-mixing. 🙁
Laura
This truly was good! I made it exactly according to the recipe. Thank you.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy you enjoyed it Laura! Thanks for the review 🥰
Irene Nicholson
Phenomenal cake! My first time using a butter-oil cake n love it! Couldn’t stop eating the trimmings.
BRANDI SALLEE
Good morning, I’ve been awake since 0500 am thinking about your cake recipe and if it would work for vanilla whoopie pies, your thoughts?
Sam
Hi Brandi! Honestly I haven’t tried it and I’m really not sure how it would turn out. I wish I could be more helpful here. 🙁
Ni
If i wanted to use a soaking liquid to make the cake more moist, do you recommend a simple sugar syrup or milk for this cake, plan to frost it with some chocolate ganache
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Ni! Our recipe is designed to be perfectly moist without the need for a soaking liquid. If your cake is dry, definitely check out the detailed tips on dry cake in the post.
Tammy
Hi Sam, can I add ground pistachios to the cake , how much do you recommend? For the cake still to be moist
Sam
Hi Tammy! I certainly think you could but I’m hesitant to make a suggestion on exactly how much without having tried it myself, I’m sorry! If you do end up trying this, would you let me know how it works for you?
Anna
Can I throw in some sprinkles in the batter before baking? I saw the Funfetti recipe but only want two layers and don’t really want to make the full recipe and waste a bunch of batter as I have no purpose for the additional batter.
Sam
Hi Anna! Yes, you could (use jimmies, not non pareils), but if you only want my Funfetti cake but just two layer cake I would recommend making my white cake and adding sprinkles instead. My white cake is closely related to the Funfetti cake but is only two layers. I hope that helps!
Kourtney
I found this recipe to be really delicious. What made it even better was using OliveNation’s Vanilla Bean Paste rather than generic vanilla extract. It doesn’t have the alcoholic taste that regular vanilla extract does, but tastes more like vanilla. A huge game changer.
Tori
This cake is amazing. I made it for my daughter’s birthday party. Stacked the round cakes, cut it in half, turned it on its side and decorated each half like rainbows for her. The cake held up perfectly. Everybody fell in love with this cake recipe and said it was the best homemade vanilla cake. My question, can I bake this in 2 8×8 square pans? Would I need to adjust anything to do this? I am attempting to make a minecraft creeper for my son’s birthday on Saturday but I need square cakes.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so happy it was such a hit, Tori! You can make this recipe in two 8″ square pans but you will need to increase the batter by 50% in order to have enough. 🙂
Ale
Does this cake recipe hold to use for stacked cakes?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes it does! Enjoy, Ale 😊
Shannon
So, weirdest thing. I started out looking for a sour cherry cake recipe for my father in law. Couldn’t find an actual cake, so looked for vanilla cake to add sour cherries to. This recipe looked great. I made a heavy syrup of my cherries and let it cool. Made the cake with my 4 year old. Even did things I don’t normally do – like mix my wet and dry ingredients separately! Put it in the oven and actually paid attention. Pulled it out, put it aside to cool. Happened to glance back at the recipe and the word ‘buttermilk’ caught my eye. Buttermilk? Was that for the frosting? Huh. Read the entire recipe. Yeah. I TOTALLY MISSED THE PART WHERE YOU ADD BUTTERMILK AT THE END!
So, I have an amazing modification! Omit the buttermilk, marbleize in some sour cherry syrup, top with vanilla sour cherry frosting. It takes like short bread. My family LOVED IT!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re glad the end result was a hit, Shannon! Sounds like a yummy variation 😋
Alice
Are there any substitutes to buttermilk that everyone would have in their homes?
Sam
Hi Alice! You can make my buttermilk substitute. 🙂
Misty
Perfect taste! I used these to make cupcakes & they turned out wonderful!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Great to hear! Thanks for commenting, Misty ☺️
RC
I am an avid baker and thought I would try a new cake… Fresh eggs, hand mixed and weighed flour in three parts… The flavor was great but it was dry and I took the cakes out MUCH earlier than requested…
Sam
I’m so sorry this happened! The normal culprits here are over-baking and over-mixing. Even though you mixed it by hand it is still possible to overmix the batter. Also if you removed it much earlier than called for and it was done your oven may be slightly off. I think if you give it another try and potentially just check it a bit sooner you’ll be pleasantly surprised how good the cake is. 🙂
Rina
Wondering if you can use cake flour for this?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Yes! If you substitute by weight, it’s the same amount. Hope that helps!