With its outstanding vanilla flavor, pillowy soft crumb, and creamy vanilla buttercream, this is truly the best vanilla cake I’ve ever had. And after 1 bite, I guarantee you’ll agree.
One reader, Sarah, commented: “This cake is elite. Texture, flavor, sturdiness for frosting and decorating, freezes well… It was a beautiful centerpiece and dessert for a baby shower. Thank you! ★★★★★“
One reader, Candice, commented: “This is truly the best vanilla cake I have ever tasted! It is among the best cakes I have made in my 20+ years of baking… ★★★★★“
One reader, Rary, commented: “Off. The. Charts. Absolutely scrumptious! ★★★★★“
Out of all the cake recipes on my website, there’s a glaring absence. There’s white cake with a pristine soft crumb, vanilla naked cake with a flavorful tight crumb, and checkerboard cake with a whimsical design.
What about a classic vanilla layer cake draped in vanilla buttercream? I already have homemade vanilla cupcakes and a vanilla 6 inch cake covered and now in all its crowning glory (and after plenty recipe testing catastrophes), I present you with cake perfection:
This is the best vanilla cake I’ve ever had.
What Makes it the Best Vanilla Cake?
Let’s count the ways!
- Soft, light crumb from cake flour
- Fluffy from extra egg whites
- Buttery and cakey from creamed butter
- Stick-to-your-fork moist from eggs & buttermilk
- Extra flavor from pure vanilla extract
Not to mention its versatility: This vanilla cake batter is strong enough for shaped cakes, tiered cakes (see the slight variation in my homemade wedding cake recipe), and holds up beautifully under fondant. Use this batter for vanilla cupcakes, Bundt cake, or even piñata cake. It’s classy enough for a wedding celebration, but unassuming enough for a big family dinner.
Behind the Vanilla Cake Recipe
After years of cake successes and flops, I’m confident in this homemade vanilla cake. During my recipe testing, I combined my white cake recipe and naked cake recipe. These are two reader favorites and I knew they’d be the best starting point. At first there were too many eggs and I quickly learned sifting cake flour was NOT doing any favors.
You need the following power ingredients:
- Cake Flour: If you want a fluffy and soft bakery-style vanilla cake, cake flour is the secret. The cake will be denser and heavier using all-purpose flour.
- Eggs & 2 additional egg whites: 3 whole eggs provide structure, moisture, and richness. 2 extra egg whites keep the cake light and airy. I don’t recommend using 4 whole eggs; stick to the 3 egg & 2 egg white combination.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda: Remember the differences in baking powder vs baking soda and why we use both in some recipes? Using enough baking powder to give these layers height gave the cake a bitter aftertaste. Baking soda allows us to use less baking powder.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk is an acidic ingredient and baking soda requires an acid to work. Plus buttermilk yields an EXTRA moist cake crumb. See recipe note about using a DIY buttermilk substitute.
For more prominent vanilla flavor, use homemade vanilla extract. (What a fun DIY gift!) This vanilla cake batter is moderately thick and fits perfectly in 3 9-inch cake pans. We actually use the same exact batter to make snickerdoodle cake.
Do you know how to level a cake? Let me help. It’s really easy. You can use a fancy cake leveler, but I use a serrated knife. Carefully slice off the tippy top of the cooled cake layers, creating a flat surface. Leveling cakes doesn’t require a ruler, talent, or any mathematical equations. Instead, just use your eyes, hands, and a knife.
Leveling the cake layers promises a straight and sturdy layer cake.
How Much Frosting Between Cake Layers?
I always eyeball the amount of frosting between cake layers, but I measured when I decorated the pictured cake. The vanilla buttercream recipe below yields about 6 cups of frosting. I recommend you use about 1.5 heaping cups of buttercream between each cake layer and reserve the last 3 cups for outside the cake. If you are going to add a filling such as raspberry cake filling, you’ll use less frosting between the layers. You can use this detailed how to assemble and decorate a layer cake post as a guide!
Cake Decoration Inspiration: For a simple look, stick with vanilla buttercream, fresh berries, and mint sprigs. You can also decorate with chocolate buttercream (I recommend the same amount from this piñata cake), rainbow sprinkles, a chocolate ganache drip like on this chocolate chip cake, or even beautiful buttercream flowers.
Homemade Vanilla Cake Success Tips
Learn from my mistakes and bake the best cake on the 1st try!
- Follow the recipe closely. Use each power ingredient listed.
- Use room temperature ingredients. The batter mixes together evenly when all the cake ingredients are roughly the same temperature. This also reduces the risk of over-mixing and over-baking. Set out your ingredients 1 hour before beginning. Read more about why room temperature ingredients are important.
- Line your cake pans with parchment. Place your cake pans on a large sheet of parchment paper. Trace the bottom of the cake pan with a pencil. Cut parchment paper into rounds. Grease the pan and the parchment paper. Parchment paper rounds guarantee seamless removal from the pan because the cake slides right out.
- Cool cake layers completely. I’ve tried taking shortcuts by assembling a layer cake with semi-warm cake layers. Well, the frosting completely melts and causes the entire cake to collapse. Make sure each layer is cool– refrigerate or freeze the layers if you need to!
- Refrigerate decorated cake. After frosting the cake, place it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. This is optional, but it sets the frosting and cake layers. You’ll get beautifully clean slices because the crumbs are cool and tight.
Great read: Check out Tessa’s Top 10 Best Layer Cake Tips.
Finding the perfect vanilla cake recipe requires a celebration. Luckily we have cake!!!
More Classic Cake Recipes
And here is my perfected vanilla cupcakes recipe.
Print
Best Vanilla Cake
- Prep Time: 35 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: 12-14 servings
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
With its outstanding vanilla flavor, pillowy soft crumb, and creamy vanilla buttercream, this is truly the best vanilla cake I’ve ever had. Make sure you read through the recipe and recipe notes before beginning. This recipe yields approximately 8 cups of batter which is helpful if you need this batter for different cake pan sizes and conversions.
Ingredients
- 3 and 2/3 cups (433g) cake flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 cups (340g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs + 2 additional egg whites, at room temperature*
- 1 Tablespoon pure vanilla extract (yes, a Tablespoon!)
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360ml) buttermilk, at room temperature*
Vanilla Buttercream
- 1 and 1/2 cups (340g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 5 and 1/2 cups (650g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1/3 cup (80ml) whole milk or heavy cream
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease three 9-inch cake pans, line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the cakes seamlessly release from the pans. (If it’s helpful, see this parchment paper rounds for cakes video & post.)
- Make the cake: Whisk the cake flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula as needed. Beat in the 3 eggs, 2 egg whites, and vanilla extract on high speed until combined, about 2 minutes. (Mixture will look curdled as a result of the egg liquid and solid butter combining.) Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl as needed. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients just until combined. With the mixer still running on low, pour in the buttermilk and mix just until combined. You may need to whisk it all by hand to make sure there are no lumps at the bottom of the bowl. The batter will be slightly thick.
- Pour batter evenly into cake pans. Weigh them to ensure accuracy, if desired. Bake for around 23-26 minutes or until the cakes are baked through. To test for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it’s done. Allow cakes to cool completely in the pans set on a wire cooling rack. The cakes must be completely cool before frosting and assembling.
- Make the frosting: In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and salt with the mixer running on low. Increase to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. Add more confectioners’ sugar if frosting is too thin, more milk if frosting is too thick, or an extra pinch of salt if frosting is too sweet.
- Assemble and decorate: Using a large serrated knife, slice a thin layer off the tops of the cakes to create a flat surface. Discard (or crumble over ice cream!). Place 1 cake layer on your cake stand, cake turntable, or serving plate. Evenly cover the top with about 1 and 1/2 cups of frosting. Top with 2nd cake layer and evenly cover the top with about 1 and 1/2 cups of frosting. Top with the third cake layer. Spread the remaining frosting all over the top and sides. I use and recommend an icing spatula to apply the frosting.
- Refrigerate cake for at least 1 hour before slicing. This helps the cake hold its shape when cutting.
- Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: The cake layers can be baked, cooled, and covered tightly at room temperature overnight. Likewise, the frosting can be prepared then covered and refrigerated overnight. Let the frosting sit at room temperature to slightly soften for 10 minutes before assembling and frosting. Frosted cake or unfrosted cake layers can be frozen up to 2-3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before decorating/serving. See how to freeze cakes for detailed instructions.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9-inch Round Cake Pans | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Silicone Spatula | Kitchen Scale (optional) | Cooling Rack | Large Icing Spatula | Cake Turntable | Bench Scraper | Cake Carrier (for storing and transporting)
- 9×13-inch Cake: I recommend using my white cake batter instead. Both use similar ingredients and produce a deliciously light vanilla cake. See recipe notes for the 9×13 inch version.
- 2 Layer Cake: I recommend using my 2 layer white cake batter instead. Both use similar ingredients and produce a deliciously light vanilla cake.
- Bundt Cake: This vanilla cake batter will fit into a 10-12 cup or larger Bundt pan. I’m unsure of the exact bake time (likely around an hour), but use a toothpick to test for doneness. Same oven temperature.
- Cupcakes: Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. Bake at 350°F (177°C) for 19-21 minutes. Yields about 3 dozen. Or try my vanilla cupcakes recipe.
- Cake Flour: To prevent a dry-tasting cake, make sure you are spooning and leveling the flour or weighing it. For the best results, I strongly recommend cake flour. You can find it in the baking aisle and I have many more recipes using it. Usually a homemade cake flour substitute works, but this recipe uses far too much cake flour and the homemade substitute is not ideal.
- Eggs: 3 whole eggs provide structure, moisture, and richness. 2 extra egg whites keep the cake light and airy. I don’t recommend using 4 whole eggs; stick to the 3 egg & 2 egg white combination. Here are recipes using leftover egg yolks.
- Buttermilk: If you don’t have buttermilk, you can make a DIY buttermilk substitute. Add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar or lemon juice to a liquid measuring cup. Then add enough whole milk to the same measuring cup until it reaches 1 and 1/2 cups. (In a pinch, lower fat or nondairy milks work for this soured milk, but the cake won’t taste as moist or rich.) Stir it around and let sit for 5 minutes. The homemade “buttermilk” will be somewhat curdled and ready to use in the recipe.
- Why is everything at room temperature? All refrigerated items should be at room temperature so the batter mixes together easily and evenly. Read more about why room temperature ingredients are important.
- Want chocolate frosting instead? I recommend the recipe/amount of chocolate frosting I use for Piñata Cake.
- Sprinkle Cake: To make a sprinkle cake, fold about 3/4 cup (135g) of sprinkles into the cake batter. Avoid nonpareils (the little balls), which tend to bleed their color. Or try this confetti birthday cake, which is quite similar to this recipe.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally, many thanks for your recipes, after having trouble for so long to produce the best buttercream icing i have finally nailed it thanks to your recipes.
Used the room temperature ingridients and it worked and i tried them 1st on your vanilla cupcakes.
This was in preparation for my kids birthday cakes that i will be making.
Thank you.
Wow!!! This cake is perfect. I’ve been searching for the best vanilla cake recipe for years and am glad I tried this one. The search is over! !! It’s so good! I will recommend this recipe to everyone!
Sally, you are a genius. Vanilla cake with buttercream frosting is my all-time favorite cake, and that’s generally because I love the frosting and consider the cake to be secondary. That will never be the case again with THIS vanilla cake. THIS vanilla cake is brilliant. THIS vanilla cake is amazing. THIS vanilla cake is so good on its’ own that it didn’t need frosting, and that is practically blasphemy coming from me. THIS vanilla cake is the BEST vanilla cake I’ve EVER had in my 40+ years of trying vanilla cake recipes; moist, sweet and with an amazingly tender crumb that makes it good enough to eat plain. I will never have to search for another vanilla cake recipe. Thank you so much for giving me the last vanilla cake recipe I will ever need to try.
Im in the process of making this cake now,
I am super excited to see how it turns out! Your site is truly the only site I go to for recipes. I love to bake so I love to gain knowledge through your tips. I love how you break everything down and explain why you do things. I have learned so much through your site and share your tips with others. ❤️
I made this cake for my childs birthday. It was really so moist and delicious!
Can i use cream cheese frosting over this cake and how will it be?
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Yes, you can certainly use cream cheese frosting if you wish.
I made this cake for our kids’ birthday party. I decided to do two layers and made the rest into cupcakes since there were going to be lots of little kids that preferred smaller portions. I followed the recipe to a T, except I had to diy my own cake flour. This was LITERALLY the best vanilla cake! Every single guest commented on how delicious it was. As a chocoholic I hadn’t set my hopes very high but boy was I wrong! I frosted it with your chocolate buttercream frosting and got rave reviews on that too. I will definitely be making this cake over and over again!
I love this recipe – the final outcome is delicious, moist and light vanilla cake. For me, I found it took at least 60 minutes to cook at 180 degrees Celsius in a fan forced oven, I also use over thermometers. Thank you
I made this cake yesterday. We loved it. I would like to use it for my son’s first birthday. We have roughly 16 people attending. So I was thinking of maybe doing a second cake and stacking? Would that be possible with this recipe. Or do you think this cake would be sufficient for that many people? I don’t want to not have enough for everyone.
I’m so glad you loved it! This recipe says it yields 12 servings – but I admit they are large servings! Depending on the size you cut your cake pieces you should have enough for 16 🙂
I’ve made this cake before and love it. Making a tiered 7 inch cake this weekend and would love to use this recipe but how much would I need to do this? Could I make the same amount or will they be too thick and not cook in the centre
Hi Kate, without reducing and testing the recipe in smaller pans, we can’t give a definite answer. However, you can use our Cake Pan Sizes and Conversions post as a guide or make the batter as is, fill the pans about halfway, and use extra batter for a few cupcakes on the side.
Made this last night and my family loves. I have quite the picky bunch when it comes to cake and so this is definitely a keeper. I didn’t do so well on the frosting, alas a store bought was used. I will have to work on that. Great recipe!
I made this cake for the first time for my child’s birthday. It was very well liked. Cake is lovely in texture and taste even plain. I had a few tunnels, will remember to rap pan on counter before baking next time. Glad for the Q&A about baking cakes in batches. I had only 2 pans!
I chickened out (calories) and made only 2/3 recipe frosting and used 1 cake layer separately to snack on plain. I might try dividing batter into just 2 pans next time and get 2 taller layers. That would be another way to use 2/3 recipe frosting.
I LOVE this cake! It had so much flavor and was so soft. I used this to make a baby shower cake a week ago. I am going to use it again for a gender reveal cake this weekend.
Best vanilla cake ever moist and delicious, my new favorite recipe
This is a really, really good cake. I made it in an octopus-shaped bundt pan in a Paris-apartment-sized (teeny-tiny) microwave/convection oven. Baked it for about 70 minutes (it could have used 5 more minutes). My bundt-prep tip is to use melted butter and get it into all the nooks and crannies with a pastry brush, put the pan in the fridge for 5 minutes and repeat with melted butter. Served with a light dusting of icing sugar. One of the 6-year-olds at the party said – “it was delicious, it is like the cake my granny used to make when I was little”. I would say that it is better than any pound cake I have ever made before.
I am so happy I found this recipe! I substituted King Arthur Gluten free flour that is the measure per measure interchangeable and I am so happy with how soft the cake came out. The cupcakes look great, too! Thank you for sharing
My 13 year old son made this for friends baby gender reveal party. What an excellent recipe! The texture, the flavor was flawless and the recipe…. AMAZING! I loved how you explained the how and why so well! It solidified everything I’ve taught him! Best vanilla cake ever! Now… I need him to try a conversion to gluten free! I’m dyeing for an entire slice!! Thank you!
I have been baking for well over 50 years. This is the best flavored vanilla cake I have ever eaten. This Grandma is adding it to my list of birthday cakes and will be my ‘go to’ when someone requests white cake. Keep up the good work and thank you for sharing.
I recently made this cake for my brother-in-law’s birthday and it was a HIT! Great pillowy texture and the flavor was amazing! I definitely snuck some bites of the top part of the cake that I had to slice off for stacking the layers while I was frosting. So delicious! Bookmarking this recipe FOR SURE! Thanks so much, Sally!
This is HANDS DOWN the best vanilla cake I have ever tasted. I made this cake last night and it is so fluffy and delicious, I am never making another recipe again. Because it is so fluffy though, I noticed that my layers were a little weaker than I would like and I predict that I will have some cracking when I build the cake tomorrow. Perhaps I was too quick in taking them out of the molds (waited until they at least cooled to room temp), either way I foresee some issues with the cake building. That said, it just tastes so delicious that it doesn’t even matter if the layers are not perfect, I can fix that with buttercream!
I’m so glad you like the recipe! I haven’t had any problems with it cracking as I stack and frost it, I hope you don’t either!
The most delicious Vanilla Cake I have ever made and eaten. I didn’t change a thing about it. I made this cake last Thursday, cooled and froze it until Saturday. Took it out of freezer and waited about 30 minutes and trimmed off the tops then frosted. Everyone loved it. Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. Absolutely delicious!
Hi Sally,
I absolutely loved making this cake I made this one and your chocolate cake for my little brother’s checker board cake and they worked out great. Super soft and moist.
Hi sally, I want to make this vanilla cake for my hubby’s birthday but he is not a fan of sweet stuff, Can I use half the sugar measurement? Thanks for this beautiful recipe. I’m sure sticking with this.
Hi Jenny! You can certainly adjust the sugar in the recipe, but the cake may taste on the drier side.
It really is the best vanilla cake I’ve ever had! Light, moist and fluffy! I totally missed that it should have been baked in 3 9 inch pans, though. Not sure how! But it still came out delicious! I will totally use your parchment trick next time, i had a bit of trouble getting the cakes out if the pan. This will be my go to vanilla cake recipe from now on!
Hi! I’m really interested in making this cake however, I was only planning on making a two layer 8 inch cake. Should I half the recipe? Thank you! I’m going to dye one layer yellow and the other orange then cut out circles to make a checkerboard cake!
Hi Holly! I recommend halving the recipe for 2 8-inch cake pans. Or you can use my white cake recipe. If so, the cakes will need an extra minute or 2 since they will be thicker.
My cakes are cooling as I type this! Love all of your recipes and know to always go to your site first for any baking endeavors! I’m curious, if I’m making a naked cake should I plan on 2/3rds of the icing recipe? My cake will also have a raspberry filling, thanks!
Thanks Jessica! Yes, if you want to go lighter on the frosting, I recommend 2/3rds of the written recipe amount.
I wish I could give this cake a million stars! Amazing. I made this for my husbands birthday. We and our guests could not take every bite without an OMG expression. We were melting out of our seats.
I saw you on insta story show this recipe. I’ve made it- It’s amazing . What type of egg separator were you using? I looked on amazon and didn’t see any that resembled yours. Thank you.
It’s adorably named “Yolky” 🙂 From Amazon!
Thank you for this recipe! It was my very first time to make a successful cake! So excited that I feel like I can make my kids’ birthday cakes now. Our whole family loved it. Loved the crumb texture!
Hello, I am wanting to make this vanilla cake for my son’s first birthday. I have a few questions. This recipe is fro 3 9 in layer cake correct and I think you said you used a 2 in deep pans right? I wanted to do your vanilla buttercream frosting as week but would like to do the filling a bit different. Do you have any other frosting recipes you recommend pairing with this cake for the filling? Thank you!
Yes you can use 2 inch deep cake pans. How about any of these frostings as the filling? https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/category/frostings/
Strawberry buttercream is my personal choice!
This cake is outstanding. It is so delicious and vanilla-y. I made it for my younger son’s birthday to rave reviews, and I’m making it again today for my older son’s birthday.
Fantastic cake! My family loved it. This recipe is definitely a keeper.