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I am so excited to share this recipe for a Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake with you today! It’s a cake I’ve been making for years, but wanted to tweak and it’s finally ready!
For those who know me and see me regularly, they know that I play with vanilla recipes like it’s my job. I kind of feel like you are only as good as your best vanilla cake. It is super important to have a wonderful one, and yet it seems to be the hardest for people to find. Plus everyone has their own idea of what makes it “the best”. I think I might have made it my life’s mission to make the best vanilla cake for everyone. It may not be that there’s one “best” recipe for all, but maybe a couple recipes that you can choose from. Bottom line – I make a lot of vanilla cake. And it’s all for you. 🙂
So let’s talk a little about this recipe. You may or may not have seen/made my vanilla cupcakes. They have been quite popular and it’s a recipe I go back to time and time again. I love it and so many others love it too.
But it always amazes me how people love different things about cakes. Many people have agreed that they are perfect, moist and fluffy and it’s their new favorite. Yet some think they are too dense. To be fair, when you bake it as a cake, it is fairly dense. And yet, every time I do a taste comparison with a larger group (usually our church group), it’s their favorite – whether a cake or cupcakes. Funny, right?
But I am someone who likes options. I don’t want to feel limited and I’m sure I’m not the only one. And since I’ve loved this cake for so long, I decided it was time to share it so you could have more options. 🙂 The only reason I haven’t shared it sooner is that I wanted to tweak a few things. One thing being that the original recipe didn’t do well as cupcakes. They separated from the liners as they cooled, so I wanted to fix that (and I did!).
Of course, now it begs the question of how this recipe is different from the other one. Neither is necessarily better than the other. That really depends on your preference. But any time I see multiple options for a particular flavor (like vanilla) on someone’s site, I’m always curious about the differences so I know which one I want to try. So I want to break down some of the differences and similarities for you.
First, let’s talk about the ingredients. Just like with the other recipe, I wanted to have simple ingredients that most people usually have on hand. The original recipe calls for cake flour and I wanted to replace that with all purpose flour. That, plus some other tweaks to account for the change, and you now have a pretty normal ingredient list. Score!
Second, there’s the mixing method. The other recipe is very simple. Basically a throw everything together and mix method, which is wonderfully easy. This cake uses the creaming method. The steps are more involved and definitely need to be followed.
Third is the final cake taste and texture. Again, this is very subjective in terms of which is better. I love them both. They both have excellent vanilla flavor. This cake is flatter on top when baked. As for which is denser, or fluffier, I think they’re both fluffy and dense. Confusing, right?
This cake manages to be a little denser-seeming, as there aren’t as many air pockets in the baked cake. But when you bite into it, it actually has a super fluffy taste and feel to it. I feel like the other recipe is actually the denser one, especially when made as a cake, but it has more air pockets and also manages to seem fluffy. Both are very moist.
Personally, I like the other recipe for cupcakes (they’re still my perfect cupcake!) and this one for a cake. But both can be used as a cake or cupcakes and both are delicious.
Hopefully that explanation was more helpful than confusing. 🙂
The bottom line is that you can’t go wrong with either, though you might end up preferring one over the other if you try them both.
I love the texture of this cake. It is absolutely wonderful when layered and iced and I find it very hard to not want to eat the entire cake. It really is a very soft and moist cake. I recently shared it with a friend who wanted to make a vanilla cake for her daughter’s birthday and they loved it!
So there you have it – another vanilla cake/cupcake recipe. Decisions, decisions. If you give them both a try, I’d love to know what you think. 🙂
SHOP THE RECIPE
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Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 33 minutes
- Total Time: 53 minutes
- Yield: 12-14 Slices, or 36 Cupcakes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is a cake I’ve been making for years, but wanted to tweak and it’s finally ready!
Ingredients
CAKE
- 1 1/2 cups (336g) salted butter, room temp (I use Challenge Butter)
- 2 1/4 cups (466g) sugar
- 4 egg whites
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups (390g) all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 2 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups (360ml) milk
FROSTING
- 1 1/2 cups (336g) salted butter
- 1 1/2 cups (284g) shortening
- 12 cups (1380g) powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 6–7 tbsp (90-105ml) water or milk
Instructions
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Line three 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper in the bottom and grease the sides.
2. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium speed about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the egg whites and vanilla and beat on medium speed for about 1 minute, no more. The texture of the batter will change and become thicker and may seem a little curdled.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
5. Add about one-third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat on medium speed until incorporated.
6. Add about half of the milk and beat on medium speed until incorporated.
7. Continue alternating adding dry and wet ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, and beating until incorporated after each addition. There should be three total additions of dry ingredients and two total additions of milk. End with the dry ingredients. The batter will be thick and glossy.
8. Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and spread evenly.
9. Stagger the cake layers on the oven racks so that no layer is directly over another. Bake for 30-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Don’t be alarmed if the tops are a little browned, that is normal.
10. Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 3-5 minutes.
11. Remove cakes from pans to cooling racks and cool completely before frosting.
12. To make icing, combine butter and shortening and mix until smooth.
13. Add 6 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
14. Add vanilla extract and 4 tbsp of water or milk and mix until smooth.
15. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
16. Add more water or milk until desired consistency is reached.
17. To assemble cake, place first layer of cake on your cake stand or plate. NOTE: The cake layers shouldn’t have a rounded dome on top of them, but if they do, cut them off before stacking.
18. Add about 1 1/2 cups icing and spread into an even layer.
19. Add second layer of cake and another 1 1/2 cups of icing.
20. Top cake with remaining layer of cake.
21. Use the rest of the icing to ice the outside of the cake. For instructions on icing a smooth cake and the piping, here is a tutorial on How to Frost a Smooth Cake.
TO MAKE CUPCAKES:
Follow instructions above through number 7. Fill cupcake liners about 1/2 way. Bake at 350 degrees for about 16-18 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to cool completely. Recipe makes about 36 cupcakes.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 1200
- Sugar: 123.7 g
- Sodium: 419.1 mg
- Fat: 66.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 146.3 g
- Protein: 8.8 g
- Cholesterol: 119.2 mg
Filed Under:
Recipe modified from this recipe.
Enjoy!
If i am to use cake flour instead would that be fine or there will be huge difference?
I made this cake last night for my boyfriends birthday. The icing is absolutely awful. I had never seen a recipe use shortening before but thought what the heck. I will never make that mistake again. I have never had so much difficulty making icing like I did last night. Fingers crossed the taste is better than the consistency.
I’m not sure why it was so difficult, but shortening shouldn’t make the frosting more difficult to make. That said, you can easily swap it out for butter. If interested, here is a post on how I make my frosting and why and one on getting the right consistency.
Hi ya. This cake is delish. I live in France but can’t get my hands on what I think is plain flour so I’m using ‘cake flour’. So assumed to leave out the baking powder and soda. The cakes turning out a little crumbly. Can you advise what might be a solution to this given I only have cake flour. Should I still add baking powder and soda? It tastes amazing though!
Here’s a version of this recipe with cake flour. I hope that helps!
I made this cake for my daughters 3rd birthday. I used 3, 9″ cake pans. That was the only thing I did not follow on this recipe.
I mixed everything on medium, set up a timer for the exact minutes, so as to not over mix the cake. I also made it the day before, and I followed your advice on how to smooth the cake too. This cake was pure perfection. My entire crew loved it, including the birthday girl. My mother, who doesn’t usually like buttercream, vanilla cakes- RAVED about it.
Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Cake is delicious! I used 3 pans, but maybe I tried to flip too soon (waiting 5 minutes when I normally wait 10) because the cake stuck to the pan. Ohh well, I can always just make it 2 layers or make a trifle =)
Hi, i’m wondering if i use the exact measure of this recipe and i only want to make a two layer cake, what size of bigger pans should i use? thankyou.
Hello…wishing you all the very best on your journey to motherhood. I am in South Africa..is it ok to use cake flour as i have never seen all purpose flour….and by the way i just LOVE your website. Thank you for sharing your beautiful recipes
Thanks Mariam! I haven’t tried it with cake flour, so I’m not entirely sure. You could try out this version.
WOW! I have searched for years for a vanilla cake that was moist enough for my taste, and my search has ended! This is hands-down the best vanilla cake I have ever had the pleasure of baking. The edges are crunchy and flavourful while the middle is moist and fluffy. The texture AND flavour are both perfect. I can’t thank you enough. My daughters’ birthday party will feature this fantastic cake on Sunday.
Hi Lindsay,
I tried your recipe tonight. What should the batter consistency be like? I am used to a ‘wet’ batter, but this one was almost whipped, I suppose from all the butter. I used an 8×3 Wilton pan, but ended up using some of the batter for cupcakes as it was too much for the pan. As the cake is cooling now, the middle has sunk quite a bit, and the edges are hard. I’m an experienced baker, so I’m wondering if this is normal for the recipe, or if it’s possible that I did something wrong. I know you can’t tell without seeing it in person, just hoping my description is enough to give you something to go on.
Hi Mandy, it sounds like you used one cake pan for all the cake batter. Is that correct? If so, that’d be the problem. The recipe is written with 3 pans, but at the least would need to use two. One pan is going to be very thick and cook unevenly, which would be why you got the result you did.
Thank you for replying! It was a single pan, but it is 3″ high, and meant to replace having to use two or three single-layer pans. The cake is then torted instead of stacked. I also used some batter for cupcakes so the pan wasn’t overflowing.
Curious about my consistency question, though. Was my “whipped” result correct? That’s how it finished before putting it to bake.
Yes, I understand torting cakes, but this still won’t bake well all in one pan. Normally in my experience, you’d still bake at least two cake layers and then torte those into 4 layers.
And yes, it’s very light batter. You could probably describe it as “whipped”.
Hello! I tried the vanilla fluffy cake recipe and it worked fine! However, the 350 for 30-33 minutes did not work for me. I ended up baking the cakes for almost an hour, at 30 minutes the cakes were still watery. It might of been the tins I used but I just wanted to give a heads up for future reference!
I am looking for a recipe for my son’s 4th birthday. He is allergic to eggs and has not really had cake before. We’ve tried a few recipes here and there with different egg replacer options, but nothing has been super delicious. I recently purchased a product called Ener-G. It’s made from potato starch and tapioca flour. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions to make this an eggless recipe for my little guy? Thanks!!!
Hi Lindsay,
I like the sound of this cake but I need to make a 12inch round. Do you think the recipe will be enough or should I double it etc.
I’ve already tried a different recipe that I doubled and it didn’t turn out well. Any advice would be great. Thanks!!
What type of sugar? Granulated or caster? 🙂
Granulated
Hi Lindsay,
Will this cake be sturdy enough to put fondant over it?
And if so, how far in advance can I bake the cake without it becoming dry?
I’m not sure if I’ve tried it. It’s been a while since working with fondant.
Hi Lindsay, thank you for the recipe. I made 2 times already. One for my birthday I used 2x 8 inch round pans. I always use parchment paper on the bottom of the pans so it will slide out easily after bake.
Then I made 37 cupcakes for my son’s Lacrosse party. I made vanilla creamcheese buttercream.
Its great combination. For my 8 inch cake, i made 2 layers.
Your cake is so moist and tasty. Everyone loves it. Thank you so much . Too bad I can’t post my cake pictures here.
This cake is wonderful love it, but I would like to bake it in a 14″ round pan and dense it up a little what would I do to do this?