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The Most Amazing Vanilla Cake Recipe

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The Most Amazing Vanilla Cake is moist and flavorful and made completely from scratch. It’s the best homemade vanilla cake you’ll ever have!

Best Vanilla Cake Recipe

Ever since my Most Amazing Chocolate Cake became a viral sensation, people have been begging me to create the most amazing versions of a variety of different cakes. I’ve already made the Most Amazing White Cake which has gotten rave reviews, as well as its cousin the Funfetti Birthday Cake. Today I’m bringing you a vanilla version. I think you’ll be equally as happy with it.  You’ll never used a boxed yellow cake mix again!

 

MY OTHER RECIPES

When making a a vanilla cake,  I highly recommend lining the bottom of the cake pan with parchment paper. This prevents a thicker crust forming on the bottom as well as ensures that your cake will come out of the pan in one piece. I have used both butter and nonstick cooking spray to grease my pans for this recipe and I do not flour the pan. Both work great.

Easy Vanilla Cake Recipe

This recipe is written for three 9-inch layers. A three tiered cake produces the ideal cake to frosting ratio. A 9-inch pan is a standard size. 8-inch and 10-inch pans will require adjustments to the recipe.

 

Several of the ingredients in the recipe are listed as being room temperature. By following this method you’ll have a better texture in the end so it is worth the patience.  For the milk, I simply warmed it in the microwave for 30 seconds because the idea of leaving it out on the counter to reach room temperature didn’t sit well with me.

 

This recipe is developed using salted butter because that is what most people tend to buy and have on hand. I like to keep my recipes convenient for home cooks so salted butter is used whenever possible in my recipes. Unsalted butter certainly works, but you may need to add a pinch more of salt. There is a combination of butter and vegetable oil in this recipe. I find that vegetable oil gives the cake a lot more moisture.

Moist Vanilla Cake

Feel free to use whatever frosting you’d like with this cake. In the photos I used a chocolate cream cheese buttercream just like I used for my Most Amazing Chocolate Cake.

 

Watch the video below where I walk you through every step of this recipe and share even more tips and tricks for the perfect white cake. As always, you can find my complete collection of full-length recipe demos on my YouTube Channel.

 

 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Can this recipe be made into cupcakes?

A: Why yes it can! They are baked at 325 degrees for 20-22 minutes and this recipe makes about 36 cupcakes.

Q: Can I make this recipe into only two layers?

A: Yes you can, you’ll need to divide the recipe by 2/3rds. But no, I won’t do the math for you. I truly believe that the most amazing chocolate cake must be 3 layers.

Q: Do you have a substitute for eggs?

A: There are numerous options for substituting eggs in baking recipes. You can always try using one of those.

Q: Can I use a different pan size?

A: You are certainly welcome to try, but you’ll need to adjust cooking times and be careful as to how much you fill the pan. This recipe is written for 9-inch round pans, which is a standard size and is meant to be eaten as a 3 layer cake.

Q: Can I make this recipe gluten free?

A: Use gluten free flours at your own risk. Not all gluten free flours are equal and most don’t work as a straight forward substitute for all-purpose flour. I have not tested any gluten free flours in this recipe as I do not have Celiac’s disease.

Q: Do you have a chocolate version?

A: Why yes I do. I call it The Most Amazing Chocolate Cake.

 

 

Vanilla Cake Recipe

4.8 from 23 reviews
The Most Amazing Vanilla Cake
 
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The Most Amazing Vanilla Cake is moist and flavorful and made completely from scratch. It's the best homemade vanilla cake you'll ever have! And it's easy to make too!
Author:
Yield: 3 layer cake
Ingredients
  • ½ cup salted butter, softened
  • ½ cup vegetable oil
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • 1½ cups buttermilk, room temperature
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 3½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 4 teaspoons of baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
Instructions
  1. Grease three 9-inch pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, use a hand mixer to cream the butter, vegetable oil, and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla extract and beat until combined.
  3. Add in flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix until just combined. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure everything gets mixed in.
  4. Divide the batter among the three prepared pans. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let sit in pans for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before layering and frosting with your favorite frosting.

The Most Amazing Vanilla Cake is moist and flavorful and made completely from scratch. It's the best homemade vanilla cake you'll ever have!” src=

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Comments

  5. Oh my word! I absolutely love your most amazing chocolate cake. It is amazing every time I make it. So chuffed to have found this vanilla cake recipe…..it’s just as amazing, and so darn easy! Absolutely love your recipes

    Reply

    • As in adding coconut and pineapple to the cake? It’s definitely a base recipe but you’d have to make more alterations than just adding pineapple and coconut due to the liquid content of the pineapple.

      Reply

  14. Could I use a vanilla bean paste instead of liquid vanilla? Or could I make the white cake with vanilla bean instead of almond extract?

    Reply

  19. Made this cake in order to decorate it for my friend’s birthday, and it came out absolutely amazing. It crusted well, so there are no crumbs in the icing, but the inside is fluffy and delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe! This is a must if you want a cake to be sturdy enough to decorate without falling apart.

    Reply

  20. The BEST Vanilla Cake! My husband and I love It! I am a baker and I have been looking for a great vanilla cake..Found It! I used half recipe with 2 eggs for 2×6″ pans and worked out great! Thank you for this amazing recipe! The chocolate one has been a hit among our friends and family as well 🙂

    Reply

  21. I liked this recipe. I particularly liked the buttermilk in the recipe and using part oil and part butter. Using regular flour made it a bit more dense than if you used cake flour. I definitely made a two layer and was glad I did as it didn’t rise that much for me. Fine everyday cake.

    Reply

  24. Where can I get a tall cake carrier? With my cake
    plate cover thingy, my cakes hit the top. It will not hold a 3 layer cake. Thanks

    Reply

  26. I’m not sure what happened but I made this and it came out super dense. I followed the directions…ugh…what did I do wrong?

    Reply

  27. Just made cupcakes with this and they are AMAZING!
    The recipe blows Martha Stewart’s out of the water. The only differences is I got 30 cupcakes.

    Reply

  29. Can this cake be frozen/refrigerated? I’m planning to make it a few days ahead of the party. Can you provide tips for storing – frosted vs. undrosted?

    Reply

  30. I’m not good at adjusting measurements so I am going to make the cake batter as stated but I only want 2 layers. About how full should each cake pan be?

    Reply

  31. This recipe was really disappointing. I made cupcakes out of it, and they were completely tasteless–except for tasting of oil. I’ve used oil in plenty of other recipes before, but I’ve never actually TASTED or SMELLED the oil in the finished product. It smelled like I was deep-frying doughnuts instead of baking cupcakes as these were cooking. The bottoms of these cupcakes were drenched with oil when they came out of the oven, and although the bottoms dried as they cooled, the smell of oil lingered on the baked goods. On the plus side, the cakes were very moist and fluffy, which was their saving grace. The batter is not sweet, nor is it particularly vanilla-y, so if you’re looking for an extremely bland cake, this recipe might interest you. I slathered them with sugary frosting, but still the resounding flavor experience was “drenched in oil.” So upsetting; I was really looking forward to a great vanilla cake recipe. The search continues…

    Reply

  32. I made your chocolate buttermilk cake and it came out absolutely amazing, this one came out really dense.. I’m not really sure what happened.

    Reply

  34. I’ve tried several yellow cake recipes in the past and they’ve all come out with a corn bread texture. I’m hopeful this one will turn out well since it has great reviews. Would you recommend using this yellow cake as the base for crumb cake? I’m considering halving the recipe.

    Reply

  37. Is this batter supposed to be very thick? it was so thick it wouldn’t spread in the pans at all. I have made the chocolate version of this recipe and that batter was very thin. The cake had a good taste, but was a little on the dry side. I’m not sure what I can tweak to change that.

    Reply

  38. Thank you for sharing this nice recipe, I tried it, it came out nice and tasty, but have 2 notes, the cake surface came completely white though it was baked well but the color of the top was extremly white as if itsn’t baked.

    The other note is that the cake clolor is white, that sounds good for me but just want to ask why yours is yellow and mine is white😅
    Again thank you so much😘😘😘

    Reply

  41. Hi! Is there any possibility that I could make this into a one layer cake. I am a beginner so I want to start with easy things. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes excited to try it!😍

    Reply

  48. I used soy milk, grapeseed oil rather than vegetable oil, poured it into a 10×13 pan without parchment as I planned to serve it in the dish over a period of days rather than as a layer cake. i topped it with a chocolate buttercream frosting. It was a little bit denser than I would have liked but I’d definitely make it again!

    Reply

  49. I baked this cake yesterday. It is delicious and really easy to make (no separating eggs!). I don’t bother with layer cakes so I dumped all the batter in my commercial 10 by 2 round cake pan and baked it 60 minutes and it raised nicely. While cooling, it did fall but just very slightly. The cake is a bit dense and has a good chew to it. Cake mixes are light and fluffy because of all the added ingredients. I like baking from scratch because you only use a few simple ingredients. It tasted lovely!

    Reply

  50. This cake is phenomenal! I did a three layer cake, with each layer being a different hue of pink. I made strawberry cream cheese icing, and a strawberry filling, To finish, I added fresh berries on top. It was beautifully moist, full of flavour, and nice and dense (not heavy though). I made three 9″ rounds with the recipe. I will be adding this one to the recipe box as my go to vanilla cake for sure!

    Reply

  51. Made this cake this past weekend for Easter, with chocolate filling & icing. I thought is was very good in taste and was very well received by everyone. My only issue was the height of the cake layers, they certainly were not as fluffy looking as in your picture. I made the recipe in (3) 10″ pans, I only have even numbered sizes. But I did adjust the recipe by 1.25% to account for that, a 10″ cake pan is 1.23 times the area of a 9″. Was the cake in your picture baked in (3) 9″ pans and did you just make a single batch of cake for that? I’m going to up the recipe a bit more and try again next time, I just would have like slightly thicker cake layers. But otherwise, yum yum yummy!

    Reply

  52. This recipe is fabulous. I always see bakers looking for the perfect vanilla cake recipe, and well… THIS IS IT. It is moist, sponge-y and not super dense. I actually tried doing a marble cake from this recipe. I made this recipe, then divided the batter and just added a 1/2 cup of cocoa powder. It turned out AWESOME. It was a little thick at first, so I may have added a little too much cocoa, but I just added a bit more buttermilk to give it some more liquid and thin it out. I would definitely recommend this vanilla cake recipe! Thank you Rachel.

    Reply

  53. Made this cake and filled with strawberries and whipped cream and frosted it with whipped cream. It was a big hit. I’ve been searching for a great vanilla cake recipe that is easy and this is it. Thank you!

    Reply

  56. Hello Rachel, I’ve tried your chocolate cake recipe and it’s delicious. With your tips here and there, it’s also simple enough to make. My child really likes it. Thank you!
    Now I am going to try your vanilla cake recipe. Do you have a vanilla (custard) fillings recipe to go with it? Thank you ahead!

    Reply

  57. Helllo Rachel, I’ve tried your amazing Chocolate Cake recipe and it’s delicious. I am going to try your vanilla Cale recipe this weekend. Do you have a vanilla (custard) filling recipe? (I don’t know what it actually calls but my son tried once at a bakery and really like the vanilla taste filling. I hope I can make the same.) Thanks ahead!

    Reply

  60. I loved your Amazing Chocolate Cake! I’ve been baking for over 20 years and this was one of the best recipes. I’m so thrilled I found your Vanilla version just in time for my kid’s party.

    Thank you for sharing even dairy-free alternatives to buttermilk!

    Reply

  62. Can I put the batter in the fridge for a couple of hours if I want to use the pans in the oven again later?

    Reply

  64. I saw in another comment that this vanilla batter can be marbled with the chocolate version (my FAVORITE cake by the way). I’m just curious if the different thicknesses of the batters make a difference. The batter for the chocolate cake is very thin – I was actually worried I had done something wrong the first time I made it! You stated that this batter is very thick, as is my usual vanilla cake recipe. I just don’t know if that will cause a problem when it’s time to marble the batters together. Thank you for any advice or suggestions!

    Reply

  65. After an exhaustive search for a fluffy, moist and delicious yellow cake recipe, I finally found your recipe. Thank you! This recipe does create the most AMAZING yellow cake! Everyone loved it, and my husband and teenage son – experienced and picky cake eaters – said “just make this cake – always!” Can’t wait to make your chocolate version, too.

    Reply

  66. So originally, I had planned to make this recipe for an order I had for an 8-inch cake, 3 layers. I completely forgot to buy baking powder and after realizing this I just said I’ll make it for the family and myself. It took more than 30 minutes to bake completely, maybe 40 minutes, but then again, it was on 325 ‘supposedly’, lol. After taking it out, I left it to cool and didn’t expect it to be anything of substance, but then I cut a piece out only to realize it was mind-blowing! The almond extract i added in place of the vanilla gave it a wonderful flavor and it wasn’t too dense. Thank you Rachel for this recipe! This time I will make sure to follow it to a T. Oh, and I don’t find buttermilk where I live to be affordable so I did 2 and 1/2 cups milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar. Also, I put only 2 and 1/4 sugar instead.

    Reply

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