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!
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!
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.
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.
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
The Most Amazing Vanilla Cake
- 1/2 cup salted butter softened
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 cups buttermilk room temperature
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Grease three 9-inch pans. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
You were totally right: Overbake this the littlest bit, and it’s dry dry dry! I had to go a second round to get this right. It was great! Really good flavor and texture. I made a pink buttercream (plus sweetened condensed milk) and came out with this little beauty.
? my cake turned out really dry.. what could have gone wrong?
This is one of the most amazing cakes I’ve ever baked, along with your chocolate one ?. Just one question, i usually bake them in one deep pan, do you have any too regarding temperature or cooking time of baking one big cake ?
Thank you !
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!
Hello. I followed the recipe perfectly and made it into 4 6” cakes. I baked them for about 26 minutes each. When I checked the cake before that it wiggled in the center or toothpick cake out wet. The cake had great flavor and I am obsessed with your chocolate cake recipe, but for some reason this cake came out dry. When I cut it the piece literally fell out and the cake crumbled. Can you provide me with any tips? I’d like to say I’m a very competent baker and am wondering what I could have done wrong? I… Read more »
I should also add I made it on Thursday, refrigerated and iced it on Saturday and ate it on Sunday. Could it have just been too old? I cut the tops of the cake off to even each cake out and I thought they were very moist and was worried if the inside was going to be too wet so I was surprised when it was super dry. Maybe it was just old?
Hi Melinda!
Check her chart up top, you may have put too much batter into the pans. I did that once with 6 inch cake pans, and realized that 1 1/4 cup was the perfect amount, as stated above and it will bake perfectly in 25-30 minutes. Hope this helps!
Need to make it in 2 layers, cant we simply divide the batter in half rather than dividing the recipe in 2/3rds? In my mind that would be simpler
I enjoyed this amazing cake. It was very easy to make and very moist I couldn’t stop eating it. I would have liked it to be more of a yellow cake than vanilla. How could I make it more yellow?
The main difference between vanilla cake and yellow cake is just using the whole egg vs egg whites. But this recipe already uses the whole egg. Maybe try getting cage free organic eggs where the yolk is more yellow. Could also be more flavorful when getting cage free eggs. The closer to the farm the better :0)
My husband has a dairy allergy – do you think a butter substitute would work for this recipe? I have been using miyokos in most my baking with great results, but I know that sometimes the dairy free versions break down differently when baking. Any suggestions would be welcome!
It’s always a bit risky to make plant based substitutes in recipes that were not created specifically to be dairy free. However, Miyokos is a high quality plant based substitute, so of all the possibilities, it is probably your best chance. Please come back and let us know how it goes if you give it a try!
I’ve made it twice, and it was a great sub! I think it probably does dry out faster then if you use a dairy based but day 1-3, you really cannot tell it’s dairy free!
Country Crock Avocado sticks have worked well for all my dairy free swaps so far!
Amazing vannilla cake & supper moist thank you
I made this cake yesterday and was very disappointed. I baked for 25 minutes as per the instructions and it was very dry and tasteless. It could have been my error but I don’t think so. I was very careful with my ingredients. Such a shame.
I followed recipe per instructions but the cake had a strong flour taste. Not sure what happened. It needed for me less flour, maybe more butter and or vanilla. I was so looking forward to it; but so was disappointed. Cream cheese icing was great though.
Love your recipes. I made this cake yesterday and followed recipe exactly however my cake was very dense and not moist at all?? Any suggestions on what could have gone wrong? TIA
I have made this cake many a time and it’s always absolutely delicious! One quick question; I want to try and turn this into a spice cake. While I’m fine with guessing how much of each spice to add, I’d like to know how do you think subbing brown sugar would affect the cake? I’m nervous it’ll affect the structure of the cake, but I really want that molasses-y, moist, spice cake that it would provide. Thanks.
Just a question. Do you grease the pan or the parchment paper?
Has anyone used cake flour?
I am going to try pastry flour now.
It was great with pastry flour! I added the flour after creaming the butter and sugar together to coat the flour (I believe they call this reverse creaming?) and then added the wet ingredients. I was told it was the best cake I have made yet by two of my regular customers! I really liked the change up, I am back today at this recipe to make 48 cupcakes and a 3 layer 6″ cake today! I used a 1:1 swap of the pastry flour to the AP flour.
Hope this helps!
Hi Lindsey for the pastry flour did you use 3 1/2 cups as well