This Classic Vanilla Cake recipe pairs fluffy vanilla cake layers with a silky vanilla buttercream. The perfect cake for birthdays, weddings, and holidays!
This classic Vanilla Cake is one of the most beloved recipes on Liv for Cake.
I always thought that there were so many of these recipes out there that I’d stick to more unique ones. But really, I think the world needs my version of this simple, classic, delicious flavor combination.
Truthfully, most of my cakes use this vanilla cake recipe, but I’ve never paired it with a vanilla buttercream.
I know it’s easy enough for some people to grab a cake recipe from one post and a frosting recipe from another, but for those of us that are a little less comfortable mixing and matching for fear of epic failures, I’m putting it together for you into one recipe!
How to Make this Homemade Vanilla Cake
This vanilla cake recipe is the one I use as the base for all of my white/yellow cake-based recipes.
I’ve changed up the liquid like in this Pink Champagne Cake, the butter in this Brown Butter Cake, and sugars in this Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake, etc. to create different flavors. Some recipes require more experimentation, like this Coconut Cake.
Cake Tip!
Modifying cake recipes requires expertise and experimentation, so don’t make changes to a recipe unless you’re confident it will work out. It’s always best to ask if you’re not sure!
I use the creaming method to make this vanilla cake which requires:
- Creaming the butter and sugar
- Incorporating the eggs one at a time
- Alternating adding the flour and liquid
I use buttermilk in this vanilla cake recipe because I love the flavor and texture it gives the cake. The buttermilk in the cake helps ensure that it’s not super sweet, and it works well with any kind of frosting.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can easily make your own at home:
- Simply add 1 Tbsp of either fresh lemon juice or vinegar into 1 cup of milk. Stir and let sit for about 10mins. The milk will start to curdle and essentially turn into a perfect buttermilk substitute.
That being said, if you don’t have buttermilk on hand and if you prefer a sweeter cake, you can use regular milk instead. Ideally use whole milk, but I never have that on hand, so I use 1% and it works just fine.
Milk substitutes such as almond milk or coconut milk, etc. will work fine too.
Swiss Meringue Buttercream
I used a Swiss meringue buttercream here because it’s my favorite, but you can use an American buttercream instead if you prefer.
If you’re going to make Swiss meringue buttercream for the first time, have a read through my detailed tutorial so you know what to do and what not to do to make it a success. I provide a thorough step-by-step process as well as tips and troubleshooting.
I chose to decorate this classic vanilla cake with simple rosettes and sprinkles. I used a decorating comb to make the lines in the sides of the cake, and I love how it turned out!
Definitely going to be trying the other combs in the set, as it’s such an easy way to give a pretty result.
I typically shy away from decorating combs since they remind me of grocery store cakes (not that there’s anything wrong with that), but this one gives it a particularly modern, clean look.
Keys to Success with this Vanilla Cake recipe
Or any cake recipe, really. When it comes to baking, especially cakes, it’s best not to take shortcuts. You want to follow the recipe exactly as written and pay attention to any notes.
Here are the key things you should keep in mind to help bake cakes successfully:
- Ensure all ingredients are at room temperature. Or whatever temperature is specified in the recipe. This helps make sure everything gets incorporated together properly. Not doing this can result in poor emulsification and a less-than-perfect final product.
- Measure your flour properly. Spoon and level the flour into the measuring cup rather than using the measuring cup as a scoop. The latter packs in the flour and can result in dense and dry cakes.
- Don’t skimp on creaming the butter & sugars. You want to make sure they are pale and fluffy. Beat for at least 2-3 minutes.
- Fully incorporate each egg one at a time. Again, for proper emulsification and to ensure a good texture, add one egg at a time and mix well until adding the next.
- Don’t overmix once you add the flour. Mix on low and only till the flour is just incorporated. Overmixing can cause dense but also fragile and crumbly cakes.
- Grease & flour your pans & line bottoms with parchment. To help ensure cakes come out cleanly.
- Use baking times as a guideline only. Every oven is different. Some run hot, some run cold, some have hot spots. Only you know how your oven bakes and it will require some testing on your part to know what works for you.
- Cool your cakes in the pans for 10mins. Any more and the sugars will start to set and the cakes will stick to the pans, any less and the cakes will be too fragile and might break when you’re turning them out.
- Cool cakes completely before frosting. This is critical or you’ll melt your frosting and have a very hard time of putting the cake together.
Following these steps will really help ensure your cakes are successful. It will also make your life easier and less stressful, trust me!
If you’re looking for a delicious vanilla cake recipe, whether it be for a birthday, anniversary, or any celebration (even if it’s just making it through the week), you will love this cake!
Looking for more Classic Cake recipes?
- Classic Chocolate Cake
- Black Forest Cake
- Coconut Cake
- Classic Birthday Cake
- Carrot Cake
- Classic Hummingbird Cake
- Classic White Cake
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I convert this recipe?
- The recipe as-is will also work in three 6″ pans. For three 8″ pans, 1.5x the recipe. Baking time may need to be adjusted. You can use two 9″ as well but the layers will be thinner (reduce baking time accordingly).
- To make cupcakes, all you need to do is reduce the baking time — start checking at 15mins or so. The recipe will make 18-24 cupcakes depending on size.
- You can bake it in a 9×13 pan. Baking time will be slightly shorter.
- You can bake it in a Bundt pan as well but you’ll need to increase the baking time.
- For other conversions go here. Bake time may vary depending on pan size.
- Baking time will vary if you change the pan size. Every oven is different so I can’t say for certain what you’ll need to adjust it to. Be sure to check on the cakes while they are baking.
Can I make it in advance?
- The cooled cake layers can be baked ahead of time, double wrapped in plastic wrap, and frozen for up to 3 months. Take out 2-3 hours before assembly.
- The frosting can be placed in an airtight container and refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 3 months. Bring to room temp and rewhip before using.
- The finished cake (whole or sliced, stored airtight) can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Can I get the measurements by weight/grams?
- There is a Metric option in the recipe card. If you click it it will convert everything to grams.
- This conversion is done automatically and I cannot guarantee the accuracy but many readers have had success using the metric option on my recipes.
What if I don’t have buttermilk?
- For best results, use actual buttermilk, but if you don’t have any you can make your own at home by combining 1 cup of milk (whole milk ideally, but I often just use 1%) with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or vinegar and letting it sit for 10mins.
Tips for this Vanilla Cake recipe:
- If you don’t have buttermilk on hand you can make your own (see post for details) or you can use regular milk or milk substitutes instead.
- If you’d prefer to use an American buttercream, you can use one full recipe of Simple Vanilla Buttercream instead.
- Or if you’re looking for a chocolate buttercream version, check out my Classic Birthday Cake.
- If you want a white cake instead of a yellow cake, use this recipe here.
- I used a decorating comb for the texture on the sides of the cake. I used the left side of the one on the left pictured here.
- I prepare my cake pans using Homemade Cake Release and line with parchment paper.
- Be sure to check my Swiss Meringue Buttercream post for tips and troubleshooting.
- Learn how to keep your cakes moist using Simple Syrup.
- To help ensure your cake layers bake up nice and flat, check out my How to Bake Flat Cakes post!
The BEST Vanilla Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Vanilla Cake:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk or whole milk, room temperature
Vanilla Buttercream:
- 6 large egg whites
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Assembly:
- confetti sprinkles
- nonpareils
Instructions
Vanilla Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 8″ cake rounds and line with parchment.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on med-high until pale and fluffy (about 3mins). Reduce speed and add eggs one at a time fully incorporating after each addition. Add vanilla.
- Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and 2 of milk). Fully incorporating after each addition.
- Bake for 30-35mins or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean.
- Place cakes on wire rack to cool for 10mins then turn out onto wire rack.
Vanilla Buttercream:
- Place egg whites and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk until combined.*
- Place bowl over a pot with 1-2″ of simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture is hot and no longer grainy to the touch or reads 160F on a candy thermometer (approx. 3mins)
- Place bowl on your stand mixer and whisk on med-high until the meringue is stiff and cooled (the bowl is no longer warm to the touch (approx. 5-10mins)).
- Switch to paddle attachment. Slowly add cubed butter and mix until smooth.**
- Add vanilla and whip until smooth.
Assembly:
- Place one layer of cake on a cake stand or serving plate. Top with approximately 1 cup of buttercream. Repeat with remaining layer and crumb coat the cake. Chill for 20mins.
- Frost the top and sides of the cake and smooth with a bench scraper.
- If desired, use a decorating comb to give texture to the sides.***
- Mix confetti and nonpareils in a small bowl. Press sprinkles gently along the bottom of the cake and sprinkle along the top. For the speckled sides, I grabbed a pinch of sprinkles and tossed them randomly at the sides.
- Pipe rosettes using a 1M tip with remainder of frosting.
Notes
This recipe was originally published on June 12th, 2017 and was updated with new content on January 30th, 2023.
Beverley Press says
Hi, Olivia, I was looking for an alternative to a Victoria Sponge. I made this today and it is so delicious, moist and simple to bake. Thank you! I haven’t even frosted yet and had to eat a slice! haha! Have a great week xoxo
Olivia says
Hi Beverly! I am seriously so happy to hear that!! Thanks so much for the feedback 🙂
Beverley Press says
Thank you, just a quick question. Does it make much of a difference if I use caster sugar in place of the granulated sugar?
Olivia says
Hi Beverley! Caster sugar is a finer version of granulated sugar, so it should work totally fine. Technically you may end up using a bit more of it though — unless you go by grams instead of cups which I think you maybe do?
Rasheeda says
Can I color the batter with gel coloring? My daughter wants her cake pink, blue, and purple.
Olivia says
Hi Rasheeda! Yes, you can color it. Swiss meringue buttercream is more difficult to color than an American buttercream though so you may need more gel if you want deeper colors.
Dani says
If i wanted to still make a tall cake like yours how full would I have to fill my cake pans, I have 2 9inch pans .should I double the recipe. Also should i just make the 2 pans I have and then make another mayor if u want it tall
Olivia says
Hi Dani! Converting pan sizes is always tricky. Here’s a site I use as a guideline: http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html
dd says
Hi I was wondering if by tsp you mean teaspoon or tablespoon. Looks like teaspoon but just double checking
Olivia says
Hi DD! Tsp is teaspoon, TBsp is tablespoon 🙂
Rachel says
I just finished this cake and it looks great, but the frosting is a bit runny. Any quick fix without having to do it over? I put it in the fridge hoping that may help, but wondered if you had any other thoughts.
Olivia says
Hi Rachel! Was your meringue completely stiff before adding the butter? If so I suspect it was still a bit too warm or the butter too soft. Pop it in the fridge for 20mins and rewhip and it will come together!
Kenzie says
I started searching for a vanilla cake with eggnog filling, but seeing there were none, I resorted to searching for the components separately. I have a church party being held at my house, and I wanted to make a square cake decorated in fondant, so it would look like a present, as seen in the ‘Southern Living’ magazine. Do you think this cake would bake well in square pans? Will it taste well with a eggnog custard or eggnog buttercream filling? Is this cake sturdy enough to mess with while using fondant? (B.T.W., your buttercream decorating is absolutely FABULOUS. Not many can do buttercream as neat as that)
Olivia says
Hi Kenzie! Thank you!! I think it would work in square pans, but you’d have to increase the recipe depending on the size of the pans. Converting pan sizes is always tricky. Here’s a site I use as a guideline: http://www.joyofbaking.com/PanSizes.html I think it will taste great with eggnog filling/buttercream, but I do also have an eggnog cake in case you missed it:https://livforcake.com/eggnog-cake/
Jacy says
Hi, I want to start baking cakes and wanted to start out with a simple vanilla cake and vanilla buttercream, so this is perfect. The only problem… since I’m a grad student with a minimal kitchen, I don’t have a stand mixer, let alone a paddle attachment. Can I still use this recipe?
Olivia says
Hi Jacy! Do you have a hand mixer? I think that would work find for the cake portion. You need some kind of mixer to whip up the butter and sugar. The frosting will be a challenge with a hand mixer though. I can be done but you’d be whipping forever first to whip up and cool the meringue, and then to whip in the butter — maybe up to 20mins of whipping.
Lisa says
Hi I just used this recipe 🙂 but I found that the cake was too sweet (still hasn’t cooled all the way yet though not sure if that matters). I used ingredients as noted but accidentally used 2 tsp vanilla extract (would that make cake sweeter) 1.5cups granulated sugar , 1cup whole milk, and “sweet cream unsalted butter” which I read is a fancy term for regular unsalted butter, is this true or not? Not sure if this is would make the cake sweeter?
I would really like to try this recipe again, any advice
Or idea of what’s the lowest I can go on the sugar without compromising texture and overall flavor?
Thanks for your help
Olivia says
Hi Lisa! I’ve never used Sweet Cream butter, so can’t speak to that. The cake shouldn’t be overly sweet though. If you’d like to tone down the sweetness some more you can use buttermilk instead of whole milk. You can also try to reduce the sugar by 1/4 cup.
Steph says
Yes sweet cream butter is the same as regular butter.
Allen says
The directions never way when to add the 3/4 cup of unsalted butter.
Should the mix be runny or thick? The mix was really thick for me.
The cake kept collapsing in the middle for me.
Olivia says
Hi Allen, in Step #3 it says to cream the butter and sugar. Did you do that? The batter is on the thicker side but should be easily spreadable.
Karen says
Hi Olivia,
What an absolutely beautiful cake! My 11 yr old daughter said, “That is the one I want!” 🙂 I am going to attempt to make it for her 11th birthday party!
May I ask how on earth did you get the sprinkles on the sides of the cake like that? Did you “toss” them on or is there some trick? And for the base where there is a dense patterning of the sprinkles, how did you get that so perfect? I would appreciate any tips!
Thanks so much and wish me luck!
Karen
Olivia says
Hi Karen, thank you! For the ones along the bottom, I pressed those ones in gently. I placed the cake (carefully) on an upside down bowl so the edges would overhang and pressed them in. It’s best to do this over a sheet pan for ease of cleanup. Also, I recommend chilling the cake so the frosting is a bit firm. The ones going up the cake I literally tossed at the cake! You could place them individually, but that would take ages. The tossing worked fine for me — I just took a small pinch in between my fingers and worked my way around the cake. Let me know how it turns out!
Christine Frese says
Tried this cake recipe it came out very dry. I followed the directions dont know why. I made fun of myself I even apologized to my boyfriend. I made another cake before this one it came out so moist. Dont know what happened
Olivia says
Hi Christine! It sounds like you maybe it was baked for too long? Every oven is different so I always recommend checking cakes before the time specified in recipes.
Faïsa Darson says
Hi Olivia, thank u for this recipe i love it. It is just amazing. Fluffy, light and moist. The best ever. 🤗
Olivia says
Hi Faïsa! So happy to head that you liked it!
Adis says
I have NEVER made a cake from scratch and I need to thank you! Absolutely delicious! I made it for my sons 4th birthday and it came out so good and pretty (for a beginner) ;). His happy face made the struggle so worth it 🙂 bI used the no-egg buttercream and it did curdled/separate (I made butter earlier in the day and I guess it was still too cold) but i kept adjusting ingredients(added warm milk – made it worse- but then added more powdered sugar and it absorbed the extra liquid) and finally worked. Glad I didn’t toss! Will try more of your recipes, thank you!
Olivia says
Hi Adis! So happy to hear that you liked it!
Alexandria says
How much cake does this make? Is this cake moist/fluffy.
Olivia says
Hi Alexandria! The recipe makes an 8″ two layer cake which is 12 generous servings. And yes, the cake is moist but maybe more on the dense side than fluffy.
Caitilin says
Hi – I need to make this cake a day before I actually need it, is it best to make it on the Thursday wrap it with cling plastic, leave in the fridge until the Friday morning and decorate then? Or decorate it Thursday morning and store in a cold place?
Ps, I’ve already made this cake before and it was lovely however it didn’t rise very much, any suggestions?
Thanks
Caitilin
Olivia says
Hi Caitilin! If it’s only a day before you can finish the whole cake and store it in the fridge overnight. Re: the not rising — have you tested your baking powder to make sure it hasn’t expired? Overmixing can also cause denser cakes that don’t rise as much. I hope that helps!
Dana says
When would I food coloring to the frosting?
Olivia says
Hi Dana! I color mine at the very end once the frosting has come together.
Dawn says
I make this cake at least once a week! And we only have 9×13 glass in the kitchen with every thing else you can imagine! It is so easy to fix and I’m lucky if it lasts 2 days. I don’t even use icing, it’s so light that we just cut up some strawberries and whipped cream. I thought I’d address some issues others may have experienced just from my personal mess ups. Room temperature is not anything over 4 hours. I learned that after making a batch of cookies from leaving the butter out too long. For me, no matter how hard I try, or how easy the recipe, I always mess up buttercream. So I am just an old fashioned powdered sugar icing girl. I do use whole milk and I’ve tried almond and orange extract in place of the vanilla. It’s always perfect. Thank you for sharing your recipes!
Olivia says
Wow! High praise, thank you for the feedback Dawn!
Roxanna Maddux says
Does this recipe work well for cupcakes?
Olivia says
Hi Roxanna! Many people have used it to make cupcakes, it works great!
Tina says
Made this cake for the 1st time this past Saturday for Teens 15th birthday. Followed your directions for the cake to a tee except subbed whole milk instead of buttermilk and used American Buttercream. Received raved reviews for the cake. Thanks so much. I will be making this cake again!!
Rita says
Hi,
What are the exact measurements in grams?
Olivia says
Hi Rita! There is a metric converter below the list of ingredients.
Sara says
This cake didn’t work for me and I used the exact measurements, ingredianta and times maybe it’ll work next time but thanks 😊
Olivia says
Hi Sara! Sorry to hear this didn’t work out for you — what were the issues that you ran into?
Lyra says
I love the flavor of the cake but when it came out of the oven the layers were only one inch thick each and the end cake was rather short. Is there a reason for this?
Olivia says
Hi Lyra! That should not have happened. Did you use 8″ pans? If so, it could be either due to overmixing or expired baking powder. I hope you try it again!