The Best Yellow Cake Recipe, Homemade from Scratch
The Best Yellow Cake Recipe, Homemade from Scratch. A moist, delicious, beautifully textured cake, paired in a classic combination with chocolate frosting.
Originally published April 2015.
A great yellow cake recipe is one of the most searched for among dedicated baking enthusiasts. I'm no different and have been experimenting with different recipes that I've found online for years.
For some reason that's probably stuck in my psyche since childhood, I always envision yellow cake as in an impressive three layers that just looks like one of the simplest but most inviting cakes ever.
It's part of the reason that I was never quite satisfied with a lot of recipes I'd tried. Many of the firmer textured cakes that were suitable for stacking were too dry.
A couple of the moister recipes were too soft and became too compressed under the weight. In developing this recipe I believe that I have finally struck the proper balance.
What makes a great yellow cake?
Butter and egg yolks are what gives a good yellow cake it's colour. The fresher your eggs the better the colour.
If you can buy free range organic eggs, you will see that the colour of the yolks is quite different. They are much more intense than commercially produced eggs from chickens that are raised indoors.
Finally, you should note that although it is shown in 3 layers in the photo, this recipe is written for a two layer cake, baked in 8 inch round pans.
If you want a 3 layer 8 inch cake, multiply the ingredients by 1 ½. If you want a 3 layer nine inch cake, which is a perfect birthday cake for large parties, double the recipe.
Frosting the cake.
Use your favourite fudge frosting on the cake or you can use the silky smooth chocolate buttercream frosting from this recipe or a simpler icing sugar based chocolate frosting found here.
Larger cakes will need about 1 ½ to 2 times times the frosting.
Love Scratch Cake Recipes?
If you love homemade cakes from scratch we have a great selection of soft textured, moist cakes ion our Velvet Cake Collection.
Note:
My son Noah, makes this cake all the time but his favourite is to make these as cupcakes with chocolate frosting. That's a great idea for parties and get togethers. Everyone loves homemade cupcakes!
In paper lined cupcake pans, thes should take 13-15 minutes to bake at 325 degrees F. Again, always let the toothpick test be your guide.
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The Best Yellow Cake Recipe, Homemade from Scratch
The Best Yellow Cake Recipe, Homemade from Scratch - a moist, delicious, beautifully textured cake, paired in a classic combination with chocolate frosting.
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups all purpose flour, sifted
- 1½ cups cake flour, sifted
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ⅔ cup butter
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract, good quality
- 2 extra large eggs
- 2 extra large egg yolks
- 1½ cups buttermilk, or soured milk
Instructions
- Sift together both flours, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Grease and flour 2 eight inch round cake pans and line the bottom with 2 circles of parchment paper.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer beat together the sugar, vegetable oil, butter and vanilla. Beat well at high speed with whisk attachment until light and fluffy
- Beat the eggs in one at a time, then beat in the 2 egg yolks.
- Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk.
- I always add dry ingredients in three divisions and liquid ingredients in 2 divisions. It is very important to begin and end the additions with the dry ingredients. Do not over mix the batter. As soon as it has no lumps in the batter, pour into the two prepared 8 inch cake pans.
- Bake at 325 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Notes
NOTE that although it is shown in 3 layers in the photo, this recipe is written for a two layer cake, baked in 8 inch round pans. If you want a 3 layer 8 inch cake, multiply the ingredients by 1 ½ and if you want a 3 layer nine inch cake (which is a perfect birthday cake for large parties) double the recipe.
NOTE: If you don't have buttermilk and want to use soured milk instead, just add a tablespoon or two of lemon juice or white vinegar to the measuring cup and top up to the 1 ½ cups mark with regular milk.
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Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.
Nutrition Information
Yield
16Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 303Total Fat 14gSaturated Fat 6gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 7gCholesterol 81mgSodium 349mgCarbohydrates 38gFiber 0gSugar 20gProtein 5g
The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.
How about 6” pans? Would this make 3 layers of 6”? Anyone try that? And how does it affect bake time?
Smaller cakes will, of course bake faster. Assuming all your pans are the same height, you just need to calculate the area of the combined pans to compare to the original area of the pans used in the recipe.
Great recipe and I've tried many yellow cake recipes in my 25 yrs of parenting. For 16 years I've made my kids cakes each year since being diagnosed with multiple food allergies. Great moist, easy to make recipe I will likely use for years!!
Thank You.
Can I use all vegetable oil instead of the butter ?
No. Butter is used for structure in the batter in this cake.
You can use crisco (shortening) with similar results. It may not be as yellow. Check out the velvet collection! They’re delectable too!
Hello and thank you for the recipe, but can you use this recipe for a bundt?
I don't see why not.
Absolutely fantastic. This was my first attempt at a cake from scratch. This is a super light, moist and flavorful cake. Thank you.
Fantastic recipe! I was nervous as I am making this in a mini-oven in Nanjing, China! It took a bit longer to bake but it came up beautifully and is so light! Thanks for sharing a great recipe.
Thanks for the recipe / I’m excited to try it. It looks great. Just a note - egg yolk colour is not determined if a chicken is raised organically or not. The egg yolk colour is determined by what a chicken is fed ie. a diet rich in corn will produce a brighter yellow, whereas a chicken fed a diet high in wheat will produce a paler yellow yolk.
Chickens raised on pasture (grass and bugs) are often orange! I’ve never seen corn turn out bright... in the states feed fed chickens are fed GMO corn and soy, ground up dead sick chickens, and lots of antibiotics. I only buy pastured eggs now...
How many cupcakes will this recipe make?
Not sure. I'd say 18? Depends on the size of your pans I guess.
Excellent! Excellent! Excellent! I have only tried one other yellow cake recipe and that was not it. My search stops here. This. Is. It. Thankful I'm a seasoned cook that knows a good, balanced recipe when I see it. I was specifically looking for a recipe that included butter and oil and this Rock Recipe has all the ingredients I required a yellow cake recipe to have. As with all my test recipes, I made half a recipe using one, 8 inch Wilton aluminium pan and baked at 325 for 32.5 minutes. I made no substitutions, followed the recipe exactly and sifted then measured my flours. Perfect color, perfect crumb, perfect moistness, perfect light weight and perfect full flavor. Absolutely delicious in every way. Thank you, Barry, for an outstanding recipe and fabulous technique.
Such a great review! Thanks for letting me know about your success!
Hi Barry,
Thank you for what looks like another great recipe! I do have a question before baking though. Does this cake yield a light crumb? I am using 1 layer as a 1st birthday smash cake and would like a cake that will hold its shape when cut for guests, but crumble quickly under the hands of an eager toddler!
Thanks again!
This recipe should fit the bill well!
I have been baking for over 40 years and have made countless yellow cakes from varying recipes. I believe this recipe showed up on my Pinterest feed and so I decided to give it a try. This was the BEST baking decision I've ever made.
Firstly, this cake tastes like a true vanilla cake. It was moist, light and had the perfect crumb while holding up to the heaviness of my chocolate butter cream frosting. My adult daughter said she finally understood the meaning of "light as a cloud."
Secondly, I followed the cake recipe exactly as written.
Lastly, I served it to a group of friends and family at a dinner party. Every single person deemed it the best yellow cake they had ever eaten. In fact, several guests literally did a little "jig" as they were eating it. No exaggeration. There wasn't a crumb left and 2 of my friends asked for the recipe.
I will never try another yellow cake recipe again. This is truly the king of all cake recipes.
So glad you liked it. My 19 year old son has become the master of this recipe in our house. He just loves it.
I live at 9600 feet elevation. Any recommendations for adjustment to high altitude baking? My husband always requests yellow cake for his birthday and I am excited to try this recipe!
I'm at sea level so never baked at high altitude before.
Can I use an14.5x11' Wilton bake pan? It's the non-stick surface & it may be a slightly heavier guage metal?.The Wilton 11x15 sheet pan is very similar but not non-stick . Also the Wilton 13x9 is also the non-stick , heavier? same type of pan and advertises with a picture of a sheet cake on it. Ideally I want to make sheet double layer with a fruit filling for 30 + people using the heavier non-stick 14.5x11. Can I use this recipe for that size and bake 2 cakes or am I better off baking 4 half the size such as 10x10 s. 9" would be too small.
When scaling recipes using the same hifht pans I just calculate the area of the pans versus the size I want to make, then multiply the recipe accordingly.
Te best recipe ever it has never let me down ,my go to birthday cake
Hi I don’t have any cake flour how much of all purpose flour would I need to replace it ? Much help needed thank you!!!
The cake texture will suffer but I'd use the same amount.