The Best Vanilla Cake
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The Best Vanilla Cake. All bakers search for the best vanilla cake recipe. After 30 years, I developed my own moist, buttery, perfect vanilla cake. I've added Marshmallow Frosting too!
Originally published Aug 2010.
The best vanilla cake recipe is something every curious baker spends plenty of time searching for. I've tried dozens over the years and have conducted many experiments.
I tweaked each recipe trying to get the result I want. This one is the best I've tried so far.
It is quite moist and has a good density but not as dense as pound cake. I like the balance of texture that is achieved by using a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour. It is important not to over measure the flour.
Essential ingredients!
One essential ingredient in this recipe is real dairy butter.
Margarine just won't cut it.
I've used whipping cream in other recipes but this one gets a lot of richness from using undiluted evaporated milk instead.
Finally, the vanilla flavouring is crucial. DO NOT use artificial vanilla flavouring! In fact NEVER use it! Use the best quality, real vanilla extract that you can find for real, exotically fragrant vanilla cake.
Vanilla paste is also delicious in this recipe. You use an equal amount to vanilla extract.
The frosting for the Best Vanilla Cake.
The frosting on this cake is a family favourite which goes by many names but is referred to at our house as Marshmallow Frosting. It has been featured several times on this site.
You can find our terrific recipe for Marshmallow Frosting here. It is the perfect frosting for this cake.
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The Best Vanilla Cake
All bakers search for The Best Vanilla Cake recipe. After 30 years, I developed my own moist, buttery, perfect vanilla cake; with Marshmallow Frosting too.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups cake or pastry flour
- 1 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup evaporated milk, undiluted.
- 4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Sift together both flours, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- For this recipe it is very important to be sure to sift the flour very well before measuring. Flour that is too compacted can cause a denser, heavier cake. If you do not have a flour sifter, put some flour in a bowl and whisk it for a minute before spooning the flour into the measuring cup to measure. Do this for both types of flour in the recipe.
- Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after every addition.
- Beat in the vanilla extract.
- Gently fold in the dry ingredients in three equal portions, alternately with the evaporated milk. When adding dry and wet ingredients alternately in any baking recipe, always begin and end with the dry ingredients.
- Pour batter evenly into 2 well greased and floured 9 inch cake pans.
- Bake in a 325 degree F oven for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Watch it carefully, you will not want to over bake this cake, as soon as the toothpick comes out clean, remove the cake from the oven and let it rest in the pans for 5 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
As with all my cake recipes I recommend using aluminum cake pans for gentle even heating with much less chance of over baking.
Nutrition Information
Yield
16Serving Size
one sliceAmount Per Serving Calories 407Total Fat 19gSaturated Fat 9gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 100mgSodium 224mgCarbohydrates 54gFiber 1gSugar 36gProtein 6g
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.
Barry, this looks delicious and I love vanilla cake, so would love to try and make it, however with living in the UK, some ingredients are always easily available.
Is cake & pastry flour one type of flour? I've never seen it here, and if so, would just plain flour do in a pinch (although I'm sure I might find pastry flour if I looked far enough).
Thanks for always sharing such fantastic recipes!
Yes it is a type of flour. It is a softer flour that makes for very tender cakes or very flaky pastry. It is quite common in our supermarkets. I'm sure you will find it with no problem.
Like you, I cannot imagine why anyone would use margarine or artificial vanilla. I'm always looking for a good cake recipe. I've never heard of using undiluted evaporated milk, but why not? I'm bookmarking this to try in the next few weeks. When I make it, I'll be sure to let you know. Nice blog!
Thanks Debby! Coming from you, I take that as a great compliment.
This definitely looks really good!! I've got to give this a go. I have a other recipes I've been dying to try. I've tried a LOT of vanilla cake recipes but no luck finding a good one. I hope this is going to be the best for me!!
This looks yummy. Definitely have to try soon!
Jody - as an American living and running a bakery in the UK, I'm always wishing cake/pastry flour was available for convenience, but I'm yet to find it. I'm really not sure it's manufactured here at all. It kind of makes sense as American baking and British baking is quite different - American cakes are much softer, fluffier, and generally more moist, so the cake/pastry flour fits in with that tradition, where plain flour is more than suitable for a denser, drier British sponge.
However, as long as you're not needing it in large quantities, it's easy to make by replacing some of the flour with cornstarch (I use potato starch from my local Asian market) and sifting several times. The usual process is to remove 2 tbsp flour per cup of flour used, replacing it with 2 tbsp of cornstarch (oops, cornflour), and then sifting, generally at least 5 times, to really aerate it. Now, as you know, cups aren't really used here, but if you can get your hand on a pair you can get the weight of 1 cup of flour and 2 tbsp cornflour and work it out from there. Or, use http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/tools.measures/Measures.cfm to find estimates of weight for flour measurements.
Hello from Orlando Florida where I am vacationing at the moment, Sarah. Just wanted to give you a quick shout out to say thanks for adding such an informative tip for our overseas readers. It's very much appreciated....now back to sun and fun; these kids are gonna wear me out!
I have made lots of cakes, and everytime I make a cake it never looks like the picture of someone elses - its quite flat! It never rises quite as tall as ones pictured. I went out and bought new baking soda and baking powder, but each time it still never seems to quite rise up! Is there a secret to getting it that thick cake layer??
Don't mix it too much and be sure to bake it at the right temp.
Hi Alicia,
I'd say the biggest problem folks have is overmixing. Follow this recipe closely,try cake flour balance as suggested, make sure that you cream the butter and sugar and eggs very well, fold the milk and flour mixtures in VERY gently and always, ALWAYS begin and end the folding in of alternating wet and dry ingredients, with the DRY ingredients. You WILL have a denser cake if you end with the liquid. Hope this helped and please let us know if you have success with this recipe. Barry
Being a vanilla gal to the core - I too have been looking for the ultimate vanilla and/or white cake. Yours looks fantastic, and thanks to all your leg work, I can't wait to try it! Thank you!
I just baked this and it tasted like what my mum made. Sadly I don't have the expensive Vanilla but working on it.
I made this cake last night. The frosting turned out perfect! And the cake looked perfect, but was a little dry. Any tips on how to make it more moist?? Also, did you double to frosting recipe?
Hi Holly, you can try reducing the heat a little and be very careful not to overbake it.
Could this be made as a sheet cake? How would I adapt the measurements and/or cooking time?
Has anyone made this recipe for cupcakes?? Looking for an easy recipe for my daughter's 5th birthday. Thanks!
Melanie