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.
when it says add 1 & 1/2 cups cake and pastry flour what is cups cake and pastry flour?
one and one half cups of "cake and pastry flour" sometimes sold as just "Cake flour"
If I use a half sheet pan will it fall apart, can any size pan be used? Also it's cake/pastry flour (one type of flour just maybe named either or?) Also can u recommend a type of vanilla and where to find it? if u say not to use a regular vanilla extract.
thanks.
How big is half a sheet pan? Yes, cake or pastry flour. Any type of good quality REAL vanilla extract will do.
Excellent recipe. Made this for my daughter's birthday party! I use buttercream icing since I need to use fondant. It was soo... good...and easy !! Thanks.
i just made this cake for my mother in law's birthday. its in the oven right now! hope it turns out good! but the batter sure tastes good.
i'm going to ice it with a different recipe so i can use fondant flowers on it though. I'm in australia and it was very hard to find some of the ingredients like cake flower, and knowing what to set the oven to(so i roughly guessed. so its a very 'winged' cake.
Barry, all purpose flour can be sifted 3 times and it works just like cake flour, do it all the time/ plus I add 1/4 cup of Mayonnaise to the batter and my grandchildren tell me how moist my cakes are. Just a tip for other's to try even if u don't.
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can i use self raising flour instead of cake and pastry flour? i so much want to make this cake but i cant find cake n pastry flour 🙁
The cake will not be as soft and tender without the cake flour but you can try it for sure with self raising.
Hi there,
I would like to make two different size cake using your recipe. One in a 10 inch pan and one in a 8 inch pan.
Do I need to make two different batter?
Thanks
K
I would multiply the recipe ingredients by 1 1/2 to use 8 and 10 inch pans.
I made this cake today. I love the taste but it was a little dry. I believe the time for my oven would be 30 mins instead of 35 to 40 mins. I will bake again. It will be my basic yellow cake recipe that I have been looking for
Can this recipe be adapted to be gluten free
I don't bake gluten free so I can't answer that. Sorry.
This recipe is delicious! My whole family loves it. However, my layers turn out flat. I read your suggestions earlier to rememdy this. I feel like I have done all those things! I didn't overmix,I used cake flour, etc. Do you have any other ideas? Could it be elevation maybe? (I live in the midwest.)Also...whether it be this recipe or other vanilla cake recipes, I always have trouble with it baking all the way through. The outside will look great, but the center is almost liquid! If I bake it long enough to get the center right, the rest of the cake is dry as a bone. I've tried changing the temp, decreasing the amount of batter in my pan, changing the recipe a little bit, etc, but nothing seems to do the trick. I have had the best luck with this recipe BY FAR, but I still had these issues a little. Any suggestions for that? Any advise is much appreciated!
Hi Barry, just found this recipe on Pinterest. Going to make this cake for my son's birthday. Do you have any suggestions on high altitude baking? Also do I need to sift the flour first and the measure?