That is the PERFECT white cake with a smooth texture, moist crumb, and great vanilla taste; plus, it tastes unbelievable with creamy vanilla buttercream. Cake flour, egg whites, and bitter cream are the secrets and techniques to the most effective texture. The cake batter is my gold customary and I take advantage of it as the bottom for a lot of different cake flavors together with strawberry cake, coconut cake, pistachio cake, burnt sugar caramel cake, and extra.
I initially printed this recipe in 2017 and have since added new photographs and some extra success suggestions.
One reader, Shandra, commented: “This. Cake. Is. Glorious! Thanks, Sally, for such a scrumptious recipe. For my desire, this hit the spot on tenderness, fluffiness, and style (which to me means non-eggy). And the frosting is superb as effectively! Archived as my #1 white cake recipe. Yum! ★★★★★“
Why This Is My Greatest White Cake Recipe
This white cake recipe is customized from my good vanilla cupcakes, a longtime reader favourite. The cake is my definition of *cake perfection* and has change into one of the common cake recipes on my web site. I’m even publishing it in my 2025 cookbook. Right here’s why:
- Gentle & ethereal crumb
- Fluffy, however not eggy
- Pure candy taste
- Stick-to-your-fork moist & tender
- Utterly from scratch
- Simple & approachable dessert recipe
I really like this cake a lot that I used it as the bottom for a number of different cake recipes I’ve printed together with espresso chocolate chip cake, pineapple coconut cake, cookies and cream cake, plus extra listed beneath. I even diminished the amount of cake batter right down to make the right 1-layer pineapple the wrong way up cake.
It’s my flagship cake recipe, and I crown it with the smoothest, creamiest vanilla buttercream. Rainbow sprinkles add a little bit glitz and glamour as a result of… what’s cake with out sprinkles?
Prior to now 7 years, I’ve made this cake so steadily that I’ve the recipe memorized. I’m speaking birthday events, child showers, summer time events, anniversaries, and even a pair bake gross sales. There are a number of success suggestions I’ve picked up alongside the way in which, and I’m thrilled to share them with you so you may get pleasure from cake perfection in your 1st strive.
White Cake Success Ideas
- Cream the Butter: To attain rise, correctly cream the butter and sugar collectively. You’ve the crutch of baking powder and baking soda, however the cake’s crumb really sings when that creaming course of steps in.
- Use Solely Egg Whites: Don’t use egg yolks. Utilizing solely egg whites not solely offers you a pristine white cake, but additionally it ensures that the crumb shouldn’t be weighed down by the fats in egg yolks. Give it some thought: lighter confections similar to marshmallows and angel meals cake require solely the egg whites. It’s the identical story right here. You want 5 massive egg whites on this cake.
- Use Pure Vanilla: You want pure vanilla extract for this cake, and a full Tablespoon within the cake batter. You’ll actually style it, so don’t skimp on the quantity. When you have a vanilla bean, go forward and scrape the beans from half of it into the batter for additional taste, or you may swap the extract for a similar quantity of vanilla bean paste.
- Bitter Cream As a substitute of Egg Yolks: Bitter cream is the cake’s safety blanket. Whereas it accommodates fats just like the egg yolks would, it doesn’t actually overwhelm the crumb. It’s pure moisture and provides probably the most creamy, tender texture to each chew. It performs the identical essential position in espresso cake, too.
- You Want Cake Flour: Cake flour is sort of 30x finer than all-purpose flour. Utilizing it’s a surefire strategy to obtain a fragile, soft-as-a-pillow texture. It’s bought within the baking aisle and you should use the remainder of the field in any of those recipes that use cake flour together with my common confetti cake.
- Room Temperature: Be certain that your whole elements are at room temperature. When elements are the identical temperature, they bind collectively extra readily than in case you had some chilly and a few hotter elements. Colder elements, particularly egg whites, will produce a thicker batter and, because it’s chilly, will take longer to bake. This modifications every thing.
Room Temperature Substances
If a recipe requires room-temperature eggs or every other ingredient similar to milk or bitter cream, ensure you comply with swimsuit. Recipes don’t try this for enjoyable—room-temperature elements emulsify a lot simpler into batter, which creates a uniform texture all through your baked good. Consider chilly, laborious butter. It’s inconceivable to cream chilly butter right into a smooth consistency. Similar goes for eggs—they add way more quantity to the batter once they’re at room temperature. Place your eggs in a glass of heat water for 10 minutes, and you may briefly heat the milk and bitter cream (individually) on the range or within the microwave to carry up the temperature. Right here’s my trick for bringing butter to room temperature shortly.
This Is a 2-Layer 9-Inch Cake
You want two 9-inch spherical cake pans for this batter. This batter doesn’t match into two 8-inch cake pans (it’s an excessive amount of). Three 8-inch pans work, as seen right here in my recent berry cream cake, however the layers are skinny. If you wish to make a 6-inch cake, use this 6-inch cake recipe, which is scaled down from at the moment’s batter. Be at liberty to go to my cake pans & conversions web page in case you have any questions on altering the pan measurement.
Be sure you line your cake pans with parchment paper rounds, to assist the truffles seamlessly launch from the pan. Should you want suggestions for spherical cake pans, I actually like Fats Daddio’s pans and these Wilton cake pans.
White Cake Ornament
Whereas the elements within the cake batter don’t depart any room for substitutions, we will have some enjoyable with quite a lot of frostings. I favor vanilla frosting, which I embody within the recipe beneath. However I encourage you to mess around with chocolate buttercream, rainbow chip frosting, or chocolate cream cheese frosting. For a lighter, much less candy choice, I really like pairing this cake with whipped frosting. Every of those frostings are completely exceptional on this beautiful cake. The vanilla frosting makes so much, so anticipate a thick layer between the truffles.
*Crumb Coat Particulars*
To make sure the layer cake is steady, it’s essential to use a crumb coat. A crumb coat is a skinny layer of frosting on the outside of the cake that locks in any free crumbs and helps stabilize the layers. After you stack the two layers with frosting in between, cowl the highest and sides of the layered cake with a really skinny layer of frosting (about 1 cup). If desired, run a bench scraper across the cake to assist easy out the frosting. Refrigerate the uncovered cake for not less than 20 minutes and as much as 1 hour to “set” the crumb coat. Then cowl the highest and sides with the remaining frosting.
Right here Are All of the Cake Flavors Made From This Good Batter
It’s spectacular that this mixture of elements can produce so many truffles. I’ll ALWAYS flip to this recipe.
To Change the Cake Pan Dimension:
This batter doesn’t match into two 8-inch cake pans (it’s an excessive amount of). Three 8-inch pans work on the identical oven temperature, as seen right here in my recent berry cream cake, however the layers are skinny.
If you wish to make a 6-inch cake, use this 6-inch cake recipe, which is scaled down from this batter.
Sure. Similar oven temperature. This batter will match into a ten to 12-inch Bundt pan. I’m not sure of the precise bake time, so use a toothpick to check for doneness.
Sure. Similar oven temperature. Merely pour the batter right into a greased and flippantly floured 9×13-inch pan and bake for 38 minutes, or till a toothpick inserted within the middle comes out clear.
I like to recommend following my Do-it-yourself Marriage ceremony Cake recipe as a information for a tiered cake, and it will likely be greatest to make use of cake dowels and boards for assist. The underside tier of that cake is sturdier than this white cake, although the flavour is fairly an identical.
My vanilla cupcakes recipe is actually this identical recipe, solely halved. In order for you extra cupcakes, you may comply with this white cake batter recipe and use the baking directions for the cupcakes.
The Good White Cake
Prep Time: half-hour
Prepare dinner Time: 24 minutes
Complete Time: 4 hours
Yield: serves 10-12
Class: Dessert
Technique: Baking
Delicacies: American
Description
That is the PERFECT white cake with a smooth texture, moist crumb, and great vanilla taste; plus, it tastes unbelievable with creamy vanilla buttercream. By following the recipe beneath and all of my success suggestions, you’ll get pleasure from an ultra-light cake, identical to the sort you discover at a bakery or from a field combine. However it’s all constructed from scratch in your very personal kitchen. See numerous flavors above and all of my recipe Notes beneath.
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease two 9-inch spherical cake pans, line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the truffles seamlessly launch from the pans. (If it’s useful, see this parchment paper rounds for truffles video & put up.)
- Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt collectively. Put aside.
- Utilizing a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the butter on excessive velocity till easy and creamy—about 1 minute. Add the sugar and beat on excessive velocity for two minutes till creamed collectively. Scrape down the edges and up the underside of the bowl with a silicone spatula as wanted. Add the egg whites. Beat on excessive velocity till mixed, about 2 minutes. Then beat within the bitter cream and vanilla extract. Scrape down the edges and backside of the bowl as wanted. Add the dry elements and blend on low velocity till simply integrated. With the mixer nonetheless operating on low, slowly pour within the milk till mixed. Don’t overmix. Chances are you’ll have to whisk all of it by hand to verify there aren’t any lumps on the backside of the bowl. The batter will probably be barely thick.
- Pour batter evenly into cake pans. Bake for round 24–25 minutes or till the truffles are baked via. To check for doneness, insert a toothpick into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clear, it’s executed. Permit truffles to chill fully within the pans set on a wire rack. The truffles have to be fully cool earlier than frosting and assembling.
- Make the frosting: In a big bowl utilizing a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a whisk or paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium velocity till creamy—about 2 minutes. Add confectioners’ sugar, cream, vanilla extract, and salt with the mixer operating on low velocity. Enhance to excessive velocity and beat for 3 full minutes. Add extra confectioners’ sugar if frosting is just too skinny, extra cream if frosting is just too thick, or a pinch extra salt if frosting is just too candy.
- Assemble and frost: First, utilizing a big serrated knife, slice a skinny layer off the tops of the truffles to create a flat floor. Discard (or crumble over ice cream!). Place one cake layer in your cake stand, cake turntable, or serving plate. Unfold 3/4 to 1 cup of vanilla buttercream in an excellent layer on high. High with the second cake layer, the wrong way up, and unfold the highest and sides with 1 cup of buttercream in a really skinny layer to make the crumb coat. If desired, run a bench scraper across the cake to assist easy out the frosting on the edges. Refrigerate the cake till the crumb coat has set, about 20 minutes. End by spreading the highest and sides with the remaining buttercream. Embellish high of cake with sprinkles, if desired.
- Slice and serve instantly or hold at room temperature for a couple of hours earlier than serving.
- Cowl leftover cake tightly and retailer within the fridge for as much as 5 days.
Notes
- Make Forward & Freezing Directions: The cake layers will be baked, cooled, and lined tightly at room temperature in a single day. Likewise, the frosting will be ready after which lined and refrigerated in a single day. Assemble and frost the cake the subsequent day if you end up able to serve. Frosted cake will be frozen as much as 2 months in case you have room within the freezer. Thaw in a single day within the fridge and produce to room temperature earlier than serving.
- Particular Instruments (affiliate hyperlinks): 9-inch Spherical Fats Daddio’s Cake Pans or Wilton Cake Pans | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electrical Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Silicone Spatula | Cooling Rack | Cake Turntable | Straight Spatula (for frosting) | Spherical Cake Service (for storage)
- Quantity of Batter: If it’s useful for utilizing totally different measurement cake pan sizes and conversions, this recipe yields about 7 cups of cake batter.
- Cake Flour: Should you can’t discover cake flour, here’s a DIY do-it-yourself cake flour substitute you should use as a substitute.
- Carton Egg Whites: You should use carton egg whites. The carton ought to give measurements for substituting for recent egg whites.
- Milk, Bitter Cream, Substituting Buttermilk: Entire milk and bitter cream are strongly beneficial for the most effective style and texture. A full-fat plain yogurt would work as a substitute, although the cake is probably not as gentle. Similar goes for a lower-fat milk. If you wish to use buttermilk, one of the best ways to take action is to have it change each the bitter cream AND milk on this recipe. Use 1 and 1/2 cups of buttermilk, then omit the bitter cream and complete milk.
- Different Cake Sizes (6-inch, 8-inch, 9×13-inch, tiered cake, Bundt cake, cupcakes): Please see FAQ above the recipe.
- Almond Cake: If you wish to add almond flavoring, I like to recommend utilizing 1.5 teaspoons almond extract and 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract for an almond cake. I often simply do that to the cake, however you would actually swap a few of the vanilla within the frosting for almond for an excellent deeper almond taste. Embellish the cake with sliced almonds, if desired.