Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake

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I am so excited to share this recipe for a Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake with you today! It’s a cake I’ve been making for years, but wanted to tweak and it’s finally ready!

Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake! Such a soft, tender cake!

Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake! Such a soft, tender cake!

For those who know me and see me regularly, they know that I play with vanilla recipes like it’s my job. I kind of feel like you are only as good as your best vanilla cake. It is super important to have a wonderful one, and yet it seems to be the hardest for people to find. Plus everyone has their own idea of what makes it “the best”. I think I might have made it my life’s mission to make the best vanilla cake for everyone. It may not be that there’s one “best” recipe for all, but maybe a couple recipes that you can choose from. Bottom line – I make a lot of vanilla cake. And it’s all for you. 🙂

So let’s talk a little about this recipe. You may or may not have seen/made my vanilla cupcakes. They have been quite popular and it’s a recipe I go back to time and time again. I love it and so many others love it too.

But it always amazes me how people love different things about cakes. Many people have agreed that they are perfect, moist and fluffy and it’s their new favorite. Yet some think they are too dense. To be fair, when you bake it as a cake, it is fairly dense. And yet, every time I do a taste comparison with a larger group (usually our church group), it’s their favorite – whether a cake or cupcakes. Funny, right?

But I am someone who likes options. I don’t want to feel limited and I’m sure I’m not the only one. And since I’ve loved this cake for so long, I decided it was time to share it so you could have more options. 🙂 The only reason I haven’t shared it sooner is that I wanted to tweak a few things. One thing being that the original recipe didn’t do well as cupcakes. They separated from the liners as they cooled, so I wanted to fix that (and I did!).

Of course, now it begs the question of how this recipe is different from the other one. Neither is necessarily better than the other. That really depends on your preference. But any time I see multiple options for a particular flavor (like vanilla) on someone’s site, I’m always curious about the differences so I know which one I want to try. So I want to break down some of the differences and similarities for you.

Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake! Such a soft, tender cake!
Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake! Such a soft, tender cake!

First, let’s talk about the ingredients. Just like with the other recipe, I wanted to have simple ingredients that most people usually have on hand. The original recipe calls for cake flour and I wanted to replace that with all purpose flour. That, plus some other tweaks to account for the change, and you now have a pretty normal ingredient list. Score!

Second, there’s the mixing method. The other recipe is very simple. Basically a throw everything together and mix method, which is wonderfully easy. This cake uses the creaming method. The steps are more involved and definitely need to be followed.

Third is the final cake taste and texture. Again, this is very subjective in terms of which is better. I love them both. They both have excellent vanilla flavor. This cake is flatter on top when baked. As for which is denser, or fluffier, I think they’re both fluffy and dense. Confusing, right?

This cake manages to be a little denser-seeming, as there aren’t as many air pockets in the baked cake. But when you bite into it, it actually has a super fluffy taste and feel to it. I feel like the other recipe is actually the denser one, especially when made as a cake, but it has more air pockets and also manages to seem fluffy. Both are very moist.

Personally, I like the other recipe for cupcakes (they’re still my perfect cupcake!) and this one for a cake. But both can be used as a cake or cupcakes and both are delicious.

Hopefully that explanation was more helpful than confusing. 🙂

The bottom line is that you can’t go wrong with either, though you might end up preferring one over the other if you try them both.

I love the texture of this cake. It is absolutely wonderful when layered and iced and I find it very hard to not want to eat the entire cake. It really is a very soft and moist cake. I recently shared it with a friend who wanted to make a vanilla cake for her daughter’s birthday and they loved it!

So there you have it – another vanilla cake/cupcake recipe. Decisions, decisions. If you give them both a try, I’d love to know what you think. 🙂

Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake! Such a soft, tender cake!
Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake! Such a soft, tender cake!

SHOP THE RECIPE

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Moist Vanilla Cupcakes (new!)
Perfect Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cupcakes
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How to frost a smooth cake with buttercream
Homemade Vanilla Cake Mix

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Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake slice on white plate 2 close up
Recipe

Moist and Fluffy Vanilla Cake

  • Author: Lindsay
  • Prep Time: 20 minutes
  • Cook Time: 33 minutes
  • Total Time: 53 minutes
  • Yield: 12-14 Slices, or 36 Cupcakes
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Oven
  • Cuisine: American

Description

This is a cake I’ve been making for years, but wanted to tweak and it’s finally ready!


Ingredients

CAKE

  • 1 1/2 cups (336g) salted butter, room temp (I use Challenge Butter)
  • 2 1/4 cups (466g) sugar
  • 4 egg whites
  • 3 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 cups (390g) all purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 2 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 cups (360ml) milk

FROSTING

  • 1 1/2 cups (336g) salted butter
  • 1 1/2 cups (284g) shortening
  • 12 cups (1380g) powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 67 tbsp (90-105ml) water or milk

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Line three 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper in the bottom and grease the sides.
2. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl on medium speed about 2 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
3. Add the egg whites and vanilla and beat on medium speed for about 1 minute, no more. The texture of the batter will change and become thicker and may seem a little curdled.
4. Combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder in a medium sized bowl.
5. Add about one-third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat on medium speed until incorporated.
6. Add about half of the milk and beat on medium speed until incorporated.
7. Continue alternating adding dry and wet ingredients, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, and beating until incorporated after each addition. There should be three total additions of dry ingredients and two total additions of milk. End with the dry ingredients. The batter will be thick and glossy.
8. Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and spread evenly.
9. Stagger the cake layers on the oven racks so that no layer is directly over another. Bake for 30-33 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Don’t be alarmed if the tops are a little browned, that is normal.
10. Remove cakes from oven and allow to cool for 3-5 minutes.
11. Remove cakes from pans to cooling racks and cool completely before frosting.
12. To make icing, combine butter and shortening and mix until smooth.
13. Add 6 cups of powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
14. Add vanilla extract and 4 tbsp of water or milk and mix until smooth.
15. Add remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
16. Add more water or milk until desired consistency is reached.
17. To assemble cake, place first layer of cake on your cake stand or plate. NOTE: The cake layers shouldn’t have a rounded dome on top of them, but if they do, cut them off before stacking.
18. Add about 1 1/2 cups icing and spread into an even layer.
19. Add second layer of cake and another 1 1/2 cups of icing.
20. Top cake with remaining layer of cake.
21. Use the rest of the icing to ice the outside of the cake. For instructions on icing a smooth cake and the piping, here is a tutorial on How to Frost a Smooth Cake.

TO MAKE CUPCAKES:

Follow instructions above through number 7. Fill cupcake liners about 1/2 way. Bake at 350 degrees for about 16-18 minutes. Allow to cool in pan for 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling rack to cool completely. Recipe makes about 36 cupcakes.


Nutrition

  • Serving Size: 1 slice
  • Calories: 1200
  • Sugar: 123.7 g
  • Sodium: 419.1 mg
  • Fat: 66.5 g
  • Carbohydrates: 146.3 g
  • Protein: 8.8 g
  • Cholesterol: 119.2 mg

Filed Under:

Recipe modified from this recipe.

Enjoy!

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584 Comments
  1. Laura

    I’m so excited to try this recipe, I love love love some of your cupcake recipes! Can I bake this in a 9 x13 pan and what would the baking time be? Would I need to alter the recipe at all? Thanks so much!

    1. Lindsay

      I haven’t made this cake in a while and I don’t think I’ve ever baked it in a 9×13. It should be fine. You may want to bake it at 325 degrees, which is often helpful for 9×23 cakes. Not sure if bake time, but likely 25-35 minutes.

  2. Tina Wood

    I absolutely love this recipe; it is my go-to for all my vanilla cakes!! Can I substitute the whole milk with buttermilk?

  3. Gina

    I love this recipe so much! It’s so light and moist which are 2 attributes of a cake that I have been looking for! Thanks for this amazing recipe, Lindsay! It’s now my go-to for vanilla cake.

    Question: Could I add cocoa powder to make this a chocolate cake or replace vanilla with a different extract for a different flavor?






    1. Lindsay

      I’m so glad you enjoy it! You could swap out some flour for cocoa powder, but the cake would likely need other adjustments to really to be ideal. I would recommend my Best Chocolate Cake. You can definitely replace vanilla with other extracts though.

  4. Terry

    Hello, How many cups of batter does this cake make? I need to make a 3 layer tiered cake, and need to calculate for my 3 cake pan sizes

    1. Lindsay

      I haven’t tried it to be able to say. I’m sure it’d bake fine, the cake just might not be as tall. And I’d probably do it in two layers, not all in one pan.

  5. Naevisia Scarborough

    I love this recipe very much. I was looking for a plain cake recipe that’s soft and moist and this was it. Even days after and putting the cake in the fridge the cake stood up well. Can I use juice instead of milk with this recipe?

    1. Lindsay

      Glad you enjoyed it! In theory, yes you can use juice. But milk also has fat in it that contributes to the texture of the cake. If you’re going to add some juice, I might only replace part of the milk, not all of it.

  6. Kristi

    I love this recipe it’s been my go to! Recently my centers have been sinking in while cooling. I’m making it for my Grandmother’s 90th birthday this weekend and I really want it to be perfect! Any tips to avoid the sinking? Am I not cooking it long enough? Thanks!

    1. Lindsay

      A cake sinking in the middle could be for several reasons – under baking, opening the oven too soon, baking powder or baking soda that has gone bad. It’s hard to say for sure, but those are common ones.

  7. Jibanyan

    Eh…
    I can’t tell if there’s something I did wrong but followed the recipe, cake wasn’t underbaked, nor was it overbaked, but my cake ended up tasting…eh…






    1. Lindsay

      I don’t think I’ve ever tried it but I imagine it would be fine. It may be a little on the more dense side. I might suggest reducing the baking temperature to 325.

  8. Isaac-John Emilia

    Thanks a bunch I have not tried it though but with the explanation I think I will what am actually looking for.

  9. Michelle

    Hi Lindsay I’ve made the for years and all a sudden it’s turning out very oily and it doesn’t look right anymore? Do you know what it might be?
    Thank you

  10. Rebecca

    I love this recipe! I have to make 3-inch round cakes and wondered how I would adjust the recipe to make it work…any suggestions or tips?






      1. Lindsay

        I don’t really make 10 inch cakes, so it’s hard for me to say. I’d think you’d probably want to at least double it.

  11. Rebecca

    I absolutely LOVE this recipe and so do all my customers! I need to make a 10 inch round cake with 3 layers and I was just wondering how I should adjust this recipe…any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

    P.S. I use many of your recipes and LOVE them all…






  12. Wren

    This was a great recipe and I was wondering if next time I could color the layers? Would it still have the same consistency?






  13. Bahea

    Hi! Do I need to make any adjustments if I am doubling this recipe? I made a double batch and then I made a single batch. The double batch layers came out really short, even though my pans were filled over 2/3 full (like I always do), and with a flower nail. I doubled all of the ingredients. The single batch came out tall. Is there a reason the double batch didn’t rise as tall as it should, do I need to add more baking powder/soda? I love your recipes, I just want to make this work! Thank you 🙂






    1. Lindsay

      Doubling it should not make a difference. You do have twice the amount of ingredients in your mixing bowl, so it’s possible things need a little bit more mixing time. Particularly creaming the butter and sugar. Otherwise, as long as the pans are filled the same amount it should be fine.

  14. Manuri Fernando

    I really love this recipy.Can you please tell me with these ingredients what is the exact weight of the cake?






  15. Edy

    I love your vanilla cake! I made it with your strawberry shortcake dessert and now for the first time for a 3 layer cake. I had a dip in the middle so I had to cut the top off like a donut. I followed the recipe to a T. Maybe I need new baking powder??

  16. Megan

    I absolutely love your recipes. Especially this vanilla cake one. Ive tried so many different ones and this one is perfect! I baked it into 4 6×2 cake pans for about 15 extra minutes and it was perfect. However when I made the frosting there were clumps of shortening and butter than I couldn’t get rid of which made it hard to have a smooth cake. Any ideas on what to do differently next time? Thanks!






    1. Lindsay

      Is it possible that the butter and/or shortening weren’t at room temperature and were too cool? That’s really the only reason I can think of that they’d stay lumpy.

      1. Lindsay

        I really think it’s a personal preference. I prefer all purpose, but you could try it both ways and see.

  17. Audrey

    I love this recipie! I have made it for birthdays, parties, and bridal showers. Everyone that has tasted it loves it too!






  18. Emma

    I just made this cake and I agree with some reviews that it tastes like cornbread. Also a flour smell to it. Someone also mentioned crispy edges which I also had. I followed it exactly and I have been making cakes for thirty years. Was so disappointed because I also would love to find the best vanilla cake. Not sure how it can be dense and fluffy at the same time. Should be one or the other. Lastly, some comments mentioned using unsalted butter and your answers varied from 1/2, 1, 3/4 ,3/4-1, teaspoon. I think I am still going to be on the lookout for vanilla cake.

  19. Vj

    What tipe of pan do I use? I’m making a two tier cake and one of my tiers is 7×4 and is this recipe for those types of pans?

    1. Lindsay

      I’m not sure I really understand your question or not. This recipe was written for an 8 inch cake. If you want to make a different sized cake, you’ll probably want to adjust it a bit.

  20. Terri May

    I make this cake every year for my granddaughter’s birthday, yesterday was her 6th one. Everyone loved the cake and those that couldn’t make it due to social distancing, were disappointed not to have a slice this year. I only had 9″ pans, so I made a batch and half to fill all 3 pans and it came out wonderfully.

    Thanks so much for providing so many good recipes but especially this one.






    1. Lindsay

      I used salted butter instead of adding my own salt. Feel free to use unsalted butter and add your own salt. I personally find the amount of salt in the butter to be fine in most cakes.

  21. Nishi

    Hi.. I had to say I LOVED THIS RECIPE!!! I mean I took a chance and made this for my kids birthday and I swear.. I couldn’t even find crumbs.. I’m waiting for ur chocolate cake recipe and a cupcake recipe! Wish I can post a pic here.. it came out so beautifully.. and stacks well too!






  22. Mercedes

    I just made this cake for a bachelorette party and it turned out amazing. It was DELICIOUS!!! I couldn’t believe it. I was scared of the batter (it was too thick and I thought i had it wrong somehow) but it was PERFECT. I used less sugar on my icing (only 9 cups) but it turned out great. I’m writing this up on my permanent recipe book for sure. THANK YOU!

  23. Amy

    I have just finished making this cake and it turned out great. Although i used margarine instead of butter (i was just too lazy to go to the store) So it came out a bit more dense than it would have if i used real butter. I will definitely be making it again because if the result was so good with margarine, it is probably to die for with butter!






  24. Rachel Marshall

    I’ve only given 4 stars as I have only just baked my first batch and don’t know what the consistency of the finished cake is like yet. It smells heavenly and the batter I snuck a lick from the bowl after panning up was delicious! I’m baking for a really large group so I used the full recipe for one layer of a 14 inch cake, and plan on making a second once my pan is freed up. I think this will be my “go to” vanilla cake as so many before me have decided. I’m excited to dig in!






  25. Carla

    I tried your vanilla cake for my nephews birthday and it was amazingly easy, delicious and has become my go to cake!  Thank you!






  26. Mariam

    Hi I want to try this recipe however I need the ratio for three 9 inch pans. Can you please tell me what the measurement would be for 9 inch cake? Thank you so much. 

    Mariam

    1. Lindsay

      I don’t usually bake 9 inch cakes, so I’m not sure of the exact baking time. You will want me to bake the layers for less time though.

  27. Teresa

    Hi Lindsay,

    I have tried some of your recipes and have loved them! Thank you! 

    In this intro/description, you mention your “other recipe for cupcakes” which one is that? I want fluffy and vanilla flavor 😊😊

  28. Corey Michelle Cakes

    This is my go-to vanilla cake…I make it for about 75% of my orders!  Super easy and always turns out delicious!  I’m making it today for a 2-year anniversary cake…After I did their wedding cake and 1st anniversary cakes, they loved it so much!






  29. kinga

    This cake looks amazing. I was wondering if you bake with true convection or just reg. bottom heat when you bake your cakes? I am noticing a huge difference when I use one or the other so I want to have the same crumb as yours. Thanks for taking the time to answer all these questions.

    1. Lindsay

      I have a convection oven that I use the bake setting on. The heat source comes from the top of the oven. I hope that helps!

  30. Alyssa

    I am having trouble deciding what recipe of yours to use.. you have another recipe that’s more yellow and uses 4 eggs. What is the differences between the two?? I want a fluffy and airy cake but still moist






    1. Lindsay

      Gosh, hard to describe and I think preference really depends on the person. But I do think this cake has a tighter crumb than the Moist Vanilla Cake. If I had to guess, I’m thinking you’d probably prefer that one.

  31. Addison Bass

    I’m sad to say it but this cake was pretty bad. It tasted kind of like cornbread. It looked really good and was cooked nicely but it still was bad. I used a store bought frosting and that made it a little better.

    1. Lindsay

      I’m so sorry for the trouble! There was an issue today that affected thousands of sites – mine included. It looks like it’s been resolved, so you should be able to access it here now. Sorry about that!

  32. Catherina

    Hello Lindsay. I absolutely love your blog an those wonderful recipes. There are just a few things that are difficult to buy here in Europe as shortening. Is there a substitute for shortening?

  33. Kelly

    Have made this a few times and it always comes out great! My question is, I use your method to get the smooth frosting. But for some reason it always settles quickly and I can see the rings around the outside of the cake where the layers of frosting inside are. Is there any way to get rid of this?

  34. Angelina

    I plan on trying this out for my daughters birthday in a couple months. I had two questions if you made this as a bottom for a two tier cake what round size would you use for the top tier? With that I currently live at a high altitude would you add anything to help keep the cake moist things tend to cook faster and dry out a little faster during cooking. 






    1. Lindsay

      I would think you could use just about any size that was smaller. Perhaps a 5 inch top with an 8 inch bottom would be best. I really don’t know much about high altitude baking, I’m sorry.

  35. Stephanie

    I hate to say it, but this cake was horrible! Came out of the oven properly and was perfectly done but the taste and texture were awful. Everyone thought it tasted like cornbread (now I’m seeing other similar comments like this). Such a waste of all organic ingredients and time!! I’ve never made a cake that people didn’t like and we ended up throwing it out. Such a disappointment since it was for a special occasion. I know better now to stick to professional, tested recipes. I hate to post negative comments but just want to warn others so they don’t make the same mistake. 






  36. Becca

    Love this recipe!!! I set a timer while mixing the vanilla and everything, Felt like cooking with my grandma! I mean that as the highest compliment! My husband walked in and asked what I was doing and when I said “following directions to my his delicious cake!” He chuckled and said “you never follow directions” ???? this one was fun and easy! Cakes in the oven now but the batter was so good the kids and I almost wanted to just eat the whole bowl! Thanks for sharing!!






  37. EvaNEvynsMom

    I made this cake on today. After reviewing the recipe and reading the comments I made the following changes. I used 1 1/2 tablespoons of vanilla bean paste, 1 cup of buttermilk and 1/2 cup of milk and 1/8 teaspoon of pink Himalayan salt. The cake was moist, flavorful and delicious. Thank you for an AWESOME base of a recipe.






  38. Amy

    Hi Lindsay!

    Just made this cake for my daughter’s 1st birthday and it was absolutely Amazing!!! Everyone couldn’t stop eating it! I’m making it again for a party next week but Serving with fresh whipped cream and berries! Thank you!!!

    Amy






  39. Debbie Mathew

    I made this cake for my daughters 1st birthday (decorated it unicorn style) and everyone said how amazing it tasted. I’m so pleased and can not wait to try your other recipes!!! 






  40. Whitney

    I followed the recipe exactly and ended up with a greasy cake that wouldn’t stay together and sunk in the middle. Will not use this one again. 






  41. Josh Constable

    hey Lindsay! I’ve never used shortening in anything before, let alone the icing I’m just curious if has anany taste and or if it adds any kind of taste to the icing, also wondering if I would be able to safely replace the shortening with something else like maybe coconut oil or something? I’ve just never used shortening before.

  42. Victoria

    Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe. I’ve been looking for a perfect vanilla cake, and this is it! I baked it twice today and both results were excellent. Yes, yes, very moist and fluffy (not just a named.  My first batch in 3, 8 inch pan, baked perfectly for 30 mins. Next time I will probably take them out at 28 mins., though the little crust that resulted was amazing to snack on!
    I baked the second batch using 2, 10” cake pans for just 20 mins. I will check my cake 2 or 3 mins before, but still came out delicious. From this batter I also made 10 mini cupcakes to keep the kids away from the cake for now. These only required 11 minutes at 350 degrees. Love, love, love this recipe. Thank you ????????!!






  43. Karen

    Lindsay, I am wondering if you actually weighed the ingredients that you used, instead of just converting the measurements to metric using the internet? If you did the latter, then that might explain why some people are having bad results. I just measured my sugar using cups and then weighed it and it was well under 446 grams. You really need to weigh the particular amount of ingredients you used in order to give accurate volume measurements; your ingredient weights could be more or less, depending on whether the flour was sifted or not, whether you used granulated vs. castor sugar, etc. If that is in fact what you did, then I apologize, I am only trying to help troubleshoot. All the best!

    1. Lindsay

      I actually weigh all of my dry ingredients, so it’s all accurate. I’ve recently made this cake about 10 times for various reasons (all dry ingredients weighed) and it comes out great every time. Thanks!

  44. Sana

    Hi!

    I’m going to make this recipe tomorrow for my sister-in-law’s baby shower 🙂
    Do you think i can bake it all at once in the same 8-icnh pan?
    Thank you!

    1. Lindsay

      No, that likely won’t turn out well. The pan might overflow and even if it didn’t, it wouldn’t bake evenly. You’ll want to use at least two pans.

  45. Sally Heilman

    Hi Lindsay- this recipe is fantastic. I have made it numerous times for birthdays and other occasions. Everyone always raves about it, and I’ve experimented with swapping vanilla extract for almond extract, which turned out great as well. I was wondering if you’d ever tried adding chocolate chips to the batter. Do you think it would change the baking time if I tried it? I’d love to hear your opinion before I use all the ingredients and make it, only to have it flop. Thanks!

    1. Lindsay

      I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed it! I haven’t tried adding chocolate chips before. It shouldn’t need any adjustments to baking time, but the question is whether they’d sink to the bottom of the pans when baking or not. I don’t think they would, but I’m not certain.

  46. Jennifer

    The taste of this cake was wonderful! But it was so moist that it was crumbling and falling apart just taking it out of the tins. ????

    I made it in 8″ and 10″ tins, for a 2-tiered cake, and quickly realized after baking, cooling, and removing from the tins that there was no way it would hold up. We ate the broken pieces as snacks and I switched recipes!

    1. Lindsay

      Hmm, it’s definitely moist and tender, but it should be workable. I actually just baked it yesterday and split it into 6 thin layers and it was fine. Did you put parchment paper in the bottom of the cake pans to help them come out more easily? Also I like to use a cake lifter to help move around large or fragile layers of cake so they don’t fall apart.

      1. Jennifer

        Thanks for the reply!

        Yes to the parchment paper on the bottom of the tins.

        And I used a Wilton cake lifter, as well.

        They really were tasty!  And they definitely were cooked completely, based on the crumb test and I also measured the internal temperature.  

  47. Carolyn

    I made this cake and it is extremely dense. I followed the directions and cannot understand what happened. What in the world could I have done to cause this since I followed directions and the amount are all correct. I’m confused to say the least…. The flavor is okay not wonderful. It is not dry but not moist as you described, HELP

    1. Lindsay

      It’s very hard for me to say from a distance. Did you fully cream the butter and sugar? Did you happen to open the oven during baking/too soon?

  48. Leanne Hann

    LOVE your blog ! Question- I am going to make this cake exactly as shown (3, – 8 inch layers) for a birthday but they would like it covered in fondant. Will it hold up for fondant? Thanks – Leanne

    1. Lindsay

      Thanks Leanne! It’s been a while since I baked this particular cake, but I think I used it under fondant before.

  49. Markella

    I’ve been trying to find a great vanilla recipe for a while. This is absolutely the best vanilla cake ive ever had. I made for my cousins birthday and everyone loved it. It wasn’t heavy at all. Extreamly light and fluffy. This recipe is defiantly a keeper. 

  50. Ninn

    Hello, just curious about your measurements on the powdered sugar for the icing, it says 12 cups 1380grams well that don’t add up, I used 8 cups instead and I’m in a diabetic shock. I’m just confused about that. And I used buttermilk in the cake batter instead of milk and the cake is fabulous!

    1. Lindsay

      The math is correct. 115g per cup is 1380g for 12 cups. It is quite a bit of powdered sugar, but it’s a standard amount for a decorator’s buttercream. You can certainly reduce it, as you did, and have just fine results. Feel free to check out my post on frosting consistency. Glad you enjoyed the cake!

  51. Terri May

    DELICIOUS! I’ve made this several times now and had it requested for birthdays. I’ve made it just as written, as cupcakes and most recently in 1/2 a sheet pan (not a 9 x 13). I was a bit worried about the cooking time but in my oven it took just 30 minutes. The recipe is easy to follow and comes out perfect every time. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Alicia

      Hello! I have made this recipe for birthday parties 7 times and every time it has been a HUGE hit. I want to adapt it to a sheet cake. Terri May – can you tell me if you had to double the recipe? My pan is 11×15. Thank you! 

  52. Caitlin

    I’m going to make this cake for my son’s birthday – I have 9 inch round cake pans. Do you know how long to bake for, or how to adjust the recipe for 9 inch pan? 

  53. Rachel

    I added a quarter cup of rainbow sprinkles with the last bit of flour I poured in for a homemade funfetti and used your smooth buttercream icing tutorial for my daughter’s birthday party and the cake was beautiful and delicious! Everyone thought i bought it! Thank you so much!

  54. Rachel A

    Tried this recipe and the cake tasted great! Although, one thing I would recommend is to use less baking soda, using what the recipe says makes a denser cake and makes the batter almost like cookie dough. The end result almost tasted like cornbread, but with a little frosting I was able to save it and it tasted delightful!

  55. Toky

    Hi Lindsay!!! Thank you for this recipe!!

    I made it and it tastes REALLY GOOD. However there is a little bit of a flour taste ????????????. That has been the issue with all the vanilla recipes I’ve been trying to find! Plz help 

  56. Paula

    I guess that I am wondering which cake I should try? Moist vanilla or moist and fluffy vanilla. Both recipes are great, but if you have read my prior post, which would you suggest? Also, in reading your frosting recipe..wow..that’s a lot of powdered sugar!!! I have never used more than 4+ cups. Does this recipe make a ton of icing that is thick when complete on the cake? Thank you for your replies. 🙂

    1. Lindsay

      Yes, I saw your earlier comment. I feel like the layers are normally a little more than 1 inch for all of them, but I don’t actually measure them. You might want to try them out. You could also use 1 1/2 of the recipe and possibly make 9 inch cakes. For the powdered sugar, the standard decorators buttercream (which is what I use), uses a ratio of 4 cups of powdered sugar to 1 cup of butter (or butter and shortening, in this case). You can always reduce the amounts though, if you prefer.

  57. Paula

    I recently found your site and am so impressed with your cakes and decorating skills! I have read many of the comments regarding this cake because I have been searching for my favorite “white” cake for soooo long. I can make a “vanilla” cake, but to me, they often taste too buttery, or I say, like a buttermilk pancake. I am looking for a white cake recipe, that won’t taste buttery or too much like vanilla. I have used a boxed mix (white, then added a bunch of ingredients), but I prefer scratch. I am fine with egg whites only, as I use the yolks in homemade lemon curd. I am hoping to find a great white cake recipe that I can pair with my homemade raspberry puree and lemon curds. Do you think this might be it? Also, I see that you use 3 8″ rounds. Can you give me a guess as the the height of your layers? I love tall cakes!! Thanks so much!!

    1. Lindsay

      You could certainly try this cake and see. I’m sure it’s a bit of a preference thing. There’s also the cake layers of this cake, which I tend to think are more white. Generally the layers are around an 1 inch or so each. I hope you find one you love!

  58. Claire Scorer

    Best cake ever. Made numerous times. My tips would be always line tin with paper & freeze before leveling & icing. My 2 sons are obsessed with this cake.

  59. Maria

    The taste is absolutely amazing but i faced a few problems. First of all, I followed the quantities and instructions to the letter but at 33 minutes of cooking all three cakes were still in batter state, even though I didn’t put the one under the other. I actually had to double the cooking time. When i got them out they were cooked but still nice and moist. 
    But the cakes themselves are extremely fragile.. they fall apart while i put the frosting on. Such a shame because the cakes taste divine. It was supposed to be by daughter’s birthday cake for tomorrow but I don’t know if i can salvage it..

    1. Lindsay

      I can’t speak for the baking time – it’s accurate in my oven. But if the cakes were difficult to frost, consider thinning out the frosting a bit. You should definitely be able to frost the cakes without an issue.

      1. Maria

        Thank you. I’m thinking next time I’ll try freezing the cakes for an hour before frosting them..

  60. Faye

    Hi Lindsay, the cake was delicious, it turned out really well, but how do you level a cake, because when my cake came out i only level the top because the bottom is flat but when i levelled it with a knife some parts of the cake crumbs came out which made a lot of holes in the cake. Is there anyway i can make it levelled well?

    1. Lindsay

      I just use a long serrated knife for leveling. It does reveal the air pockets in the cake when you level it, but that shouldn’t cause an issue. If cutting it is tearing up the cake, you might need a sharper knife.

  61. judy

    Ok so ive made this cake numerous times and its deiicious except that when i make it its so stuck to the pan that it breaks on me. So its the most moist cake i have ever made but I’m thinking could it be the sugar that is causing it to stick. I have to make a cake in two weeks and this is by far my fave recipe  I don’t want to have to look for another last minute. Also i did not use parchment paper as i never really do i butter or grease my pans. so edges are to hard and center is to moist i need this a bit sturdy to pull out of the pan. Please help!!!

    1. Lindsay

      I’m sorry it’s been sticking. I always use parchment in the bottom of the pan and baking spray to ensure cakes don’t stick, so that’d be my best advice. At some point, you might also want to try this new vanilla cake.

    1. Lindsay

      I don’t typically sift, I just combine everything and whisk it all together. But I also bake all the time so my flour doesn’t sit for long.

      1. Mariah

        I don’t use my flour often at all so should I sift it then? Would it change anything about the cake?

      2. Lindsay

        Sifting wouldn’t hurt. The main thing you’re trying to achieve is the right measurement of flour. Not everyone measures cups accurately. If it’s packed too much, you’ll end up with more flour than you should. That’s why I also include the weight measurements (which is what I actually use when baking). Weight is more accurate than volume. That said, you can either sift it or give it a really good stir and then scoop out the flour and you should be fine.

  62. sara cruz

    I just want to say to save others from this, i made this cake choosing this recipe quickly as i was on a time crunch, i took it to my little brothers birthday party 15 people were there and every single one including myself thought this was the worst cake they had ever eaten, wow it was so terrible and since im known for baking awesome cakes this was so embarrassing for me. i made the recipe exactly as written, dont make this cake unless you can make a test cake before the event learn from my mistakes ended up throwing it away immediately.

    1. judy

      I wonder what went wrong i have made this cake 6 times and about 12 people i gave to try are obsessed. I did sift the flour and make sure to use butter not margarine.

  63. Camden

    Hello! I am baking a baby shower cake for 30 or so people, and I would love to use this recipe.

    How many slices could I get out of this recipe if we did thin slices?

    What this recipe work for a 9×13 cake pan? If so, do you have any idea what the time adjustments would be.

  64. Courtney

    Hi beautiful cake! I wanted to make this icing blue for a cake does that change the icing recipe if I add food coloring?
    Thanks

    1. Lindsay

      No it doesn’t change the recipe. I would suggest using blue gel icing color though, rather than regular food coloring. Yo’d have to add a good bit to get a nice shade of blue.

  65. Molly

    You’re like the worst person at making this cake easy!! Why did you put the ingredients & directions separate . I see what your intentions were. But as far as the whole thing goes I mights well be pulling my hair out! My daughter thinks I’m getting mad at her when really I’m getting mad that I have to slide up to see what I need then slide all the way back down to see how to do it. Why didn’t you list the ingredients then put the measurements with the directions? Or leave it as is and add the measurements to the directions upon telling what to put in what? This is literally the worst/complicating listing for a cake I’ve done!! I wanted to look for a new one but I’m already half way through .???? There’s no need in stopping now.???? I well be done with this cake next year!????

  66. Andrea

    I made this for my daughter’s 8th Birthday yesterday. OMG. I’m not usually a fan of cakes, especially cakes with frosting like this but oh my! I usually have my husband and kids sample the cake batter and frosting as I make it but after seeing their faces light up, I just had to try it. The only variation I made was using all butter (no shortening) for the frosting. This cake is now tied with our wedding cake for 1st place. Everyone raved over it (even my step-mother who is a frosting connoisseur!). Thank you for sharing 🙂

  67. Vanessa

    Hi Lindsay, I’m really excited about making this moist vanilla cake. I just want to know what kind of shortening you used and which is the best brand to buy.

    1. Lindsay

      I use Crisco. Feel free to give that a try, or to use additional butter in place of the shortening, if you prefer.

  68. Nicole

    Hi Lindsay!
    I just made this cake and it turned out amazing! But I am scared that if I put it in the fridge, it will harden and lose the fluffiness.
    Is it going to be like that or is it safe to refrigerate? Because it’s summer where I am and the cream might spoil during the night.. so I don’t really know what to do.
    Thanks in advance!
    Loving your blog!

    1. Lindsay

      Glad you’re enjoying the site! I do think that refrigerating changes the texture of the cake a bit, but if you let it come back to room temperature before serving, it should be fine.

  69. Karin

    Made this cake for a baby shower at work yesterday and people who weren’t even there are still talking about it!
    I made my own raspberry filling and used your white Chocolate ganache recipe from your Sparkling Cranberry Cake (huge hit at Christmas!). Absolutely gorgeous and delicious. Thank you for this. 2 of the best cakes I’ve ever made & will be my go-to base forever.

  70. Gabby

    Hello 🙂

    I’m really excited to try this recipe! I have a couple of questions though. 

    1. Can I use this amount of mix to fill two 5”x4” molds? And will the cake cook evenly in that type of mood?

    2. I know this may sound horrible but would it work to add cocoa powder to this recipe to make a chocolate cake with the same consistency?  Thank you so much in advance 😀

  71. Jessie

    Hi Lindsay, I have recently came across your blog, and I have always had a passion for baking. And this site has really helped me with some do’s and don’ts. I am so glad I have found this recipe for a fluffy and moist vanilla cake. I haven’t really quite mastered doing cake layers yet, and I just wanted to only make one layer. But I was wondering if the measurements with the ingredients change if I only did one cake layer? If so, how much less should I use? *Thanks in advance*

    1. Lindsay

      I’m glad you’ve been enjoying the site! When you say one layer, do you mean one 8 inch layer? Or are you planning on making a larger cake? If just an 8 inch, I’d suggest cutting the recipe in half. You’ll have more batter in the pan, so you’ll also need to increase baking time a bit.

  72. Siang

    Hello Lindsay, your cakes look beautiful and i am planning to try out this recipe for my son’s birthday. I was wondering if you might have any advice on how far in advance can i make different parts of the recipe so that i don’t end up doing it all last minute?

    I am also planning to ice a pooh bear design on baking paper/transparency and transfering the image onto the top of the cake.

  73. Chazzaty Montero

    I made this(moist and fluffy vanilla cake) recently and I have to say your recipe is by far one the most delicious and succesful ones I’ve ever made. Your description on how it would turn out was accurate to the dot, the cake was really good and finished so fast by my brothers. It reminded us of a cake we used to buy from our favorite bakery back when we were kids. Definitely gonna make this again.

  74. Nicole

    I made the moist vanilla cupcakes last year and got the best compliment where I was asked where I got the delicious cupcakes!  I would like to make a sheet cake and was wondering if the measurements of baking times change with the moist and fluffy cake for a 9×13 sheet cake.  Thanks!

  75. Savithri

    Hi! I love your vanilla cupcakes so I’m hoping to try this recipe. One question – have you tried this in a 6 inch pan? My go to vanilla cake is finicky and only works in my 8-9 inch rounds. I’m hoping your recipe can be my go to for smash cakes!

    1. Lindsay

      I haven’t tried it in a 6 inch pan. The vanilla base of this cake is one that I use quite often though and it doesn’t seem to be finicky. You could try that one as well.

  76. alice

    can I replace cake flour instead of all purpose flour? I just purchase a large pack before reach yr recipe….will that make it less fluffily ? or less dense? and extra I should add if using cake flour

  77. Katie

    Hi, I’m in search of the perfect vanilla cake and so am planning to try this for my daughter’s 2nd birthday. This may be a silly question, but do you whisk the egg whites before adding to the mix, or just add as you would if they were whole eggs? Thanks in advance!

      1. Belinda Barnes

        Hi Lindsay. 
        I have just made your vanilla cake. I found it to be lovely when uncooked and light and fluffy. But fence and way too much butter which made it very rich and quite heavy. Could one reduce the amount of butter? Also I only made half the icing qty and still have tones left over. 

  78. Tessa Wright

    I made this cake last night for my boyfriends birthday. The icing is absolutely awful. I had never seen a recipe use shortening before but thought what the heck. I will never make that mistake again. I have never had so much difficulty making icing like I did last night. Fingers crossed the taste is better than the consistency.

  79. Holli

    Hi ya. This cake is delish. I live in France but can’t get my hands on what I think is plain flour so I’m using ‘cake flour’. So assumed to leave out the baking powder and soda. The cakes turning out a little crumbly. Can you advise what might be a solution to this given I only have cake flour. Should I still add baking powder and soda? It tastes amazing though! 

  80. Rani

    I made this cake for my daughters 3rd birthday. I used 3, 9″ cake pans. That was the only thing I did not follow on this recipe.

    I mixed everything on medium, set up a timer for the exact minutes, so as to not over mix the cake. I also made it the day before, and I followed your advice on how to smooth the cake too. This cake was pure perfection. My entire crew loved it, including the birthday girl. My mother, who doesn’t usually like buttercream, vanilla cakes- RAVED about it.

    Thank you for the wonderful recipe.

  81. Christine Mayfield

    Cake is delicious! I used 3 pans, but maybe I tried to flip too soon (waiting 5 minutes when I normally wait 10) because the cake stuck to the pan. Ohh well, I can always just make it 2 layers or make a trifle =)

  82. sisca

    Hi, i’m wondering if i use the exact measure of this recipe and i only want to make a two layer cake, what size of bigger pans should i use? thankyou.

  83. Mariam

    Hello…wishing you all the very best on your journey to motherhood. I am in South Africa..is it ok to use cake flour as i have never seen all purpose flour….and by the way i just LOVE your website. Thank you for sharing your beautiful recipes

  84. Jane

    WOW! I have searched for years for a vanilla cake that was moist enough for my taste, and my search has ended! This is hands-down the best vanilla cake I have ever had the pleasure of baking. The edges are crunchy and flavourful while the middle is moist and fluffy. The texture AND flavour are both perfect. I can’t thank you enough. My daughters’ birthday party will feature this fantastic cake on Sunday.

  85. Mandy

    Hi Lindsay,

    I tried your recipe tonight. What should the batter consistency be like? I am used to a ‘wet’ batter, but this one was almost whipped, I suppose from all the butter. I used an 8×3 Wilton pan, but ended up using some of the batter for cupcakes as it was too much for the pan. As the cake is cooling now, the middle has sunk quite a bit, and the edges are hard. I’m an experienced baker, so I’m wondering if this is normal for the recipe, or if it’s possible that I did something wrong. I know you can’t tell without seeing it in person, just hoping my description is enough to give you something to go on.

    1. Lindsay

      Hi Mandy, it sounds like you used one cake pan for all the cake batter. Is that correct? If so, that’d be the problem. The recipe is written with 3 pans, but at the least would need to use two. One pan is going to be very thick and cook unevenly, which would be why you got the result you did.

      1. Mandy

        Thank you for replying! It was a single pan, but it is 3″ high, and meant to replace having to use two or three single-layer pans. The cake is then torted instead of stacked. I also used some batter for cupcakes so the pan wasn’t overflowing.

        Curious about my consistency question, though. Was my “whipped” result correct? That’s how it finished before putting it to bake.

      2. Lindsay

        Yes, I understand torting cakes, but this still won’t bake well all in one pan. Normally in my experience, you’d still bake at least two cake layers and then torte those into 4 layers.

        And yes, it’s very light batter. You could probably describe it as “whipped”.

  86. Anastasia Papaioanou

    Hello! I tried the vanilla fluffy cake recipe and it worked fine! However, the 350 for 30-33 minutes did not work for me. I ended up baking the cakes for almost an hour, at 30 minutes the cakes were still watery. It might of been the tins I used but I just wanted to give a heads up for future reference!

  87. Katy montoya

    I am looking for a recipe for my son’s 4th birthday. He is allergic to eggs and has not really had cake before. We’ve tried a few recipes here and there with different egg replacer options, but nothing has been super delicious.  I recently purchased a product called Ener-G. It’s made from potato starch and tapioca flour. Do you have any thoughts or suggestions to make this an eggless recipe for my little guy? Thanks!!! 

  88. Brad

    Hi Lindsay,

    I like the sound of this cake but I need to make a 12inch round. Do you think the recipe will be enough or should I double it etc.

    I’ve already tried a different recipe that I doubled and it didn’t turn out well. Any advice would be great. Thanks!!

  89. Belinda

    Hi Lindsay,

    Will this cake be sturdy enough to put fondant over it?
    And if so, how far in advance can I bake the cake without it becoming dry?

  90. Jenny

    Hi Lindsay, thank you for the recipe. I made 2 times already. One for my birthday I used 2x 8 inch round pans. I always use parchment paper on the bottom of the pans so it will slide out easily after bake.
    Then I made 37 cupcakes for my son’s Lacrosse party. I made vanilla creamcheese buttercream.
    Its great combination. For my 8 inch cake, i made 2 layers.
    Your cake is so moist and tasty. Everyone loves it. Thank you so much . Too bad I can’t post my cake pictures here.

  91. Melodie

    This cake is wonderful love it, but I would like to bake it in a 14″ round pan and dense it up a little what would I do to do this?

  92. Dei

    Hello! I am baking a cake for a baby shower and I did a test of this recipe tonight and it didn’t turn out! I did half the batch to limit the amount of cake I have sitting at home. Could this be the reason why? I also split the batter between an 8″ pan and a 6″ pan. The cakes didn’t bake all the way through and the edges rised a lot quicker and are hard. I had the cakes in longer than the 30-35 minute bake time and they are still underbaked. Any ideas? Was it because I halved the recipe? Thanks in advance!

    1. Lindsay

      I wouldn’t think it be because of halving the recipe. It sounds like it didn’t bake evenly. You could try using bake even strips. They prevent the outside of the pan from baking too much faster than the inside of the pan.

      1. Dei

        Thank you for your respond! I did try this again and made a cake and a batch of cupcakes and they turned out perfectly. The cake and frosting were delicious! It was definitely a hit. Thank you for you help and suggestion. I believe my problem was the mixing, I was using the wrong speed on my kitchaid mixer, rookie mistake!

  93. Aiman Poptani

    hello. i made as per instructions but my batter split any idea why? kitchen is v warm. will it be useable?

  94. Evah

    Hi Lindsay! My daughter wanted to bake her dad a vanilla birthday ! After searching on the internet we found your recipe. It turned out moist , fluffy ad delicious. We made a few tweeks. .. grated some orange runs and mixed it with vanilla essence. Melted the butter to semi liquid. Thank you for sharing. She is more inspired to bake. Some more.

  95. Erica

    Hey! Since your recipe just says 8″ and the picture seems that the layers aren’t that think I was thinking I might have a different size pan. Mine that I want to try is 8×3 round I want my cake to be tall so I may do 3 layers of this size if it will work? Would that mean this recipe would fill one pan 8×3?
    Thanks! Can’t wait to try it!!

    1. Lindsay

      I’m not sure what you mean, but the cake in the photo is made with three 8 inch cake pans as the recipe notes. I wouldn’t suggest baking all the batter in one pan. It’ll be a very thick cake that will take much longer to bake and end up overbaked on the outside. You’ll want to use at least two pans.

  96. Sarah Nguyen

    Hi Lindsay

    Cake looks amazing! If I wanted to use unsalted butter. Do I need to add salt and how much?

    Thanks!

  97. Meg

    I just made this recipe with gluten free flour mix, and wanted to let you know that it turned out beautifully! I’ve never used a batter that was this thick and fluffy, but my goodness the cake and cupcakes are beautiful. I was able to make 2 dozen cupcakes and a single small 6″ cake for my son’s birthday. If you have anyone asking about using gluten-free flour in the future, I decreased the baking temperature by 25 degrees (to 325) and baked for 22 minutes for cupcakes, and 40 minutes for the cake 🙂

  98. Carly

    Hi Lindsay,  how high do each of your vanilla cakes rise?  Mine don’t seem to have risen much higher than when they went into the oven.  Thanks!

  99. Rebecca

    I’d like to give this one a try. Will it work to cut the cake recipe ingredients down to 2/3 the amount to make just 2 layers? Thank you!

  100. Jennie

    We’re using this recipe to make the middle child’s birthday cake this weekend. Thanks for always being our “go to” for deliciousness, Lindsay.

    Hope all is well!

  101. Natalie Kinmond-Racz

    Hello, Happy Easter ????

    I made your cake early this week for a charity bake morning at work and had so many compliments, your recipe is delicious! I changed it up slightly and made the buttercream frosting strawberry flavour and I spread a really tangy lemon curd on to the layers aswell so it wasn’t so sweet. Lovely combination. So glad I found your blog.

    One question is about the texture of the outside of the cake. I baked for 30 mins. The tops were a little brown, but your recipe said not to worry about that. But the outside of the cake was harder than I expected but the inside was still soft if not a tad darker than your pictures. Do you think I need less cooking time with my oven so that they aren’t as crispy/hard on the outside?

    Thanks for your help

    Nat x

    1. Lindsay

      I’m so glad you enjoyed it!

      For the fire edge, it’s hard to say. Could be a number of things. This cake does tend to get a tiny “crust” around the top edges for me that I usually just pull off. Another possibility is some difference between ovens. Also, darker pans can produce a darker cake. I use light colored pans.

  102. Belinda

    Hi, I’ve made this cake twice now. It tastes amazingly good. I have a real issue with it sticking in the pan and falling apart though. I’m not a baking novice by any stretch so am wondering what I could be doing wrong. The first time I actually baked it in 3 separate tins and allowed them all to completely cool before removing and they stuck to the tin. This time (literally just now) I’ve baked the first cake, it had been cooling for over 10 minutes, still felt warmish and it just fell apart! SO I have the rest to bake now, will try and let it cool longer or something as it’s for my birthday cake for tomorrow and I don’t want to have to go buy something. This mess here is only good for drizzling caramel sauce over and eating by the spoonful.

    1. Lindsay

      It would be really difficult for me to know what’s causing it. I don’t seem to have the same problem. I’m not sure how you remove the cakes, but maybe a different method would help with it not falling apart? When I’m trying to be especially careful, I place a parchment lined cooling rack over the top of the cake pan and just turn it over so the cake doesn’t have far to go before landing on the cooling rack and it shouldn’t fall apart. I hope you’re able to get it to work!

    2. Michelle

      Also might be what you’re using to geese your pan. I use margarine and run a butter knife around the edge. Then I’ll lay my parchment on top my cooling rack on top and it never sticks I promise.

  103. Michelle

    I really want to color the batter for an Easter cake (3 layers 3 colors) I only have liquid color. Does it color well

      1. Michelle

        Thanks for the speedy reply and for another recipe alternative. I only stuck with this one because I need a denser cake to hold up cookie skewers this recipe dyed really well I used 12 drops per bowl of batter (approximately 2 cups a bowl) and it was perfect. 

  104. Taylor

    Have you made this in a 13×9 pan? Do you think this recipe will have enough batter for a 13×9 plus a 8×8 cake? Thank you!

  105. Julie Mills

    Hi, Lindsay – your chocolate cake (coconut) is my go to cake recipe for all occasions – very loved by all! However, I am planning a 50th anniversary party for my parents and decided to do a replica of their wedding cake which was simple….so I want to do a yellow…white cake – which I never do – if I’m doing a cake – it’s always chocolate! ! Do you have any recommendations of which recipe you would use?  

    1. Lindsay

      I’m so glad you enjoy the chocolate cake. 🙂 There sam to be an array of preferences when it comes to vanilla cake. This one is certainly very good. This one is the vanilla version of the chocolate cake you mentioned, so you could try that as well. And then there’s this one, which is probably my favorite.

  106. Av

    I made this cake today and I found it way too sweet; the edges get super crispy and golden brown, the cake shrunk as it sat and cooled and it is very dense, although moist. The flavour is okay. This is a good basic cake recipe however I am looking for something else. I might try this again but by tweaking a few things. Thank you for sharing! 🙂

  107. Lucy

    Hi, please can you tell me what number icing tip you used for the swirls on top of the cake? I make this all the time and it is perfect. Everyone loves it. 

  108. Fredalynn Hecita

    Hafa Adai Lindsay from the island of Guam, I just prepared this cake today for my birthday. This was my first cake from scratch and it turned out delicious! My children found it yummy. It was moist with a slightly crisp edge. Definitely a dense cake but not at all hard. The vanilla taste was full. My oldest son said he considered it a pound cake and absolutely loved it although he believes it would surely add a few pounds to his waist just by inhalation alone.

    I didn’t weigh any of the ingredients but the end result looked exactly like your cake. It was very easy to handle and slip out of the pans. Also, the icing easily spread to perfection. There were no crumbles that I normally dealt with when making a boxed mix cake.

    My 75 year old mother had seconds. This cake recipe is a keeper but will only be used for special occasions. Everyone said, this would make wonderful recipe for a wedding cake. It is a bit new for me to add the ingredients in the phases presented but not at all difficult. I cooked the cake for 31 mins, cooled them in the refrigerator for 40 minutes while I prepared the icing. I can’t think of any tweaking except maybe the title. Hee Hee. I would call it “Rich and Moist Goodness!” Thank you for this wonderful recipe. 

    So Blessed,
    Fredalynn Hecita

  109. Jennifer Morales

    I am using this recipe to make a double (9×13) white cake with raspberry filling and whipped-cream, cream cheese frosting for my daughter’s swim team banquet dessert competition held this Friday. It is literally in the oven as we speak and I could not get over how smooth, light and creamy the batter is! This is just a test run….the real cake will be made Thursday with Olympic Pool Theme decor and all! I tried another recipe I found….The best white cake ever….it was terrible!! Both my husband and daughter felt it was extremely “bready” with no flavor! Fingers crossed on this one! It has been in for 30 minutes and is far from done. The edges are golden brown so I lined them with tin foil so that it will not brown anymore as the middle cooks. I will update after!!! Thank you for sharing!!!

  110. Neha Sharma

    Hi Kara! I plan on trying this recipe next week – it looks awesome. Would I need to adjust anything for different pan sizes for future reference? Thank you so much!

  111. Jackie

    I made this today and infused the milk with tea bags and it was DELICIOUS! Just wanted to let people know this is a perfect recipe for doing this. Thank you so much for such a wonderful cake.

  112. Jessica

    If I wanted to use cake flour instead of all purpose flour will the recipe change? If so, how? If not, please let me know! 

  113. HurcanDewit

    I made this cake today, as written, no substitutions, weighed everything and even used Challenge Butter… so basically I’m saying followed the above recipe to a T. I bake a LOT and was hoping this was going to be everything I wanted in a vanilla cake but it was not. I read almost all the past comments and saw a lot of people comment on LIKING the idea of the recipe but not a lot of people actually MAKING it and giving feedback (only a small percentage). Now, while the cake was moist, it was not “fluffy”, it was more dense and tasted very similar to a cake made with a lot of Crisco, pound cake like texture. The cake itself (without any buttercream) was a bit sweet. I opted for a vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream instead. I read in previous comments someone said that the cake tasted like “play-doh” and as crazy as that may sound, that’s an accurate comparison. As in previous comments, the edges get a bit crispy too, the cake also shrinks a lot and my parchment actually stuck a bit to the bottom of the cake. I will not make this cake again. My husband and children were not fans either, they just said it tasted “weird”. I am confident in my baking that I prepared everything as it should be so no second chance here. Thank you for the recipe but I’m off in search of another.

  114. april

    hi,
    im in Australia and was just wondering weather the sugar you use in most of your recipes is regular sugar or castor sugar when i bake i usually use castor sugar not sure if thats what im supposed to be using as castor sugar is alot finer then regular sugar??
    help haha thanks

  115. Christina

    Hi. Can we use unsalted butter. Dint take notice of the salted bit. Please help. Tried your vanilla cupcakes. They are brilliant. Thanks.

    1. Lindsay

      Yes, you can use unsalted butter, you’ll just need to add some salt to the recipe – probably about 1/2 tsp.

    1. Lindsay

      Do you mean a 10 inch cake with 2 layers? Or two full 10 inch layered cakes? For me, I used this frosting on an 8 inch cake. You could probably stretch it to a 9 inch, but a 10 inch might be a stretch depending on how much frosting you usually use.

  116. Louise

    Hi,

    I’ve been looking for a great recipe to use in my cakes for decorating. I’m a Certified Wilton Method Instructor, teaching students how to decorate cakes. This is the recipe I’m trying for my class on Thursday.

  117. Stacy

    I am wanting to make a small smash cake with this recipe. Could you tell me how to modify for just 1 round 8″?

    1. Lindsay

      There are probably several ways to go about it. Easiest would be to cut the recipe in half and bake it one layer. I haven’t done it though so I can’t advise on bake time, etc.

  118. Ryan

    This Thursday is my b-day! I just made this cake and there are about ten minutes left on the timer. After reading every review which was a feet I knew this would be the perfect cake! I’m sorry I couldn’t give a real review.

  119. Kaileigh

    Can this be made In a 9inch round pan ? I only have this one pan and I was wondering if I can divide it into two or three and bake separately?

  120. Molly Probst

    Hello Lindsay! Thanks so much for a delicious cake. However, I would list your title as ‘moist’ and ‘buttery’– rather than “light and fluffy”.

    I haven’t baked a cake in a while or I would have lessened the butter to make it less heavy. However, if someone is looking for a butter cake, it was tasty! Thanks!

  121. Lisette

    Hi Lindsay,

    Thank you so much for this recipe. I’m going to try baking this tomorrow. I just had two questions:

    – Can I use egg whites that come in a carton?
    – Do I have to Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda together?

    Just wanted to make sure if any of this will make a difference in the texture of the cake.

    Warm Regards,

    Lisette 🙂

    1. Lindsay

      I haven’t ever tried the egg whites in the carton, so I can’t say for sure. I do not usually sift, but just whisk things together well. I guess I’m lazy. 🙂

  122. Battista

    Hi,
     Have you ever added a little powdered milk to the recipe to lighten/ add a few more air bubbles to the recipe?   I learned this from a professional baker, but don’t know the proportions.

  123. Haati

    Reading and seeing cake photos, it seems the cake is quite sweet and appears dense. I am searching for a very light cake, fluffy and moist and feel that adding more water to recipe would make it taste more like what I’m after; also thinking about adding 1 (one) egg yolk to heighten the savory ‘yellow’ vanilla flavor. What do you say about adding more water, perhaps reducing the milk as well as using 1 egg yolk with the 3 whites?

    Thanks.

  124. Brigid

    I recently used this recipe because I too have been searching for a really good vanilla cake recipe and I loved it! Thank you so much for oUtting this up! The cake is moist and sweet but not too dense and not too light! I also made the icing with the recipe that you provided and it was so good! I could smooth it really easily too which was great! Thank you so much!!

  125. Penny

    Just wanted to let you know I made this cake and it was delicious. I had about a cup of buttermilk, so I used it and added additional milk instead of regular milk, and it still turned out great. It may have been a little more dense, but I liked it. I also used a favorite buttercream frosting that has a little Kosher salt and lemon juice making it not quite as sweet as some others – the whole thing was a hit. Thank you for your great recipe and research.

  126. Michelle

    I need help!!!

    I want to use this recipe, but I only have 1 cake pan….. if I make the batter and cook the cakes one at a time, will it keep ok while it sits between baking??

    Should I keep it room temp or in the fridge?

    1. Lindsay

      Hard to say for sure. It might bake a touch differently after sitting, but should be ok. I’d let it sit at room temp.

  127. Kim

    I tried this recipe tonight, and it was amazing! It was really fluffy and rich and my cake turned out pretty cute! Amazing recipe 🙂

  128. Elyse

    HI There, thank you for posting this cake; looks perfect for what i need. I was going to use the measurements provided in grams (as I’m not in America and the imperial cup measures are different from metric). However i noticed that there was more sugar than flour which didn’t seem right?! When i looked through it seemed that the metric grams are not correct, for example in the frosting the two measurements for 1 1/2 cups reads as two completely different weights in grams. just thought i should let you know in case anyone else uses the metric grams as well. Thanks for providing them though, always a tricky thing when using American baking recipes 🙂

    1. Lindsay

      Hi Elyse, the metric grams are correct. Cups measurements here are more of a volume measurement, not weight. So they may have a similar volume of 2 cups, but then weight differently. I hope that helps!

  129. Sal

    Hello. I want to try out this cake but was wondering if it will all be the same process if I was to bake a square version

  130. Larissa

    This is exactly what I’m looking for! 3 layer cake with 8 inch pans. If I use cake flour, how would you modify this recipe? Thank you so much!

  131. Danielle

    Hi there!
    I cany wait to make and eat this cake! I’m wondering if I could use vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract? I ran out of extract but have the pasts on hand.
    Thank you!

  132. Holly

    I made this yesterday and while the consistency IS good, I found it quite bland and not tasty or sweet at all. Even my kids didn’t like it 🙁

    1. HurcanDewit

      Sadly, I feel the same exact way about the overall taste of it. I made the cake today and it was a one note type flavor, it lacked flavor and my kids didn’t care for it either.

  133. Carmen

    Hi Lindsay,
    Can I make this cake in a 3 inch high cake pan? I usually do 3 inch high and tort my cakes to fill them! Thanks, Carmen

  134. Mariana

    Made this cake yesterday. I used two 9 inch pans. The time was a little bit longer, about 40 minutes. I refrigerated overnight before frosting. Cakes were firm and easy to handle right out of the fridge. The cake was Moist, Fluffly and delicious. This has been one of the best vanilla cakes I ever made. Quick question: is there a chocolate version of this cake?

    1. Lindsay

      I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I don’t have a chocolate version of this particular cake, but this is my favorite chocolate cake and it’s really the best! 🙂

  135. Robby

    Hi, your recipe looks very good, I want to ask if the frosting can stand room temperature for like several hours? Thank you x

  136. Belinda

    Hi Lindsay,
    I made your vanilla cupcake and they were amazing. Thank you for ending my search for the perfect vanilla cupcake recipe. So am going to try your vanilla cake for my son’s up coming birthday. Just wondering if this cake freezes well?
    Thanks
    Belinda ????

  137. Cindi

    I made this cake last night as my base for a pumpkin spice cake spread with apricot preserves and caramel and toffee sprinkled on the cream cheese buttercream between layers. It was the best cake ever!! I am going to use this cake as my favorite go to vanilla cake!! Thank you for the recipe. :))

  138. Refilwe Chilisa

    Hi I’ve tried your vanilla cake recipe but it flopped twice. . What am I doing wrong.? I used the grams, so do you think I should try the cup measurements? It’s so fluffy and nice but collapsed in the middle. I baked it for 30min at first and I tried it for 45min and the same thing happened. I would like to perfect this one cause it seems to be delicious and moist and not dense like other vanilla cakes? ?

  139. JJ

    This was my first “from scratch” cake.
    I was surprised by the crisp, sugary outside (especially as Cupcakes). They were delicious hot out of the oven–moist and yummy! The dense texture was new to me, but I think I had an appreciation for it! :0)
    I was disappointed when I tasted them the next day. When the cakes were cool, I froze them overnight to frost in the morning. We ate less than 24 hours later, after being kept covered in the fridge and it was dry. :0(
    It was my first time, so maybe I did something wrong?

  140. Melanie

    In the past, every time I would attempt to make a vanilla cake, it would end up tasting like cornbread, so I’ve been sticking to chocolate cake the last several years. Unfortunately my 7 year old hasn’t liked chocolate over the past few years. I’m looking to make a cake for my little one’s 3rd birthday that the whole family will eat. Can anybody tell me what I did wrong with my vanilla cakes in the past?

  141. chelsea broderick

    Tried this 3 times, each time a disaster. Was like play dough. So I cooked it 15 more minutes and was done,better, but then the outside was a crispy critter! Boo!!! ????????

  142. Alix Santilli

    Hi Lindsay,
    Thank you for your moist and fluffy vanilla cake recipe. I just made it and am amazed. It smells like our favorite bakery in my kitchen right now. I really never thought it was possible to make a vanilla cake well from scratch. I bake a ton, and vanilla cake was never something I made until now – I can tell this will be a favorite. Thanks again!
    Alix

  143. Rahmat

    Nice one and thanks for sharing you quite generous. Question. Why is your sugar measurement more than the flour,and butter and the eggs just 4?

  144. laura

    I’m so glad I found this recipe! I’ve been searching for the perfect vanilla cake that isn’t dry and horrible. This is the perfect light and fluffy texture I was after! Thank you!

  145. MR

    Hi will it work under fondant? What is the reason for omitting the egg yolks pls? Dont egg yolks add a little oomph to the taste?
    Pls reply 🙂

    1. Lindsay

      I haven’t tried it under fondant, but I would think so. Eggs vs egg whites is a choice for several reasons when making cake recipes. However if you wanted to replace the egg whites with eggs, you’d have to try it. Sometimes it’ll work as a substation, sometimes it won’t.

  146. Sophia

    Omg this is the best vanilla cake recipe I’ve tried and will be my go from now on. Thanks a million I wish i could share my pic

  147. Renata

    Hi Lindsay

    Your recipe looks amazing. What altitude are you at? I will try this recipe but may need to tweak it for a higher altitude. 

    Thanks!
     

    1. Kali

      Renata, did you try this at a higher altitude? I am in Denver and am considering this recipe? What adjustments did you make and how did it turn out? I see there are very mixed comments, so I’m a little worried ????

  148. Isobel

    Hi Lindsay, I’ve just made this cake for my sisters birthday! It tastes delicious but mine has fallen apart 🙁 it’s really most on the inside and my skewer came out clear but perhaps it was undercooked and that’s why it’s shape hasn’t held? 🙁 and also I’m from the uk so I used a vegetable shortening called Trex and its made my icing taste a bit funny! Well practice makes perfect so I’m hoping to crack this recipe! The cake itself is soooo yummy though! I look forward to trying other recipes of yours.

  149. Emily

    This cake is gorgeous. I’m a self-proclaimed cake connoisseur, and this is the best white cake I’ve EVER had (and to boot, *I* made it)!

    (Oh, and the cake batter is pretty stinkin’ awesome, too!)

  150. Sue

    Could you swap out the vanilla buttercream for your strawberry buttercream recipe?  The vanilla appears to be thicker, more powdered sugar, and I wanted to make sure that if I swapped them it would be ok.
    Thanks!

  151. dani

    I am SO excited to try this! I am an avid baker – and primarily do cakes bake my cakes in 3″ pans (something like this i would do in 2 of them, then use stainless flower nail like baking cores that prevent the center from being under cooked!).  
    I am going to try it today, and will let you know how it comes out! 

  152. Tia

    Lindsay, I have an important question for you. the batter for the cake tasted amazing, I baked this cake last night and haven’t tried the actual cake yet but I’m sure it’s great! One thing is: no matter how many recipes for cakes I try, I ALWAYS get hard crusty edges. I bake the cakes very well and I do not over bake them. The middle turns out excellent but the edges are always crusty. How do I fix this? Thanks!

    1. Lindsay

      It’s tough to know for sure what the problem is, but a few options – overbaking (which it sounds like you don’t do), the baking spray you use (I use Bakers Joy), or the pan you use (light colored pans tend to be better for not getting those crusty edges). I hope that helps!

  153. sandy

    i must say the recipe was good except that i found the sugar was too much after making my first try at it then i reduce the sugar to 2 cups instead of 2 1/4 and it was perfect

  154. Jenn

    This recipe did not work for me. I used cake flour instead but followed to a T for the rest of it. The result was a cake that fell in the center and was way too buttery. Super bummed looking at my trash can full of cake right now 🙁

  155. Ines Maria Cornejo Alayza

    Hi, I wanted to ask a question. I have to make a 11 inch round cake. I can make this recipe would have to fold the ingredients? Can you help me please.
    Thank you very much!!!

    1. Lindsay

      I’m sure I understand your question. If you are wondering about doubling the recipe for a larger cake, I’d say you’d probably need to. I haven’t made an 11 inch so I’m not sure how to advise. Would you be making a three layer cake still? Or one layer?

  156. Lisa Walsh

    I’m going to make this cake tomorrow for my daughter’s 18th birthday.  Can you tell me what kind of milk you used?  I want it to be perfect!  Thanks!

    Lisa

  157. Libert

    about the buttercream. Should I use mixer and cream the butter and shortening? Your recipe says mix, I am pretty confused.

    Thank you!

  158. Damita Roberts

    After reading the blog post and then the recipe a thousand times, and then the comments to get all the facts. I started baking my birthday cake. Birthday is today, actually. I’m pregnant and was too exhausted to get the extra ingredients from the store he night before. Anywho, the first two layers are in the oven, the third will be baked separately, as I was only able to get two 8-inch pans. I will follow up with this post to tell how it was and if everyone likes it. A few things that may alter my cake so far:

    •I used Pam Baking Spray, I’m all out of parchment paper.
    •My batter may not have been well mixed. I say this because I saw some glossy parts with very small specs of butter, if that makes a good visual. But I’m just now using my kitchen aid mixer to bake a cake, and just getting acquainted with the speeds. So for medium, I used level 4. Level 6 seemed too fast.
    •I creamed the butter and sugar as suggested for 2 minutes. Added egg whites all at once, along with the vanilla.
    •I didn’t have the milk ready and separated into two 3/4 cups, but I just measured as I went.
    •Dry ingredients were measured using a digital scale, hopefully, it was accurate.

    So that’s all of the factors that could have an effect on the outcome. I’ll post later about how everything else goes. I just had to write ASAP, pregnancy brain is very real!

    1. Damita Roberts

      Well, the cake came out tasting like flour…or play-doh as my sister put it. LOL. But I do believe it is due to me using a scale rather than actual measuring cups. And I used almond extract for the icing because I ran out of vanilla. So, I will retry this recipe in a few weeks, using all measuring cups and vanilla extract. Maybe even reduce the amount of flour. By my 31st birthday next year, I’ll have this mastered.

      1. Midge

        I made this cake as well and mine came out the same way and I used measuring cups and they came out flat they didn’t rise and I did what the recipe said excatly

    2. Damita Roberts

      I’m thinking maybe because I didn’t sift the flour, the scale measured more than needed? Idk. I’m just looking online for solutions or possible reasons to avoid this next time. The cake was MOIST, DENSE, and beautiful, so I know the recipe works. Everyone loved the texture, the aesthetic, and moistness. But I’m thinking maybe if I sift the flour, it would loosen it up and measure correctly on a scale. ???? I may even buy a better scale. This cake will not defeat me! Lol and now I know, if the batter smells like flour, the cake will taste like flour! And since I’m pregnant, I didn’t want to taste the batter. Anywho, when I retry the recipe, I’ll post my results and changed methods, just in case someone is going through the same as me.

      1. Lindsay

        I would always recommend weighing dry ingredients, especially flour. There can be huge variation in the way people measure cups so that could definitely have been a factor.

    1. Lindsay

      I don’t do much non-dairy baking and I haven’t tried it with this cake, so it’d be hard to say. I know coconut oil is a common replacement, but I’m not really sure it’d work well.

  159. Christie

    I tried this but felt the icing was very overpowering in sweetness and I felt like it had a very strong vanilla flavor as well. Is there any way to make the icing not so sweet? The cake was absolutely delicious and moist!

    1. Lindsay

      I’m glad you enjoyed the cake! For the frosting, you could add less powdered sugar, but it would also reduce the amount of frosting you end up with.

  160. Tharshyinie

    Absolutely amazing!!! This was the best vanilla cake I ever tried! Can I leave the cake mix in the fridge though? Or will it not work if I do that then put it in the oven? TYSM!!

  161. Ezinne

    Hello, please can I use all of my eggs in the recipe? Will it make it less moist or more dense? If I want to use it in my shop, I will be throwing away a lot of egg yolks.

    1. Lindsay

      I can’t remember if I tried this with full eggs or not. I would imagine that just replacing the 4 egg whites with 2 eggs wouldn’t give you the same result and might require some other adjustments. There’s actually more liquid in the whites than in the yolks, so you’d have less total egg with 2 full eggs. Of course, it’s always worth a try. 🙂

  162. Baker360

    I tried th is cake and I was a bit disappointed. When it was time to bring it out I did the toothpick test it came out clean , when I took it out of the pan ifound out it didn’t cook well and it just fell apart I tried ti move it to a diffrent cake stand and it stuck to the other. I haven’t given up on this recipe (because it tastes really good) but I wish it would stay together more

  163. Tara

    Hi could this be possible to make with 1 1/2 cups of sugar ? Or I also have brown sugar. I didn’t realise i wouldn’t have enough! 

  164. Meghan

    Hello! 

    I’m making a cake for this weekend, and the customer would like it to b covered in fondant. Would this cake recipe be good for that? I want something that’s firm enough to hold the fondant, but still fluffy and moist to eat. 

    Thanks! 

    1. Lindsay

      I’m not sure if I’ve tried this cake with fondant or not. It is relatively soft, but if you are covering it with ganache or something under the fondant, it might be fine.

  165. Jodie

    Hi there:) just found your recipe for the vanilla cake and it looks amazing! Before I dive into making it, if I substitute the all purpose flour to self raising and cut out the extra baking powders etc, would I ruin the cake texture?? I have just accidentally bought the wrong flour… Grrrrr. Hoping it would still work out?? What are your thoughts?

    1. Lindsay

      Hmmm, the amount of leavener can vary in self rising flours I believe, so it’d be hard to say how that’d turn out.

  166. Yasmine Rivera

    Lindsay can you please help , i made this & followed the instructions step by step & i ended up with corn bread . It had the corn bread texture & tasted like it also .

    1. Lindsay

      It can be really hard to say without being there to see, because there could be a number of factors. It kind of sounds like maybe some ingredients weren’t measured correctly?

  167. Stocky

    What type of better are you supposed to use, plus can I replace shorting will unsalted butter. Please reply ASAP.

    1. Lindsay

      I use salted butter in the frosting when combined with shortening. If you are using all butter, I’d suggest either half salted and half unsalted, or just all unsalted. I like some flavor from the salted butter, but all salted butter would be too much.

      1. Patricia Darazi

        I tried this recipe and it was perfect. I wish I can upload pics to show everyone. I used coconut butter/oil instead of the butter. I made a two tier cake with that recipe. I used fondant with this cake recipe. The cake was just right.

  168. Mia Wendy

    Hi Lindsay,

    I’m so glad that i found your blog! Your cakes look yummy! I really want to try this one first, as this is the basic.
    I wonder, is it ok to substitute milk with heavy cream/whipping cream? Will the batter become too thick?

    Thanks in advance!
    Mia

      1. Mia Wendy

        I followed your recipe, using milk and the cake turns out great ! My husband brought it to his office and the cake gone in just few minutes. Everybody loves it!

        Thank you, Lindsay !

  169. saffiya

    hi i just recently found your website and i think it’s amazing, i was wondering how many cake pans i would need to divide the batter in if i’m using 4 inch pans

  170. Sonya Gibbons

    Hello…..I sent you a question yesterday but not sure if you received it (you haven’t responded yet). How many cups of batter can I get out of this Vanilla cake recipe? I am using it for a large cake so this is why I need to know. Thank you very much!! I have already signed up for your e-mail alerts 🙂

    1. Lindsay

      Hi Sonya, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to get back to you sooner. I haven’t ever measured the amount of batter this recipe makes, so I can’t say.

  171. Sonya Gibbons

    Hi Lindsay,

    Do you know how many cups of batter your vanilla cake recipe makes? I am going to make a large sheet cake and need that information.

    Thank you!!

  172. Jennifer

    Just make this cake. Batter tasted amazing! Lol couldn’t resist! After it cooled I sliced it into layers. The whole cake crumbled. It tastes so good and is really most but literally fell apart. No amount of frosting could glue it back together. Sad. On to another recipe.

  173. Rosie Madaschi

    Hi Lindsay

    I made this the other day and it’s absolutely perfect. Making it again, but wondering if it freezes well?

    Thanks
    Rosie

  174. bethany

    planning to make this for my daughter’s first birthday tomorrow! as for the icing, do you think it would turn out well, omitting the shortening and using all butter (same proportions)?

  175. Jessica Feltham

    Hi the cake looks amazing I am so happy that I found your blog. Would it work with liquid food colouring instead of gel food colouring?

    1. Lindsay

      I’m so glad you found it too! 🙂 Liquid food coloring should be fine. I’d just be careful about adding too much additional liquid.

  176. jamilah

    Hi there, I LOVE this cake and it’s my go to, but I have a ?…every time I make it and a client cuts into it it so moist it just crumbles and not as firm as your to really hold shape once cut….what am I doing wrong? Thank you in advance!

    1. Lindsay

      That’s really hard for me to say. I know some people add a sugar syrup to their cakes – if you do that perhaps it adds too much moisture? Could the frosting be a bit soft and not as stable to hold the cake layers up? If the cakes are baking fine, it seems like it could be something else?

      1. jamilah

        First THANK YOU for your response. No ma’am; the cake is so moist and delicious, I don’t need simple syrup. As far as my icing… it’s very stable and stiff… 🙁 it’s comes out wonderful. Should I leave it I the pan longer before removing it?

      2. Lindsay

        I wouldn’t think it has to do with sitting in the pan longer. Are you able to handle the cakes fine while making the cake? It’s just when it’s cut into? Can you describe what the issue is when cut – like it’s really crumbly? You can see in the photos above that the cake should hold up well. I’m really not sure what else to suggest. 🙁

  177. Angela

    Hey
    I was wondering if I could make this make into a marble vanilla cake. I was wanting to make blue purple and pink marble cake. Also if it would work in a 10inch round cake tin. thanks 
    Angela 

    1. Lindsay

      I would think dying the batter would be fine for marbling, but I haven’t tried it. Also, I haven’t tried the 10 inch pan. There’s a fair amount of batter, so I’d certainly think you’d want to make two layers.

  178. Amy

    I’m going to attempt this cake tomorrow. Definitely need to stock up on icing sugar, lol. Love the post on how to smooth a cake perfectly as well! Am putting the tools on my birthday wish list! Keep ’em coming!

  179. Pamela

    Hello I want to make this cake but I only have unsalted butter, do you think it would be as good? Do I need to change something to the recipe?

  180. Rosina

    I made this yesterday. I wrote a blog post about it today because it was so good! Thank you for sharing the recipe. Yum!

  181. Krista

    Hi there!
    Not sure if someone else has already asked this, but could you use two 9 inch round cake pans vs 3 8 inch? Thanks!

      1. Lindsay

        I would think it would be. I haven’t made it as a 6 inch, but I’d suggest cutting it down – maybe in half?

  182. Michelle

    This. Cake. Is. AMAZING.  Seriously.  I made this cake for my son’s birthday party and I couldn’t help but revel in all the positive comments (even ones that said that it rivalled Magnolia’s vanilla cake).  After several failed attempts at plain vanilla cake from other recipes (a thing which you would think you could get perfect as it is such a staple baked good), I found this one.  I substituted buttermilk for milk (because I had more of it) and popped in two vanilla beans in addition to the ingredients listed.  Pure vanilla dreaminess…. So light and moist.  Also for the frosting I cut down the amount of icing sugar to 7 cups and it turned out amazing (I have several finicky family members who don’t like the icing too sweet but I’m sure the recipe as is is fine for the ordinary palate).  Thank you!  This is one for the vault!  

  183. kenya

    I searched online for a cake recipe and came across this one , BEST hands down it was so light and fluffy and taste great! Thank you so much for sharing this , I really enjoyed it.

  184. K-A

    I was really excited to try this recipe, but it came out very greasy and then shrank in the pans and sank in the middles. It still tastes good and I covered it all up with frosting, but I’m sorry to say I was disappointed in the results.

  185. Emma Payton

    Lovely recipe. My neighbours were over for a birthday celebration and all wanted the recipe. I made two batches – one cake and 36 cupcakes. 

  186. Donna

    I did try your recipe and it was perfect! I’m thrilled with the results. Easy to put together and easy ingredients. I’m deleting all the other vanilla cake pins. It was moist and fluffy and had a lovely vanilla flavor. 

  187. Brittany

    Hey! Just found your recipe on Pinterest and am going to give it a try for my sons 4th birthday party. He wants a red white and blue cake so I’m wondering if you think adding a bit of food coloring would change it/ruin it at all?

  188. Penny

    I made this cake the other day for my sister’s birthday and it was very good. I made the icing blue as well. It is very thick and the icing is very sweet and I actually had a lot left over. Maybe I’ll make some cupcakes for it. Thanks for the recipe!

  189. Elena

    This cake is soooo delicious but I’ve had some troubles sadly when I take my cake out of the oven it has a gratey texture and it sinks am I doing something wrong?? Thank you ????

  190. Lindsay

    My daughter and I just finished your recipe for your vanilla cake in a 13 x 9 pan it took 40min for it to turn out golden brown and the best vanilla cake we have ever made!! Look forward to trying some of your other recipes!

  191. Heather Fradette

    Hello,
    I would like to make this cake for my mother-in-law’s 85th.  I have a 12 x 18 sheet cake pan.  Should I double or triple the recipe?
    Thx,
    Heather from Calgary

    1. Lindsay

      I can’t remember if I have or not. It’s been a while since I worked with fondant. It’s a pretty soft cake, but if you use ganache underneath the fondant, it should be fine.

  192. Nike

    Hi,

    I am running into a little problem. I baked 3 6 inch cakes. I let them cool completely . When I removed them from the pan, they crumbled and fell apart. They taste good, but are in unusable. Any ideas of what went wrong?

    Thanks in advance.

    1. Lindsay

      It’d be really hard to say from a distance. This is a pretty tender cake. Did they stick to the pans? Or were they really soft when you were moving them around and they broke? If they stuck to the pans, I really am a fan of putting parchment circles on the bottom. I’ve never had a cake stick when I do that. If it was an issue of moving the cakes around, I can only say that the cakes are pretty tender. I have some cake lifters I use that makes it easier. You could also try refrigerating or freezing the cakes for a bit to firm them up so that they are easier to work with.

    1. Lindsay

      The only real difference would be baking time. I can’t remember if I’ve done this as two layers before so I’m not sure what the time would be. I’d start at about 35 minutes and go up from there. You’ll know it’s done when a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out with just a few crumbs.

  193. Andi

    Well, I do not recommend doing this cake in a 9×13…. After 35 minutes, the edges got dark brown and I thought the cake was done with the toothpick test… The middle flopped in when cooling and was still mushy.

    The edges tasted delicious though. So bummed! Had to toss the whole mess in the garbage.

  194. Karis

    This cake looks great! I don’t have three 8 inch cake pans could I not put all the batter into one 8 by 3 inch cake pan? if so how long would i cook it for? 

    1. Lindsay

      I wouldn’t recommend that. It would be much too thick and most likely wouldn’t bake well. You’ll want to make at least 2 layers.

    2. Charlotte Street

      I measure it into 3 bowls so all are same weight then cook each separately in the cake tin – until I finally bought more cake tins cause it’s such an amazing recipe I’ve made so often ! Never had a bad word about it everyone loves my cake so much when I follow this recipe ! I’ve also done your chocolate cake using the orange spider recipe and this vanilla as cupcakes – your now my go to bake help ! X






  195. Leslie Robinson

    Hi,

    I LOVE your blog and can’t wait to try this cake. Can you please share with me how you got the beautiful color of the frosting? I can’t wait to try to frost my first cake like yours!

    1. Lindsay

      I use Wilton icing colors that are easily found at craft stores like Michaels. I believe I just used pink with a little bit of burgundy.

  196. Desi

    Hello Lindsay! lovely blog! I used this recipe to do cup cakes! its amazing. However when I use it for a whole round cake i realise that the cake shrinks im not sure why:(. anyways I just wanted to ask what you think will happen if I substitute the milk with water? will it change the texture and taste? cause milk makes the cake life so much shorter. Thanks

  197. Debbie

    This cake is amazing. I made it for my best friends 50th and i couldn’t believe how fast it went, people were disappointed there weren’t seconds. I would say though that the buttercream was really sweet, I may tweak it a bit next time.

  198. Dedra

    Can I double this recipe to make two 9x13x2 cakes? I have to make a cake tomorrow for a lot of people so I need to know as soon as possible.

    1. Lindsay

      I’m sorry I wasn’t able to respond sooner. I haven’t made it in a 9×13 pan, but I think one full recipe makes a 9×13 cake just fine.

  199. Mary

    Hello Lindsay, i am so excited to try this recipe because all the vanilla cake i have been baking have been really heavy and dense, i really hope this comes out just the way i want it. will the texture come out different if i use unsalted butter. i see your recipe calls for salted butter.

    thank you

    1. JoAnn

      I didn’t try it, but I doubt it.  They never come out light.  I think bakers add imulsifiers and preservatives to their cakes.   Good luck   Let us know how it turns out

  200. Bootrec

    Hi! Just baked this cake tonight in two 8″ round pans. They looked beautiful when i took them out of the oven, like total perfection. Put on rack for 15 minutes, and they deflated so much it looks really weird, almost half its thickness from when I took it out of the oven. Then went around with a knife and flipped the pan, and the sides are all crumbly and made quite a mess… and I tried pulling the parchment paper but there’s too much cake coming with it so I left it while it cools. I used Wilton’s bake even strips… could that have caused this mess? Any suggestion would be appreciated, ty!

    1. Lindsay

      I haven’t used the bake even strips on this cake, but I wouldn’t think that’d be a problem. I’m not sure. It’s so hard to say what causes something like that without seeing it. I’m sorry.

  201. grazou

    Helo… thank you very much for your sharing… I never used buttercream to cover my cake…. in your receipe you include shortening 
    Is that compulsory to make it works? i live in a tropical island where the brandt crisco is not sold…. and I do not know if our french label fits… thanks a lot for your answer…. i’m longing to try this recipe….

    1. Lindsay

      You can replace the shortening with butter, if that’s what’s available. With all butter though, the frosting is a little less stable in warm weather. You might find it best to refrigerate the cake when frosted.

  202. Rachel

    The cake was not what I was expecting. It tasted great, nice vanilla flavor, but was heavy and dense, like a pound cake, not fluffy. My search continues for a vanilla cake recipe

    1. JoAnn

      I am too looking for a light cake. Every recipe for white cake comes out heavy like pound cake.  Each time I see a new recipe I get excited and think “this is going to be the one ” and it isn’t they are all heavy. I don’t know what the trick is to a light moist bakery white cake.  going back to boxed.  I GIVE UP

  203. Alison

    Hi! Your vanilla cake looks amazing! What I was wondering was wether it’s firm enough to cover with fondant icing over either buttercream or ganache?

    1. Lindsay

      I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve ever used this cake for fondant before. It’s not a super firm cake, but might be fine.

  204. Rachacia Hutchinson

    I wanted to thank you for sharing this recipe. Just made my second batch of cupcakes for my son’s birthday. They are indeed super moist.
    Thanks again

  205. Awele

    Hello, thanks a lot for sharing this lovely tutorial, I would give it a try cause I have been searching for a great vanilla recipe and I feel this is it. But I would like to know if I can use buttermilk instead of just milk. GOD bless you

  206. Nadia

    Hi Lindsay…am thking of making this cake of my daughters birthday but wanted to if it would work well with a Swiss meringue buttercream? 

  207. Melissa

    My daughter made this cake for the second time today. When she made it the first time, it was extremely dense and gooey and very much like a pound cake. It tasted great but it was not what we expected. Today, she spent much more time creaming the butter and sugar and less time mixing the flour to keep the gluten in check. The cake was fluffier, but only slightly. We used 2 9-inch pans. Any ideas as to what we could be doing wrong?

    1. Lindsay

      I’m sorry, I’m not sure. It’s so hard to say without seeing it myself. I’m sorry it isn’t turning out as expected.

  208. Jenna

    Hi Lindsay! I am looking to make a chocolate chip cake. Have you ever tried adding mini chocolate chips to this recipe? Do you think it would work?

    1. Lindsay

      I haven’t tried it. I’d think it’d be fine, but I’m not sure if they’d sink or not. You could also try this recipe. Just swap out the cherry juice in the cake with additional milk.

  209. Darnell Moser

    Hi, Lindsay — This vanilla cake looks gorgeous & I nominate you for Cake Queen. I too enjoy cake-making & would like to get your opinion about one aspect of it. I like to include some sour cream in a cake (even a mix cake), like my mom did, to make it moister. This has worked well with chocolate cakes so far. Have you ever made a vanilla cake that included sour cream? If so, what was your impression of the results? Thanks for sharing your great recipes!

    1. Lindsay

      Hi Darnell! I’m definitely a big fan of using sour cream in cakes. I usually try to use it, but didn’t in this one. If you’d like to try a vanilla cake that does, this is a great one.

  210. seema

    Hi, I tried the vanilla cupcakes and came out very well. Everybody at home enjoyed and they had never ever tasted vanilla cupcakes like this before. I want to try the vanilla cake and have a doubt. I want to halve he recipe. instead of 3 cups flour i want to make with 1.5 cups flour. My doubt is regarding the baking soda it says 1/4 tsp for 3 cups flour and in the cup cake recipe also it is 1/4 tsp for 240 gms flour. Then for 1.5 cups flour how much baking soda should i use.
    Request you to please reply

    1. Lindsay

      For this cake, if you cut the recipe in half, you’d want to cut the baking soda and baking powder in half as well. So it’d be 1/8 tsp of baking soda and about 1 1/2 tsp baking powder.

  211. Raufikat

    Hi, I love your blog! The tutorials and recipes are so good and easy to follow. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I made it yesterday. The taste and texture are excellent but I found it a bit oily. Would you recommend reducing the butter? If so, by how much? Thank you !

  212. Heather nykun

    I made this cake tonight. The cake had the perfect consistently and was great. The buttercream was fantastic. Thanks for the tutorial on how to decorate it. 🙂

      1. liana

        hi o followed the recipe but did it gluten free but as the cakes cooled they sunk a lot and shrieked and  went thick and gel type like a thick doey like a thick. rubbery  would u know why 

  213. Courtney

    Looks great! I found your tutorial for smooth buttercream on Pinterest and ventured over here to check out the cake. Have you made this in a 10in pan or do you have suggestions for doing so? TIA

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      I haven’t made this as a 10in before, but it should be fine. You’d just end up with thinner layers so you’d want to bake them for less time. Maybe start at about 20 minutes and go up from there.

  214. Debby

    You are the woman! I made this cake tonight and it is everything you promised. Thank you so much for sharing. I read some of the other comments and thought I would let everyone know that I used your recipe but made a six, eight and ten inch out of each recipe and then repeated and my cake is amazing. You are my hero!

  215. Girl

    I did half the recipe and divided into two 6″ cake pans. Perfect amount, and it makes for a really tall cake! I usually use vanilla paste and vanilla extract, and it tasted wonderful!

  216. Michelle

    Just tried this recipe for a birthday cake ..it came out beautifully…I did a chocolate butter cream with chocolate drizzle…loved how it came out…because I live in the tropics I omitted the milk in the butter cream and used an extra tsp of vanilla…I’m going to try your eggnog layer cake next…great site and I look forward to trying more of your recipes

  217. Anam

    I’ve been looking for the perfect vanilla cake recipe since forever, and I’ve found it! Thank you so much for sharing this! I think this one was considerably better than your other vanilla cake/cupcake recipe 🙂 xo

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      That would depend on the size of the pan. One 8 or 9 inch pan wouldn’t work. However a 9×13 pan should be fine, thought I haven’t tried it myself.

  218. Martha

    That’s the prettiest cake I’ve ever seen! Question: I’m new to this, so did you just gradually add food coloring to the frosting to make it the color you wanted? If so, what kind (liquid, gel, etc)? I’m wanting to make a green frosted cake. Thanks in advance.

  219. Debbie Hargreaves

    Hi, I am in the UK and we don’t use the measuring cup system. I would love to make this vanilla cake for my kid’s chorus at Panto rehearsal/Christmas Party. It looks delish! Please could you let me have the imperial or metric measurements?
    Kind regards
    Debbie x

    1. Nokuphila

      Hi Lindsay

      I’m definately trying this one.. Have tried your chocolate cake and red velvet and both were devine👌👌

  220. Rida

    Can we replace butter with oil? Please reply quickly today is my mum’s birthday but I don’t have any butter on hand

      1. Nadia

        Do you use oil instead of the butter that is called for in a recipe? I’ve been wonder if it’s possible to swap out butter for oil

  221. Serrina Wyngarden

    Hi Lindsay,

    This cake was wonderful! I made it for my daughters birthday and I can’t wait for my next “excuse” to make it! This is the 2nd of your cakes I have made and so far I have not been disappointed.

    Thanks,
    Serrina

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      Do you mean a 9×13? Not a 9×3? If so, I believe it will be fine. I haven’t done it, but it should be ok.

      1. Mimi

        I wanted to make this recipe in two 9″ round cake pans. How should I adjust the recipe amount and bake time? Please reply ASAP!! Thank you! <3

      2. Lindsay

        You can just use the recipe as is, the cake just won’t be as tall. Not entirely sure on the baking time.

  222. Ashley

    I loved this cake! I wanted to make it as a 13 X 9. Would you be able to tell me if you think that will work and how the bake time might change on it? Thanks!

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      I haven’t made it as a 13X9 before, but I think it will work. I’m not sure about the bake time though.

  223. Rachel

    I LOVED this recipe, but do have a question regarding the icing. What kind of shortening do you use? I felt it tasted / felt like shortening if that makes sense. Everyone else seemed to like it, but I felt it was off. Although it could have just been knowing the ingredients.

    1. Anna

      I didn’t like the icing at all. Neither did anyone else that ate it, to a person they said they could really taste the shortning. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen shortening in an icing recipe and I almost thought it had to be a misprint. I’ll definitely use a different icing recipe or swap for all butter. The cake is really good! We do find it to be quite dense, feels more like a pound cake. Last time I made it I put an awesome lemon buttercream on it and it was a HUGE hit!!

  224. HK

    This cake sounds amazing and I can’t wait to make it! Thanks for sharing your recipe. How long does it keep fresh? Can I bake the day before it’s needed? Thanks ☺️

      1. Lindsay

        That depends on if you make changes/adjustments. When I use half butter/half shortening, I don’t refrigerate. If you use all butter, I would.

  225. Michelle @ My California Kitchen

    My mouth is watering! Vanilla cake is my favorite. I love having options but I am love both denser and lighter cakes. Can’t wait to try this one 🙂

  226. Beth @ bethcakes

    Such a pretty cake! It’s funny that you say “you’re only as good as your vanilla cake” because I’ve always felt weird that I don’t have a go to vanilla cake recipe. I’m totally trying this one! 🙂

  227. Mir

    I’ve been on a similar quest with the perfect chocolate cake, and the crazy thing is, I think my favorite chocolate cake has no gluten! This looks like the fluffiest vanilla cake ever. So beautiful!

    1. kim

      Can you share the recipe as I’ve been looking for the perfect gf chocolate cake. I’m planning on adapting this recipe to make gluten free.

  228. Harshada

    Hiiii Lindsay, I recently came across your blog and I’m very glad that I did!!!! You blog is as beautiful as you. You have wonderful recipes. I’m kinda new into baking and I see there’s lot to learn from you. I immediately subscribe to your website the minute I saw it. Its very clean, neat and peaceful. Thumbs up for that. I always get pleasant vibes after looking at your blog. Thank you so much and I’m definitely going to try this vanilla cake this week!!!! God bless you.

    1. lifeloveandsugar@gmail.com

      I’m so glad you found the blog too! Thanks for signing up for emails! Just let me know if you have any questions about recipes. Enjoy!

      1. Pou

        Hi Lindsay, just saw your blog and I’m very happy that I found your blog. I love to bake cake. but my cake is dry and I’m looking for the perfect vanilla cake. I saw your cake and read your cake history. I love to try your recipe. Sorry if my English is not good. May I ask you one question, is your vanilla cake use white egg only? Thank you in advance for your answer

      2. Cat

        I bake quite often and i decided to try your recipe. I followed your steps and instructions exactly as they were said on your page. I used all the correct measurements for the batter, and even though I did this, the cake came out extremely watery. What did I do wrong?

      3. Eftihia

        HI Lindsay! I had a question, it says in the recipe to line 3-8 inch pans, however what if I only need two 6 inch cakes so i can cut them, then layer them and stack them to make it a layered cake but more than three layers…..Will the batter be too much to place them in 2 6 inch pans?

      4. Lindsay

        I don’t really make any 6 inch cakes so it’s hard for me to say. It probably depends a bit on how thick you want the cakes, but I’d imagine you won’t need all the batter.

      5. Kim Higgs

        Can I turn the cake into a 13×9 cake ? Would make 2 so I have a 2 layer 13×9 cake.  Thank you, Kim 

      6. Lindsay

        It would be hard for me to say for sure without trying it. If you’d like to try a chocolate cake though, I have this one that I love!

      7. Kianna

        Hi lifeloveandsugar I haven’t made your cake yet but I am going to today. I was wondering how big the cake ya and also why there is so much butter.Aldi why do you use salted butter instead if unsalted?

        Thank you,
        Kiannaxxxx
        Hope you enjoy the rest of your day/ or evening!????

      8. Lindsay

        It’s an 8 inch cake. I used salted butter by choice, rather than add my own salt. But you could use unsalted and add your own salt.

      9. Avelaka

        My cake came out runny and taste like corn bread I made the batter twice and made sure my batter was as the instructions told me so. And still came out the same !!!!! I see other ppl had this problem but you are not answering them on how this could of happen ?!?

      10. Lindsay

        Avelaka – It is nearly impossible for me to know exactly why someone doesn’t get the correct result. There are so many factors. Did someone mis-measure something and not realize it? Did they mix it incorrectly? Had an ingredient gone bad? Is it the oven, altitude? SO many things. I can make possible suggestions, but I simply don’t know. Why would your cake be runny? The only thing I can think of is that it’s under baked. You want to be sure to test cakes with a toothpick before removing them from the oven so you know they are cooked through. I have made this cake dozens of times without having the result you describe. I know the recipe works. For any comment where someone was unsuccessful, there are more where people were successful. I’m sorry it didn’t work for you, but I don’t know why that is.

      11. Chipego Moonga

        Hands down, the best vanilla cake I’ve ever eaten so far. It is exactly as you titled it ‘Moist and fluffy vanilla cake’. Even the batter is delicious, tastes almost like ice and I almost never resist licking the mixing bowl afterwards. Thank so much for sharing this recipe, may God continue blessing with more and more recipe ideas 😋😋😋.

    2. Fuzzy

      I am also new in cake baking and I totally share your centiments… also that I prefer dense. This cake looks amazing.

    3. Mumtaz Amin

      Can u only use butter for the icing rather then the shortening. Can I double the butter amount for the buttercream I mean? I also wanted to know I only have 2 8inch cake pans can I wait until I bake 2 cakes and bake the remaining when I finish with pans? Thank you in advance. 

    4. Claire

      Hi this looks like a good recipie i was going to use to use it to make a rainbow cake for my best friend. Do u think the layers would hold well? Also is this a dense cake?

Lindsay
About Lindsay

I'm a wife and a mom to twin boys and a baby girl! And I've got a serious sweets addiction! Bring on the treats!

Scripture I’m Loving

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28-29