This vanilla cake is anything but boring. With a soft, tender cake crumb, this vanilla cake has amazing vanilla flavor from pure vanilla extract. Pair this cake with a vanilla buttercream frosting or Swiss meringue buttercream frosting for the perfect vanilla cake.
Ingredients for Vanilla Cake
- Unsalted butter: Be sure your butter is softened to room temperature for easy creaming.
- Granulated sugar: For sweetness.
- Eggs: Eggs should be at room temperature to easily emulsify with the butter.
- Sour cream: Sour cream adds moisture to the cake and a very slight tang.
- Vegetable oil: A bit of vegetable oil adds a little more moisture to the cake layers.
- Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste is the star of the show in this recipe!
- Cake flour: Cake flour contains less protein and gluten than all-purpose flour, making the cake layers soft and tender. For this recipe, you do not want to replace cake flour.
- Baking powder: A leavening agent that helps the cake layers rise.
- Salt: A bit of salt enhances the flavor of the cake.
- Milk: Room temperature milk. I love using 2% or whole milk for baking. You can also use buttermilk.
Tools & Supplies for Making Vanilla Cake
How to Make Vanilla Cake Layers
To make this recipe, you will need a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or an electric hand mixer. I used three 7-inch round cake pans to make this cake!
- Preheat oven to 335° F and prepare cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and parchment circles.
- Use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or electric hand mixer to cream unsalted butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add room temperature eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between each addition.
- Add sour cream, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract/vanilla bean paste. Continue to mix until well combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk, starting and ending with the dry, while mixing on low speed. (1/3 dry, 1/2 milk, 1/3 dry, 1/2 milk, 1/3 dry).
- Turn the mixer to medium speed and mix for 30 seconds.
- Divide the cake batter into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake the cake layers at 335° F for approximately 40-45 minutes.
- Cool the cake layers in the pan for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Level cake layers before frosting.
- Assemble the cake with your favorite frosting! I recommend trying out my Vanilla American Buttercream, Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Shortcut Swiss Meringue Buttercream, or Ermine Buttercream Frosting!
Vanilla Cake Recipe Tips
Baking perfect cake layers
Check out my baking tips blog post on 10 Tips for Baking Perfect Cakes to learn some easy tips and tricks to help you make the best cakes.
Creaming butter and sugar
A key step to this recipe is creaming together the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy. This can take about 5 minutes. The butter will become pale in color. This will help create the perfect, tender texture to the cake with a soft crumb.
Cake flour
In this recipe, cake flour is a must! Do NOT replace it with all-purpose flour. Cake flour contains less protein and gluten than all-purpose flour, which makes it lighter and creates the perfect texture. If you use all-purpose flour, the cake will be dense a bit tough.
Cake pans
I developed this recipe using three 7-inch cake pans. If you want to use a different size pan, please note that baking times may vary slightly dependent upon the size of the pans. The best way to tell if the cake layers are done is to gently touch the top center of the cake. If the layer “bounces back” the cake is done baking! You could also insert a toothpick to see if it comes out clean, but I prefer the “touch test”.
Kitchen scale
I love using a kitchen scale to divide the cake batter between my cake pans. This ensures the layers are uniform and bake evenly.
Storing and serving
The cake layers can be wrapped in plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month. If you frost the cake, the cake can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days! Be sure to cover any exposed cake with plastic wrap to prevent the cake from drying out.
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Vanilla Cake
Equipment
- Stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or an electric hand mixer
- 3 7-inch round cake pans
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 3 eggs room temperature
- ½ cup sour cream room temperature
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste or mixture of both
- 3 cups cake flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup milk room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 335° F. Prepare cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and parchment circles (see pan sizes above).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or a mixing bowl with an electric hand mixer, cream unsalted butter and granulated sugar for a few minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add room temperature eggs, one at a time, mixing well in between each addition.
- Add sour cream, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract/vanilla bean paste. Continue to mix until well combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl and mix until all of the ingredients are incorporated.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together cake flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Mix on low speed until combined. With the mixer on low speed, slowly drizzle in half of the room temperature milk.
- Add another ⅓ of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Drizzle in the remaining half of the milk. Continue to mix until smooth.
- Add in the final ⅓ of the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure all the ingredients are well incorporated. Mix on low speed for 30 seconds.
- Divide the cake batter into the prepared cake pans. Use a kitchen scale to create even layers.
- Bake the cake layers at 335° F for approximately 40-45 minutes. The cake layers will bounce back when gently touched. *Bake times may vary slightly depending on pan size.
- Remove the cake pans from the oven and allow the cakes layers to cool in the pans before removing the layers and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Level the cake layers using a serrated knife.
- Fill, stack, and frost the cake with your favorite frosting! I recommend trying out my Vanilla American Buttercream, Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Shortcut Swiss Meringue Buttercream, or Ermine Buttercream Frosting!
Notes
Made This Recipe?
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Comments & Reviews
I want to make sheet cakes to try carving my first cake for my sons birthday – any tips for doing this that way?
Hi Jessica! That sounds like fun! I recommend lining the sheet pan with parchment sheets to make sure the cake easily comes out of the pan. The baking time will vary depending on the size pan you are using. I can’t say for sure what that will be because I haven’t made this recipe as a sheet cake. The best way to tell if the cake is done baking is to touch the top of the cake – if it bounces back and doesn’t leave an indentation, it is ready! And be sure to wait until the cake is completely cooled before carving. You might want to chill the cake before you carve to prevent it from crumbling. Hope this helps!
If you want to read my whole experience keep reading…there is a happy ending:-) I did almost everything wrong. Here we go: Used metric to weigh ingredients for the first time (no problem with that), kept adding vanilla extract because it wasn’t showing the weight on my scale, Again, too much vanilla is not a problem for me! I had greased and floured a 1/2 sheet pan which is bigger than a 9×12 casserole dish so when I put the batter in the larger pan, I realized I needed to put it in the smaller 9×12. I scraped it out of the larger pan and put it in the oven and went back to look at the recipe. OMG, I forgot the milk. So, I put it all back in the mixing bowl and started adding the milk little by little. I got low on the milk, so I used 1/2 and 1/2:-). Poured the batter in the 9×12 and in the oven and I just knew it would be a total disaster. I kept my eye on it. It looked beautiful, but I still didn’t have much hope. The timer went off and I took it out of the oven…I couldn’t help it, I had to try it (nobody would know) It was delicious!!! A little flat, but not so bad. I won’t have to make another cake for my daughter’s baby shower after all! All of that to say, it’s a great recipe!
I can say that I have had baking adventures very similar to yours, but I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe!
H! I made this recipe over the weekend and my 8” cake turned out great. This weekend I’ll be making my niece a smash cake for her 1st birthday. Do you have a recommendation of how long I should bake the cake with a 6” pan size?
Hi Sarah! I would start checking between 25-30 minutes for a 6 inch pan. It may be a bit longer than that, but that’s a good place to start! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Thanks so much, Courtney! I was able to make two 6” layers and 11 cupcakes all with the same batter recipe and they smell & taste delicious! 😁Can’t wait for family and friends to try them tomorrow at the party.
Amazing! Sounds perfect! Hope you enjoy the cake and the party!
I’m a baker myself and honestly, I just don’t know what happened. I followed the recipe to a T, but my cakes sank and turned out grainy, and fell apart, with a bitter aftertaste.
Hello Noor! I’m sorry to hear you had that experience with this recipe. It’s difficult to troubleshoot exactly what happened, however, the sinking and bitter aftertaste to me indicates that something with the leavening agents may have been off – either incorrect amounts or perhaps old product?
I would love to share a picture of how wonderful the cake turned out. Everyone just LOVED this cake. I used your strawberry buttercream on the inside and your vanilla buttercream on the outside. Chefs kiss.
I would love to see a picture! Feel free to DM me on Instagram! Vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream sounds fabulous! Thank you so much for trying the recipe!
Making this recipe tonight! Will this cake turn out moist on its own or do I need to apply simple syrup between layers? Thanks!
Hi there! You certainly can add simple syrup if that is your normal practice with cakes!
thanks for your impressive post..
Thank you so much for visiting! 🙂