Introducing my easy Butter Cake recipe. A tender cake with a soft, buttery crumb all topped with a simple vanilla buttercream. This classic tea cake is quick, easy and perfect for morning or afternoon tea.
Classic Butter Cake 💕
Is there anything better than a soft and tender Butter Cake frosted with melt-in-your-mouth vanilla buttercream?
This tea-time treat uses only pantry staples but is bound to become a firm family favourite.
Serve with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, or add a thick layer of fluffy vanilla buttercream. Dusted with white chocolate curls, it’s a simple but oh-so-delicious tea-time treat.
Why you will love this recipe
- Buttery crumb: I’ll show you how to get a super tender crumb bursting with sweet vanilla flavour.
- Quick and easy: This buttery cake takes only minutes to make.
- Simple ingredients: You only need to use a handful of basic pantry ingredients.
- Last minute: It’s the perfect cake to whip up at the last minute when you don’t have time to run to the shops.
recipe testing
For the longest time, I’ve been obsessing over one-layer cakes. You know the kind – they won’t win awards when compared to a towering layer cake – but they always, always win in taste.
They’re quick to make and fun to serve, whether it’s for a leisurely gathering, a friendly morning tea or a low-key birthday celebration.
I’ve been slowly making my way through the classics – Apple Cake, Cinnamon Tea Cake, Coffee Cake, Banana Cake and now, Butter Cake.
There are no special ingredients in this cake. It’s made just the way you would expect, with butter, sugar, eggs and flour. And while there is nothing surprising about the ingredients list, the mastery comes from the method.
If you follow the instructions and make sure your ingredients are at room temperature, where specified, your cake is bound to be buttery and sweet, soft and moist – just like a good Butter Cake should be.
Try not to over mix or over bake your cake and you’re sure to be delighted with the results.
What is Butter Cake?
Butter Cake is a basic cake made with simple ingredients – the key being butter. It’s quick and simple to make.
It achieves its beautifully, buttery crumb by creaming together butter and sugar using an electric mixer. It is a light, moist and buttery cake.
How to make a Butter Cake
- One of the keys to making a really good Butter Cake is making sure ingredients, like your butter and eggs, are at room temperature. This cake relies heavily on the correct creaming of your butter and sugar in the beginning to create a lovely soft and fluffy cake. And the temperature of your ingredients are key to this result.
- I recommend using good quality butter and caster sugar to begin. If you don’t have access to caster sugar, you can swap it 1:1 for granulated sugar. Read more about caster sugar here.
- Begin by creaming together your room temperature butter, sugar and vanilla using an electric mixer. If you watch closely, you’ll see that in just a minute or two, not only will the two ingredients combine but they will change in colour and texture. Your butter mixture will become pale and creamy – almost a little fluffy. This is the perfect start to your Butter Cake.
- Next, add your eggs. It’s important for your eggs to also be at room temperature. If they are fridge cold, it’s likely your mixture will curdle or go a little lumpy. If this happens, it’s ok, but try to avoid it next time by adding room temperature eggs.
- Mix your eggs just briefly to break up the yolks and give the sides a good scrape down.
- Finally, you’ll add half your flour and baking powder, along with your full fat milk, and slowly mix to combine. Then add the remaining flour mix. There’s no need to over mix. At this stage your cake batter should be smooth and creamy.
- Finally, cook your cake in a moderate oven until it springs back lightly to the touch. It should go lovely and golden on top. Try not to over bake your Butter Cake so it’s not dry.
- Leave your cake to cool completely before frosting with a little vanilla buttercream. Perfection!
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave a comment below. Hungry for more? Join me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter for more amazing recipe ideas.
Let’s Bake
Easy Butter Cake
A simple one layer butter cake made from scratch.
Ingredients
Butter cake
- 115 grams (1/2 cup or 1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 150 grams (3/4 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 210 grams (1 and 1/2 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 180 ml (3/4 cup) full fat or whole milk
Easy buttercream
- 115 grams (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature
- 250 grams (2 cups) icing sugar or powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1–2 tablespoons full fat or whole milk, room temperature
- A few drops of pink food gel, optional
- White chocolate, shaved, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. Grease and line an 8-inch round cake pan with baking or parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, sugar and vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed until pale and creamy, approximately 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat briefly – don’t worry if the mixture goes a little bit lumpy – then scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the plain flour, baking powder and salt. Add half of the flour mixture, along with all the milk and slowly mix together on a low speed. Add the remaining flour mixture and continue to mix until the cake batter is smooth and creamy (but try not to over mix).
- Pour cake batter into your prepared tin and bake in the oven for approximately 30-35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- To make the frosting, add butter to a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer for 2 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Add vanilla, sugar and 1 tablespoon of milk and continue to beat until smooth.
- If the frosting is too thick, add extra tablespoon of milk. If desired, add a few drops of food gel and stir until frosting changes colour.
- Spread frosting on top of cooled cake. Sprinkle over white chocolate shavings.
Notes
*Butter Cake is best served on the day it is made.
Kirthana says
Excellent taste ! I’ve always made a butter cake using a pound cake measure..i.e 1:1 for the main ingredients. Decided to try your recipe today, doubled it as I’m making a cake for a party tonight. Since, there were a few comments/ questions on how well a doubled recipe would work, I’m posting what I did…
Butter – 240g , Sugar – 300g ,Flour – 420g – all doubled exactly
Eggs – 4 x 60g eggs and it worked great.
Baking powder – 4 teaspoons + 3/4 tsp Baking soda ( instead of 5 tsps b/pwdr)
Milk – sorry, didn’t measure this, just winged it, as I’m a pretty experienced baker and knew the consistency I wanted, but I’d say double would work.
Used two 8” pans, 165C for 45 mins.
Conclusion – doubling your recipe worked great.
Thanks for posting this winner.
Jessica Holmes says
Brilliant! So glad it worked well for you Kirthana! Thank you for the kind feedback.
Eisha says
The best ♥️
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you liked it!
karen watson says
I would like to adapt this recipe to make 24 cupcakes. Would doubling the recipe work, and how long would you suggest they bake?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Karen, I haven’t tried doubling the recipe myself. I don’t usually double cake recipes as the ratios can be thrown off (for example, 4 eggs may not be necessary) and it can be easy to over mix the batter. But this recipe would easily make 12 cupcakes and I would bake them for around 18-20 minutes. Hope that helps!
karen says
Thanks Jessica for your counsel!
Jeme says
This is perfect! Tried other recipes and they came out greasy. But yours was perfect. Thank you
Jessica Holmes says
I’m so happy to hear that Jeme!
Audrey says
Hi. Can i know why did my cake burst open on the top? Is it meant to open like that? If not, can i know the reason please? I mean not sure what my mistake was.. i double it and used a 9-inch round tray..
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Audrey, there are a few reasons why cakes can crack. Often it happens if your oven temperature is too high or you overmixed the batter. This article goes into more detail.
Ivy says
So delicious. Could I change the icing to chocolate? What would I add? Thanks.
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Ivy, yes you could! You could add a few tablespoons of cocoa powder (sifted). Go by taste, and then you might need to add just a little extra milk to make it nice and creamy.
Katherine Flinn says
Everything that I was craving!
Jessica Holmes says
Yay! So glad you loved it!
Linda says
One cake is for how many servings?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Linda, it’s an 8 inch cake so I think you can get 8 slices.
Sharanya says
Hi can i double the recipe?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Sharanya, I haven’t tried myself but it should be ok. Just be careful not to over mix the batter since you’ll be working with a larger quantity.
Lauren Bothe says
Simple and delicious! I made this with my four year old today and it was a hit with the whole family!
Jessica Holmes says
Yay! Love hearing that Lauren!
Hannah says
Hi! Is this cake sturdy enough to be doubled and made into a two-tier cake? Thanks!
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Hannah, yes it would be! Hope you enjoy it!
Sarah S says
This was a fantastic quick make for a simple birthday cake! Lovely texture and flavour 🙂
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you enjoyed it Sarah!
Resha says
Milk used can be from the refrigerator or should it be at room temperature?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Resha, either is ok in this recipe.
Josh says
This made a very tasty butter cake!
Jessica Holmes says
So glad you liked it Josh!
Greta says
Hello! Could I use lemon peel in the cake and add a lemon buttercream? Thanks!
Jessica Holmes says
Yes that would be lovely Greta!