You’ll love this soft and tender Vanilla Cake made from scratch. This buttery vanilla layer cake is covered in a simple, creamy vanilla buttercream, making it perfect for parties, birthdays or celebrations.
Vanilla magic ✨
Today, I’m sharing my go-to vanilla cake with you. Three layers of buttery cake covered in a light vanilla buttercream. This cake is perfect for parties, celebrations and any time you need a vanilla cake fix.
Simplicity at it’s best!
Over the years, I’ve shared so many of my favourite chocolate cake recipes with you. From my super fudgy Chocolate Mud Cake to my light and fluffy Chocolate Olive Oil Cake and even my gluten free Flourless Chocolate Cake. But what about vanilla?!
Just a few weeks ago I shared my favourite Vanilla Cupcake recipe with you and I realised it was time for my go-to Vanilla Cake. It’s taken me years to get it just right. But I use it all the time for an easy go-to cake that pairs well with any frosting. Plus you can easily colour the batter if you’d like too!
This gorgeous vanilla cake is anything but plain. In fact, I can eat fistfuls of this cake without any icing or anything on it. Just fresh out of the oven. It’s buttery and sweet and just a little bit dense – making it perfect as a layer cake.
And of course, the only way to make it better, is to lather the middle, top and sides with homemade vanilla buttercream. Basically, it’s the magic of vanilla and butter 😉
So what makes this Vanilla Cake so special? Well it’s made with caster sugar for sweetness and good quality vanilla extract of course. We use full fat milk (whole milk) for moisture, as well as Greek yogurt. The yogurt is important as it ensures the cake is soft and tender.
I also use the reverse creaming method (just like my Coconut Cake), which gives the cake a tight, tender crumb. And by adding the dry ingredients first, then the wet ingredients, it helps prevent over-mixing. Dry cake? No thank you.
TIPS TO FOR MAKING PERFECT VANILLA CAKE
- This recipe can make a three layer 6-inch cake (as pictured) or a two layer 8-inch cake.
- We use the reverse-creaming method for this cake. It will ensure the cake is soft and tender with a tight crumb.
- Start by adding your dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk together the flour, baking powder and caster sugar. If you don’t have access to caster sugar, you can use granulated sugar instead. Read more about caster sugar HERE.
- Next, add your butter. Make sure your butter is at room temperature – and not fridge cold.
- Beat briefly, until your butter breaks apart and is coated with the flour mix. You can stop when the pieces of butter are roughly pre-sized.
- Next add eggs, one at a time, while mixing on low speed. Then pour in milk. Make sure you use full fat milk – not reduced fat milk.
- Add good quality vanilla extract. And then finally, add Greek yogurt. Also make sure you use thick natural Greek yogurt – not sweetened yogurt. If you don’t have Greek yogurt, you can use full fat sour cream instead.
TIPS FOR MAKING VANILLA BUTTERCREAM
- You will need a hand mixer or stand mixer to make this frosting.
- Make sure your butter is at room temperature. You don’t want it to be fridge cold OR melty by any means.
- Once you beat together the butter, you’ll add a few teaspoons of vanilla. Use the best quality vanilla extract you can.
- Then add 2 cups of icing sugar (powdered sugar), along with 2 tablespoons of milk. Continue to beat.
- Finally, add 2 more cups of sugar and continue to beat. The frosting should be smooth and creamy. If it’s too thick, you can add a touch more milk.
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 Vanilla Cake
Soft and tender vanilla cake covered in vanilla buttercream.
Ingredients
Vanilla cake
- 315 grams (2 and 1/4 cups) plain flour or all purpose flour
- 250 grams (1 and 1/4 cups) caster sugar or granulated sugar
- 2 and 1/2 level teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 230 grams (2 sticks or 1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, roughly chopped
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 240 ml (1 cup) full fat or whole milk
- 2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract
- 60 ml (1/4 cup) full fat Greek yogurt
Vanilla buttercream
- 230 grams (2 sticks or 1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature, roughly chopped
- 2 teaspoons good quality vanilla extract
- 500 grams (4 cups) icing or powdered sugar, sifted
- 2–3 tablespoons full fat or whole milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F) standard / 160 C (320 F) fan-forced. Grease and line three 6-inch round cake pans with baking or parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk briefly. Add butter and beat with an electric mixer on low speed, until butter is broken into small pea-sized pieces and completely covered in flour.
- Next, add eggs, one at a time, while continuing to mix on low speed. Then, pour in milk and vanilla. Start to beat on low speed and then turn up to medium speed. Finally, add Greek yogurt. Mixture should be creamy and smooth.
- Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bake for approximately 25-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Carefully transfer cakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
- 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.
- Add 2 cups of sugar, along with 2 tablespoons of milk, and continue to beat. Add remaining 2 cups of sugar and beat briefly until smooth. If the frosting is too thick, add an extra tablespoon of milk.
- Spread frosting on one cake layer, add the cake layer on top. Repeat. Then cover top and sides with frosting.
Tasha says
Hi, i live this recipe but we dont eat eggs. Can you please suggest an alternative to get the same results. Would live to bake this for my daughter’s 3rd birthday this Saturday
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Tasha, you might like to try my Vegan Vanilla Cake.
Andrea says
Hi, if I need to make this recipe as a large rectangle shaped cake, would it work? Suggested baking time?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Andrea, yes, you can use a 9 x 13 inch pan and the baking time should be about the same.
Michelle says
Absolutely lovely moist cake and a big hit with my two year old grandson! Did have to sub a 3rd of butter for oil as didn’t have enough for the cake , but it still turned out great .
Jessica Holmes says
So glad to hear that Michelle!
Grace says
Hi Jess, I’d like to make this for a 1st birthday – I live in Brisbane and the cake tins I’m using are 24.5cm, I think that’s about 9.6inches. I’d like to make a 2 layer cake – should I double the recipe to get enough batter? Or what would you recommend?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Grace, those pans are a lot bigger so if you make the recipe as is, the layers would quite thin. I would perhaps make it twice, and use any leftover batter to make a few cupcakes. This post on converting cake pan sizes might help if you want to work out the exact volume.
Louise says
Hi, if I’m making these for celebration cakes, do they keep well? I’d normally bake 4 days before
Thank you
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Louise, I would freeze the cake if you are making it four days in advance to maintain freshness.
Diane says
Can I use sponge flour instead of plain and if so how much baking powder should I add please.
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Diane, I haven’t tested this recipe with sponge flour I’m sorry.
Neelu says
Hi jess. U and ur recipes are awesome. Will u plz. tell me any substitute of egg.plz…
Jessica Holmes says
Thank you Neelu. I’m sorry I don’t have an egg substitute for this recipe. Perhaps try my Vegan Vanilla Cake recipe instead?
Karen says
Wow! I’m so glad I found your web page, all your recipes are Aaaamazing! Specially this one and the red velvet are a gem!! 💜
Jessica Holmes says
Yay! So happy to hear that Karen!
Colleen V. says
Great vanilla cake recipe. I followed the recipe and made one change which was using sour cream instead of Greek yogurt and my cakes came out beautiful! I love that they bake very light and not dark in color. Follow the recipe and you shouldn’t have any problems. Thanks again for this wonderful recipe!!!
Jessica Holmes says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Colleen! Thank you for the lovely feedback!
Naveed says
Is it better to use the grams measurement you have provided or the cups? Or does it not matter?
Thank you
Jessica Holmes says
Hi! Always use gram measurements if you can! It’s much more accurate!
Izzy says
Hey I’ve used this recipe dozens of times but this time my vanilla cake was very hard and dense and I don’t know why. Do you think you know why this happened x
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Izzy, I’m not sure but it sounds like something went wrong. Did you make any changes to the ingredients or method?
Alysha says
Hi, would I be able to use this recipe as is to make a 2 layer 8in cake? I read the other comments and it seems like I could.
Jessica Holmes says
Yes you can!
Izzy says
Not that I can think of that would differ it so much, I used semi-skimmed milk instead of full fat but usually that doesn’t seem to make a difference
Jessica Holmes says
Perhaps you over mixed or over baked it?
Nafisa says
If I put it in a 2 8” tin wat would the cooking time be please
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, it would be roughly the same. You’ll know it’s done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Hope that helps!
Saad says
Hi there. How much time roughly do you give for each step? I never know if I’m over mixing or not as my cake turns out different each time. Thank you
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Saad, check the video for a guide on how to make the cake. You don’t need to over mix, just mix until the ingredients are combined.
Sadia malak says
Thanks hun. I tried making the cake but used buttermilk instead of Greek Yogurt. It didn’t turn out great but I think that’s because I added milk too. Can I replace the Yogurt and milk with buttermilk and if so how much should I add? Thank you x
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Sadia, if you can’t find or access Greek yogurt, the next best substitute is sour cream. If you want to use buttermilk, I would follow the recipe as is and just replace the yogurt with buttermilk (1/4 cup).
Megha Narang says
What if I want to make a smaller cake then how do I divide 3 eggs coz I want to take half of the quantity of all the ingredients
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Megha, I haven’t tested making half the recipe. I recommend following the recipe as is and freezing half the cake for best results.
Jb says
I love this recipe, I made it twice in one day, neither one of my cake raised, I follow the recipe to the T. What happen?
Jessica Holmes says
Hi, this recipe does make fairly evenly baked cakes (flat top) so they are easy to stack and frost. However, if your cake didn’t rise at all, it sounds like your baking powder might be expired?
JB says
Thanks, I will get a new can today , has to try it again, JB
Francesca Bonfield says
Hi! I made 4 8inch cakes with this recipe, followed it exactly. I double the recipe but did two batches as I saw you suggest in a previous comment. Does the cooking time need to change for 8 inch rather than 6? I put them in for 30 minutes and a scewer came out clean and they looked lovely, but after 10 minutes of cooling they all sunk around the edge leaving a raised middle 🙁 do you know what could’ve gone wrong? Luckily this is a practise run for my sister’s 21st birthday cake, so I hope you can give me some tips! Thanks so much. X
Jessica Holmes says
Hi Francesca, I’m sorry to hear your cakes weren’t quite right. If your cake was raised in the middle, it usually means the oven temperature was too high, causing the cake to rise and cook too quickly in the centre. I’ve actually never had a cake that’s sunk at the edges, so I’m actually not too sure what’s happened there. Could you have perhaps mis-measured the raising agent potentially? Or over mixed the cake batter causing air bubbles? Both will cause issues with a cake rising correctly. I do hope you’ll get a chance to try again.
Fran bonfield says
Thank you for responding! Yes I’m really not sure, I bake a lot and I’ve never had the cake round the edge sink! I read online that it could be that I greased the edges too much, I will have another practise! I really was so careful to check and double check the ingredient amounts so I don’t think it could be that, we’ll see!
Would having four cakes in one oven effect the cooking time? X
Jessica Holmes says
Shouldn’t do, but it may depending on your oven and how evenly it heats. I hope you get to the bottom of the mystery!