Perfect Vanilla Butter Cake

This is the only Vanilla Butter Cake recipe you’ll ever want or need. Mixing technique can make a big difference when making cake batter. Find out the best way to get a light and tender cake.

When I was developing the base recipe for my wedding cake business I wanted a tender and melt-in-your mouth layer cake that could be stacked into a multi-tier wedding centerpiece or carved into a detailed 3-d creation. This Vanilla Butter Cake recipe was the basis for most of the cakes I sold at Cake Art Studio.

Recipe Ingredients

Ingredient Notes

• Cake Flour – Has a lower protein content than all purpose flour so it makes a softer cake. I prefer bleached cake flour. Bleached cake flour is acidic which tenderizes the cake and allows the batter to absorb more liquid for a moister cake.
• Sour Cream – Is used instead of milk as the “liquid” in this batter. Because sour cream is acidic it tenderizes the crumb of the cake and the added fat enriches the batter.
• Eggs – Extra egg yolks in the batter enriches the cake and emulsifies the batter for an even and soft crumb. The whites are whipped and folded into the batter for an extra light and soft cake crumb.
• Cream of Tatar – This acidic ingredient stabilizes the whipped egg whites and acidifies the batter for a softer crumb.

Professional bakers use the “Baker’s Percentage” to balance the ingredients in a recipe. You can find the exact percentages for this Vanilla Butter Cake recipe in this all-encompassing post describing how to create the best cake recipes.

How to make Vanilla Butter Cake

See the recipe card for detailed instructions and measurements.

• Draw an 8″ circle on parchment paper using your cake pan as a guide. Cut out two circles and use them to line your cake pans.
• If you don’t have parchment paper butter and flour the bottom of the cake pan only, not the sides.

• In a small bowl whisk together the yolks, sour cream and vanilla.
• Sift the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.

• Mix the dry ingredients on low speed and add the butter. Mix until it forms a thick paste. Add the reserved sour cream.
• Mix the batter on high speed until it is light and aerated. Scrape the bowl and beater.
• With the mixer running on low, add the yolk mixture. Mix until combined.

• Whip the whites with the cream of tarter and the remaining sugar. Do no overwhip the whites.
• Fold the whites into the batter in two batches.
• Fold just until there are no streaks of whites.

• Evenly divide the batter between the two pans. Smooth to even level then use the tip of your spatula to make an “X” in the center of each cake. This will help the cake rise more evenly in the oven.
• Bake until the center of the cake springs back when lightly pressed. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes then cool completely before icing.
• Visit this page to see how to assemble a perfect layer cake.

What’s the difference between vanilla cake and yellow cake?

Most people use the terms “vanilla cake” and “yellow cake” interchangeably. Vanilla is the flavoring in the cake. The cake is yellow because of the eggs in the cake.

That being said, not all vanilla cakes are yellow cakes. If you eliminate the egg yolks in the cake and make white cake flavored with vanilla, it too is a vanilla cake.

The Reverse Creaming Technique:

I always make my butter cakes using the “reverse creaming” method of mixing. When I developed this recipe for my cake business I only tested it using the reverse creaming technique since that’s the only way I make butter cakes.

Before posting this recipe I decided to do a quick kitchen experiment to back up my claims that reverse creaming is the way to go for this cake.

I used the same ingredients and mixed them with traditional creaming, reverse creaming and reverse creaming with the eggs separated and the whites whipped and folded in.

There were distinct differences between the three cakes.

• Cake 1 (traditional creaming method) had an open and regular crumb, but was not as tender as I would like and it had a slightly oily mouth-feel.
• Cake 2 (reverse creaming) was very tender, velvety and soft.
• Cake 3 (reverse method with whipped whites) had a slightly irregular but very tender crumb. It was not quite as velvety as cake 2, but it was lighter and quite tender.

Three cakes with the exact same ingredients, but different mixing methods. Left=Traditional Method, Middle=Reverse Creaming, Right=Reverse with Whipped Whites

This is a really great all purpose yellow cake that is tender yet strong enough for stacking or carving. For more information about cake batter, visit the Baking School page.

Watch the recipe video to see how to do the “reverse creaming” method for a light and tender cake.

I like this recipe filled and iced with Italian Meringue Buttercream or Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

You might also like my Chocolate Butter Cake recipe. Can’t choose? Then make Marble Cake.

Now that you’ve made this recipe what should you do with all the extra egg whites? Check out this collection of recipes that use extra whites for some great ideas.

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