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.
Table of contents
Why this is the best Vanilla Butter Cake Recipe
First of all this is a great recipe because it is a balanced recipe.
Professional bakers use the “Baker’s Percentage” to balance the ingredients in a recipe. With this knowledge I worked for months developing the best vanilla cake.
In fact, this exact recipe was the base for hundreds and hundreds of wedding cakes I sold when I had my wedding cake business.
You can find the percentages for this Vanilla Butter Cake recipe in this all-encompassing post describing how to create the best cake recipes.
Once you have a balanced recipe you need to think about mixing technique.
I make my butter cakes using the “reverse creaming” method of mixing. Reverse creaming makes a cake with a soft and tender crumb. You can see side by side comparisons of reverse and traditional creaming below.
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.
Process Photos
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.
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.
Reverse Creaming vs. Traditional Creaming
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. This was my favorite cake!
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.
Frosting your Cake
I like this recipe filled and iced with Italian Meringue Buttercream or Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
American Buttercream is slightly sweeter than meringue buttercream and is also nice with this cake.
Storage
The uniced cake can be stored for 2-3 days at room temperature for up to 2 months in the freezer. Do not refrigerate the cake unless it is filled or iced with a perishable frosting.
More Cake Recipes
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.
If you love this recipe as much as I do, please consider leaving a 5-star review.
Vanilla Butter Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 large egg yolks (room temperature)
- 8 ounces sour cream (1 cup, room temperature, divided)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 12 ounces granulated sugar (1 ½ cups, divided)
- 9 ounces cake flour (2 cups, see note)
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- 8 ounces unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 3 large egg whites (room temperature)
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tarter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F. Line two 8"x3" round cake pans with a circle of parchment paper or butter and flour the bottom of the pans only, not the sides.
- Combine 6 large egg yolks, 1/2 the sour cream and 1 tablespoon vanilla extract in a small bowl, whisk to combine, set aside.
- Into a mixer bowl put 1 ¼ cups of the sugar, sift in 9 ounces cake flour, ¾ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon baking soda and ¾ teaspoon salt. Mix on low speed for 10 seconds to distribute the leavening. Add 8 ounces unsalted butter to the flour mixture. Mix on low until the butter is incorporated and the batter looks like a paste. Add the other ½ of the sour cream to the flour and butter mixture. Increase the speed to medium and mix about 3 minutes until the batter lightens in texture. If you're using a hand mixer add another minute or two to the total time.
- Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. With the mixer on low, add ½ the egg yolk mixture. Mix until mostly incorporated. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the rest of the egg yolk mixture. Scrape the bowl and mix until incorporated.
- In another bowl, whip 3 large egg whites with ¼ teaspoon cream of tarter on medium high until they form soft peaks. Turn the mixer to medium low and slowly add the remaining ¼ cup of sugar. Turn the mixer to medium high and whip the whites to full peak. Fold the whites into the base in 2 parts, folding just until there are no streaks of egg whites.
- Divide the batter between the 2 pans and spread so it’s level.
- Bake until the center of the cake springs back when lightly pressed or a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.
- Cool 10 minutes in the pan and then turn out onto a cooling rack. When fully cooled, wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours or overnight before filling and assembling the cake with your favorite frosting.
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Fantastic taste and moist. The only problem is the shrinkage. The cake and cupcakes shrink to half of the size. It’s not the center but the baked good as a whole. I tried lower temperature (140°C) for longer but the result was the same. I think the folding of the whipped egg whites incorporates too much air that escapes at the end of baking. Please help.
Thank you
I baked this recipe for a tall birthday cake. It was a hit. I used Eileen’s simple syrup recipe and brushed the layers with syrup and filled and frosted with Eileen’s Italian Meringue Buttercream.
The reverse creaming method is excellent. It gives me the best results for multi-tiered wedding cakes and its texture is very, very pleasant and accepted.
Thank you very much, Eileen!!! ❤️❤️☺️
Thank-you /Eileen.
I would appreciate your help.
First of all, my cake was NOT TENDER. What would cause this?
Next, the cake TASTED GHASTLY. Yes, I put in the sugar. I am wondering about the baking soda and baking powder?
I looked at the photo of your cake after it has been baked, and mine look the same.
It would be nice to get the final result of a TENDER CRUMB.
tHANKS
iRENE rODRIGUEZ
Well, I can’t say for sure but “ghastly” is such a strong term it definitely sounds like something happened with the ingredients. In what way was it ghastly? Was it not sweet? Salty? Bitter? This is a very tender cake because of the reverse creaming, the sour cream and the whipped egg whites.
@Eileen Gray, “ghastly” as the chemical reaction went awry and the hocus pocus made it not bitter and certainly not sweet. It’s as though I forgot the sugar and perhaps put in way too much salt. However, I measured the ingredients as indicated by the recipe.
I used Kosher salt.
Oh, the cake result was not moist but dry to touch.
I watched the video and I also use your photos.
May play with this cake recipe after the holidays.
Sounds like the sugar was off. Not only does sugar make a cake sweet, it also tenderizes and moistens the cake.
Eileen:
This is the WORSE cake I ever made in regard to the taste and texture. It baked beautifully but did not yield the height for layering. Though, it did bake to the “Layered” height needed.
I reviewed the ingredients and instructions, and I did follow both explicitly.
All put together: curd, cake, frosting, and coconut – it looked beautiful. As I stated in my first review “Dreamy Coconut Cake” the curd was delectable as the frosting was feathery light and fluffy.
Irene Rodriguez
Well, I can’t speak to whether it is a matter of the cake is not to your taste or that something went wrong with the recipe. If you baked the cake in two 8″x3″ pans each cake should bake up to about 3″ tall. Each cake is then split into two thinner layers. This is the exact recipe I used for my custom cake business for 10 years and it was always loved by my customers. Sorry if you were disappointed. If you have a question about how the recipe works I’d be happy to help.
Hi, my cakes each only baked up to 1.75 inches each. I used 8×3 pans and followed the instructions to a T. The cake layer was also taller in the oven, but once I removed it flattened some. This often happens to me when baking cake, what can I try next time? Thanks
The cakes will settle once they come out of the oven. Often they looked humped as they’re baking, but will flatten a bit as they cool. If it’s sinking a lot it could be that the center of the cake is not quite baked through.