An easy Vanilla Cake with a soft and moist crumb and great vanilla flavor. We used our popular Buttercream Frosting here but it’s also fantastic with a Chocolate Frosting. This Vanilla cake recipe is the perfect base for a birthday cake or any special occasion.
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Watch the Easy Vanilla Cake Recipe Video:
This cake really is easy and can even be made ahead. Watch the video tutorial for how to make the perfect vanilla cake and best Buttercream Frosting (which isn’t overly sweet like most American buttercreams).
Why we Love this Vanilla Cake!
Everyone needs a great vanilla cake base and I hope this becomes your new favorite! It’s made from scratch and the combination of ingredients gives it amazing texture and flavor. We used the same base as our famous Vanilla Cupcakes and made this stunning cake. You’ll love the perfectly level cake layers – there’s no need to trim them.
How to Make a Vanilla Cake from Scratch:
Here is a quick visual reference for homemade vanilla cake. Get the full print-friendly recipe below.
- Butter and flour two 9″ cake pans and preheat oven to 350˚F.
- Whisk together dry ingredients.
- With an electric mixer, beat Butter and Sugar 5 minutes.
- Beat in eggs 1 at a time then beat in vanilla.
- Add flour mixture in thirds alternating with buttermilk and mixing between each addition.
- Divide between 2 cake pans and bake at 350˚F for 28-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes then transfer cakes (we use this cake release tool) to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting.
How to Frost a Cake:
Frosting a cake is the fun part. Once your cake is fully at room temperature, make your Vanilla Buttercream Frosting. We love the vintage vibe of waves in the frosting like we did with our chocolate cake but you can also crumb coat the cake and pipe the frosting onto the cake.
- Place the first cake layer on a cake platter.
- Spread a generous layer of frosting over the top, going to the edges.
- Cover with the second cake layer with the top side down for a perfectly level cake surface.
- Coat the top and sides of the cake with remaining frosting and use an offset spatula or spoon to create waves in the cake.
Add sprinkles if desired. Sprinkles are the easiest way to turn a plain cake into a birthday cake!
Our Best Baking Tips:
- Room temperature ingredients are critical so your batter blends well without separating or becoming grainy.
- Avoid Substitutions! We always recommend trying the recipe as written before experimenting.
- Measure Correctly – check out our post on how we measure ingredients for baking.
- Weigh your pans – we use a digital food scale to make sure the layers are evenly divided.
How to Keep Leftover Cake Moist:
If you have sliced your cake and want to refrigerate leftovers for later, cover the cut side of the cake with plastic wrap, placing it directly onto the cake. This will prevent moisture loss and keep your cake from drying out.
More Top-Rated Cake Recipes:
These are the best-loved and best-reviewed cakes on our site. These are the ones we make most often.
- Chocolate Cake – rich, moist and decadent
- Tiramisu Recipe – coffee-infused Italian dessert
- Tres Leches Cake – the moistest cake you’ll try
- Perfect Cheesecake – with irresistible cherry sauce
- Pumpkin Cake – with the best cream cheese frosting
Vanilla Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp fine salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk, or plain kefir, room temperature
- 1 Buttercream Frosting Recipe
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F. Butter and flour two 9" cake pans, tapping out excess flour.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set flour mixture aside.
- In a large mixing bowl using an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer), beat butter and sugar on medium-high speed for 5 minutes until thick and fluffy, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Add 4 eggs, one at a time, beating well with each addition then scrape down the bowl. Add 4 tsp vanilla extract and beat to combine.
- Reduce mixer to medium speed and add the flour mixture in thirds alternating with the 1 cup of room temperature buttermilk, allowing the flour and buttermilk to incorporate with each addition. Scrape down the bowl as needed and beat until just combined and smooth.
- Divide batter evenly between 2 prepared cake pans and spread out the batter into the pans smoothing out the tops with a spatula. Bake on the center rack at 350˚F for 28-30 minutes. Rest in pans for 10 minutes then run a knife or thin spatula around the edges to loosen and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before applying Vanilla Frosting.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Hi Natasha,
I tried this recipe. It came out perfect. Thank you very much. Is there an email address that I can send you the cake I made? Unfortunately I’m not on Instagram.
Hi Ronali, you can use the contact form on my website or if you have a Facebook account, you can share the photos on our Facebook page or group!
Wow!… I tried this recipe this morning with a couple of adjustments, I used Clover instead of butter & sour cream that I had left over,and I baked it in 3 x 6inch tins & 6 cupcakes…. the most beautiful sponge ever,although in one of my tins,the sponge came away from the sides, but next time I’ll use butter to see if that makes a difference. Absolutely beautiful.
Thanks for the awesome feedback, Debra! I’m happy to hear that you loved the result of this recipe.
Hi Natasha, here in Mexico we don’t have buttermilk. what happens if I use regular milk?
Hi Laura! You can make your own buttermilk by mixing 1 TBSP white vinegar with 1 cup milk, see my recipe notes.
I made this cake for my family! They loved it. Have outride cake flour?
I’m so glad they all loved it, Roylene! I can’t say this will work with cake flour to advise. With baking being such a science it may not work. If you happen to experiment please let me know how you like that.
Hi Natasha One of your reply comments was Recommend conventional bake mode not convection why is this
Hi Cynthia, we use conventional bake mode so the recipe is based on that. You will need to make adjustments to the recipe and bake time/ temp using convection.
Hi Natasha
If I would like to turn this into a baby gender reveal cake, how much colouring is required for each cake, and would I need to eliminate any ingredients as a result of adding the colouring?
Hi Alyson, I haven’t experimented with food coloring in this recipe, but I imagine gel would work best. If you happen to test that, I would love to know how you like it.
Question: Can I use low-fat buttermilk for this vanilla cake recipe?
Hi Maria, I haven’t tried this with low-fat buttermilk. Any substitutions may hinder the outcome of the recipe but if you experiment, please let us know how it works for you.
This has been my go to yellow cake recipe since I first seen it on YouTube. I love that it just uses 4 eggs( a lot of others use more), also 1 and a half cups of sugar( some others use 2). This comes out perfectly also. Thank you SOOOOOO much for this one!!!!
You’re very welcome, Carolina! Thank you for the excellent review.
Hi Natasha!
If i wanted to make this in smaller cakes for a birthday smash cake do i need to adjust temp/time for cooking?
And also, would adding sprinkles like your confetti cake work in this recipe?
Hi Alice, I haven’t tested that with sprinkles, but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
Hello Natasha,
can I replace the buttermilk with
milk as I do not have the buttermilk or kefir?
Tx!
Plain kefir will also work well instead of buttermilk. You can also make your own buttermilk at a ratio of 1 cup whole milk to 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice. Combine and let it sit 10 minutes to curdle then stir and use.
Can I use just whole milk as another substitution I don’t have kefir or butter milk? and most of the time I don’t have lemons on hand
Hi Carla! Do you have vinegar? You can make it into buttermilk with 1 tbsp vinegar and 1 cup of milk.
I think using regular milk will be fine as well, but we’ve seen the best results to flavor and texture with buttermilk.
Hi Natasha!
I’m planning to make this cake for my daughter’s Confirmation that it will be in 2 weeks.
I have two questions can I substitute vanilla extract with almond extract? And it is ok to double the recipe?
Thank you very much! Your recipes are amazing!
Hi Paola, I haven’t tried it with almond extract, but I bet that could work! I haven’t tested doubling this so I can’t provide specific advice. It would be very tall if you doubled the recipe. You might be able to do 1 1/2 times the recipe and bake in 4 separate cake pans.
I’ve tried so many vanilla cake recipes and I’m so grateful for this absolutely wonderful recipe it tastes sooooo delicious thank you so much Natasha. The pictures throughout the recipe are really great and also helpful for people who aren’t confident when baking 🙂 if I could I would give more stars. I love watching all your recipes so delicious.
Thank you, Antonia! That is very kind. So glad you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for the wonderful review.
I made this cake with chocolate icing. I followed the directions exactly as written. The layers are dry! I don’t know why. I bake cakes all the time so I’m not new at this. Do you know what may have happened?
Hi Angela, could it have been over-baked? Not all ovens are created equal and I highly recommend the toothpick test to check for doneness. Also, make sure not to bake on convection mode.
Hello Natasha,
How much one cup of butter in oz or in grams?
Hi Amani, If you scroll down to our printable recipe card, most of our recipes have a metric conversion option on the printable recipe card. We are currently working on adding metric measurements to all of our recipes, but it is taking some time to add them one at a time. Thank you so much for being patient! In the meantime, check out our post on measuring which should help.
Love love love this cake recipe! It’s worth all the effort and definitely having all the ingredients at room temperature.
I accidentally left the cake uncovered in the refrigerator after cutting some pieces though and was wondering if there is anything I can do to make it more moist again. I feel awful that I didn’t cover it because it was so incredibly soft and fluffy!
Hi Melanie! I’m sorry to hear that. I do not know what can be done to fix the dryness now. If you leave it out to come to room temperature before eating, that may help it not feel so dry.
Hi Natasha,
I am thinking of using this vanilla cake recipe and frost it with the mascarpone frosting from your strawberry layer cake recipe, and add fresh berries in between the layers. Do you think the flavors will work together? Thanks so much. Love all your recipes.
Hi Marg! Yes, I think that would work very well. This vanilla cake is so versatile.
Hi Natasha,
I wanted to let you know that the cake was a huge hit. The slightly tangy frosting paired beautifully with the vanilla cake and berries. My husband, who normally is not a cake guy, said “What a great cake. I love the texture and it’s not too sweet. Is it Natasha’s recipe?” 🙂 THANK YOU ❤ I am trying your chicken marsala recipe next.
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Marg!
Hi Natasha!
I am looking forward to making this cake in the next couple of weeks! I was wondering if you have ever tried this cake with a raspberry compote filling in the layers? I am wanting to add some freshness to the cake and wondering if its possible with this recipe!
Hi Jordan, I have not but I think that would work and be yummy.
Hi natasha do you think I could just use egg whites to make the cake be white?
Hi Sabrina, I have not tested that. Using only egg whites will affect the texture of the cake and it may even come out tough or dry. It would need a source of fat replaced if it’s too dry. You’d have to experiment with it. Please let us know how it works out if you try it.
Love what Hong all your recipes and I have tried a few with great results.
I was trying to find your vanilla recipe for making your cakes ?
I don’t seem to be able to find it?
Thank you!!
Hi Debbie, my Vanilla Extract recipe turned out great! I hope you love it!
hi i was wondering if i dont have store bought buttermilk could i make my own (getting one cup of milk and adding one tablespoon of vinegar) ?
Hi Mylisa, yes that will work. You can make your own buttermilk at a 1 cup whole milk ratio to 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice. Combine and let it sit 10 minutes to curdle, then stir and use. I hope that helps.