Vanilla Cake Recipe
The only vanilla cake recipe you'll ever need! Soft, fluffy and flavorful - it's the perfect cake!
Servings: 14 slices
Ingredients
- 312 g (2¾ cups) Cake Flour
- 350 g (1¾ cups) Granulated Sugar, (caster sugar in the UK)
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon (½ teaspoon) Salt
- 227 g (2 sticks) Unsalted Butter, (room temperature)
- 300 ml (1¼ cups) Whole Milk, (room temperature)
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) Vegetable Oil
- 3 (3) Large Eggs, (room temperature)
- 2 teaspoon (2 teaspoon) Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 335°F / 170°C (150°C fan-assisted) and grease two 8-inch cake pans.
- Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of your mixer and turn on low speed with a paddle attachment fitted.
- Slowly add the butter, one small chunk at a time, letting it mix for a few seconds in between additions. Once it's all in, it should look like chunky breadcrumbs
- In a separate bowl, mix the oil with roughly half of the milk, then add to the flour/butter mixture and beat on medium speed for exactly two minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Crack the eggs into a bowl, and lightly beat them with the remaining milk and the vanilla. Then turn the mixer back on low speed and slowly drizzle the egg/milk mixture into the cake batter, mixing just until combined. Be very careful not to overmix it.
- Divide into two cake pans and bake for 30-40 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Take them out of the oven and let them cool in the pan for at least 30 minutes before removing and putting on a wire rack to cool.
- Fill and frost with your favourite frosting. I used my Russian buttercream recipe for a silky smooth and sweet vanilla filling. See the post above for more frosting and filling ideas.
Notes
It's crucial that the milk, eggs, and butter are at room temperature before beginning otherwise the ingredients will not incorporate properly. I tend to remove my ingredients from the fridge about 1 hour before beginning to bake - but it will vary depending on the climate where you live.
Note: For the photographed cake, I used 1.5x the recipe to make three cake layers. A single batch of this recipe can still have multiple layers depending on how you cut them, it just won't be quite as tall.