This is the first post of a series of three on how to make your own homemade Vanilla Cake, filled with Chocolate Ganache, and topped with Vanilla Buttercream. This post is one of three, the first of three, or 1/3 . . . I love when you get boxes mailed to your home with 1/3, 2/3, and 3/3 labeled. Somehow it always feels like you’re getting A LOT of stuff!
Homemade Vanilla Cake from Scratch
Learning how to make a moist, delicious vanilla cake requires one specific thing . . . the right recipe! I have tried many of them throughout my life, and this one has come in handy on many occasions! Of course it’s not THE recipe I use for my cake company (JJ’s Custom Cakery in Cranbrook B.C. Canada) but it is a close second that guarded one!
Vanilla Cake Recipe
(adapted from KitchenAid)
Yield: 4 cups of batter
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup low-fat (1%) milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
For the procedure, follow the steps in the video below!
What I want you to take from this recipe and video the most, is that baking your own homemade cake can be fabulously easy! I get SO MANY comments in person, emails and comments online that centre around “I can’t bake . . . how do you do it? . . . I could never bake from scratch”. Oh, but YOU CAN! This video series (we’re on 1/3 . . . in case you missed the first paragraph) is meant to show you that you can!!
One of my most frequent commenters on the CupcakesandCardio is a 12 year old girl, who is wanting to be a professional baker when she grows up! If she can do it, everyone can!
Coming up next will be How to Make Chocolate Ganache . . . and how to use it to torte a cake!
It will be 2/3. Two of three. 🙂
How to YOU feel about baking from scratch?
Hi, I made 2 batches of this cake, one baked in 9″ round aluminum pans, the other baked in 9″ non-stick pans. I followed the steps for ingredient addition, all ingredients around room temp, then at the end tinted the cakes blue with gel colour. I baked them at 350 and the cake tester came out clean at 30 min (tops set but not brown). However, the cakes from both pans, now that they’ve cooled a bit, are barely 1″ high. Yours appear to be much thicker. The batter looked nice and fluffy before baking. The cakes in the non-stick pans also have big bubbles. Any thoughts on what went wrong here?
Sounds like you missed the leavening agent! Or if you’re at a high altitude adjustments might need to happen. You can try a smaller pan for a higher cake.
How far in advance can I make this cake and how would I store it?
does the milk have to be low fat 1%
how many batches should i make in order to make the turkey cake
also need this answer! 🙂
You need 2 9″x13″ cakes for this project….I would triple this recipe, and then divide between 2 9×13 pans.
8 batches
Hi, I just baked the vanilla cake and it come out nice. My kids also loved it.
Will be trying more of the recipes on your website.
That’s so great! Thanks for letting me know!
I love your website and your videos very much. Unfortunately I come from Bulgaria, so I don’t use cups and inches… could you maybe write conversions in grams and Cm in the future?
We have a conversion page for that, http://cookiescupcakesandcardio.com/?page_id=3348
Hi Jen,
I making a wedding cake and just wondering how much batter I’ll need, I’m making vanilla cake layered with chocolate ganache. I’m going to have 6″,8″ and 10″ cakes. I want to bake 2 of each cake so I can stack them on top of eachother. My overall question is how much batter in one 6″ pan, one 8″ pan and one 10″ pan so i can calculate how much batter I need for it? Thanks xx
This chart should help you http://fatdaddios.com/cake-batter-capacity-rounds
Hello, thank you for the helpful chart. My question relates to the amount of batter the recipe yields…if the recipe yields 4 cups and I’m doing a 3 tier cake, let’s say the 10″ requires 12 cups total..I would need to make the original recipe 3x and then pour into pans equally? Right?
Also, how many cups does your buttercream icing recipe yield? I need approx 16-18 cups for 3 tier cake so I need to know how much of each ingredient for that number of cups. Thanks!
It’s around 3-4 cups.
Yes, exactly 🙂
Can I make this cake and sub the vanilla for almond extract?
Yes definitely!
Thanksssssssssssssssss
Finally I made my first butter cake fluffyyyyyyy , my dream come true!
Thank you thank you somuchhhhhhhhhhh
Greetings from México
Awesome!
My grandmother and I want to make this cake but she wants the procedures in written or typed form, she prefers not to use YouTube or videos such as you put in the blog, is there any way you could email or respond the directions please?
In the description of the YouTube video, there are written instructions.
Hello Jenn!!! Love your change! 2 questions:
1. Do you sift your flour before adding it to the bowl?
2. All my pans are 2 inches high. Will they work for this recipe? I find that some times I get leakage in the oven from others.
Thank you for all you tips, tricks and recipes!!!
Thanks so much! No, I don’t sift. You can, but I don’t have time for that..LOL. You can use 2″ or 3″ pans for this.
Hi, Do you have a non-dairy substitute for the milk? My daughter can’t drink milk. Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N8VRjd_nlU
Thanks!
Hi Jenn,
I just started binge watching your tutorials and I love the way you explain things so clearly and easily! One question I have is do you use unsalted butter? Also, if I use salted butter, should I eliminate the salt you call for in the recipe? Or possibly use a minimal amount? Thanks!
I usually use salted butter. Purists hate me for it, but I’ve never used unsalted.
if I was making a 10 inch cake would I make a single batch of this recipe or double it. also how many dozen cupcakes can I get from this recipe?
You would probably want to double it for that size of cake. You’ll get 18-20 cupcakes from this recipe.
Will I need to double the recipe if I have 10 inch pan ?
Yes
Hey! I only have two 8×3″ cake pans so should i make x1.5 of your recipe or just make the same amount as your recipe? hope you can reply soon as id like to bake it next week
You can use the same measurements as the recipe calls for.
Hi Jenn. I’m hoping to use you recipe for my first experimental 3 tier cake!. I plan on using a 6″, 8″ and 10″. Can you tell me how many cups your recipe makes? Thanks for sharing your gift with us!
Hello again. I hope you can reply soon…I followed your recipe exactly but my batter is much more liquidy than yours, doesn’t have the thicker consistency like yours. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Make sure you’re adding your ingredients in as per the video, and that you are allowing them to incorporate completely.
Thank you. The second time I made it, I poured the milk in much slowere, and it was better. I don’t think it was incorporated enough before adding more. I got good comments on the flavor of the cake…thanks for sharing.
Hey! Just found your channel not too long ago and planning on baking this vanilla cake. I do have one question though. As I’ve been baking for awhile now I find that I much prefer oil cakes so is the fat substitutable in this recipe? It’s not the creaming method so it should be fine right?
I haven’t tried that substitution in this recipe, so let me know if it works out for you.
Do you offer gluten free options/substitutions for your cake recipes? Thanks.
Nothing specific at the moment, sorry. Some of the recipes can sub GF flour 1:1.
Do you HAVE to use low fat milk in this recipe?
No, you can use any kind you want.
Hi
Is this the cake recipe that you use for your leopard print cake ?
Love your tutorials 🙂
Yes 🙂 Hope it works for you!
Hi Jenn
My daughter has gotten us hooked on your channel, and we love the creativity!! She wants me to make the tiger cake and I am afraid of the black colouring making the cake bitter. I use wilton colours. What do you suggest? what do you use?
Her 12th birthday is Thursday so hopefully I will hear from you soon!
Thanks from Canada!
Nicole
I use Americolor gel paste…and I get them from Golda’s kitchen in Ontario. You can use Wilton if you choose…I suggest you start with a chocolate buttercream if you’re going to use Wilton, and if you’re concerned about bitterness (the Americolor doesn’t have a taste…and I haven’t used the Wilton one for a while to remember). The chocolate buttercream will mean that you don’t have to add as much colouring to get to black. I hope it works out!
Thanks, that’s a good idea for the icing but what about the cake itself, do you think I need to make a chocolate cake and dye it for the black parts for the tiger? And white cake for the orange?
travel to ontario and get the coloring
You can definitely make a chocolate cake, the same as the icing if you wanted, but even with vanilla cake batter, you probably shouldn’t need to add soooo much that it makes it bitter. I would suggest using your wilton black colors because it probably won’t make it taste too bad. PLUS in the cake, there are only streaks of black, not the whole cake being block, so you probably won’t even taste it. Hope this helps for future cakes
Hi Jenn,
Love all your videos, thank you so much for sharing them. Would just like to ask a question about the vanilla cake recipe. Ive used it several times but the batter comes out really runny? Im from the UK so I’ve converted the cups into metic using your chart so not sure whats going wrong? Im using 240ml of milk, do you think i should reduce it until i see the right consistency? Thank you in advance 🙂
keep posting videos, love them 🙂
I’m not sure why you would be having that problem as here it is thick. The milk amount is correct, but maybe the dry ingredients are off??
I will be making your Leopard cake so I will have to increase your Vanilla Cake recipe by 50% and I am using 8″ round pans. I have to bake this for 20-25 minutes (per your recipe) but I do not know at what temperature. I have a standard US gas oven. Thank you!
350F is oven temperature 🙂 Have fun!
Hello, are you baking this convection oven (also known as a fan-assisted oven or simply a fan oven) or simple conventional-resistor oven? Also if you making this with convection can you give us an estimation for tempature and time for the resistor one (and vice versa)? Thanks for the recipe
I do not have a convection oven, but I would love one.
It’s a quite rather dense cake. Each time i made it it’s come out quite heavy and dry. Even the batter in the video, and when i make it, is very thick. If i left out some flour, would it be less dry? Or add some yogurt maybe?
Thank you.
Try baking it for less time. Homemade cakes are usually more dense than box mixes, so if you’re not familiar with homemade ones, you might be noticing that difference.
So, I tried your recipe, it was very delicious, however, the one problem that i ran into was that it stuck to my cake board. It basically glued itself to the cake board and seeped many oils. If you can help me out, I would be very grateful
I’m not sure why you would have had that problem as there is no oil in these recipes.
Hi! love your Youtube channel. I wanted to ask you one question. How much does half a cup of butter weight?
in grams?
Here is our conversion table…it should help a lot http://cookiescupcakesandcardio.com/?page_id=3348
I made this cake and it was so fluffy and delicious I used table margarine instead of butter, I also used skim milk and it turned out fantastic. Thanks for the recipe looking forward to try more of your recipes
That’s great to hear! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Hi ! Did you used the same quantity of margarine and skim milk as mention for the butter and milk? And does it help to make the cake softer? Plz need help 🙂
Hi, how long are these cakes baked for? Thank you! 🙂
Hi! 30-35 minutes is how long you need to make these for.
Will skim milk work for this recipe?
Yes, you can use skim 🙂
Love your blog and your youtube channel!!!!
Kisses from Spain!!!
Thank you so much for watching!! I really appreciate it. Hello back from Canada!
I really want to try this but I only have 7″ cake pans. Would this still be okay?
Yes, you will just have a thicker cake layer, and may have to bake it for slightly longer.
I loved this cake. The flavor was really great but the cake ended up not being fluffy like cake. I was wondering what I did wrong. Does skim milk make a difference? Also I made the cream cheese buttercream recipe too and that was also delicious but I had a hard time frosting since it was so soupy.
Homemade cakes are usually heavier than a box mix, so if you’re unfamiliar with homemade cakes, that might be why you thought it wasn’t fluffy. This cake is definitely a heavy, dense one.
Hi Jenn!
I blame you for making me a baking addict! lol I’m from Argentina, so excuse my English. I found out that if I add only the yolks to the butter and separatedly beat the egg whites until they have a foam like texture, adding them later very carefully to the butter, the cake ends up being less heavy.
Hugs!
That’s a great tip! Thanks so much for sharing! Sorry about the addiction 😉
Hi!i was just wondering is it plain flour or self raising flour that is the same to all purpose flour?
Thanks!
Plain is as far as I know.
Hi,
Is the oven temp in degrees celsius? or is this fahrenheit?
Which is all purpose flour? Plain or self raising flours?? Im in uk.
All purpose flour is plain flour for us brits 🙂
Hi I’m from Louisiana. I love your videos. I tried making your vanilla cake just now and followed the recipe and the video. I used a hand mixer and whole milk since that’s all I have. The batter was really runny and didn’t rise like yours does. What could be the problem? I was hoping to use your recipe for a cake I have to make next month.
Jen,
I forgot to tell you that after the cake is baked and cooled a bit you can either serve it by tipping it up-Side down (hence the name , and the best way to serve it), or serve it be scooping it out of the pan and turn it up-Side down.. Either way you will find that the cake is firm on top and there is a chocolate sauce underneath the cake. The sauce will then cover the cake after tipping it over onto a platter.
Any questions about the cake left me know.
Regards
Jan A Bissonette
Bzmrkvt@comcast.net
Hi Jen,
I found my family’s special recipe for Dark Chocolate Up-Side -Down Cake. Here it is.
Oven temp 300 degrees, Baking time. 45 minutes. Pan size 5X7 (can be doubled into a 9X13- Mom did it all the time, for us kids, all 10 of us, plus Mom and Dad).
3/4 cup white sugar
3Tbsp cocoa powder
1 1/2 Tbsp melted Butter
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sifted flour
1 1/2 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tbsp salt
3/4 Tbsp Vanilla
3/4 cup chopped nuts ( optional)
SAUCE:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
3Tbsp Cocoa Powder
1 1/2 cups boiling water
Combine first three ingredients. Then add milk and dry ingredients. Add Vanilla and nuts.
After mixing batter put it in greased pan. Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over batter.
After cooking for 45 min. serve warm with some real whipped cream.
Tell me what you think.
Regards
Jan A Bissonette
Bzmrkvt@comcast.net
Thanks for sharing! I’ll have to give it a try!
Is this recipe for the chocolate upside down cake supposed to have eggs? I didn’t see them listed?
I’m sorry but I do not have a recipe for a chocolate upside down cake, so I’m not sure what you’re asking about.
Hi Jen,
In watching all of your tutorials I wanted to ask you three questions.
When you make your vanilla cake can you: #1. Double the batch as you make it or make it
one at a time. #2. Also, in your vanilla cake recipe can you use “any” kind of milk? Ie: regular milk, half and half etc.
#3. I noticed that you don’t have a goog recipe for a Chocolate -Upside Down Cake. I have one that is at least eighty years old , in our family , and easy to make. I will share the recipe with you if you would like. You can try it out and see what you think. Please, let me know.
Regards,
Jan A Bissonette
Bzmrkvt@comcast.net
A new fan
I am also curious if you can double the vanilla cake recipe as I made the vanilla cake recipe from the oreo cake minus the oreos and it turned out wonderful! The rise was good, it was fluffy on the inside with a crisp butter crust on the outside. I noticed the vanilla cake recipe above is similar to the one used in the oreo cake but smaller quantities of ingredients probably making two smaller size cakes. I think I would rather make the larger one layer vanilla cake from the oreo cake recipe and just either double it or make two separate batches. Can you double it?
Yes, you can totally double this recipe. Good luck and enjoy it!
Can you use almond milk or soy?
Yes, you can use either as a substitute
i was just wondering if I use a springform pan do I still need to use wax paper?
Thank you! 🙂
Hello, i wanna ask if this cake bakes in air oven or oven resistors. because i have a oven with resistors only, not the grill ones that emmit light. I think i must get the temprature to 380F if the recioe that you give us bake in oven with hot air. Thanks
Hi! This recipe looks fantastic. However, I only have whole milk. Will it work the same? Thanks! 🙂
Yes, it will just be a bit thicker.