I am a vanilla cake kind of girl all the way. Vanilla cake is my first choice and this recipe is my absolute favorite vanilla bean cake. It’s a scratch cake and I’m sure you know how hard it is to find a flavorful and moist scratch vanilla cake, but I promise, this is it.
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I’ve worked and tested out recipes for so long and this baby is no ordinary bland vanilla cake. It’s got a full vanilla bean flavor, it’s rich and buttery and just a hint of almond flavor. Now, just hear me out on the almond flavor. I use almond emulsion and it does NOT taste like ordinary almond extract.
Even if you think you won’t like anything with almond extract in it…I have one question for you. Have you tried it? It’s the same lecture I give my step-kids. Don’t say you don’t like it if you haven’t tried it yet. Sometimes things taste totally different than you expect. Here’s my point on the almond extract: The recipe only calls for a half a teaspoon. That isn’t much and it’s not strong or overpowering at all. All it does is to help bring out the flavor of the vanilla bean.
When you taste this cake, you don’t taste almond. You just know it’s got this full vanilla bean flavor and something a little special that makes you never want to stop eating it.
Ok, I’m done with the lecture. If you’ve tried almond extract and you just can’t stand the thought of it, I promise I won’t be mad at you and you can still make this cake with just vanilla bean paste and it will STILL be awesome.
So, onto the vanilla part of this cake. I use this vanilla bean paste: Lorann Vanilla Bean Paste. It really gives the cake a much better flavor than plain vanilla extract. Trust me, you’ve gotta try it.
The mixing method for this cake is a little different than the norm. It’s called the reverse creaming method. Instead of creaming the butter and sugar together first, you’ll be mixing the dry ingredients with the butter.
Without getting too technical on you, the butter coats the flour and minimizes gluten development, which in turn, creates a very fine crumb and an oh so tender cake.
Here’s how it works: Take your dry ingredients and mix them in a mixing bowl. Add slightly cooler than room temperature butter in chunks to your dry mixture as your mixer is running on low. Mix until all the flour is coated and it looks crumbly.
Next you’ll pour in about a third of your liquid ingredients and mix just until combined (about 30 seconds).
Next you’ll add in the remaining liquid ingredients and mix. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again for about 30 seconds. Don’t overmix the batter.
Pour into two 8″ round cake pans (or you can use three 6″ round cake pans). For this cake, I preheated my oven to 350 degrees. But here’s the deal, once I put my cakes in the oven, I turned the temp down to 325 degrees. I wanted it a little hotter in the beginning to help with rising, but I didn’t want the outside to over brown.
Once it’s done baking, you want to set it on a wire rack to cool for only ten minutes.
After ten minutes, Set your rack face down on your cake and flip it over. Now your cakes are directly onto your racks. Just lift your pan off the cakes. Let them cool completely like this.
You can ice them once they’re cool or you can also freeze them. Check out my post with tips for freezing cakes and cupcakes.
For this cake, I used my Favorite Vanilla Bean Buttercream. It’s a match made in vanilla heaven.
Cut yourself a huge slice. Oh, and maybe if you feel like it, you can share it with your family 😉
This cake is absolutely perfect for a birthday cake AND for a wedding cake. It has a wonderful vanilla, buttery flavor AND it stays moist.
Now, onto the recipe:
Favorite Vanilla Bean Cake
This cake is my absolute favorite vanilla bean cake. It's a scratch cake that is moist, full of vanilla bean flavor, rich and buttery with a hint of almond flavor.
Ingredients
- 3 cups cake flour (not all-purpose flour)
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup butter (2 sticks) (slightly cooler than room temp)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
- 1/2 tsp almond emulsion
- 3 eggs
Instructions
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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. (You're going to turn the oven temp down to 325 degrees once you put the cakes in the oven.)
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Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans or three 6" round cake pans.
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Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk.
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In another bowl, combine the sour cream, milk, oil, vanilla, almond and eggs. Mix well with a whisk.
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Now cut your butter into chunks. Turn your mixer on low and add in the butter slowly to your dry ingredients. Mix on low to medium until all the flour is coated with the butter and the mixture is crumbly.
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Pour in about a third of the liquid mixture. Mix on low to medium until combined. About 30 seconds.
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Pour the last of the liquid mixture and mix again until combined. Don't overmix the batter.
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Use a rubber spatula and scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix again for only about 10 to 15 seconds.
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Pour into prepared pans.
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Slide into the oven and turn the oven temp down to 325 degrees.
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Bake approximately 40-45 minutes.
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Set on wire racks to cool for ten minutes, then turn the cakes out onto the racks and let them cool out of the pans completely.
Recipe Notes
Cake layers can be frozen for later use.
For cupcakes: Fill the cupcake wrappers just slightly over half full. Bake at 350 degrees (don't turn the oven down to 325 like the cake). Bake for about 25 - 30 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
UPDATE!!! I got a very good question in the comments below: Can you use this recipe for cupcakes? I’ve tried it and YES, they make great cupcakes! Here are my tips though: If you’re using this recipe for cupcakes, you’ll want to leave the oven temp at 350 degrees. Fill your cupcake wrappers just slightly more than half full. Bake them at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes. Let them cool on a wire rack.
Ok, now I’m off to go and eat a slice.
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Hi, how much eggs do you put in the recipe? Thanks. It looks delicious!
Oh my goodness, I totally missed that! There are three eggs in this recipe. I’m updating the post now. Thanks for that catch!
Hi, can this recipe be used for cupcakes too? Thanks, looks yum!
Hi Corinna, Yes, you can use this recipe for cupcakes. Here are my tips though: Fill the cupcake wrappers to just slightly more than half full, then bake the cupcakes at a straight 350 degrees. (Don’t turn the oven down to 325 like the cake.) It won’t hurt them if you do, they just may not rise as high with a nice pretty dome. Bake them for about 25 minutes on 350. Hope you enjoy them!
Hi just wondering if you can omit the almond emulsion?
Thanks !
Hi Christina. Yes you can omit the almond emulsion. I really like it because I think it brings out the other flavors, but if you don’t have any or you don’t prefer the taste, just omit it from the recipe. You don’t need to make any adjustments to the other ingredients. The cake will still turn out yummy 😉
OMG! That looks like taste bud Heaven! I have a question about the vanilla paste. How do you store it? I have never used it before. Thanks
Hi Gena, I use LorAnn’s vanilla bean paste and I just store it in my pantry. I’ve never refrigerated mine and it’s worked great for me. I haven’t used other brands, but I love the LorAnns. You can use it in place of practically any recipe calling for vanilla extract. Just make sure you shake the bottle up a bit before measuring it out. It’s much thicker than extract.
Hello, do you usually use salted or unsalted butter? Thanks!
and what type of oil do you usually use?
I use vegetable oil, but you should also be able to use canola oil if that’s what you have on hand.
I use unsalted butter for baking. 🙂
So…complete dummy (mummy brain) moment but after my cakes were in the oven I realised that I didn’t add the milk!!OMG!!! I thought the batter looked thick.. they came out looking nice and moistened but since this is a paid cake gig… what do you think will be the outcome? Would you risk it or remake them??
Oh no! I have done something similar in the past. It happens to everyone at one time or another. I would try to bake more layers if you have time though. Hope I’m not too late in responding to you!
My cake turned out kind of dense is there something I can add on omit the make I more fluffy?
I haven’t had that happen to me with this recipe, so I wouldn’t add or take out anything. I do have some tips for you though. Follow the mixing method exactly and make sure the butter is just barely cooler than room temp. Also make sure to not overbeat the batter as this can sometimes make the cake come out dense. Another thing is to check and make sure your baking powder is fresh. Let me know if you have any questions. 🙂
Is there anyway i can omit the sour cream?
Hi Ashley, I wouldn’t recommend omitting the sour cream. It would throw the ingredient ratios off a bit and I couldn’t promise you’d get the right texture in your cake. The sour cream helps a lot with getting a moist cake and a delicate texture. You could try subbing in buttermilk, but the texture may be a bit different.
Have you ever used this recipe to make a wedding cake? We had a vanilla cake testing at my daughter’s bridal shower and let the guests choose the cake for her wedding cake. Your recipe was the clear winner. We plan to make a 12, 9,6 inch tiered wedding cake. We will split the layers and fill them with pistachio, peach, and rhubarb fillings. Any suggestions on amounts and time/temperatures for baking? Thanks
Hi Pamela, That is awesome to hear that they liked it so much! It’s my favorite too.
Ok, onto your question: Yes and I plan to use it again on a wedding cake I’m doing for a friend in September. I haven’t made a 12″ tier from it though. The largest tier was a 10″ and I’ve only used buttercream between the layers, so not sure about the fruit filling. Here’s what I would try though: Normally I don’t split layers, I just make three layers for one tier and put the filling between each layer. Basically there would be three layers of cake and two layers of filling for one tier…then move on to the other two tiers and I’d do the same.
If you go with the fruit filling, my suggestion is to spread just a bit of buttercream between each layer (almost like a crumb coat)…just a thin layer. Then pipe a thickened buttercream dam just around the inside of that layer and then fill it with the fruit filling. That will keep the filling from squishing out of the sides and from soaking straight into the cake too much and making it unstable. Also, make sure to use the dowels for support (I’m sure you already know this, you sound experienced.) I usually use the hard plastic straw-like dowels…I find them on Global Sugar Art. I use the larger white ones and then add in the smaller yellow ones in between. (Yea, I kind of dowel like a crazy person, but I like to be safe.)
As far as the amounts and baking time, I’d mix up one recipe for just the 12″ cake. You’ll have maybe a couple cups of batter left over after filling your pan, but you can just make some cupcakes out of that…then you can treat yourself for all your hard work 😉 I would start by adding maybe 10 minutes to the baking time and just watch it from there. I like to use a heating core when I bake large cakes like that. It really helps them to bake evenly when they’re that large. As far as the other layers, you can get three 6″ layers out of one recipe and you can probably get two 9″ layers out of one recipe. Those you would just bake the normal way.
By the way, I freeze all mine ahead of time. Maybe just a couple weeks ahead of the wedding. They taste just as good, if not better after they defrost and you don’t have to stress yourself out if something goes wrong at the last minute. When you defrost, just remember to defrost them on the counter still in their wrappings, so condensation doesn’t get on the cakes.
Ok, I think I’ve written you an entire novel here…I get long winded. 😉 I hope this helps!
Thank you so much for the tips. I will let you know how it goes.
Pam
The wedding cake was a huge success. We used a mascarpone frosting. We were worrying that the bottom 12 inch layer was underdone but it tasted great and did not collapse(thanks to the dowels you recommended). I would include a picture but can’t figure out how. Thank you for all of your advice.
Pam
Hey Pam, that’s wonderful to hear! So glad it was a success. And let me just say that mascarpone frosting sounds delicious! So glad everything worked out 😉
Can you use vanilla beans instead of vanilla paste?
Yes that would be fine and I think that would taste wonderful. Just make sure to cut open the vanilla bean, scrape it out and use that part from the inside (I’m sure you probably already know that). I found this article that talks about the conversions. Looks like you can use a teaspoon of real vanilla bean in place of a teaspoon of extract. http://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-vanilla-extract-vanilla-bean-vanilla-paste-169336 I hope this helps!
This cake looks so very yummy I will have to try it! Do you know how make cupcakes can this recipe make? Thanks xx
Hi Raquel, it will make about 24 cupcakes (2 dozen). You may have just a tiny bit of batter left over. Just fill the cupcake liners a tad over the half way mark.
Hi, thanks for sharing such a nice recipe.
I am wondering can I make it half? ( for some reasons cannot make too many or full batter) If I make it half, how many eggs I need?
Thanks so much~
Nam
I haven’t made half the recipe, but I’m sure it will be just fine. I know it’s weird about the eggs because you can’t really get half an egg. lol What you can do, and I’ve done this before in recipes, is use one whole egg and then just the egg-white of the second egg. It’s worked for me in the past. Let me know how it goes!
I feel sad, they were totally failure. My cupcakes and 5” cake were rubbery. I know your recipe are awesome, but my skill is not good enough. 😫
Oh no! I’ve got some tips for you that you can try next time. It’s hard for me to know exactly what went wrong, but I’m going to make some guesses here and hopefully it will be helpful to you. You mentioned in another comment that the cupcakes were rubbery on the outside and under-cooked on the inside. That could just be under baking, or perhaps the oven temp was too low. Check your oven and make sure it’s accurate. Also I bake the cupcakes at a different temp than baking a full cake. You may have seen this, but at the bottom of the post, there are separate instructions for cupcakes. You want to keep the oven temp at 350 degrees.
As far as the cake coming out rubbery, the first thing I think of besides under-baking and the oven temp, is that the batter may have been over-beaten. It’s real easy to do that, so don’t be hard on yourself. That’s usually what it is if a cake is coming out rubbery. The gluten is over-developed. Also, be careful not to be mixing on high.
Some other things to think about. Make sure you’re using cake flour and not regular all-purpose flour and that you’re spooning your flour into the measuring cup and not scooping it and adding it to your batter. That will pack down the flour and essentially adds too much to your batter.
Ok, I hope that helps a little! Let me know how it goes if you try it again 🙂
Thank you so much! Very nice tips. I will try again later and let you know the result. 😄😘
Is the recipe for deep tins or sandwich tins?
I use either two, 8 inch round, 2 inch deep pans or three, 6 inch, 2 inch deep pans. Either of those work great.
This sounds delicious, I’m searching for a real vanilla-ee cake! I need to make a 12 inch square cake, and I’m putting vanilla custard in the middle. How many recipes do I need?!
I would use one entire recipe to fill one 12 inch square pan. That means one recipe for each 12″ layer. Just do it all again for how ever many layers you need.
Also it’s best to use a heating core for larger layers like that. It’ll help it bake more evenly.
Let me know how it goes!
I made this recipe and love it. The cake for my 8″ wasn’t rising to the top of the pan so next time I made it I multiplied the recipe by 1-1/2 and it was perfect I put parchment paper collar and it raised nicely. So my question is how many times would I have to the multiply for a cake 12x 18 cake?
So glad you liked the recipe! For one layer of a 12×18 pan, (if the pan is 2 inches deep) I would probably shoot for a recipe and a half up to two recipes. That’s a large cake. If you’re worried a recipe and a half might not be enough, I’d just do two recipes and fill the pan up three quarters of the way up and any left over amount of batter, you can just make some cupcakes out of it. I’m sure you’ll find someone to eat the extra cupcakes, or do like I do and just keep them for yourself 😉 Also, you may want to use a heating core when you bake the cake. It’s a large cake, so a heating core in the middle will help it rise and bake more evenly. Hope this helps!
Great, thank you .
Kara this might be dumb question but I see it alot and I live in Canada so things are a bit different. When it comes to “whole milk” what exactly is that? I know it has a higher fat content. Our mil here is skim, 1%, and 2% then you get into your creams. I do also shop in the states as I live on the border of Michigan. Is it called “whole milk” in the states?
Thanks for the help,
Kim
Hi Kim, There are no dumb questions! 😉 In the states, we also have skim, 1%, 2% and then whole…after that it goes into half and half cream and then heavy whipping cream. It should be fine for you to just use the 2% milk. I’ve done that on occasion and it’s worked just fine for me. You might even test out using the next level up from your 2% (maybe the least heavy cream…if that makes sense) and see how that goes. It might actually make a really moist and rich cake. Let me know how it goes!
Hi. I’m also Canadian and whole milk is our homogenized milk which is 3.25 % fat. I have made this recipe a couple of times already and used homogenized milk and the cake was amazing . Hope that helps.
Oh awesome! That’s good to know. Thanks for chiming in! 🙂
Hi Kara, does this recipe hold up well with fondant? If I was to freeze, do you leave it to fully defrost before starting icing? Thank you.
Hi Heidi, Yes this cake will work under fondant.
I know that some people like to start decorating their cakes when they’re partly frozen, but I find when I do that, I have issues with condensation and icing blow outs because of the moisture. I always let mine defrost fully in their wrappings and on the counter before I even start decorating. Different people have their preferences and I’m just in the ‘decorate room temperature cake’ camp. 😉
Ok let me just say ” TOO DIE FOR!!!! I made this recipe this weekend and i have tried many recipes with zero sucess and having to resort to box mixes. Now I am not sure what to do with the 20 cakes mixes I just bought…lol… This recipe is AMAZING!! it worked out perfectly. It was so moist and melt in your mouth goodness. Funny thing my son says “Mommy there is dirt in this cake”, I said OMG really…. it was the Vanilla bean paste…lol……
Ok maybe this is just to good to be true so I put it through test#2 ” my fussy eater kids, and daughter who doesn’t like cake or icing”, well guess what? She LOVED it!!
So needless to say “out with old, in with the new”- this is my go to recipe now.
I made cake and cupcakes and both were awesome.
Thank-you so much for you post about trying ” a from scratch recipe” glad I didn’t give up.
Well you just made my day! 😊 I’m so glad you liked it! I was dying laughing about the ‘dirt in the cake’ comment. Vanilla beans do kind of look like dirt specks don’t they. 😂😂 And it doesn’t get any better than cake that’s kid approved…that’s great. Thanks for the wonderful comment!