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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INGREDIENTS FOR THE VANILLA BEAN CAKE:
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 or extract and it will STILL be awesome.
So, onto the vanilla part of this cake. I use this vanilla bean paste: Vanilla Bean Paste. It really gives the cake a much better flavor than plain vanilla extract. Trust me, you’ve gotta try it. There are a couple different brands available, so try a few out.
MIXING METHOD FOR THE VANILLA BEAN CAKE:
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.
Oh and by the way, if you want to watch a ‘real time’ video on how to properly mix a scratch cake, you can do that here: How to Mix Cake Batter
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.
TIPS AND FAQS FOR THE VANILLA BEAN CAKE:
No you absolutely do not need a stand mixer. It’s really convenient, but you can still make a great cake with a hand mixer.
Cake flour is different than all purpose flour and they can’t be substituted for each other in equal amounts. Cake flour will give your cake a more tender texture, so it’s best to use that in this recipe if you can get it. If not, and you really need to substitute for it, you can make these changes: For every cup of cake flour called for in the recipe, use one cup of all purpose flour instead and remove two tablespoons of it, then replace that with two tablespoons of cornstarch.
No you don’t have to use it, but it’s really a very small amount and just gives a hint of added flavor. Personally I think it add that extra secret ingredient that people just love.
Yes you sure can. I think using a good vanilla bean emulsion or paste really pumps up the flavor and can set your cake apart from the rest, but a real vanilla extract will work as well.
If you don’t have access to sour cream, you can use yogurt instead. Try to use the full fat version though and not the low fat.
Whole milk just has more fat in it than 2% milk, so if you have access to it, use it, but if you don’t, just use the milk you have available.
Now, onto the recipe:
Favorite Vanilla Bean Cake
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 (slightly cooler than room temp)
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp almond emulsion
- 3 eggs
Instructions
- 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.)
- Grease and flour two 8" round cake pans. (If making cupcakes, read notes below)
- Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk.
- In another bowl, combine the sour cream, milk, oil, vanilla, almond and eggs. Mix well with a whisk.
- 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.
- Pour in about a third of the liquid mixture. Mix on low to medium until combined. About 30 seconds.
- Pour the last of the liquid mixture and mix again until combined. Don’t overmix the batter.
- Use a rubber spatula and scrape the sides of the bowl. Mix again for only about 10 to 15 seconds.
- Pour into prepared pans.
- Slide into the oven and turn the oven temp down to 325 degrees. (Unless you're making these as cupcakes, in which case you'll want to read the notes below.)
- Bake approximately 40-45 minutes.
- 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.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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…or two…or three.
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 karen if no vanilla bean paste what is second option? thanks!
Hi, you can just use regular vanilla extract and that works fine. You can use the same amount that’s called for in the recipe.
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 there, I made the vanilla bean cake and it was amazing. I made it in the 8in pans, was hoping to make it in an 11x15x2 pan, do you have any suggestions as to how much batter to use and how to modify the cooking time? Thanks!
Hi Jennifer, I’m thinking maybe a recipe and a half might work. I’d set the timer for the same amount of time and just watch it from there although you’ll most likely end up baking it for a bit longer. If you have a heat core or at least a flower nail, use one in the middle of your pan. It’ll help it bake more evenly.
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.
I buy this exact vanilla bean paste at Michael’s craft store and always use my 50% off coupon – awesome deal!
Yes! Good idea!
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. 🙂
I had the same problem with density. The inside of the cake doesnt look like the flakey fluffy cake look in the photos. It looks more like soft white bread however the taste is amazing. The butter took forever to break up and it had stood at room temp for some time. I baked for 40 minutes. Should it maybe take the full 45 minutes?
Hi Jean, The cake should come out less dense than that. You did use cake flour and not all purpose flour, right? Overmixing will make it come out more dense as well. The butter temp should be slightly cooler than room temp and when mixed with the flour mixture, it should resemble a sand-like texture. If the butter is too cold, it won’t incorporate well, but if it’s too soft and warm, then it could possibly make the cake too dense. Another thing that could have happened is possibly overmixing once you’ve got all the ingredients together. You just want to mix until it’s all incorporated. You don’t want to mix it for a couple minutes…not saying that’s what you did, but just throwing some things out there. 😉 Perhaps it needed more baking, I can’t be sure though unless I see it. To test for doneness, you could use the toothpick method. It should have a few soft crumbs on the toothpick when you pull it out. I hope this helps some.
Thank you for the response Kara: I did use cake flour and I mixed no more than 30 seconds to incorporate the ingredients. You make an interesting point with the butter. I had a hard time getting the butter blended with the flour It was, I thought, not soft enough but maybe I have to cut it in smaller pieces before adding to the flour? I wish I could upload a photo of the cake to you. I baked it for 40 minutes. Perhaps I should go to the 45 minutes suggested in the recipe next time. The flavor was absolutely luscious. I just want to perfect it and get the correct density.
Jean, yes definitely cut up the butter into pieces. I usually cut each stick into about eight pieces. That’s basically about a tablespoon size. Add about a chunk or two at a time when mixing it into the flour. That should help it incorporate better. I would try that and then maybe bake a tad bit longer.
I shalp try that. Next time. Thank you again for sharing your expertise.!
No problem Jean. Let me know how it goes!
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 😉
Hi Kara
I am allergic to eggs and really wanted to try your recipe. What would you recommend to substitute the egg with?
Thanks
There are different methods for replacing eggs. Some work better than others, but it does take some experimenting. I’m not an expert on baking without eggs, but there is a few good articles out there that give a bunch of options. (I’ll add a link to one of them here.) I haven’t tested out any of these for this cake recipe, so I’m just not sure how it would come out and it may take some experimenting.
Just a couple things to note though: The banana option will give the cake a slight banana flavor and if you use the flax option, just don’t eat a ton of the cake in one sitting if you’re not used to eating flax. It could cause some tummy issues if you eat a bunch at a time. Here’s the link to that article: https://www.thekitchenwhisperer.net/2014/07/31/egg-substitutes-cooking-baking/
I hope this helps!
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.
From what I could see in the pictures, the layers rose the full 2 inches.. is that right? So, it would make an 8″ x4″ high cake? Just trying to know how to adjust for the cake I’m trying to make! :o)
Yes that’s exactly right. I used two, 2″ deep, 8″ round pans and this recipe does a good job of rising to the top. There’s not much of a dome on the layers, but it should get fairly close to
the top.
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!
Ok I have made this recipe several times now and even the cupcake version! I am so glad I came across your site and your blog post about trying an homemade version 1 more time ( i had many failed attempts). I am glad I listened and tried it. IT’S THE BEST!!!! I am never using any other recipe or box version again. Your recipe is so easy to follow also. I have gotten so many compliments on how it tastes. LOVE the Almond Emulsion tip. I think that is a hidden gem in it! Thanks soooooooo much Kara for sharing what you love with us. Keep it coming….lol….
What about a Spice Cake? Would love your version on that as we come into fall.
Thanks Again, and God Bless you and your family 🙂
Yes! So, glad you tried one more scratch cake recipe! It really is possible to get a moist and great tasting scratch vanilla cake. And I agree with you…that small touch of almond emulsion makes all the difference. So glad you liked it and so glad you let me know!
Oh, and I’ve got some really tasty scratch cakes coming up for that fall season 😉
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!
Hi Kara,
Love the Recipe! Delish, my family was in awe of the flavor! I just started baking scratch cakes and bought Fat Daddios Cake Pan Set of 3, Round 3 Inches (4″, 6″, 8″) 3 inch deep. I am having a problem with the middle of my cakes sinking. I checked my baking powder and it expires 11/2017 and I was very conscience not to over mix. Any advice would be much appreciated! Oh and do you use the paddle or whisk attachments for your recipe?
Hi Victoria, I sent you an email with a picture attached, but just in case it doesn’t come through, I’ll answer here as well.
I’m so glad you like the flavor of this cake. It’s my favorite…as the name implies 😉
I have several suggestions for you.
The first thing that came to mind was overmixing, but you mentioned that you were very careful not to do that. You mentioned checking the baking powder, but I’d also check the baking soda as well.
The next thing would be underbaking. If you pull a cake out too early, the middle will sink. It may still taste done, but the very middle will be slightly less done than the outside. Try leaving it in another five minutes and then taking out to see if that helps.
Also, make sure you’re reducing the temperature from 350 degrees when you preheated the oven, down to 325 degrees when you pop in the cake.
And to answer your question, I use the paddle attachment (I think KitchenAid calls it the flat beater attachment). I use that on pretty much everything…unless it’s dirty and I have to use the whisk attachment 😉
Another thing to note is that cakes with sour cream, don’t usually come out with a higher dome on them. They are, by nature, a little flatter on top. Also, the method for this cake is the reverse creaming method, so that also creates a flatter top on a cake. They shouldn’t sink though. Make sure you’re not opening the oven until the minimum baking time is reached.
One more thing, you mentioned you are using 3 inch tall pans. I normally us 2 inch tall pans. So if you baked in 2, 8 inch round pans that were 3 inches deep, the cake probably won’t rise all the way to the top of the pan, since the recipe was written for 2 inch pans. You could certainly double the batter and fill the pans up a bit more if you wanted.
Also when my cakes are cooling in the pan, I only cool them for ten minutes in the pan, then turn them upside down and out of the pan to cool fully on a rack.
Hope all this helps! Let me know how it goes 🙂
Thank you so much for your advice, I was so thankful you and were! LOL
Ok here I go again… Iwill let you know how it turns out! Love your recipes!!!
Do you use the whole egg? Usually on a “white” cake it only calls for the whites? Am so anxious to try your recipe but I’ll have to shop for the vanilla bean paste first. Also, tell more about the “heating core?” Sounds like that would certainly be a help with the bigger and/or deeper pans.
Thanks so much for your ideas (and the recipe)!
Yes for this vanilla bean cake, I use whole eggs. The cake is not going to be white, but more of an off-white. I prefer using whole eggs because of the flavor and moisture it gives to the cake. It’s sort of a trade off as far as color goes, but when I was doing cakes for clients, no one ever had an issue with the cake not being bright white. They just wanted a good vanilla flavor. If you try out the recipe, I’d love to hear how it goes!
As far as the heating core…you can usually pick up one of these at any craft store. I use them on large cakes that are larger than 10 inches. They help the cake to bake more evenly. Also be sure if you use one, to grease that the same way as you grease your pan.
Hope this helps!
Hello! I wanted to make this cake in the morning, but only have pure vanilla extract instead of the bean paste. Do I use the same exact measurements for the extract as you put for the bean paste?
Thanks!
Alyssa, Yes…vanilla extract will work just fine. Use the same measurement as the vanilla bean paste. In fact I made this cake this weekend and had run out of vanilla bean paste, so I used regular extract myself 😉
Thank you so much for your reply! The customer postponed the cake until next week so I ordered paste!! Can’t wait to try this!
Oh wonderful! Let me know how it goes!
Hi Kara! Can I cut down on the sugar without affecting the texture of the cake? My family prefers less sweet cake and so I’m thinking of using only 1 cup of sugar or maybe less. Thanks!
Hi! Cutting the sugar way down will affect the texture. Sugar brings moisture to the cake and tenderizes it, so while you could probably get away with slightly reducing it, using less than half of the recipe I’m afraid would cause a big difference in the texture and moistness of the cake. You could always try it out though…it may surprise us both!
Hi Kara
I tried your Vanilla Bean cake recipe and the results were awesome. I gave it to my friend for her wedding anniversary and they loved it. I also tried the vanilla buttercream. It tasted great however I had some difficulty due to the temperature in my country. Its usually about 30 degrees celcius most days. How can I keep the icing from melting so quickly? I noticed that the butter was separating from the sugar in small clumps.
All in all I really enjoyed doing this cake project. Thank you very much. Giselle
Hi Giselle, I’m so glad you liked the vanilla bean cake! It’s one of my absolute favorites. I live in Texas, so it’s usually hot here as well, so I feel your pain about keeping buttercream from melting. I’ve got a couple suggestions. You can add another cup of powdered sugar to thicken it up a bit, or just add a bit less milk. This will make the buttercream a bit more firm, so it won’t melt quite as quickly. Another thing you might have to do if you’ll have the cake outside for any length of time, is to use vegetable shortening (Crisco, Trex etc.). Replace half the amount of butter with the vegetable shortening. This makes a more heat-stable buttercream. I’d replace the salted butter with the shortening and then add in a pinch of salt. Salted butter seems to melt quicker to me…I don’t have any real scientific explanation for that other than I think it has a bit more water content, but anyway it’s just something I’ve noticed. So, basically, use half unsalted butter and half shortening and that’ll make it firmer. You could use all shortening, but then you won’t get that delicious buttery flavor. Hope this helps!
Thank you so much for the suggestions. I will try them and let you know how things work out.
Giselle
Dear Kara
I’m writing from a tiny island in the Mediterranean…Malta. Your recipe looks fantastic. My daughter will be turning 2 and I want to make a cake for her to take to school. I’ve already tried 3 different recipes but I’m not too happy with any of them.
Can you kindly suggest a substitute for the sour cream? It’s not an ingredient we normally use and it’s quite hard to find it in stores.
Thank you
Hi Eleanor, You can try to use full fat buttermilk for the sour cream. If you don’t have buttermilk, you can pour one cup of whole milk into a bowl or glass, then take out one tablespoon of it. Add back in a tablespoon of either vinegar or lemon juice, stir it and then let it set like that for about five minutes. Stir again and then add to the batter when called for in the recipe. I haven’t tried this substitution with this cake recipe, so I can’t promise it’s going to come out perfect, but that’s my best guess for substituting. I’m just a huge fan of sour cream in cakes, because it really makes them moist, but I understand some ingredients are hard to get in different areas. Anyway, with the substitution, it may not come out quite as moist, so just be careful not to over bake it because that can dry it out even further. Let me know how it goes!
Dear Kara
I managed to find the soured cream when I had lost hope completely, but not the cake flour 🙂 I made my own with all-purpose flour and cornstarch. I also added rainbow sprinkles. The result was fantastic. Your recipe lived up to its promise. Will surely re-use…next time will be lemon flavour followed by chocolate-chip. Thank you.
Yay!! I’m so glad you found the sour cream and it all worked out! And I think adding chocolate chips to it would be amazing as well. I do have a lemon cake recipe. It’s a little different than the vanilla one, but it still uses sour cream. If you want to check it out, you can find it here: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/lemon-sour-cream-cupcakes-lemon-buttercream/
Glad you liked the vanilla cake! 🙂
Hi. I am new to all of this but I want to make this cake for my children’s birthday. However, I wanted to make it in the rainbow layers. Will the food coloring mes up the batter? Any suggestions on the best way to achieve this goal? Will the layers hold up or is the cake to delicate? I plan to use your icing recipe as well. Any advise is greatly appreciated.
Hi Amanda, This cake does have a soft crumb, but it’s on the more dense side, rather than delicate. It’s not a heavy cake by any means, but it’s not so delicate that you can’t stack it. I’ve stacked it many times and even put fondant over it. It holds up well and stays moist.
A
s far as adding food coloring to it, it’s better to use the gel food coloring. You can get that at any craft store like Michael’s or Hobby Lobby, if you’re in the US. It’s much thicker and more concentrated, so you don’t have to add as much and it won’t add too much liquid to the cake batter like the liquid food coloring does. Do you live by a Wal-Mart? They sometimes carry the gel food coloring in the craft section of the store, over by the cake and wedding DIY aisle. (It’s actually not in the baking aisle where the liquid food coloring is…kinda weird it’s not though.)
The only thing I would be really mindful of is when you’re adding the color to your cake batter, be very careful to stop mixing once the color is incorporated. Scratch cakes can bake unevenly or straight up fall in the middle if you over-mix the batter, so just be mindful of that. I’m a big fan of doing test cakes. I know sometimes people think that’s a pain to do, but you’ll at least know if it’ll work out and about how long you can mix it…plus you’ll get to eat the entire test cake 😉
I’d be sure and use the gel colors when coloring the buttercream as well. It’ll give a much brighter color without watering down the icing like the liquid color does. Hope this helps!
Will this recipe work on a fondant covered tiered cake?
Yes, I have used this recipe for a fondant covered tiered cake and it worked for me. I’ve also heard from someone else who sent me a comment that it worked for them as well. My only tip is just to make sure you dowel it properly, but I’m sure you know that already 😉
I’ve never made buttercream frosting and I’m rather apprehensive. Would you recommend something other than buttercream, etc. cream cheese frosting?
Hi Cheryl, You can surely make cream cheese frosting, but that’s very similar to buttercream actually. Essentially it’s just using cream cheese in place of some of the butter. I’ve got a cream cheese frosting on my blog here: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/cream-cheese-buttercream/ I think the vanilla buttercream would be better on a vanilla cake though…that’s just my opinion. Don’t be apprehensive about making buttercream. It really is easy to make and so delicious. If you try it out, let me know what you think!
Hello! I’m planning to make your cake for my daughters 4th birthday. She wants a vanilla cake, and I’ve never found a white cake I love, so I’m hoping this cake will change my view. 😉 I am using a white flour milled from heritage wheat bc I have a wheat intolerance, but can easily tolerate older versions of the grain. I’ve made other cakes that call for All pourpose flour with the heritage flour and they’ve turned out just as delicious and moist. I’m wondering if you have any tips since I’m not using cake flour. I’m guessing I should sift before measuring but any other tips would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Hi Kathleen, I have two suggestions you could try. You can make your own cake flour from the regular flour you have by adding in some cornstarch. Here’s how to do it: Take one cup of the white flour, take out two tablespoons of it and then add two tablespoons of cornstarch back in. Then sift it well.
If you’re unable to use cornstarch or don’t have any, then I would just use the white flour you have and lesson the amount by two tablespoons per cup of flour called for in the recipe. So for each cup of flour you add, take out two tablespoons and then just follow the same mixing method in the recipe. Hope that all made sense and I hope it helps. Let me know how it goes!
The cake was a hit!! So many complements about the texture and flavor. I frosted it with a Swiss Buttercream recipe I have used several times before, and added some vanilla paste to it. It was a two tier cake decorated for my daughter’s requested “swan ballet” party. I used fondant, gum paste and gold paint to add decorations (my first time using either of those). Is there anywhere I can send you a photo?
I purchased the gum paste and fondant pre-made and rolled it out, but I’m wondering if you have a recipe for both or either that you like.
Also- I had left a previous comment but it never posted. I didn’t have any corn starch on hand, so I removed 2 TBS of flour per cup as you suggested. It worked great! Glad to have that trick under my belt now. Also, I made three batches (both because of the size of cake I wanted and because we just moved and our new oven is old and uneven so one of my cakes sunk- yay for upcoming kitchen remodel!) I loved the extra flavor of the almond emulsion, but since the cake was for my vanilla loving 4 year old, I decided to double the vanilla and cut the almond in 1/2 for 2nd and 3rd batch. It turned out tasting more vanilla-ie and slightly less almond-ie in my opinion….but for my adult friends, I’d stick with the original version of this cake.
Hi, I did see the previous comment…I have to approve them manually and it takes me a bit to do it, which is probably why it didn’t show up there for a minute. I’m so glad everyone liked the cake! And thanks for letting me know the trick worked. That’s really good to know. Oh, and I feel your pain about old ovens. Awhile back, we did a partial remodel of our kitchen, so now I’ve got a new oven, but our old one always over-browned on one side and the entire thing was unlevel, so it made for really interesting looking cakes!
Oh I’m so glad it it worked out and I’d love a photo! You can email me at kara@iscreamforbuttercream, or you can tag me on Instagram at #iscreamforbuttercream and I’ll see it there.
As far as fondant and gumpaste go…I usually just purchase my gumpaste. It’s just easier for me. As for fondant, I make a hybrid of purchased fondant and marshmallow fondant. I use Liz Marek’s recipe from Sugar Geek Show. I’ve tried tons of different recipes and brands of fondant and this has worked the best for me. The work-ability is very good and it’s easy to get it smooth. Fondant reacts to different environments, so depending on where you live, this may or may not be a good fit for you, but for me it works great. Here’s the link if you’d like to try it out: https://sugargeekshow.com/recipe/lmf-fondant-recipe/
I baked a double recipe in a 14″ round (3″ deep) pan, and it came out very dark. Did I bake it too long? It seems moist, but is not very pretty.
Hi Lisa, it may have been over-baked, but I have a few questions and a couple tips. Does it seem overcooked on the edges? What’s the middle like? Does it seem done in the middle? Make sure for a larger cake, that the temp is set to 325 degrees. For the larger cakes, it needs to bake low and slow. Also, for that size you’ll need to use a heat core in the middle. That’ll help it bake more evenly. Larger cakes are notorious for baking unevenly. In general, a larger cake like that might come out a little more browned than a smaller size, just because sometimes you end up having to bake it a little longer than the smaller ones. Let me know if I can help further!
Thank you Kara. I suspect I over did it. The center is cooked, but it is much darker than when I used your recipe before for a smaller cake. By the way, this is a wonderful cake! It came out so well before, that I decided to use it as the base layer for my daughters wedding cake. I did use a flower nail in the center, as I do not have a heat core. But I did not lower the temperature, so I suspect that may be part of the problem. I will try it again tomorrow. This one is not pretty enough to serve for the wedding I am afraid.
Lisa
Yeah I think that’s probably it. Baking at 350 would bake it but would over-brown the top. I think switching to 325 will be perfect. So glad you like the recipe! Oh and hey…now you get to snack on a 14 inch trial run cake! 😉
Hi Kara, I’ve learned a lot from your tutorials/baking blogs and videos and I also I like to try your Vanilla Bean Cake with your Vanilla Bean Buttercream for my daugther’s 1st Birthday in two weeks time. I will make a 6inch cake with 3 stacks. I will put my homemade marshmallow fondant icing on top of the vanilla bean buttercream to decorate for the Minnie Mouse theme. I will watch your free course on how to do fondant ruffles for the design of the cake like a tutu. And I will also make 2 dozens of cupcakes using the same recipe. think I am running out of time, I don’t want to rush and stress myself. I don’t know which one I can do in advance or which one to do first. Would you mind helping me on what to do first and the timeline? It is my first time to bake a cake. And I am wondering how many grams of butter is a (2 sticks of butter). I am from Australia and our one stick of butter here is 250g. Thank you in advance.
Hi Leah, I’ll start with the butter question before I forget to answer it. 2 sticks of butter here in the US is a cup of butter. I looked it up and google says a cup of butter is equal to 340g.
Ok, onto the the timeline question. If this were a project I was doing, here’s what I would do: I’d go ahead and bake the cakes now and freeze them. Make sure to freeze them properly, so they don’t get freezer burn (there’s a blog post about that as well). Several days before the party, I’d make the buttercream and just keep it in the fridge. Early, the day before the party, or even the day before that, take out your frozen cakes and let them thaw on the counter in their wrappings. Once thawed, take the wrappings off, then stack the layers and ice them. At that point, you’ll want to let the cake layers settle. Cover the cake in saran wrap for at least several hours before putting on the fondant. If you don’t let your cake layers settle at least several hours before adding fondant, it could cause a blow out of the fondant later on or bulges or ridges in your cake when it finally does settle. Once the cake is settled (either for several hours or overnight), cover with fondant later that day and then you can work on adding the ruffles. The ruffles are going to take you some time. They are very time intensive, so leave yourself a lot of time for that. I wouldn’t do that the morning of the party. I’d do it the day before. You can either bake the cupcakes the morning of the party, or the day before, while you’re waiting for your cake layers to settle.
So, basically you don’t need to do everything the day of the party…that’s too much and would stress anyone out. Either start early the day before, or even the day before that. The cake will still be good and you don’t even need to refrigerate it unless the filling or buttercream is perishable and American Buttercream isn’t. Once the cake is covered in buttercream and fondant, it’s sealed and it will still taste fresh the next day, and even for a couple days after that. Hope all this helps!
Thank you so much Kara. I will do all those tips and will update you after that big day! Cheers! 🙂
Hello Kara, I’ve made the cake yesterday and it was a disaster. I followed the procedures on how to bake them and I even made sure that the measurements for the ingredients are correct. The oven temp is 190C then turned down to 180C. Most of the outside of the cake were burnt and the top cracked. But when I removed all the burnt crust and the dome, there were only half an inch left on the three cakes however the inside are moist and tasty…sadly I couldn’t use them to make the bday cake. I don’t know what I did wrong. I used a 6×3 “ anodized round pan. My oven rack was in the middle. I don’t have an oven thermometer so I am not sure if the heat are even or correct.
And then I did another batch of the cake today. I lowered the temp to just 175C and lowered down the oven rack (just below the middle). Thinking that maybe the oven was too hot when I did my first batch yesterday. I watched, I even sat down infront of the oven just to make sure that it will not burn. At first everything looks good, but after passing the 25mins time, the top was starting to cracked. So I checked if it is already done but the inside was still raw…then the cracked became bigger and the cake getting brown and brown and brown. And when it was done (35mins), I have a dark brown cake with a big crack in the middle. Not that bad like on my first batch but still it doesn’t look right.
I will try to make another batch again tomorrow…and the big day is getting near and I haven’t done anything yet. Sorry for this long story. I just don’t know what I am doing wrong…
Oh no Leah! Ok, it looks like the Fahrenheit to Celsius conversion is wrong. I went to a conversion chart online and it says for 350 Fahrenheit, it should be about 175 Celsius and then once you get the cake in the oven, turn it down to 160 Celsius. Everything that’s happening just points directly to the oven being too hot. I think this should fix the issue. I’ve only baked this in a 2 inch high pan and I haven’t tried a 3 inch, but I don’t think that would make too much difference. You can even try baking it start to finish at 160 – 165. I’m crossing my fingers, but I think this will fix the problem. Let me know how it goes!
Hello Kara, thank you so much for your prompt reply. I really appreciate it. I did it! I have baked two batches of 3 6 inch cakes. They look good and not brown. I did two batches coz I just want to make sure that everything will be okay and I will have extra cake in case one of the cake will have a problem. I am not a perfectionist but I like this cake to be perfect 🙂
I did what you told me. I lowered the oven temp to 160C for 30-35mins and put the oven rack in the middle. Will it work for my cupcakes this oven temp and time?
I will do the buttercream icing tonight and will ice the cake so it can settle for tomorrow for the fondant and decorating. And hopefully I can bake the cupcakes and put the frosting also. Time will fly fast tomorrow. Then Sunday is the BIG day! Yay!
Thanks again Kara. You’re a life saver! ?
Yay! I’m so glad it worked!! I hope I’m not responding too late about the cupcakes…we’ve got a time difference going on. Anyway, for the cupcakes, I’d fill them a bit over half full and then bake them at 175 C for about 25-30 minutes.
Let me know how it goes Sunday!
Hi Kara, finally I have finished decorating the cake and the cupcakes. Putting on the fondant on the cake is not an easy thing to do. I’ve messed up my homemade marshmallow fondant (cracking so much) and need to buy a ready to rolled fondant outside in a rushed. I tried to do the ruffles but I have had a hard time doing it so I just improvised a design for the bottom of the cake. Everything looked okay but after an hour or two…I have noticed a hair line cracked from the bottom going up…the crack is getting a bit bigger and going up and up. The bad thing is, it is infront of the cake where it is visible. I hope that when I wake up tomorrow morning the crack will not getting more bigger and longer. Is there anything I can do to fix it? My cupcakes are pretty good. My hubby and my eldest son couldn’t wait and ate a cupcake. They really liked it. Thank you Kara for helping me all through out these new baking experience.
Hi Leah, there’s not much you can do to fix a crack in the fondant, short of recovering the cake. Fondant is just really tricky to work with and just takes a lot of practice. Don’t feel discouraged though…it happens to all of us. Hopefully the crack didn’t get worse. The main thing is to allow the cake to settle before adding the fondant and not to have too much buttercream under it. Fondant is just tricky. I bet she will love it though regardless of the crack in the fondant!
Hi Kara, glad the birthday party went well. They loved the cake and the cupcakes (I’ve made 36 good size cupcakes from your Vanilla Bean Cake recipe). I’ve got a lot of compliments when they saw the cake. I will surely keep your cake and buttercream recipe on my favorite recipe collection…your recipe is a keeper! By the way, I think that’s why the fondant cracked is because I put too much buttercream on the cake. I don’t have a smoother that’s why my buttercream was bumpy. Anyway, all is done and went well and tasted good. Hope I can attached some photo of the cake and cupcakes so you can see it. Thanks again Kara for the big help during this stressful but fun days of baking the cake for my daughter’s 1st birthday. God bless you always.
Oh I’m so glad it went well and I’m glad they liked it! You can always send me a pic at kara@iscreamforbuttercream.com I’d love to see your cake! 🙂
Delicious!!! I have made this last night at my family party.
Oh wonderful! I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂
Hi Kara,
I only have one of each 6 and 8 inch pans. How would you recommend doing the oven at that point? Since you recommended turning the heat down.
Hi there, You can use the 6″ and 8″ pans. You’ll probably have a bit of batter left over, since the recipe will fill two 8″ pans, but that’s perfectly okay. Keep the heat the same as the recipe calls for…it should be just fine. 🙂
Hi Kara,
Are you able to substitute the eggs for yoghurt maybe? I’ve subbed 1 egg for 1/4 cup yoghurt previously and wanted to know your thoughts on this?
Thanks
I’ve heard of replacing the eggs with yogurt, but I’ve never actually tried it before. I’ll be honest though…I almost never have yogurt on hand. If you try it, I’d love to know how it turns out! I’m thinking the cake may turn out a bit dense though, but it’s worth experimenting I think.
Hi Kara,
Tried out the Eggless version of this cake and I got to say it came out pretty well.
The taste was amazing.
Couple of things though, the top was cracked, and I probably needed more than 45 mins in the oven as it was slightly under done (don’t know if that was because of the yoghurt).
Also, could we slightly reduce the sugar as it was a little on the sweet side and didn’t have any icing on it?
Took a couple of pics of you were interested in having a look.
Great cake though!
Thanks for the update! I was interested in how it would turn out. Yes, I’d like to see some pics. If you’d like to email them to me, you can send them to kara@iscreamforbuttercream.com
I think it should be okay to reduce the sugar a bit if you’d like. Generally I’d say no, but I think with the added yogurt etc., it might be okay. Just make sure not to reduce it too much, or it’ll affect the moistness and the texture. I’d try reducing by 1/2 a cup at first and see how that goes.
Glad it turned out well!
Hi! Wondering how you think it would turn out if I used two 10 inch pans instead of the 8 inch?
You could do that, but the layers would be thinner and it might need to bake for a less amount of time, since they batter won’t be as thick in the pans. What you could do is to add another 1/2 of the recipe when you mix it up, then you’ll get the proper amount of cake batter to fill the two 10 inch pans. So essentially, mix up a recipe and a half, then fill the two, 10 inch pans. Hope this helps!
Thank you so much for the advice!! Can’t wait to try it! 🙂
You’re welcome! Let me know how you like it 🙂
Hi Kara Jane! I can’t wait to give this recipe a try. Unfortunately, I will have to leave out the almond emulsion for allergy purposes. I am, however, making this for my sons 5th birthday party and he has requested a ‘sprinkles’ or ‘funfetti’ cake. Is it possible to add 1/2 cup of rainbow jimmies to the batter without it affecting the overall texture and moisture? Any idea or tips? I really want to love this recipe as I have tried many white cake recipes which have all left me wanting to find another lol. Thanks for sharing!
Kristel
Hi Kristel, I think adding in the rainbow jimmies will be just fine. I can’t think of any reason that it would change the texture, so I think you’re good to go on that. I WILL say though that this cake isn’t bright white, like some of the funfetti cakes are, because it’s got vanilla bean and whole eggs in it…that’s what makes it so good though. I’m actually working on a bright white version now, but it’s not yet ready to post. Anyway just be aware it’ll have a vanilla color to it (like the pics show), but it’s SO tasty. And no worries on omitting the almond emulsion, it’ll still taste good. We don’t want him to be allergic to his own birthday cake! Let me know how it all turns out! 🙂
Hi again Kara Jane! Just wanted to let you know I did a test run with the cake recipe without the jimmies (just to see how the cake itself would turn out on it’s own) and I’m writing to say ‘WOW’! I bake soooo much and this is the first vanilla cake recipe I have made that is amazing!! I omitted the almond as mentioned and the vanilla flavour still shined through. However, the texture of this cake is to die for… so tender and moist but not dense. This is THE vanilla cake recipe I have been searching my whole life for lol. Thank you so much again for sharing. I am definitely going to try your other cake recipes now. Absolute perfection! Wish me luck with the rainbow jimmies! 🙂
Kristel
Oh yay!!! I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂 I really think the secret is the combination of sour cream and using cake flour. Really, I think sour cream makes everything better 😉 Good luck adding the rainbow jimmies…I think it will be just fine. Let me know how it all turns out!
Are there other flavor variations for this recipe? Made 3 dozens of cupcakes last night and my husband and kids were eating them without the icing! This is by far the best recipe I’ve EVER tried!!!
Oh I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂 I don’t really have any flavor variations for this one…that may be something I need to work on though! I do have a lemon cake recipe that’s loosely based on it. Here’s the link if you’d like to try it out: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/lemon-sour-cream-cupcakes-lemon-buttercream/
Hi Kara can I ask how you manage to make the butter cream icing so white , rather than a creamy colour?
It looks amazing on the cake
Hi Cheryl, So, to get it more white, you can do a couple different things. You can add just a tiny bit of violet food coloring, which basically cancels out the yellow tint. You can also replace half of the butter in the buttercream recipe with vegetable shortening. If you want a really bright white, you can even replace all of the butter with vegetable shortening. I’ve actually got a post I’m working on that’ll be out soon on how to make bright white heat stable buttercream, but essentially you’re just using shortening instead of butter and then adding in a little extra flavoring. If you can get hi-ratio shortening, it makes for a really smooth and creamy white icing, but regular vegetable shortening works too. You’ll also want to add a pinch of salt because the shortening will make the icing seem sweeter. Hope this helps!
Thank you …I am planning to make the cake today ….so will keep you posted
And thank you for such a speedy response.
The vanilla bean butter cream I am referring to …
Hi Kara I made this cake this weekend and followed your advice for the buttercream, using vegetable shortening…it was fabulous. The taste was lovely, and the cake so moist. I am converted…
Thank you so much for your advice
I can honestly say that we in Wales , UK loved the cake. I did send you a photo via email , so hope you received it.
Many thanks
Cher
Oh wonderful Cheryl! So glad you it turned out well and that you liked it! And I’ll look for that email as well. 🙂
Hi Kara Jane! I am making this cake for my boss’ birthday. I am using the actual vanilla beans and omitting the almond emulsion. Your recipe is exactly what I was looking for. She requested a vanilla only cake. I am doing a double layer 9″x13″ cake. Would I triple this recipe or would a double batch be enough? How many cups do you think would give me a nice size thickness?
Hi Kitty, Using actual vanilla beans sounds amazing! So, on to your question. Are you planning to bake 2, 13 x 9 cakes, or just one and then splitting it into two parts? One recipe will be enough for a 9×13″ pan. Depending on how tall your pan is though, I probably would just bake one recipe in it though. Doubling the batter will likely cause an overflow (unless your pan is unusually tall). Once you get the first one baked, you can always bake another 13×9″ layer. Then you can just layer the two. That way you’re not having to slice one 13×9″ cake into two perfect layers (which always causes headaches for larger rectangle cakes). Hope that made sense!
Thank you so much for your quick response Kara! I just love that you respond to everyone. Yes, I am making 2, 13×9″ cakes. I’m wondering if 1 whole vanilla bean would be enough for each cake. I want a rich vanilla flavor with the “dirt” in it as one mother said.
Oh, yes and that ‘dirt’ makes it SO good! lol! I did a quick google search and google says that one teaspoon of extract is equivalent to one inch of vanilla bean. The cake recipe calls for 1 Tbsp and since there’s three teaspoons in a tablespoon, that would be three inches of vanilla bean. That’s a lot and it would probably be okay to just use two inches if you wanted for each recipe. I hope this helps and do let me know how it turns out…I’m interested!
Hi there, i’m making a two tier cake for my sisters confirmation and was planing on using a 10in for the bottom and an 8 in for the top. I was just wondering how to adjust the recipe to make two 10in cakes? Thank you in advance!!
Hi there, for the 10″ pans, I would make a recipe and a half of the batter to fill 2, 10″ pans. Hope this helps!
So this is an amazing recipe, the flavor and tenderness are to die for. But for the life of me I cannot get my cake to bake without rather large holes. Have you ever experienced this? I’m an experienced baker working with a commercial oven and I can’t figure out why every batch has holes! I’m timing my mixing so I don’t think it’s over mixing. Any advice would be appreciated!
Hi Barb, Hmmm…I haven’t had trouble with holes in this one, but I have a couple suggestions. The first one is…and you knew I would say this…try mixing just a bit less than you’re mixing. If you’re positive you’re not mixing too long, the other option is to try mixing at a lower speed. Something else to try…once you’ve poured your cake in your pans, try lightly dropping them on your counter a few times, so any air bubbles come up to the surface, then place them in the oven. You could also try sifting the dry ingredients. Sometimes that can help. Last, if nothing else will help, you might lower the leavener just a tad. I’d lower the baking soda by 1/4 tsp and see if that makes a difference.
I’m so glad you liked the cake and hopefully one of these tips will help with the air bubbles!
I made a half recipe of your cake yesterday – it turned out great. I made it in a 8 in round 3 in deep pan and filled the pan about a little over half. It was about 1 in from the top. I am making a 10, 8, 6 in wedding cake this weekend (all 3″ deep) and would also like to make one 12×18 sheet cake. CAN YOU TELL ME HOW MANY RECIPES I WOULD NEED AND ALSO HOW HIGH TO FILL THE PANS? Thank you so much – we loved the cake…I just need it to rise to the top vs an inch from the top.
Hi Vicki, I normally use 2″ tall pans, so if you’re using 2, 3″ tall, 8″ round pans, I would make a recipe and a half. That should be plenty to fill the pans 2/3 of the way up. Ok, now onto the other sizes… and wow, you’re going to be making a lot of cake and I am SO coming to this wedding. Lol! Ok, I’m going to make some estimates here for the other pans, but just know when filling the pans, you’ll need to fill them about 2/3 of the way up. And for clarity’s sake, this is for 3″ tall pans and not the 2″ pans. For the 6″ round pans, one recipe should do it. We talked about the 8″ round pans above. For the 10″ round pans, I’d go for 2 to 2 1/2 recipes. For the 12 x 18 sheet cake, I’d maybe make two recipes just to be safe, but you may have a little batter left over. Okay, so these are all estimates…I’m not used to baking in 3″ tall pans, so just keep that in mind. 😉 Oh and hey, this cake freezes well and since you’re making so much, it might be helpful for you to freeze a couple of them ahead of time. Here’s a link to my freezing cakes post. It’ll go through how I freeze them without any freezer burn, why I think it actually makes cakes more moist to freeze them and how to properly defrost them so you don’t get too much condensation all over the cake layers. https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/freezing-cakes-and-cupcakes/
I hope this helps and let me know how it all goes!
Thanks so much for getting back to me. I should have told you the 12×18 sheets are only 2″ tall (not 3) The rounds are all 3″. Do you think then that 1 and 1/2 recipes would be good for those?
Hmmm…well one recipe would make a 13×9 inch pan, so 1 1/2 might do the trick. Use your best judgement on that one. If you do two recipes and have leftever batter, you could just make some cupcakes out of it and then keep those for yourself. 😉
Do you sift then measure your cake flour for this particular recipe? I find that whenever I use cake flour in a recipe, it always needs to be sifted. But there’s often lots of variation between whether or not to sift before or after measuring in recipes, and also the number of times it needs to be sifted — cakes especially. Would greatly appreciate your method of prep on that particular step because I know how much it can impact the final product! Thanks bunches.
Hi Lauren, Those are good questions. I have to admit that I usually don’t sift. Not because of any huge reason or anything…it’s mainly just for simplicity sake. You can certainly sift if you’d like to as it definitely couldn’t hurt anything. For the recipes on my site, I would sift after measuring though.
Do you butter and flour the pan or Pan it?
Hi, I usually coat the pan in vegetable shortening and then flour it. Using the spray Pam has never worked really well for me. Some people love it, but greasing and flouring always seems to work better for me.
Hi Kara
I am making my daughters wedding cake next month, possibly a little ambitious as I have never done a tiered cake but YouTube is very educational ? I have a few questions.
Apart from the cake not rising all the way to the top is there any issue with using a taller pan than the one a recipe suggests?
The wedding is on a Tuesday so I will be dropping the cake at the venue on the Monday I guess, how far ahead can I decorate the tiers and not have the cake suffer/go off/dry out? I plan on fondant coating.
Lastly, the base tier ( at the moment I plan a 12,10,8 cake) will be a gender reveal for her baby which I just found out today is a girl, can you recommend quantities of gel colouring and any particular kind that you use to create a strong pink colour without affecting the cake bake?
Thank you so much.
Kate
My best advice is to dowel well between the tiers. You can even stack them at the venue, so you don’t have to drive with a stacked cake.
As for your first question, it depends on how much taller the pan is that you’ll be using. If it’s not much, it just won’t rise all the way up like you said. If there’s too much of a difference, I’d make maybe a recipe and a half of batter, that way there would be more batter to fill the pans.
As far as decorating ahead of time…it all depends on what you’ll be doing. If there aren’t perishable fillings and frostings, it’s okay to start a couple days before the event. Especially if it’s covered in fondant, because that will seal it. I wouldn’t start on it before Saturday because that would be longer than three days before it gets eaten on Tuesday. I usually try to stack and fill mine and let them settle over night if I can before covering with fondant. It will depend on how much decoration will be going on the cake whether you can start Sunday, or if you need to start Saturday night and let them settle overnight.
Honestly I would be really nervous about setting the cake up at the venue the day before. I know you may not have a choice, being the Mother of the Bride and all, but that would make me nervous. Other vendors could bump it accidentally, or really anything could happen. I would see if I could get it there that morning.
For the last question, I really like to use Americolor gel colors, or even the Wilton gel coloring. It’s thicker than just the liquid food coloring that tends to water everything down. I like the ‘electric colors’ from Americolor like electric blue or electric pink. They seem to be brighter. I’d add in a little more than you think you’ll need because the cake will brown a bit and have a yellow tint to it, so if there’s not enough blue coloring, then it’ll look a little green and the pink could look a little orange. Hope that makes sense.
Ok I just wrote you a novel here, but I hope it helped!
Can real vanilla bean be used in this recipe? How would I adjust for moisture?
Yes you can use real vanilla bean. I think it’s one inch of vanilla bean for every 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or extract called for in the recipe. You don’t have to adjust any of the other ingredients, it shouldn’t affect the moisture.
Kara Jane, This recipes looks delicious and I’m anxious to try it. Lately, I’ve heard a lot about cake strips wrapped around the cake pan to bake the cake evenly, avoid doming and crusty edges. What is your take on this? Also, I see your cake baked evenly. Do you think your method of lowering the oven temperature from 350 to 325 is the key? Great blog and enjoy your posts. Joan
Hi Joan, For this cake, I like to have it at 350 starting out to just sort of give the rise a boost. In general, lowering the temp probably does help a bit by preventing a dome to form, but this recipe wouldn’t really make much of a dome anyway…mainly because of the amount and type of ingredients plus I’m using the reverse mixing method. I do like lowering the temp though because it browns the outside a little less.
As far as the baking strips go, I’ve actually never tried them. I do use a heating core for pans that are larger than 10″. Some pans will bake more evenly than others though. I really like magic line pans. They feel much thicker than regular cake pans you can buy and they really do a good job of baking the cake layers evenly. I know there are a lot of bakers that like the baking strips or they’ll wrap damp cloths around their pans, but honestly I’ve never really done that and I think my magic line pans do an excellent job at baking evenly. I hope this helps!
Hi Kara I love this recipe and it is my go to cake all the time though mine come out with a sink hole? Your thoughts? Thanks ?
Hi Tanya, I’m so glad you like it! As far as the sink hole goes…is it falling in the middle or are there tunnel like holes in it? Both of those problems can happen if it’s overmixed. Make sure your flour mixture is coated with the butter well before you add in the liquid. Then when you start adding in the liquid portion, try to just mix it until its combined. Don’t mix for several minutes each addition. Just mixed until incorporated. A lot of issues like that are from over beating your batter.
In general, this cake has a rather flat top to it, but it shouldn’t sink. Try those tips and let me know what happens!
I made this Favorite Vanilla Bean cake in a 9 x 13 cake pan. It’s the best tasting vanilla cake I’ve ever put in my mouth. It Rocks and Rules!! It is moist and fluffy and DELICIOUS. Thanks Kara Jane for the recipe and for answering all of my questions along the way.
Thanks Robin for that wonderful review! I’m so glad you liked it! 🙂
I would love to use this recipe for my daughter’s birthday party on Sunday. I have 2 questions…how does this cake stand up to deorating? I am worried that much a moist cake may not hold up well to fondant. Also, I need more than 12 serving…can I double the recipe and make 4 layers? Or can I double the recipe and make a sheet cake.
Oh, also could I make this recipe and use it for cake pops? I guess that was 3 questions 🙂
Hi Marisa, This cake should be fine under fondant. I’ve used it under fondant before and I’ve been told by others it worked as well. The serving size noted is just an average for ‘party’ slices. If you’re using it as a wedding cake, the slices can be cut smaller. You can always double it and make two more layers if you want and one recipe will be enough to make a 13 x 9 rectangle cake. As for cake pops, you can use this cake like any other cake recipe. Just bake the cake, let it cool, crumble it and add about a half a cup of buttercream and mix it all up. Try to roll a cake ball and see if it’s moist enough and sticks together fine. If it’s still crumbly, just a little more buttercream. Hope this helps!
Hi. Can i use buttermilk instead of whole milk.
Yes that should be fine.
Hi. I really want to try making your cake. It looks delicious. However i always like thin layers so i would want to split each layer in half. I read some earlier comments where u mentioned not to split the layers. Is there a reason for that. What i want to do is cut them horizontally and then fill each layer with a berry compote surrounded by a white chocolate dam. Pls let me know if it will work. Sorry for so many questions
Hi Rochelle, I did get all your comments. They won’t show up on the blog until I approve them, so that’s why you didn’t see them there. I’m not sure where I said don’t split the layers, but maybe I just worded it weirdly. Anyway, you can split the layers if you want thinner ones. I usually don’t but that’s just because it seems more stable to me if I leave them as is. It’s totally your preference though and it’ll be just fine if you want to split them. And filling it with berry compote and then using a white chocolate dam sounds really delicious!
Hi Kara! I am trying this recipe very soon for a 4 layer 8″ cake and I would like to know if it is better to make the recipe two separate times or just double it and mix it all at once divide and bake all 4 layers together?
Thank you!?
Hi Jasmine, I don’t think it will be that different doing it all at once or separately. The only thing I’d be concerned about is the oven space. If you’ve got a huge oven, it should be fine, but you don’t want to crowd your cake pans though. You need the air to circulate between them. They just come out better when the pans aren’t all butted up against each other, so that’s something to consider. Hope this helps!
Ok. I will do 2 pans at a time. If I double the batter and mix it all at once, how long can I let the batter sit after I divide the batter for the first 2 layers? If you do not recommend doing this I will just make the batches separate.
Thank you?
Jasmine, good question. If you’re just going to do two pans at a time, then I’d just make one recipe…enough for those two pans. The batter is best used immediately after you mix it up.
Thank you soooooooo much?
I won’t be making it until next month but I will definitely let you know how it turned out! Have a great day!
You’re so welcome! 🙂
Thank you so much you have the best cake recipes and they always come out moist!
Thank you so much and I’m so glad you like the recipes! 🙂
Tried this cake last year and it was lovely.
Now I need to make a 10″ cake. How’s best to adjust the ingredients please?
Hi Eleanor, To make two layers of 10″ cakes, I would make a recipe plus a half a recipe. That should be enough to fill two 10″ pans. Hope this helps!
would you mind to share this recipe in oz or grams pleas thanks a lot.
Hi there, on the recipe card in the post, there should be an option under the ingredient list for metric. US Customary is usually in bold, but if you’ll click on Metric next to it, it’ll convert the measurements for you. Hope this helps.
Hello Kara Jane,
I am making a Halloween cake on Tuesday, could I color the bake batter with purple, orange, and maybe brown? Or would it alter the outcome of the cakes?
I think it should be fine. You might mix the food coloring in with the liquid mixture. That way you’ll just add it in when you add in the liquid part of your batter and not at the end and risk over mixing the batter. Once it’s all mixed, you can add a bit more color if needed, but then you wouldn’t have to mix it for quite as long. Hope that made sense.
Hi, I decided to make this recipe for my daughters birthday! I’m using my 12 inch cake pans and I’m planning to do 3 layers. Should I make the recipe 3 times ? Would that be the correct measurement?
Hi there, one recipe will make two, 8″ round pans (2″ deep), so one recipe per 12″ layer will be plenty. You’ll probably have a little bit of batter left over though for each one, but you can always add that batter to some cupcake pans. Hope that helps!
Just made this cake for my baby sisters birthday and it’s incredible! So moist and flavorful. The only modification I made was I warmed fresh vanilla beans in the milk. Such a lovely recipe!!
Oh yay! I’m so glad you liked it! And the vanilla beans in the milk is clever! I will have to try that. 🙂
I’ve tried so many vanilla
recipe with no super luck. But when I tried yours,it was awesome, I can’t thank you enough….I don’t usually eat cake, but with this, I ate half of the cake … But my concern is the sugar . Can I reduce it by 1/4?… Despite the sugar ,I couldn’t still my mind off it…….. I hope the cake will not go wrong if I reduce the sugar.
Oh I’m so glad you like the cake! Yes, you should be able to reduce it by 1/4 cup, but I wouldn’t reduce it any more than that, or it could mess with the texture of the cake. And I agree with you…I think this cake is addicting! 🙂
I just baked this cake for a birthday party. It looks incredible! My only concern is i just realized i baked with salted butter. Do you think i should remake it?
Adrianna, that’s a tricky question. My answer is maybe, maybe not. I know that’s annoying. Salted butter has a bit more water content in it and has added salt. You said it still looked good, so that’s a good sign that maybe it didn’t mess with the texture, but the second ‘if’ is whether it’s too salty. Did you add in the regular salt that the recipe called for? If not, then you’ll probably be fine. If so, then what you could do is just slice a thin sliver off the top of one of the cake layers and taste it. Just a thin slice and no one will know you’ve done that once it’s all put together and iced. Let me know how it goes!
Hi
I have just started following your webiste and love it. I am planning to bake your vanilla bean cake that uses cake flour. I have never used cake flour before but just bought onbe from Amazon that has 2% protein. Is that good for stability of the cake? What should be the minimum protein% for cake flour? I am planningto bake this for our wedding anniversay. Please help
Hi there. I have never used a flour with that low of protein. Are you sure it said 2%? I think most cake flour is around 7% or so. I’ve used the brands Swans Down and Softasilk. Both of those work fine. I prefer the Swans Down cake flour though. I don’t know why, but the texture just seems better to me. I’m not sure what flour you purchased, so I don’t really know if it would work or not. You could perhaps try and send me a link to what you purchased and I can take a look at it though if you want.
Hello
Thank you so much for your response. Here is the link
Hopefully it will work for you
Ok the link worked. (I deleted it though, so it wouldn’t be marked as spam.) I checked it out and it looks like it’s actually got some good reviews and people are saying they love it in cakes, so I’m thinking it’ll turn out just fine. I can’t guarantee it, since I haven’t used it before, but looks like it’s worked well for others. Let me know how it goes!
Thank you
Hi. I would like to use your recipe and make 2 cakes both being 1/2 sheet cakes. Will I have to double your recipe to fit into a 1/2 sheet pan? Also, how long should I bake it by it being a 1/2 sheet cake? My goal is to make either a 2 or 3 layer 1/2 sheet cake but I don’t want my layers to be to thick because the cake will be huge if I don’t cut the cake in half. Still debating on how to pull this off 🙂
Hi there, yes you’ll probably need to double the recipe to fill a 1/2 sheet pan. You might want to use a heat core in the middle or a flower nail. It just helps it heat more evenly since it’s such a large cake. As far as how long to bake it, I’d just start out with what is called for in the recipe and then just watch it from there. You’ll have to just eye-ball it and maybe use the toothpick test. If you do use the toothpick test, just make sure there are still some crumbs coming out on the toothpick. You don’t want the toothpick coming out clean…that’s actually baking it too long. Oh and I know what you mean about having two layers for a sheet cake and it being too thick. I’d just make one layer first and see how thick it comes out. If it’s pretty thick, you might get away with torting it (just slicing it in half) and getting two layers out of it. I hope this helps!
Thank you much for your response. I am making the cake for my son’s party next Saturday and I want to make sure I have enough of the ingredients. I will let you know how it turns out. Wish me luck 🙂
I hope it all turns out great! I’m crossing my fingers for you. 🙂
Hi! I’m looking to make this for a baby shower this weekend, and was curious about the conversion to metric that’s within the recipe. Is this an actual TESTED metric conversion you’ve used, or just a website that tries to convert it? I’ve historically found using weights to make better breads and cakes, but having a converter do it is usually wildly off so just wanted to check. Unless it’s something you’ve tested I may go with the U.S. recipe to be safe 🙂 Thank you!
Hi Jessica, thanks for asking. The metric conversion comes from my website recipe card program. It auto-converts it for me. I don’t test out the metric conversions, I just use the US measurements. Thanks for letting me know about the conversions being ‘iffy’. That’s good information to know.
Okay, good to know and thank you! I’ll try the US ones this time since it’s for a special occasion but will try and go back to test the metric ones at some point. What program is it that converts it for your site? That way if it works out I finally have a good conversion resource!
Oh that would be great if you could let me know if it works out. I’d love that. The conversions I use are actually through my recipe card plug in for my site. I use WP Recipe Maker and they design the recipe cards and figure out the nutritional values and conversions for me. It’s a paid plug in, but I don’t think they have a site that people can just go on and use conversions. It would be helpful if they did, but I think they just do coding and programs for website plug ins.
Ok, now I’m replying to my reply. I just mentioned the conversions stuff to my husband and he uses an app on his iphone that is pretty amazing. It’s got a gazillion options on it and it’s simply called Convert. Thought you might want to check that out as well to compare.
Can I mix the batter as normal instead of reverse mixing method? will that change anything?
Thank you
Mita
You can if you’d like, but a reverse creaming method really helps with the texture. It helps keep the batter from being over mixed by coating the gluten in the flour first before adding the liquid. It gives you a great soft and smooth texture. You should be able to do the regular creaming method as well, but the texture may not be exactly like if you’d used the reverse creaming method.
Thank you. I sure appreciate your help. I will stick to your reverse method. I do have another Q regarding chocolate frosting. I will be using sugar transfer sheet designs on top of my chocolate frosting. I am wondering is there a way the frosting is not too wet so as to not ruin the desk oof the transfer sheet when putting it on the frosting
Thank you
I’ve actually never used transfer sheets, so I’m not sure I’m much help with that. I can think of two things that may help to keep the buttercream from being too ‘wet’. First, you might just make the icing a little thicker than you normally do. I don’t mean thicker as in adding more, I just mean by perhaps adding in a cup or so more of confectioner’s sugar. The other idea is if you replace part of the butter in the icing recipe with vegetable shortening, it will become closer to a ‘crusting’ buttercream. That might help it a little. Again, I’m definitely not an expert in transfer sheets as I don’t have any experience with them.
Thank you. You are indeed v helpful. Awesome. Appreciate you taking time to respond
Thank you
You’re so welcome! Let me know how it all goes!
hi! looks delicious. how long can i freeze the cakes for? i might need them in the freezer for a week, would that be safe? thanks!
I try not to freeze them any longer than two or three weeks. They’re still probably fine for longer than that, but I’m just picky and want the best texture. So a week is totally fine. I usually freeze mine for a couple weeks and they turn out just fine.
I’m looking forward to baking your cake!
My cake flour does not have cornstarch. Do you recommend adding it and, if so, how much?
Thank you 🙂
Hi Liz, I’m not sure. I haven’t used cake flour like that, but I would just try it first without adding anything to it and see how it turns out.
Thanks so much for answering so quickly, Kara! You are so sweet.
I’m making it tomorrow and will let you know how it turns out. The ingredients no doubt make a great cake and your clear instructions are wonderful.
You’re so welcome. 😊 I hope it turns out well and that you really like it!
I thought it silly to respond before cutting into the cake.
What a fantastic Christmas gift 🙂
My sibs and I threw my dad a 97th birthday party and the cake disappeared quickly.
I kept the sides of the cake pan cool during baking and it was a wonderful bite, the texture and flavor are perfect. Paired it with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting. A little worried that the raspberry filling would bleed into the cake, I spread a super thin layer of the frosting on the layers and that worked to protect the cake from the raspberry. Can’t wait for the next birthday 😉
Thank you for posting this recipe, Kara
Hey Liz, that’s awesome! I’m so glad everyone liked the cake! And that’s the perfect way to handle fruit filling…adding the thin layer of buttercream and then the filling so it doesn’t soak in. And the white chocolate cream cheese buttercream sounds so good on that cake. Oh and happy birthday to your dad! Wow 97! I need to know his secret. 😉
Can you make this cake in a 13 x 9 pan? If so how long would you bake it for and what temp? Also I am high altitude any modifications?
Hi Connie, I have not baked this in a 13×9 pan, but it should work just fine. I’d say in non high altitude situations, I’d bake it at 350 degrees and I’d probably start checking it around 30 minutes. When it’s done, the top should be golden brown and a toothpick in the middle should come out with a few crumbs on it still. This cake doesn’t rise super high, so there probably won’t be much of a dome on it. As for high altitude baking, I’ve gotta tell ya I have no experience with that at all, so I would only be guessing and that’s not good. I did look up some things though and it’s really interesting how different it is for high altitude baking. Here’s a link I found that has a handy chart for adjustments you might want to make. https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html I’d start there and see how it goes. With me not being high altitude, I don’t have a way to test it out, so if you try it with the adjustments, I’d love to know how it turns out! Other readers might benefit from your high altitude adjustments as well.
Hello Karen,
I have made this vanilla cake several times and it turns out an absolute dream every time. It tastes good with all kinds of frosting too! The recipe even worked when I made a double batch and baked it in a 12×18 inch pan. However, I have one question. Is there any way I could turn this recipe into a strawberry cake without strawberry emulsion?
Hi there! I’m so glad you liked the cake! And that’s good to know it works well as a double batch too. You could probably turn this into a strawberry cake, but it would need some experimenting though. You could add in some strawberry puree, but then you’d need to lower the amount of other liquid in the cake. Since strawberries are a bit acidic, you’d need to add a bit more baking soda, but then you’d have to lower the baking powder a bit. So, basically my answer is yes, but it would take a little experimenting on the right amount for each of these things to get it right.
Would adding some freeze-dried strawberries that were run through a food processor work? I’ve seen that for frosting to add color naturally.
You can probably do that, as long as nothing you add would add in too much liquid. If it does, it’ll throw the ratios off and the texture of the cake might be off.
This cake and your vanilla frosting was the best cake I have made!! I did poke it and add some sugar water mixture on top to add a little extra moisture! Do you possibly have a german chocolate cake recipe?
Oh yay!!! I’m so glad you liked it! And I’m guessing the sugar syrup really took it up a notch. I’ll need to try that myself!
As far as a German chocolate cake goes, I don’t have a recipe for one at this point. I’ve got it on my list, but I always kind of push it to the side because I’m allergic to pecans. Lol. I mean I could eat the cake obviously but I’d have to rely on someone else’s opinion about the icing…I’m sure I could find some taste testers though. Lol!
Hi Kara,
My family loves this recipe! I made it for my daughter’s birthday. I am going to make it again for my son’s birthday, but I was going to use a rectangle pan. I read your suggestion about the baking core, but I have no clue what that is lol Would I still need it if I am using a convection oven?
Thanks!
Marisa
Oh I’m so glad everyone likes it! As far as the heating core goes, if you’re just baking a 13×9″ cake, you don’t have to worry about that. I use a heating core if I’m baking a really large cake. If you are actually baking a super large cake, then Amazon has the heating cores and you can usually get them in craft stores as well (on the baking or cake decorating aisle). I usually just get the wilton brand, but you can use a flower nail as well if you have one of those. If you’re not familiar with those they are the little round things you use to pipe flowers on. I hope this helps!
Hi!
I just made this recipe for my son’s 1st Birthday. I did not use any substitutes and I think followed everything to a T. I did make them as cupcakes and used liners. I followed the cupcake variation.
The cupcakes are indeed light and moist on the inside, but the cupcake seems heavy and almost hard on the outside. I took them out after 20 min and removed from pan immediately.
Any tips for the future would be great!
Hmmm…you baked it at 350, right? I haven’t had that problem with these yet, but it sounds like maybe they were baked at too high a temp, or maybe a bit too long. Might just test your oven temp and make sure that it’s accurate. If it is, you could possibly turn down the temp just a bit and see if that keeps the outsides from over-browning on you. Let me know if this happens again. When I tested this out for cupcakes, I didn’t notice that happening, but I’m happy to test it again if this is an ongoing issue.
Hello, for some reason my cake tasted like corn. Do you have any idea why?, Anything I might have done wrong?
Oh my goodness! I just don’t have any idea what that could be! Hmmm…did you maybe not add in all the sugar? Just guessing here. Maybe some of the ingredients didn’t get added. I’m just not sure.
I added everything, but I’ll try again. Thanks.
The pics look so stunning! I can’t wait to try this! We’re going to have a party and I’ll bake this one. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks so much! Let me know how you like it. 🙂
I substitute a gluten free flour mix in all my cake recipes, usually by weight (figuring weight of what the all-purpose flour would be and using that amount of weight of gluten-free flour). Seeing that gf floor has no gluten, would I need to make any adjustments?
Thanks. Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Hi there, I’m so sorry, but I do not know the answer to that. I don’t bake with gf flour and have no experience in gf baking. If it’s worked in the past as a substitute, I’d just try it out and see if it works here. Let me know how it turns out!
Your recipe says to add a third, and then the rest. Does that mean 1/3 + 2/3, or is that a mistake, meaning 1/2 + 1/2? When I saw third, I figured that meant 3 additions.
Hi Eileen, it’s not a mistake. You’ll just add in about a third of the liquid mixture, mix and then you can just add in all the rest of the liquid mixture and mix. (Not three additions.) Hope this helps!
Thanks! That thought came to me as I was writing the question.
This looks like a great recipe and I’m eager to try it–a couple of questions before I do.
First, I generally use the standard creaming method (starting by beating butter and sugar together) for cakes, and I’ve never had any problems with cakes turning out too dense or tough. Will the creaming method work just as well for this recipe or should I stick to the method you describe? Second, I use butter in all my cakes (except for carrot cake) because I prefer the flavor, but butter cakes can go rather hard in the refrigerator. My favorite kind of frosting is whipped cream (stabilized with powdered milk), but that means the cake has to be refrigerated if it is not going to be served immediately. Does the sour cream in this recipe help the cake to stay moist (and not too hard) when it is refrigerated? I really want to find a recipe for a cake that has a nice buttery flavor but does not out of the refrigerator hard! Thanks.
Hi Karen. I would try the reverse creaming method for this one, since that’s really the way I tested it. It’s actually easier (in my opinion). You’ll use less bowls. 🙂 I just think it makes a softer cake, but that is up to you. As far as the cake getting hard in the fridge, it will probably firm up a bit because it does have butter in it. It does however stay moist. Maybe it could be set out for 15 -20 minutes before serving, so it can get closer to room temperature before eating it though.
Hello! Thanks for sharing this recipe. If doubling the recipe – would you suggest making two separate batches?
No you can mix it up all in one batch as long as you have a big enough bowl and you’ll be baking it all shortly after you mix it up. You just don’t want to mix up a bunch of batter and then save it to bake later.
Ok, I have to start by saying I do not comment on recipes. This cake, however, deserves to be showcased on the largest pedestal and honestly should be served to the Queen, the President, and Martha Stewart herself. It’s that good. Better than that good. The recipe is easy to follow and creates the most perfect crumb- delicate yet perfectly dense, light, but not too airy. I did not use the almond emulsion (allergy issues) and had just run out of vanilla bean paste, so I simply used pure vanilla extract and it was still absolutely delicious. I’m not even a huge cake fan- more of a cookie girl, but I would eat this entire 8-inch cake myself. I only bake from scratch, and this will be the ONLY recipe I use from this moment on. THANK YOU, Kara, for creating cake perfection. I will definitely try your other recipes as well!
Oh my goodness Kristen, that is the best review ever! You are wonderful for saying such nice things and I’m SO glad you loved the cake. I’m dying over here with your comment about the Queen, the President and Martha Stewart. LOL! Do you know who I’d be most nervous about tasting my cake?….Martha. I think I’d just have an anxiety attack. Anyway thank you, thank you for that wonderful review and if you eat an entire 8″ all by yourself, I won’t judge…I may have done it myself a time or two. 😉
Hi. I have made this cake several times. It is delicious, one of the best vanilla cakes I have eaten! I used a vanilla bean and homemade extract! . Last time I made it, I frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream! Shared it with friends, they loved it too! I love all things cake! Always from scratch!! Thank you!
Oh that’s so good to hear! And the homemade extract sounds amazing. Thanks for the kind words and I’m so glad you like it! 😊
Hi Karen,
I just baked the cake followed the recipe to a tee and have just pulled them out of the oven I used two 6 inch pans and one long pan. The 6 inch cakes have sunk in the middle do you know what may have happened?
Hmmm, I’m not exactly sure. At first I would have said that it might have been over-mixed, but since the other cake was fine, then that may not be it. Sometimes if you take a cake out too early, then it can sink in the middle. Or it could have also been baked a bit too long. How was the texture? Was it a little dense? If so, it may have been a bit over-mixed, or was taken out of the oven a bit too soon. If it was baked throughout just fine, then maybe try baking them for a little less time and see if that helps. That’s a mystery to me though. Let me know if you try it again and what happens!
HI Kara
Can you carve with this cake, it is dense enough for layer/tiering ?
Many thanks
Hi Crystal, yes you should be able to carve with it. I don’t do a lot of carved cakes, but this cake is on the dense side, so it should work. It’ll probably be easier to carve if you refrigerate it though.
Hi, Kara-
Am planning to try this cake for my daughter’s first birthday party next weekend. I normally bake my cakes using convection. Do you recommend this? Thanks!
Hi Christina, I have no experience baking in a convection oven. I’ve heard they are amazing and bake things more evenly and quicker, but I have not tested this recipe out using convection. I’m so sorry I’m not much help in this area! If you do try it, just watch your time closely as I’m sure it will bake in a much shorter time than what I’ve got on the recipe.
Hey! Do you sift your cake flour?
I made this cake for the first time yesterday and it turned out great! The best flavor I’ve ever tasted with a vanilla cake! My husband loves it without icing! 😂
Hi Frankie. First, I’m so glad the cake was a hit! Yay! You might be shocked at this, but I usually don’t usually sift my flour. 😲 I know…we’re ‘supposed’ to sift aren’t we? Lol. Anyway, part of the reason I don’t normally sift is because frankly sometimes I’m in a hurry (maybe just lazy) but sometimes it’s for another reason all together…which I’ll explain. I don’t think most of the general population sifts and when I make and test out my recipes, I want to make sure it’ll still turn out well even if someone doesn’t put in that added effort…that way anyone cake make it…sifter, or no sifter. 😉 I will sift at times though when I notice that my cake flour is a little clumpy. You can certainly sift the flour if you want and it does help with the texture. I sift AFTER I’ve measured. So I’ll just add the flour to my measuring cup then pour over a large sifter (actually just a large metal sieve I got on Amazon), which is sitting on top of my bowl. I think just tap the sifter with my hand to sift. Ok, that really long answer was to basically say, you don’t have to sift, but if you want to, you certainly can and to sift after you measure. Hope this helps!
Thank you! It certainly helps! I haven’t sifted yet but thinking I might because I made 2 more cakes this morning and they all have holes in them. Some are the size of a pencil. Lol the ones I made yesterday had holes as well. So I sure that my butter was the right temp and followed everything to a T!
Yeah that might be a good idea to sift. Also make sure you don’t mix too long…that could also cause holes in your cake. I’m sure you did fine, but just putting it out there. 😉 Once all the ingredients get added in, only mix until just combined. Don’t mix for a couple minutes. Let me know how it goes!
Just being curious, what would you charge for a two layer cake, three layer cake and a four layer cake? All 8 round 3” tall. I completely understand if you choose not to share. 😊thanks
I have a mission trip coming up in July and was thinking about sell cakes to earn money for the trip.
I have no problem sharing, but that is a loaded question. lol! I know people hate getting this answer, but the answer really is ‘it depends’. When I was selling cakes, I never really had a set price or even a price per serving, because it really depends on how it’s going to be decorated. If it’s just simple, non decorated cakes, then it probably depends on your area as well. If it’s just for fundraising and temporary, you could probably sell them for a bit less than if you were starting your own cake business. I wouldn’t try to purposely undercut local bakers though…especially if you ever plan on starting a cake business, but that’s just my opinion.
Honestly what I did when I first started out selling cakes here and there was I looked at grocery stores to see their base price, then looked at nice bakeries in my area and checked their prices, then I picked somewhere in the middle. That’s a really rough guide and I didn’t do that forever, but it’s at least something to go by when you’re just starting, or if you’re just doing this for a fundraiser temporarily. Does that make sense?
Oh, also check and make sure there aren’t rules about selling what you bake in your area. In my state, Texas, we have a cottage food law that allows us to sell baked goods out of our home as long as there are no perishable ingredients, but it also has rules on labeling stuff, so be sure to check out the rules for your area. I know this was long, but hopefully it helped!
Hey Kara! Thank you for the advice! I have been reading over the Cottage food laws! I’m also in the process of getting a license!
Quick question, can this cake be made sugar free??
Hey Frankie, I’ve never tried to make this one sugar free. You could perhaps try it with maybe splenda if you want. Cakes made with a sugar substitute never turn out exactly like a cake with sugar in it. Sugar not only helps with the flavor of a cake, but it also helps give moisture to the cake. It would take some experimenting to get a good sugar free cake recipe and I’m definitely not an expert on those.
Kara, reguarding the cake
Prices. I figured all my ingredients prices to get my cost. Then I added a little to it. Lol
Ok, good deal. If you don’t feel like the price is already too high, go ahead and add in a little bit for you time too. Time is money, right?!
I followed every steps but after 45 mins, the middle sections of both cake were still not solidified. Did I do something wrong?
Hmmm, I’m really not sure. I haven’t had any problems baking this cake, so I’m trying to think what could have gone wrong. You set the oven to 325, right? Did you bake in 8″ round pans that were 2 inches deep? You might check your oven temp to see if it’s accurate. Get an oven thermometer and pop it in there and see if what you set the oven to is the same as what the oven thermometer shows. Also, make sure you preheat the oven. Other than that, I really don’t know what could have happened unless maybe something was measured incorrectly.
Hi Kara
I am baking at 3,420 feet and the batter has overflowed all three 6″ pans – yikes!! Should I just put it in 4 6″ pans or is there something else I should adjust for baking at this altitude?
Thanks
Oh no! I hope it wasn’t a huge mess, but I’m guessing it probably was. I hate cleaning ovens…it’s a huge pain. As far as baking for high altitude goes I have a link to the King Arthur baking site that I usually give out when I get these questions, but it really goes into some things that have to be changed. I use the link because I personally have no experience baking at high altitude and I don’t have a way to test it. This website says that the baking powder and perhaps other ingredients have to be adjusted and it even goes into how to do that. I would follow their suggestions and then it will probably be fine and not overflow. Here’s the link: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html And if you make some adjustments, I’d love to know what you did and how it turns out. I just have no way of testing it out down here in Texas. 😉
Hey Kara, I’ve been using this recipe for a while and everyone loves it. However I was finally able to have a piece to taste and it seemed like it was a bit dry and lacked flavor. I did buy my paste in bulk and my flour in bulk so I’m wondering if that may have made a difference….. the paste does seem a bit different doesn’t have an alcohol smell like the one from Michael’s. What do you think??
Hi Frankie, hmmm I’m not sure why it would come out dry and lacking flavor. It hasn’t come out that way for me, but everyone has different taste preferences though. You might check your baking time. If it’s baked a bit longer than needed, that can dry out a cake. Also check the oven temp with a thermometer as well and make sure it’s spot on. I don’t think buying in bulk would affect it. Just make sure you’re using cake flour and not all purpose flour because that makes a difference. You might try adding in a little extra vanilla bean paste if you feel like it needs more flavor though. I usually buy the vanilla bean paste on Amazon and it’s the LorAnn brand. I hope this helps!
Made this for a birthday. Easy to make, delicious moist cake, easy to work with icing. Made a great impression when the cake was cut and the layers revealed. A hit all around.
This is so great to hear! I’m so glad it was a hit! 💗
Hello,
Can you give me some tips on making a 3 layered naked cake?
Thanks!
Hi Angie, yes I sure can. Do you mean a three ‘layered’, or a three ‘tiered’ cake? If it’s a tiered cake, then you’ll just want to make sure there’s a cake board under each tier and dowels in the cake below each tier. I’ve got a post on the anatomy of a cake that might be helpful with that: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/anatomy-of-a-decorated-cake/
If it’s actually three ‘layers’ (not tiers) then that’s much easier. You’ll just stack and fill your cakes like usual. Then it just depends on how naked you want the cake.
If you want it to be a semi-naked cake, then you’ll cover the whole thing with buttercream, but you’ll essentially just scrape off most of the icing. Use a buttercream smoother and a turn table if you have one. That makes it super easy. The main things to be aware of is that a naked cake can dry out much quicker than one that is covered in buttercream, so you want to try and decorate these on the day of the event, or at least cover them very well if you need to do them earlier. You just have to be more carefule that they don’t dry out. The semi-naked cakes will fair better than the totally naked ones, because at least there will be some icing on them.
The other thing to keep in mind is that I like to cut my cake board (not the cake base of course, but the cake board the actual cake is sitting on) a bit smaller than the actual cake. Not a bunch, but a little. I even do this if I’m stacking the tiers. I do it because there will be no buttercream border or any other decorations to cover up the cardboard and it’ll show around the bottom of that cake tier. So I just cut a skinny sliver of the cake board off all around it (before stacking and filling the cake on top of it.) This makes a real clean bottom edge to the cake…you don’t really see the ugly card board cake round. It really looks good with a semi-naked cake because a bit of the buttercream will fill in that area between the cake and the bottom board. (I hope that makes sense.)
Anyway I’ve written you a book at this point. 😂 If you have any more questions, just let me know!
Kara- this recipe is the best vanilla cake I’ve ever had…. and I’ve baked tons. First job in high school was in the bakery of our towns Safeway store. It sparked a life love love with baking (my G-ma, mom and sister are amazing cooks. The kind that don’t have to measure anything and it always come out perfect good… me not so much. Even with the “cooking” gene being passed down from both sides in my family I’m just a basic cook, yet I’ve always excelled at at baking, weird. A was diagnosed last year with a chronic autoimmune disease and had to resign from my job as an RN last December, which broke my heart. I had been at that hospital 15 years and they had began to push me out slowly and were no where near supportive of my condition. So to fight off depression I started baking again. Your vanilla cake recipe is absolutely perfect. I’ve tried many others from some of my favorite bloggers and yet I always say to myself “ why didn’t you just go with your normal go to recipe Ges? “ ( which is your recipe lol) I again asked myself the same question this last weekend as I baked a cake I for my bff’s 39th birthday and it turned out pancake thing and tough. Never again!!! Thank you for putting this all out there for us home bakers who try to get fancy with their baking to impress their fam and friends. I do have a couple questions lol I’m not just trying to whine about my problems. I want to do this recipe in a 24 ct mini cupcake pan… thoughts? How much to fill and how long to bake? Again thank you for your amazing recipes and tips/tricks for us would be home bakers!!!
Thanks!
Gesina
Gesina, thank you for that wonderful email! I’m so glad you like the recipe and I’m even happier that baking has helped fight the depression. I’m sure being pushed out of your career like that was very hard. Oh and I have done the same thing about trying out new recipes. It’s so fun to try out new things, but not so much when they don’t work out, right? Ok, on to your question: I haven’t tried this recipe out as mini cupcakes. If you want to try it out, I’d set the oven to 350 degrees and not the 325. I’d only fill them halfway full plus a tiny bit more and then bake at 350. You should probably start checking them at around 12 minutes or so although you may have to bake them a couple minutes more. I hope this helps! And thanks again for your sweet email!
I am very interested in making this cake. You state that you use LorAnns vanilla bean. I see two different types of that brand. Which one do you use? Do you use LorAnn Oils Natural Madagascar Vanilla Bean Paste or Vanilla Bean Paste, Natural, 4 Ounce, LorAnn?
I have used both. I tend to just get whichever type of vanilla paste that my store has on hand (whether it’s the regular or the Madagascar), but either will work just fine.
Thank you! I just made the cake and vanilla buttercream frosting yesterday and it turned out phenomenal. Three people have tried it thus far and it’s been a huge hit. It is amazing. I haven’t baked a cake in years, but I followed the recipe and everything turned out great. The only reason I’ve been sharing the cake with others is because I’m afraid of what will happen if I’m left alone with the cake in my house :/
This is wonderful! I’m so glad you liked it and that it was a huge hit! That makes me so happy. 😊 And I do the same thing with cake. I have to give it away, or I will eat the entire thing myself…I’m out of control. 🤣
Hi Kara! I recently started getting into baking, and was looking through a bunch of different vanilla cake recipes. I wanted to try one that used sour cream and the reverse creaming method, and yours took the cake (please forgive the awful pun, I couldn’t help it). It looks awesome and I’ll definitely be trying it, but as a baking newbie, I had a question: Instead of adding a 1/2 cup of whole milk, can you just add 1 1/2 cups of sour cream instead? Would doing this add too much fat? If so, would it be better just using the 1 cup of sour cream instead of adding more? I’m just curious about the role the milk plays in the recipe and what happens if you leave it out.
Hi Teal, loved the cake pun! Be real careful when subbing out ingredients. You don’t really want to leave out the milk in the recipe. When baking scratch cakes, the ingredients are actually ratios. So you’ve got a particular ratio of fat to liquid to sugar to dry ingredients. If the ratio is thrown off too much, then the cake texture will be off. You’ll need the added liquid of the milk. If you replace it with sour cream, the cake could be a little more dense than normal. The milk is adding a bit of fat, but you need that liquid to help with the moisture and the texture of the cake. I tested this recipe out multiple ways and really fell this list of ingredients gives the best texture. Try making it as written first and see how you like it. If you don’t have whole milk, you can always just use 2% or whatever type of regular milk (not heavy cream) you have on hand. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks for the explanation, Kara! I really appreciate it, and I’ll definitely let you know how it goes when I make it. BTW, I love how you still respond to comments even though this recipe was posted 2.5 years ago!! That’s so awesome of you, keep it up 😉
Oh you’re so welcome! I hope you really like it. And I’m on my blog every day and love talking to people about cake, so any time you have a question, don’t hesitate to ask. 🙂
Hi Kara! I just wanted to let you know that I made the cake this past Saturday and it turned out awesome!! It smelled and tasted just like a birthday cake. It came out super soft and light, just like you said. I loved the texture and the vanilla bean paste, which is definitely better than regular extract. This is only the fifth cake I’ve made, but my Mom and brother both thought it was the best one so far. Thanks again for your advice and the awesome recipe! And I’d hate to be a pain, but I do have another question: How do you get rid of those air bubbles that appear throughout the cake? I don’t mind them as far as eating obviously, but I like to take pictures of my cakes and the air bubbles aren’t very photogenic 😂
Oh I’m so glad you liked the cake! That just makes my heart happy. 🙂 And you’re definitely not a pain and I’m happy to answer your questions. You can get air bubbles for several reasons. If the batter is mixed a bit too long, or at too high of a speed, it can get air bubbles in it. If you’re using a stand mixer, try to use a flat beater attachment instead of a whisk, so it doesn’t add so much air into it. Sometimes bubbles just happen, but after you add the batter to the pans, you can tap the pans against the counter a few times and sometimes that will bring any bubbles to the surface to go ahead and pop instead of baking them in. I hope that made sense.
Oh, that makes perfect sense! I use an old hand mixer that only has beater attachments (I think) and doesn’t really have a low speed for that matter either, so that would definitely explain the air bubbles. I’ll try tapping the pans against the counter next time. Thanks again, Kara! You’re awesome 😊
You’re so welcome!
Hi. I made this and loved how it came out! I did cut the recipe for the frosting in half but next time I’ll make the entire amount. Thank you!
Hi DiAnne, I’m so glad you liked it! Thanks for letting me know. 😊 And yes the buttercream looks like it would make so much, but I always say I like a little cake with my buttercream. 😂
Love this cake it’s so delicious. Can I half this recipe?
Yay! I’m so glad you liked it! I’ve never made half a recipe for this cake, but it should work out fine. Getting half an egg might be an issue, but other than that, I think it would be okay.