You’ll want to make this moist french vanilla cake from scratch every day. Add this fluffy cake to your best cake recipe list because it’s sure to be a favorite.
Hey there! Before you scroll, there’s lot’s of important stuff in the post!…including the FAQ section, which may answer any questions you might have about this recipe. Enjoy!
This french vanilla cake is super moist and it’s jam packed with french vanilla flavor, then covered in rich french vanilla buttercream.
When I was just a kid, I used to make cakes like a crazy person. I mean I was always in the kitchen making cakes. (I have no idea how I wasn’t a gazillion pounds.)
Back then, I made cakes from a box. It was easier for me and frankly I was impatient and just wanted to eat my cake as soon as I could.
I was very fond of the French Vanilla cake mixes. Nine times out of ten, I’d choose that flavor to bake. So, for this recipe, I really wanted to create a scratch version of that cake.
So why ‘french’ vanilla and what’s the difference? Well I really didn’t know. All I knew was that I really liked the flavor. So I did what I do best and decided to do a little research.
I’ll spare you all the details and just go with a summary here if you’re interested. So generally, types of vanilla are named after the places where they’re grown…Madagascar vanilla, Tahitian vanilla etc., but apparently that’s not the case with French vanilla.
French vanilla is actually a way of making a custard that gives it a rich, deeper taste. So, yes, it’s a flavor, but not in the same way as the other vanilla extracts. You get that flavor because of a method that is used to make the custard.
Well okay…I’m not gonna argue with science or history, but I’m just sayin’ that I can tell the difference. It’s subtle, but I knew what I was looking for and I knew there had to be a way to get it.
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Well I actually found a french vanilla extract that is Uh-mazing! I’m serious. I’m using it in everything now. Here is a link to it and I REALLY hope you can get it. French Vanilla Extract
You can make this recipe without it, but I think it’s SO good if you can get it.
I also used french vanilla creamer and a french vanilla pudding mix and that gives it a little extra french vanilla flavor, but doesn’t make it taste fake.
We’re covering this bad boy with french vanilla buttercream. We’re not skimping on the french vanilla…nope…might as well go for the gold, right?
The mixing method for this cake is the old fashioned creaming method. Nothing out of the ordinary here.
TIPS & FAQs FOR THE FRENCH VANILLA CAKE:
- This recipe calls for french vanilla pudding mix. Use the small box and use it dry. (I have not tested this recipe without it. If you can’t get it, just omit it. In theory it should still come out fine, but since I haven’t tested that, I can’t promise it.)
- You’ll need two small boxes of the french vanilla pudding mix. You’ll only use a small amount from the second box to make the buttercream. (You can omit this from the buttercream if you don’t have a second box.)
- This recipe calls for french vanilla creamer. Use the liquid creamer you get in the dairy aisle at the grocery store. If you can’t get this, just use half and half cream.
- This recipes calls for a specific type of vanilla extract for this cake. You can find it here: French Vanilla Extract It is very good, but if you can’t get it, just use regular vanilla extract in the same amounts. It won’t have that french vanilla taste, but it will still be good.
- Make sure your butter is room temperature. (Don’t microwave it to warm it up. Just set it out and let it come to room temp on its own.)
- Try to get the eggs as close to room temp as you can. Just set them out a bit before you start baking.
Ok, let’s get to the recipe. Don’t forget, there’s a video there as well to help.
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ITEMS & TOOLS USED FOR THE FRENCH VANILLA CAKE:
- Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
- Flex Edge Beater Attachment for Stand Mixer
- 8″ Baking Pans
- French Vanilla Extract
Video:
Note About Recipe Measurements: I write recipes using volume (cups) measurements because here in the U.S., this is what people are more familiar with and I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated when baking. For metric/weight measurements, click the ‘metric’ button under the ingredients in the recipe card below. The weights are converted by a program, not me, and it’s just a best guess. I can’t guarantee that weighing the ingredients will produce the exact same results, since I test recipes using volume measurements.
Recipe
Moist French Vanilla Cake from Scratch
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 ⅔ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 3.4 oz small box dry instant french vanilla pudding mix
- 1 cup french vanilla coffee creamer (I get this from the refrigerated section. It's the creamer in the milk section, not the dry powdered creamer. This really pumps up the flavor and the moistness. See notes for substitution options.
- ½ cup whole milk
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 2 teaspoon french vanilla extract (French vanilla extract adds a different type of vanilla flavor than regular extract, but if you don’t have it or can’t get it, you can use regular vanilla extract instead in the same amount.)
- 1 cup butter (slightly cooler than room temp)
- 1 ⅔ cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
For the buttercream:
- ¼ cup milk
- 2 tablespoon dry french vanilla pudding mix
- 2 cups butter (room temperature)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 7 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1 teaspoon french vanilla extract (If you can’t get this, you can substitute with regular vanilla extract)
- ¼ cup french vanilla coffee creamer (If you don’t have this, you can substitute with cream or milk)
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease and flour two 8″ round cake pans and set aside.
- In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and small package of dry instant french vanilla pudding. Whisk well and set aside.
- In another bowl, add the french vanilla coffee creamer, milk, oil and french vanilla (or regular vanilla) extract. Whisk well and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the room temperature butter and mix on medium until smooth. Add in the sugar and mix on medium and then on medium high for several minutes until light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs one at a time and mix on medium just until combined. Only mix until the egg is just incorporated. Try not to over mix. If your eggs are super cold, your batter may look a little curdled at this point, but just keep going.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again on medium, just until everything is incorporated.
- Alternately add in the flour mixture and the liquid mixture. Starting and ending with the flour mixture. (Add in ⅓ of the flour mixture and mix on medium just until combined. Add in ½ the liquid mixture, mixing only until combined. Add in another ⅓ of the flour mixture, mixing only until combined. Add in the last of the liquid mixture, mixing only until combined, then the last of the flour mixture and mix until combined.)
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again until well combined. You only want to mix until well combined, which is about 15 seconds. Mixing for several minutes is too long for a scratch cake.
- Divide batter into the prepared pans. Batter will be quite thick so just spread it around evenly in your pans.
- Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 55 – 60 minutes. The cake will be a little darker than the normal golden brown. Insert a toothpick somewhere in the middle and a few moist crumbs should stick to the toothpick.
- Remove from the oven and cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool completely before adding buttercream.
For the buttercream:
- In a small bowl, add the milk and the two tablespoons of dry french vanilla pudding mix. Whisk well and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter well for a minute or two on medium/low to medium speed.
- Add in three cups of confectioner’s sugar and the salt and mix on low until incorporated and then medium until well mixed.
- Add one tablespoon of french vanilla creamer and mix on low, then medium until incorporated.
- Add the last four cups of confectioner’s sugar and mix on low until incorporated and then medium until well mixed.
- Add in the milk and pudding mixture plus the vanilla extract and mix on low until incorporated, then on medium until well mixed.
- Check the consistency. If it’s too thick, add another tablespoon of the french vanilla coffee creamer and mix again. You may need to add more cream, or milk to get the correct spreading consistency.
- Once you reach the consistency desired, beat on medium speed for a couple minutes until fluffy, then spread onto cake.
Notes
- Per a comment left on this post, try using half vanilla and half hazelnut creamer to get the French vanilla flavor. (Thanks to Dena for this suggestion.)
- You could also just replace the creamer with half & half cream, heavy cream, or whole milk.
Nutrition
How to Share
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Angie
This cake is good! But is it anyway for it to not be so thick , and bake for such a long time, i felt it overbaked by not being completely finish when it was time to come out! And it was so dark ! Any tips it is a really good recipe! Thanks
Kara Jane
Hi Angie, yes this cake is more of a dense cake and heavier than some others on the blog. Make sure you’ve got the oven set to 325 and not 350 as that would make the outside really dark and the inside not baked enough. It does take a long time to bake though and it will become more brown on the outside than other cakes. I did notice that when testing it a few times. There is a lot of stuff added to this batter and it just takes this one longer to bake. There’s not really a way to change that without essentially re-writing the recipe and I really think the taste and moistness of this cake is quite good. I do however have a couple other vanilla cakes that are lighter in texture if that’s what you’re looking for. I’ll put the links here in case you want to check them out: Vanilla Bean Cake: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/favorite-vanilla-bean-cake/ or Moist White Cake: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/moist-white-cake/ I hope this helps!
Angie
Thanks for the reply! Im a baker and i bake from scratch and i was wondering do you double mix or triple mix your recipe? It saves time instead of mixing each time but im afraid of overmixing or undermixing the batter as some says ?? Any thoughts would apreciate your response! Thanks
Kara Jane
Do you mean mixing up a double or triple batch? I will do that if I need a lot of batter to fill larger pans. It’s not good to mix up a bunch of batter though if you’re not going to bake it right then. The baking soda and powder can lose it’s power if it’s not baked soon after it’s mixed. I mean you could probably put some batter in the fridge while a batch is baking, but then you’ll need to go ahead and baked the chilled batch soon after.
As far as mixing a double or triple batch goes, it’s really the same process as mixing up a single batch. Essentially you only want to mix until the ingredients are well incorporated. Once everything looks mixed, don’t keep going. Don’t mix for several minutes like a box cake mix would say to. If you’re making more batter, you’ll probably have to mix a bit longer, since there will be more ingredients, but it shouldn’t be too much longer. I hope that made sense! If not, just let me know. 🙂
Angie
Yes mixing up a double batch to fill larger pans is what i meant! Some people say u can others say u shouldnt , some say you have to adjust the baking powder and stuff in it , its just confusing and since your an experienced baker i wanted to know your thoughts on it! Thanks (i mix and bake right away ) i once left some batter on the counter to bake after and it did not rise it was a mess!
Kara Jane
It might be okay to put in the fridge while one batch is baking and then bake the chilled batch as soon as the others come out of the oven. With cake mixes, you can keep the batter longer, but sometimes scratch cake batter just doesn’t do as well. I think some have had ok experiences with that, but for me, I just never get good results baking chilled batter.
Angie
Ohh ok i see! But if i double mix it might not be any need for it ! Just dont want to take no chances on the ingredients! Do you adjust the baking powder n soda in the recipes when you will double mix or do you just leave it as it is?? ( making the same recipe twice in the same bowl) let me know ?
Kara Jane
I don’t add any extra baking powder or soda. I just straight up double the recipe mixing it all in the same bowl as if I’m just mixing one recipe.
Angie
And it always turns out good right! Sorry for the many questions just making sure i get all the facts for next time!?
Kara Jane
No worries! I can never promise anything 100%, because there are so many different factors that go into baking, but so far I haven’t had any trouble doubling recipes.
Kathy
Looking for a French Vanilla Cake that is dense and moist so glad to hear it is moist and Dense
Love the notes
Kara Jane
Hi Kathy, I hope you like it!
Angie
Thank you so much for your time and patience ! One last question i tried your classic yellow recipe and i felt as it didnt rise enough i was wondering if i can use 3 eggs and 2 yolks instead of 2 and 2 for more structure?? Or maybe more baking soda/powder ??
Kara Jane
No problem Angie! I wouldn’t add anymore baking soda as there wouldn’t be enough acid to offset it and too much soda can give a weird taste to a cake. If you add more eggs, that might make it more dense. I didn’t have any trouble with it rising, but if you wanted to try and add in another 1/2 tsp of baking powder just to experiment, you could do that. I’d be curious about how it turns out.
Angie
Will let u know if i decide to try it! Thanks
Angie
I made these cake layers for a baby shower & it was a huge hit. It is the best cake layers I think I’ve ever had!! I used a White Chocolate Buttercream icing but I’m sure the icing with this recipe is great too!
Kara Jane
Oh yay! I’m so glad you liked it! And I bet the white chocolate buttercream tasted amazing with it. Thanks for letting me know! ?
Angie
Hi Kara can i use sugar free french vanilla creamer? that way im not adding more sweetness to the batter.
Kara Jane
That should be fine, but won’t sugar free sweetener have splenda or something in it other than sugar to sweeten it? I’m just thinking that if it does, it’s not going to lessen the taste of sugar really. I don’t think it would hurt anything to use it though.
Angie
Hi Kara im back again!! Lol , made this recipe tonight for my birthday its one of my to go’s and i felt it was a little too sweet , is it anyway for me to lessen the sugar in the recipe i know sugar serves as moisture but maybe 50g less wouldnt hurt much ? What do u think?
Kara Jane
Hi Angie, I think that would be alright since it’s not that much. You might even be okay to lessen it at about 60 grams or so, which would be about a 1/3 cup. That’s pushing it, but it might be okay. Let me know how it turns out! I’m curious. 😉
Angie
Do i leave the salt as is?
Kara Jane
Good question. You can probably just leave it as is, but it won’t hurt to lower it to a half a teaspoon. I don’t think it’ll make much difference though.
Deb
Thank you and thank you..I made the cake and basked in its glory and Every time I had a bite..I felt guilty for not leaving a note here .thanks so much for this recipe..it’s a pleasure to indulge in.thabks for sharing this recipe with all of us..Much love..
Kara Jane
Awe Deb that is so sweet! Thank you for that lovely review…I’m so glad you liked it. ?
Roxanne Rivas
Hello!
I am wondering if I can use 2% milk in replace of whole milk?
Kara Jane
Yes that should be fine. Whole milk is better because it has more fat in it, but 2% will be okay to use.
Jenny
Does the frosting hold well under fondant?
Kara Jane
Jenny, I haven’t tried this buttercream under fondant, but it should work just fine. You may not need to add as much coffee creamer though because you’ll want the buttercream to be a little thicker consistency since it’ll go under fondant.
Ani A.
I am making this for a smash cake. Therefore, I will be using two 6 inch pans that are 2 inches deep. Is this recipe suitable for this? Do I need to double the recipe?
What temperature would I bake it at and for how long if I’m baking two, 6 inch pans?
Thanks!
Kara Jane
This recipe is enough to bake two 8″ round pans, so it will be plenty for two 6 inch pans and you’ll have a bit of batter left over (you could just use the leftover to bake a couple cupcakes). You won’t need to change the temperature to bake them, but you will need to bake them for a shorter amount of time. I’ve really only made this recipe in 8″ pans, so I don’t have an exact time. I would start watching them at about 25-30 minutes or so…just to be safe, but you’ll probably have to bake them a bit longer. They are done with they’re golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs on it.
Angie
Hello! Do you happen to know how many cups of batter this recipe makes? I’m working on a 3 tiered cake and I need approx 24 1/2 cups so I’m just trying to figure out how many batches of batter I need to make. Thank you so much!
Kara Jane
Hi Angie, I don’t know how many cups it makes. I generally don’t go by the amount of cups in a recipe. I just go by how many batches of the recipe I need to make. If you can tell me the sizes and how many layers you’ll be making, I can try and estimate how many recipes you’ll need to make.
Chelsea
I only have chocolate pudding mix. Would that just make this a chocolate cake instead of a vanilla cake or would it affect the entire recipe?
Kara Jane
I think it would add in some chocolate flavor…probably not enough to make it a chocolate cake though.
Andrea
Hi! I just made this and this is so delicious!!! Thank you!!
First time using pudding though. Can it be added to a é recipe from scratch? Should I add something else to the recipe if adding pudding? I want to make a chocolate cake I always bake but the recipe doesn’t include pudding. I’m wondering if I should add it and if I need to Add maybe another egg? Or don’t really know. The original recipe calls for 2 eggs. Thank you!!!
Kara Jane
Hi Andrea, so glad the cake turned out! I normally don’t add pudding mixes to cake recipes in general, but I did want to add in more french vanilla flavoring to this one. You could probably add in a pudding mix to most recipes and I don’t think it would really hurt it. I do know people who do that. If you’re having trouble with a chocolate recipe you’ve been making, you can certainly try that out. I do have a recipe for chocolate cake as well if you want to take a look at it here: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/chocolate-butter-cake/
Hope this helps!
Val
Hey Kara, thank you for sharing your recipe, looks delicious, I’m looking for a recipe for my niece’s smash cake and I would like to try this out for mother’s day first. I usually use buttermilk instead of milk, do you think I can do the same with your recipe?
Kara Jane
I think that would be just fine.
Angie
Hi Kara, does any ingredients in this recipe contain nuts? I want to make it for someone but they are allergic to nuts .
Kara Jane
Hi Angie, I have not added any nuts as ingredients however you’ll want to check on the ingredient lists of the pudding mix, french vanilla extract and french vanilla coffee creamer to see if they have nuts in their ingredients. You’ll also want to read each to make sure there isn’t a nut allergy warning on them as some food items can be manufactured in a plant that has other foods that contain nuts and there could be some cross contamination. Usually the food item will state that on the container.
Sammie
Hi! When you bake the cake in bigger pans what size do you use? I want to do a number cake so I want thinner layers, do you think a sheet pan would be ok?
Kara Jane
Hi there, the amount of batter will just depend on what size of pan you’re using. If you use a sheet cake pan, since the pan is thinner, you will probably need to bake for less time. Essentially, you can bake this cake in any pan, you’ll just need to adjust the amount of batter you make so that it will fit the pan you choose…and if the pan is much thinner than the usually 2″ deep, then you’ll bake it for less time. The exact amount of time, will just depend, you’ll just need to watch it.