This moist vanilla buttermilk cake is a favorite. It’s easy and bakes in a 13×9 inch pan, then it’s topped with a yummy glaze that soaks in making the cake super moist and tasty. This cake is one of the best cakes I’ve ever had and it’s sure to be a family favorite.
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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!
Confession…I ate A LOT of this cake. I mean I gave some away as well, but I personally ate way too much. This isn’t an exaggeration either. I LOVE this cake and it’s one of my absolute favorites.
Let’s Talk About Some of the Ingredients in this Cake:
All purpose flour: You’ll just use regular all purpose flour here, so no having to go out and find cake flour.
Buttermilk: Of course a buttermilk cake is going to have buttermilk in it. First, if you don’t like buttermilk, don’t panic. I don’t like buttermilk either and you will never catch me drinking it, but when it’s an ingredient in a cake, it will NOT come out tasting like buttermilk.
What buttermilk does in a cake is it gives it moisture and a really amazing taste, but nothing like if you were to drink it straight from the glass. So if you’re hesitant about trying it in a cake, don’t be. It’s seriously good.
The glaze also uses buttermilk, but don’t be scared away by that either. I promise, it does not taste like buttermilk. Also make sure to read the Tips and FAQ section in this post to answer questions about substituting it if you have to.
Vanilla Extract: Ideally I’d like to use vanilla bean paste (which you can still do if you want), but lately vanilla is super expensive, so vanilla extract does the job and it’ll still taste amazing.
Unsalted butter: This will be used for both the cake and the glaze. Read the Tips and FAQ section in this post to answer questions about substituting it.
Sugar: This recipe calls for regular granulated sugar for the cake and brown sugar for the glaze…(because brown sugar makes everything better, right?).
Mixing Method for this Cake:
For this cake, you’ll use the reverse creaming method. Don’t worry, it’s easy and I go through all the steps in the recipe card below.
The reverse creaming method just means you’ll mix up all the dry ingredients in one bowl, the liquid in another bowl, then you cut in the room temperature butter into the dry mixture and mix until it’s crumbly.
Then you’ll add in the liquid in two parts and mix. I actually find that the reverse creaming method is easier to do than the regular creaming method where you alternate adding in the ingredients…that’s kind of a pain sometimes.
Just remember that there is a video in the recipe card below that will show the mixing method as well.
Now, the easy thing about this cake is that it’s baked in a 13×9 inch glass pan, so there’s not worrying about having to remove the cakes from layer pans or anything like that. And you don’t have to get fancy with icing either.
The glaze is cooked on the stove (it’s really easy though) and then it’s poured over the warm cake (that you’ve poked holes in) and allowed to soak in. Don’t skip that part as that’s what really sets this cake apart.
Tips and FAQs for the Vanilla Buttermilk Cake:
This recipe calls for unsalted butter, which I find best for baking. You don’t really want to substitute it with margarine as that isn’t the same as butter and you may get an unintended result.
If you only have access to salted butter, you can use that, but omit the salt that the recipe calls for.
Yes, the butter for the cake batter, needs to be almost room temperature. Don’t microwave it as that over-heats it and can heat it unevenly.
Just cut the butter up and let it sit out on a plate to warm up a bit (for reference…that’s usually about an hour or a bit longer in about a 73 degree room).
As for the eggs, you can set them out when you start the mixing process and they should be just fine if they’re a little cold.
Don’t substitute them out as they are different. (For more info. on that, see this post: Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder)
Either is fine to use as they are generally interchangeable. I used light brown sugar though.
Mixing this way, will give you a tender cake.
It’s scientific, but essentially, if the cake batter is a little acidic, then it will help to make the cake more moist and tender because it will break down the longer strands of gluten that can be tough.
Well you’re in luck because you don’t really taste the buttermilk in cakes. I actually don’t like the taste or the texture of buttermilk, but it’s great to use for baking cakes. It makes them moist and just brings out all the other flavors.
If you have access to buttermilk, use that as that’s what will taste best in this recipe.
If you absolutely cannot get buttermilk, then you can substitute it by adding one tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to a measuring cup, then pour in regular milk until it measures one cup. Let it sit for five minutes before adding to the batter. For this recipe, you’ll need one and a half cups, so make the substitution above once and then make half that amount.
Now, just understand that you won’t end up with the same exact cake if you use this substitute, so if you’re really just wanting a good vanilla cake that doesn’t use buttermilk, then you can find my recipe for that here: Favorite Vanilla Bean Cake
Yes, it’s great if you can get full fat buttermilk, but lately it’s been hard to find. I used the reduced fat buttermilk and it turned out great.
Yes and no. The cake batter will bake up the same whether baked in a 13×9 inch pan or two, 8″ round cake pans. However you may not want to use the glaze if you’re making this into a layer cake because it will make the cake layers very very soft and may not lift out of your cake pans properly.
If you do decide to make this as a layer cake not use the glaze, you may want to check out my recipe for vanilla buttercream here: Vanilla Bean Buttercream
You also want to make sure that you’ve poked holes in the warm cake with a skewer to help the glaze soak into the cake.
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Supplies Used for this Cake:
- KitchenAid Artisan mixer or handheld mixer
- Flat Beater Attachment if using a stand mixer
- Stainless steel measuring set
- Glass batter bowl
- Whisk set
- Glass 13×9 inch pan
- Rubber spatulas here or here
- Cooling racks
- Liquid measuring cups
- Wooden skewers (You can sometimes find these in smaller quantities at the dollar store or at your local Walmart or grocery store.)
Video:
Ok, let’s get to the recipe!
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 Vanilla Buttermilk Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ cups buttermilk (full fat is best, but low fat will work as well)
- 3 large whole eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks) (room temperature – do not microwave)
For the glaze:
- ½ cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar (dark or light brown sugar, I used light)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ¼ cup buttermilk
- 2 cups confectioner’s sugar
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Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray or grease a 13×9 inch glass pan.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Whisk well and set aside. In another bowl, add the buttermilk, whole eggs, egg yolk, vanilla extract and vegetable oil. Whisk well and set aside.
- Cut the room temperature butter up into pieces (if not already done). Add in the butter pieces slowly to the flour mixture while you mix on medium speed. (You can use a hand mixer as well.) Once all the butter is added, mix until the flour mixture becomes crumbly and resembles sand.
- Add in half the liquid mixture and mix on medium speed, just until incorporated. Add in the last half of the liquid mixture and mix only until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix again just until all the ingredients are mixed well. Only mix for about 10 seconds or so. Mixing for a minute or more is too long and can cause a dense or tough cake.
- Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 325 degrees for approximately 45 minutes.
- Cake is done when it is golden brown on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake, comes out with a few moist crumbs. (You do not have to wait until the toothpick comes out clean as that can over-bake your cake. Just make sure there is no raw batter on the toothpick and a few moist crumbs are fine.)
- Once the cake is baked, set on a wire rack to cool for about 15 minutes, then poke holes into the cake with a skewer and cover with the warm glaze. Let the cake sit for about 30 minutes before cutting and serving.
For the glaze:
- Once the cake is out of the oven, make the glaze. (You want the cake to still be warm when you pour the glaze on it, so don’t let the cake cool completely.)
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over low/medium heat. When the butter is completely melted, turn off the heat and immediately add in the brown sugar, vanilla and buttermilk. Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add in the confectioner's sugar and stir well. If it's clumpy, just keep stirring until most of the clumps are dissolved. The rest will dissolve as it sits for a bit.
- Set the glaze aside (not in the fridge) until the cake has cooled for about 15 minutes, then poke holes in your still warm cake with skewers, then pour the warm glaze over the warm cake and let it soak in. If the glaze has cooled off a bit, you can turn the burner back on just enough to warm it back up before pouring over your cake.
- When you pour the glaze over the warm cake, the glaze should still be warm, but not hot.
- Let set up for about 30 minutes before cutting and serving. This will give the glaze enough time to soak into the cake well.
Notes
Nutrition
How to Share
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Other posts you might like:
- Favorite Vanilla Bean Cake
- One Bowl Vanilla Cake
- Spiced Eggnog Cake
- French Vanilla Cake
- Moist White Cake
Don’t forget to pin it below!
Hannah
My mom had requested a buttermilk cake for her 72nd birthday. I searched online and this recipe was the first one I saw. It turned out amazing and my mom absolutely loved it! She bakes a lot, and said it is so hard to get cakes to turn out moist and with good texture, but that this cake was excellent in both of those aspects!
The only thing I did differently was to use goat milk kefir instead of buttermilk because we milk our own dairy goats and make kefir from some of the milk.
Kara
Yay! I’m so glad she loved it! And I love the idea of using the goat milk kefir instead of the buttermilk. Thanks so much for the great review!
Tracy Kapiloff
Made this cake for a group of ladies who play Mah jong. Everyone loved it. It’s so moist and delicious. Thank you!
Kara
Hi Tracy, so glad everyone loved it! Thanks for the awesome review!
Julie R
This cake was enjoyed by several people, some said it was the BEST cake they’ve ever eaten! My brother in law asked me to use this recipe for his next birthday cake because he enjoyed it so much. I baked it in a baking pan rather than a glass dish, and cut it up into squares. I also served it at room temperature as opposed to warm. The cake was so moist and tasty and the glaze really did make it so much more delicious. I will definitely be making this again 😃
Kara
Oh wow! What a compliment! I’m so happy everyone loved it and thank you so much for that awesome review!
Raleigh
MY NEW ALL-TIME FAVORITE CAKE! This cake is light, fluffy and tender, and melts in your mouth. Buttery with so much vanilla goodness. Perfection. And it gets better as the days go by. Highly recommend serving this warm – 10 sec in the microwave is perfect per slice. My daughter, whose birthday is five months away, has already asked for this to be her cake.
I thought chocolate cake was my favorite, until now. This cake is #1 by a landslide.
Kara
Oh wow, what an awesome comment! This makes me so happy that you all loved this cake. It’s actually one of my favorites as well. Thanks so much for your wonderful comment and the great review! Also, a very early happy birthday to your daughter!
Terri Billingsley
This is a very moist and delicious cake! The recipe is fairly simple and easy to make. My family loved it!
Kara
So glad you like it! Thanks so much for the great review! 🙂
Andrew
I made it gluten-free (I used 1.5 cups of tapioca starch, and 1.25 cups of white rice flour and 1/2 tsp of xanthen gum), leaving it as is other than swapping the flour, it came out very well. Great cake thanks.
Kara
This is awesome! So glad it turned out and thank you for commenting with how you adjusted it. I’m sure it will help others as well. Thanks for the great review!
Autumn
WOW. I was skeptical bc I have never really taken the time to do all the steps in such a precise manner and thought it was unnecessary. But I did- and boy was I wrong! Just from the batter, I can tell this is going to be better than any cake I’ve made thus far. I had a very difficult time restraining myself from eating too much of the batter. It is phenomenal. I can’t wait to taste the final product! All the steps were definitely worth it and this will be my new go-to recipe!! Thank you for sharing!!
Kara
Hi Autumn, you’re not alone with thinking the steps are unnecessary. I did too when I first started baking. There’s definitely some science behind it and it really does make a different. I am a lazy cook and baker, so I always want to do what’s quickest, but even I force myself to follow all the precise steps when making cakes (everything else, not so much). lol! So glad you liked the batter so much and I hope the cake turned out great!
Todd
I must have done something wrong. I’m not saying it tasted bad or anything. On the contrary it tasted quite good but when I took that first bite I was very surprised because the taste was so familiar. It tasted just like a pancake. A single 13″x9″ super thick pancake. Maybe I didn’t put in enough baking powder? What might have been my mistake that led me to this?
I think it maybe I’ll make some bacon and have this for breakfast in the morning. I’m haven’t decided whether or not I am kidding about that.
In any case I hope there’s something that I can learn from my attempt. Would appreciate knowing what you think I did wrong.
All the best.
Kara
Hi Todd, did it seem dense? Sometimes scratch cakes can turn out dense if they are mixed a bit too long or at too high of speed. That’s the first thing that I think of it a cake comes out dense. It could also be that the baking powder might have been old. If you haven’t used it in a while, it just doesn’t work as well. I replace mine within 6 months of opening it. I’m sorry I can’t point to a specific thing that might have happened, but it shouldn’t have come out dense or like a pancake and I’m sorry you had that experience.
Ann Chat
Wonderful cake! I double the glaze/ frosting.
Kara
Awesome! So glad you loved it and I love that you doubled the glaze too. It’s good to know someone else loves glaze and frosting much as I do. Thanks for the great review! 😊
Natasha
have you ever added fruit to the batter?
Kara
Hi Natasha, I haven’t tried that. It may work, but it also could add a bit more water content depending on the type of fruit, which might affect the texture. It’s worth experimenting with though!
Lisa McG
I just made this recipe and used tulip cups to make them into “cup” cakes. They turned out perfectly. I baked them for 32.30 minutes total at the suggested temperature. I started at 22.30 minutes (1/2 the suggested bake time) and estimated they needed 10 more minutes. They came out perfect. In sum: this recipe yielded 15 BEAUTIFUL cakes in tulip papers.
Kara
That’s awesome! So glad it worked out and thank you for giving the information about how long they needed to bake. That will be super helpful to anyone wanting to use this recipe for cupcakes. Thank you for the wonderful review!
Carrie
This cake was not moist at all. It was dry and it turned out dense. I have never had a buttermilk cake. It’s terrible as this and I’ve probably made five or six of them. I would not recommend this to anyone. It was horrible.
Kara
Hi Carrie, this cake should not have turned out dry, nor dense. I’m not sure what happened, but many people have made this and love it, so I just can’t think of what could have gone wrong. I’m sorry it did not turn out for you. I will say if a scratch cake turned out dense, it’s usually mixed too long. Scratch cakes are really finicky and if mixed too long, they will turn out dense and dry.
Cindy
Awesome recipe! I just made this earlier today for my granddaughter’s birthday. My daughter said it’s the best cake she’s ever tasted. She asked if I can make a variation of it with crushed pineapple and add coconut to the glaze for her birthday.
Kara
Oh awesome! So glad everyone loved it! Thank you for the wonderful review! (A quick note: if you add pineapple to the cake batter, make sure you drain it well as it could inadvertently add in too much liquid and make the cake sink later on.) Hope this helps!