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.
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
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!
BRIAN MAACK
So far it is looking good, it is in the oven now. I am going to finish it the way your recipe is but think I might try it again with a little lemon juice in the glaze, what do you think?
Kara
I think a light lemon glaze would be really good!
Termina
I have made it several times now and it is a family favorite. So moist and delicious 😋 So glad I found this recipe. I even made cupcakes with this recipe and drizzled the glaze on top! I’ve tried 9×13 and 2( 8 inch) layers with brown sugar butter cream frosting. Delicious in every way.
Kara
Yay!!! I’m so glad you love this one. I love that you’ve found so many different ways to use the recipe too! Thanks for the wonderful review. 😊
Nana
I haven’t tried and want to try it asap. But, how do I measure the ingredients for grams measurements? Thank you
Kara
Hi Nana, so for gram measurements, just scroll to the recipe card (you can hit the jump to recipe button at the top of the post) and once you see the ingredients, the word ‘metric’ will be just below that. Click that and it will convert it for you. Hope this helps!
Alice
Can I use soured milk for buttermilk?
Kara
Hi Alice, I haven’t tried just using sour milk for this recipe. It may turn out just fine although sometimes buttermilk has more fat content in it, so it may not turn out quite as moist. It’s worth a try though if that’s all you have.
Brown
I made this today and it came out perfect. I thought it was to sweet but after I let it sit out for a while it’s the perfect cake🥰🥰
Kara
Oh yay!!! So glad you liked it!
Stella Elaine Brown
this was an awesome recipe thank you so much.
Kara
So glad you liked it, Stella and thanks so much for the great review!
Shirley P.
Tried this recipe today. Had some leftover buttermilk in the fridge and wanted to use it up. Also, I’m a fan of vanilla and white cakes. It turned out delicious….love it. Thanks Kara!
Kara
Hi Shirley….I’m so glad you loved it and thanks so much for the great review!
Allison
This recipe is a winner! I love to bake, but my husband rarely eats sweets; however, he asked me to make this cake again, just two days after making it for the first time! This cake is moist, but not soggy, and has just the right amount of sweetness. We both prefer not overly sweet things, and even though this cake may look super sweet, it’s not. I did add 1/8 tsp caramel flavoring when making the glaze, but otherwise, I followed the recipe as-written. That said, I did halve the recipe to make an 8X8 cake and it came out perfectly. By my measurements, for the full recipe, 3 large whole eggs and one egg yolks weigh 170g (out of the shells). To halve the recipe, I used one whole XL egg and one egg yolk weighing about 85g total (again, out of the shells). You can always add or subtract a little egg white to get the weight you need. I hope these measurements help others who may want to halve the recipe!
Kara
What a great review! Thank you so much! I’m so glad you loved the cake and the tips for making half a recipe in an 8×8 inch pan are going to be so helpful for others. Thank you for sharing it. I also love the idea of adding a little caramel flavoring. That sounds so good!
Elizabeth Raptis
can this cake be made gluten free?
Kara
You might be able to make it gluten free by using the 1 to 1 gluten free flour, however I haven’t tried that out myself. I’m just not experienced with gluten free baking, so I can’t be sure it’ll turn out, but it’s worth a try.
Gordon Wagner
Delicious! Came together in no time, wonderful flavor and crumb. I’d suggest adding a digital kitchen scale to the equipment list — I *always* like to weigh flour in recipes!
I used a stick of butter and an 8 oz package of cream cheese along with half a teaspoon each of vanilla and lemon extracts and the juice of one lemon. I reduced the confectioners sugar to about a cup. Very tasty!
Great recipe!
Kara
Thanks for the great review! I’m so glad you loved it and that’s good advice about the scale as well. Thanks again!
Pam
Hi – quick question. Can I make this in a 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan (jelly roll pan). If so, do you have any suggestions on time or temperature adjustments before I just experiment? I take sweets to work and like to cut them into small bite-size pieces.
Kara
Hi Pam, It might be possible, although I haven’t tried it out. I’d probably bake at 350 degrees F, but not for very long at all. A jelly roll pan is pretty thin, so it’ll bake very quickly. I’d start checking at about 12 minutes just to be on the safe side.
Dee
The worst thing about this cake is how easy it is to make, and how difficult it is to stop yourself from finishing it !
I only have a glass 9X13 and the middle sunk, so if you have a metal 9×13 i bet this is perfect! Although my husband loved the sunken middle because the glaze sunk into it hahah. Lovely recipe!
Kara
Dee, this is so awesome! I love your review. Thank you so much! I have a tip for the sunken middle. If you try it again in the glass pan, bake it for a bit longer. I usually bake mine in a glass pan and it does bake up flat, but doesn’t sink and I think it might sink if you pull it out a little too soon. Ovens are so different, so if you try it again, just bake it for maybe a bit longer…like a few more minutes and see if that helps. Thanks again for the amazing review! 💖
Pam
Love this recipe! I did put it in the shallow jelly roll pan and baked it at 325 degrees for about 20 – 25 minutes. It turned out perfect and was delicious.
Kara
Hi Pam, thanks for the great review and I’m so glad it worked out in the jelly roll pan! That is so good to know and thanks for adding the temp and time for it. That will definitely help others!
C.E.
We made this tonight but we threw out the buttermilk before we got to make the glaze, whoops! We were too far along to quit now, so we replaced the buttermilk in the glaze w a block of cream cheese and everything else the same. Holy smokes it was delicious! Thank you for a yummy cake recipe!
Kara
Oh wow! So cool that you improvised and it worked out! I’m glad you liked it and thanks so much for the comment!
Kiara
This is a fantastic cake recipe — one of best I’ve ever baked! The recipe makes a large cake, perfect for sharing (even though it is tough to part with any of it!) It was a smash hit with my husband, my friends, and my neighbors! It is a simple, quick, and humble dessert that packs a ton of delicious flavor and a moist, fluffy texture. I found it reminded me of a sour cream glazed donut and a sticky toffee pudding in cake form.
A few notes of feedback:
– I used the metric measurements and the recipe worked beautifully.
– I left the cake on the counter for 3 days and no negative effects (Note: We keep our indoor temp at around 17C/62F and we live in a dry climate)
– I made one small successful substitution: I replaced the egg yolk with a dollop of sour cream (wanted to save an egg)
– As per my personal tastes, I found the cake overall to be sweeter than my preference. Next time I make the recipe I will probably experiment with cutting down some of the sugar in the glaze, in the cake, or just using less glaze overall. However it was still an absolutely delicious sweet dessert. A little less sweet and this would be the perfect coffee cake in my opinion!
I can see this cake being a wonderful vehicle for all sorts of different flavored glazes, such as lemon (the acidity to balance the sweetness — perhaps add some poppyseeds to the batter too!), a splash of rum or other liquor (could add a lovely zippy bite like in rum sauce), or a shot of espresso to offset the sweetness as well. Lots of ideas!
Thank you for the excellent recipe, I have it saved and it will undoubtably be a go-to from now on.
Kara
Kiara, what awesome feedback! Thank you for writing that out! That will be very helpful to others and I appreciate that. Thanks so much for the great review as well.
One quick note: If you do try it next time with less sugar in the cake, make sure not to lower it too much as sugar also helps make the cake moist, so there’s a little bit of a trade-off there. It should be fine to lower it a bit, I just wouldn’t go as far as cutting it in half or it could affect the moistness of the cake.
Thanks again for the awesome review and helpful feedback!
Maria
Hi Kiara!
I used about a cup of confectionery sugar and it was great. I’ve been making this cake for a few years now, it’s great. I believe next time I’ll add two tablespoons of butter more and leave the cup of confectionery sugar. I’ll bet that should help offset the sweetness. Such a great recipe. My son wants no other cake for his birthday. That’s when I bake this cake in layers or cupcakes without the sweet pokies, lol.
Kara
Oh that’s awesome! Thanks for the great review and I’m really glad it’s working out to be so versatile!
sarah c jurcyk
I love this cake. Everyone I have shared it with wants the recipe too!
Kara
Oh yay!!! I’m so glad and thanks for such a great review!
Ann
Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Full disclosure: I beat it a tad too long because I didn’t read carefully. It was denser than it was supposed to be, but still rave reviews. I did use only 1 cup of confectioner sugar per someone’s suggestion. Thank you for a fabulous recipe.
Kara
Awesome Ann! So glad everyone loved it! And I’ve also over-mixed a time or two – It happens. 😉
Thanks for the great review!