This super moist white cake recipe from scratch is the best white cake I’ve ever had. It’s made with sour cream and has a deliciously soft texture. No more looking around for a homemade white cake that’s actually moist. It’s the perfect recipe for a wedding cake or a birthday cake.
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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!
It’s an age old problem. How to get a moist white cake. You try recipe after recipe and either they taste like cornbread, the texture isn’t good, or it just isn’t moist enough. So, you end up just going for a box when you really wanted to make something with that ‘scratch wedding cake taste’.
You may have seen my Favorite Vanilla Bean Cake recipe on the blog. If not, go and check it out…it’s so moist and really tasty. It’s my favorite vanilla cake, hence the name, but I wanted to see if I could get a truly ‘white’ cake that I loved just as much and I wanted to get that wedding cake flavor.
Well I think I’ve done it. This cake is actually a white cake (I’d also consider it a vanilla cake) that is actually moist, AND it’s got that wedding cake taste.
LET’S TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE CAKE INGREDIENTS:
Egg whites: So, when trying to get a cake as white as possible, I wanted to use only egg whites. Generally, using only egg whites can tend to dry out a cake a bit, so you have to add a bit more moisture, which I’ve done as well.
Butter & Shortening: Now, I like a buttery taste to my cake, but in the effort to try and get a ‘whiter’ cake, I lessened the amount of butter and substituted the rest with shortening. If you want an all butter cake recipe (using no shortening), you’ll want to check out my vanilla cake recipe.
All purpose flour or cake flour: Another thing to note is that you can use either all purpose flour or cake flour for this recipe. The amounts will differ and that’s noted on the printable recipe below.
Here’s the deal though: Using cake flour will give you a whiter cake. I’m not a scientist or anything, but I think it’s because the cake flour seems to be more bleached than the all purpose. I could be wrong, but regardless, you’ll get a whiter cake using cake flour.
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Vanilla Extract: First it’s the vanilla. You can always use clear extract to make sure it’s not adding any additional color to the batter, but I tend to use regular vanilla because honestly, it’s just better. If you can get it, try to use vanilla paste/emulsion (or grab it here if my shop is sold out).
Almond emulsion: Second, I added in my favorite flavor booster…almond emulsion (or get it here if my shop is sold out). You’re using just a touch of it, so you won’t really get an ‘almond taste’. It just adds to the flavor. Seriously most people won’t even know you’ve added it in there…they’ll just know it tastes amazing.
Ok, if you just can’t stand the thought of adding it, or you don’t have any handy, then don’t worry, it’ll still taste good. Oh and the emulsion is much better than the extract. The extract just does not taste good to me.
Butter Extract: Lastly I added in a bit of butter flavoring. Since I’d replaced some of the butter with shortening, I wanted to add back in some flavor. Now, that part is optional, but it really seems to give it that wedding cake flavor.
The butter flavoring you can get at the grocery store is gross to me…now that’s just my opinion. I feel like Lorann’s Butter Emulsion tastes much better.
You’ll also want to check out my vanilla bean buttercream recipe…it goes perfectly with this cake, but if you’re looking for a bright white buttercream, you’ll want to check out that recipe here: Bright White Heat Stable Buttercream.
MIXING METHOD FOR THE WHITE CAKE:
You’ll be using the reverse creaming method when mixing this cake. I like using that because it helps preven over-mixing the cake batter (which can cause problems with the texture).
The reverse creaming method is just mixing the dry ingredients in one bowl and the liquid in another. Then you’ll slowly mix in the butter and shortening to the dry mixture and let it coat the flour.
You’ll then add the liquid in two parts, mixing in between. It’s really an easier way to mix a cake in my opinion.
TIPS AND FAQS FOR THE WHITE CAKE RECIPE:
No, you don’t want to do that. These do two different things.
It’s basically just fat. I use vegetable shortening like Crisco, not lard which is animal fat. This helps get the cake moist and I use this in place of most of the butter to keep the color as white as possible.
Because I like the taste of butter. You just can’t beat butter in a cake.
I don’t recommend doing that. It could get too warm and will heat up unevenly. That could mess with the texture of your cake. Just set the butter out on your counter and let it warm up to almost room temp. It’s ok if it’s a little cooler than room temp…you just don’t want it warm.
You can, but the cake won’t be as moist and the texture and taste may be a little different than the original recipe. If you can’t find sour cream, try using full fat yogurt (not the low fat kind).
No not really. Actually regular vanilla extract or vanilla bean emulsion (or paste) tastes better, but clear will help keep the cake white if that’s really an important factor for you.
No. Some people just don’t like almond taste, but I will tell you that if you haven’t tried it, you might actually like the small hint of it. A lot of people assume they won’t like it, but honestly I think it tastes different than what most people think it would taste like. And you’ll just be adding a touch of it, just enough to add a little flavor.
No, but I think it adds a little more butter flavor and that in combination with the vanilla and almond emulsion are what gives it that classic wedding cake taste.
I’ve got links just below the recipe card for the ones that I like to use.
Anymore questions? Just let me know. I’m happy to help.
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Items & Tools Used for this cake:
- Vanilla Bean Paste – in my shop OR here if I’m sold out
- Almond Emulsion – in my shop OR here if I’m sold out
- Butter Emulsion
- KitchenAid Hand Mixer
- 8″ Round Baking Pans
Video:
Ok, I won’t talk your head off anymore…let’s get straight 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 White Cake
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (or 2 ¾ cups cake flour – for an even whiter cake)
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup shortening
- ¼ cup butter (unsalted, room temp.)
- 1 cup sour cream (full fat)
- ½ cup milk (whole milk if you can get it)
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract (can use clear extract)
- ½ teaspoon almond emulsion (optional)
- 1 teaspoon butter extract (or emulsion) (optional)
- 6 egg whites (large eggs)
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease and flour two 8 inch round (2 inch deep) cake pans. You could also use three 6 inch round pans.
- In a bowl, mix together the sour cream, milk, vanilla extract, almond emulsion, butter extract and egg whites.Whisk until smooth and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt.Whisk together.
- Add the shortening and butter in chunks to the flour mixture.
- Mix until the flour is coated with the shortening and butter. The mixture will be crumbly.
- Add in half the liquid mixture and mix just until combined.
- Add in the last half of the liquid mixture and mix just until combined.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then mix again, only for 10-15 seconds.You want to be careful not to over-beat the batter.
- Pour into the greased and floured cake pans and bake at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
- Cool on a wire rack then cover with buttercream.
Notes
This cake can be frozen for up to a month if wrapped well in plastic wrap and foil. Nutritional values are an estimate. Make sure to check out the TIPS & FAQs for this recipe in the blog post, which may answer questions about substitutions. *This recipe card may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Buttercream Recipe Links: Vanilla Bean Buttercream Recipe Bright White Heat Stable Buttercream Recipe
Nutrition
How to Share
I’d love for you to share this recipe link or tag it, but please do not share screenshots or copy/paste the recipe to social media as the content and photographs are copyright protected and we (bloggers) work really hard on our content. Sharing the link, tagging us on socials and pinning it is super appreciated though!
OTHER POSTS YOU MIGHT LIKE:
Sarah
I just had to share. I’ve made this cake recipe SEVERAL times now. It’s my husband’s favorite, and I bake a lot! The Original recipe is amazing! I should add I do high altitude adjustments as I live in Colorado. Always turns out great! However, recently I switched to dairy free to see if it improves my migraines. With our anniversary coming up I wanted to make a cake…dairy free. Made this one with all dairy free alternatives, sour cream, butter, oatmilk, vegan butter. I am in shock at how well it turned out! Gives me hope that I can survive this dairy free thing. Thank you for the tasty and Versatile recipe! it means more than I can say!
Kara Jane
Hi Sarah…wow! I’m not experienced in baking dairy free, so this is really good to know! Thanks for telling me and hopefully this comment will help others who need a dairy free option as well. And thanks for your wonderful review! (Also, I really hope going dairy free helps with your migraines…those are awful!)
Lois
I prefer to bake my cakes in 3″ deep pans. Would this re open be too much for one 8 x 3″ deep pans?
Kara Jane
Yes one recipe would be a little more than one 8 x 3″ pan. You could add the batter about 2/3 of the way up the pan though and then bake the rest of the batter as cupcakes if you wanted to. Also, since the cake will be a bit thicker, you may end up needing to bake it a bit longer.
Katie
This is a fantastic cake! I run a small bakery out of my house and am always trying new and different white cake recipes…. but no longer! This recipe has consistently turned out great cakes and cupcakes… it’s wonderful.
Thank you!
Kara Jane
Oh yay! This makes my day…I’m so happy you love it! And thank you for that wonderful comment. 🙂
Sarah
My cake is dense! My white cake is always dense…I attempted To mix just enough to incorporate everything and still dense! Any suggestions or tips on something I could try to make the cake fluffier? Taste is amazing! Color perfect! It is just thick.
Kara Jane
Hi Sarah, I’m sorry the cake is coming out so dense. I really can’t think of anything other than overmixing it. So, I’m going to suggest a different mixing method if you feel like the reverse creaming method isn’t working for you. This other way might work better for you. Some people do better with the revere creaming method and some the regular creaming method. For this mixing method I’m about to explain, you really have to make sure you don’t overmix it once you start adding in the liquid.
Ok, first add all the dry ingredients to one bowl and set it aside. Then all the liquid ingredients (including the eggs) to another bowl, mix and set that aside. Next mix the butter, shortening and sugar together for several minutes on medium to high until it’s fluffy.
Now alternately add in the dry ingredients with the liquid. So add in 1/3 of the dry, mix only until combined, 1/3 of the liquid and mix only until combined, 1/3 of the dry and mix, 1/3 of the liquid and mix, then the last of each. Be super careful not to overmix. Then pour in the pans and bake as usual.
I do prefer the reverse creaming method (the one listed in the recipe) because it’s harder to accidently overmix, but the creaming method (the one I explain above) might give you a fluffier version of it…it’s just easier to accidently mix it too much, so be very mindful of that.
Try that and let me know what happens.
Kerry Yacoumis
Thank you for sharing the recipe! I have been looking for a great scratch mix for a white cake.
If you wanted to know more about cake flour or High Ratio flour. I can share some information on the cake flour.
The flour is a finely milled sort of cake flour that has been bleached and chlorinated, which has a tenderising effect on the gluten, and the more refined grains enable more moisture to be carried in the batter of a cake. The protein content would be similar to cake flour with 6-7% protein, but the flour would be far whiter than cake flour.
Kara Jane
Thanks so much for that info. Kerry!
Jennifer
This cake sounds delicious and the reviews are great! Just a question, would this cake support a strawberry filling? I saw you wrote on an earlier comment to leave out the almond if using a flavor.
Kara Jane
Yes, you could use a strawberry filling with this and you can leave out the almond flavoring if you like.
Heather Meyer
I have made so many cake recipes and this is THE one! I’ve now made this every year for birthdays and it’s always such a hit. Perfect every time! SO incredibly moist and flavorful! The only thing I do differently is I use all butter, same measurements. SO SO good!
Kara Jane
Oh Heather what an awesome review! And thanks for the tips on changing it up a bit…so glad that works for you!
Julie W.
I would like to make a triple layer cake instead of a double layer cake. So if I increase all the ingredients by 1/2, how much should I increase the baking soda and baking powder? I don’t want the batter to taste bitter, or the cake to collapse due to too much baking powder.
Kara Jane
Hi Julie, you’ll need to increase all the ingredients by half. You’ll essentially just be making a batch and a half, so you want to do 1 plus 1/2 of each ingredient.
Terry
Would you be so kind as to give the flour measurements for AP flour in grams? I would like to use my scale for a more accurate flour measurement. I am aware that I can look this info up online however the measurements in grams varies a lot online. I’m SO excited to try this recipe!
Kara Jane
Hi Terry, if you click the word ‘metric’ under the list of ingredients in the recipe card, it will automatically convert it to grams for you. Just know that I wrote and tested this recipe using volume measurements, so results may vary if you use weight measurements.
Lenna Landers
I made this cake for my grandson’s birthday and followed the directions exactly. It was NOT moist and was very heavy. I have been baking cakes from scratch for 50 years and am considered a pretty good cook. Will definitely not make this cake again.
Kara Jane
I’m so sorry it didn’t turn out for you. I’ve made this cake many many times and so have a lot of others who have really liked it. I’m wondering if it was mixed too long? Mixing scratch cake batter too long will cause a cake to be very dense/heavy. I’m just not sure how it could have turned out so badly, but I’m so sorry you had that experience with this recipe.
Terri C.
Thank you for the recipe! I made half of it in two 6″x2″ square pans. The batter filled each one up 2/3 of the way. I added half of a jar of drained and chopped maraschino cherries and 3/8 t. almond extract. I did leave out the butter and almond emulsion. This is excellent but needs more salt. Here’s my photo, https://i.imgur.com/aM4yyZB.jpg
Kara Jane
Terry, that’s wonderful and sounds so tasty! Thank you for sharing!
Clara
I made this cake today, it turned out really delicious. I shared it with another senior couple. I love baking and more importantly, I followed the video. I printed out the recipe for another favorite.
Kara Jane
Yay! Thanks Clara for that wonderful review and I’m so glad you liked it. 🙂
Susan Evans
I would like to make this recipe for my grand daughter’s birthday. I have only 9 inch round cake pans. Will this be okay or should I increase the recipe size.
She also would like a pink marble cake –i.e. to use food colouring in part of it to make pink swirls. Do you have any suggestions about how to accomplish this?
Thank you
Kara Jane
Susan, you can make this in the 9 inch pans. Just bake it for a little less time though as the layers will be a little thinner. I’d start checking about 10 minutes early just to be safe.
To get the pink swirl, you can take about 1/4 of the batter and tint it with pink food coloring. Try to use the gel food coloring as it’s concentrated and you don’t have to add so much liquid to it. (I like the Wilton or Americolor brands.) You’ll want to get the batter just a little bit darker pink than you think as when it bakes, it can turn to the orange side a bit. Once that portion of batter is tinted, divide the plain into the two pans and then add the pink onto the plain my teaspoon or tablespoon, then swirl around well with a knife and bake. Let me know how it goes!
Renee
Just wondering with this recipe how would you bake a 9×13 sheet cake ?
Kara Jane
Renee, you can just mix it up the same as a layer cake and pour into a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. It might take a little less time to bake, so just watch it closely. You can start checking it at about 30 minutes or so, but you might need to bake a little longer. The sides of the cake will start to pull away a bit from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake should come out with a few moist crumbs on it.
Jen
I haven’t tried this but was curious at how you just mix the egg whites in and not whip them up separately and fold them in. I always thought folding the egg whites add that lightness, airy, and moist texture. Have you tried that with this recipe?
Kara Jane
Hi Jen, it’s not necessary to whip and fold in the egg whites for this recipe. I’m mainly using the egg whites (instead of egg yolks) to make the cake as white as possible, but still getting a good rise in the cake. It’s not always necessary to whip them and fold them in though. If you feel like experimenting, then it’s worth a shot, if you want. I do use the reverse creaming method for this cake, so I’m not sure about needing to change that up if you go with whipped egg whites though. I will say that using six egg whites and whipping them and folding them in, may give the cake a more spongy texture than it would normally…It would just need some experimenting to see how it would turn out.
Tannen
Kara, oh Kara. You forgot that you can just add purple food dye to a vanilla cake recipe, and it will cancel out the yellow on the light spectrum. If I were making a plain vanilla cake, that is what I would do. It also makes it simple because then you can keep the egg yolks in which really help with the texture. Personally when baking cakes, I rarely use just one flavor. I like to experiment with different flavors to see what makes good combinations of flavors. The last cake I baked for a birthday had pumpkin puree, ginger root, nutmeg, and vanilla bean and it turned out amazing. I do appreciate the recipes from your blog, I like to learn and take inspiration from them. I never actually use them though, I like to just whip something up using one of the 3 cake ratios, determine what mixing methods, fat, and leavening agent to use in the cake, and I’m off! I determine the baking temperature by the size of the pan I’m using. For a sheet 9 by 13 inch pan I use lover temperatures such as 325 F to prevent a burned outside and raw middle, and higher temperatures for smaller round pans, to avoid them drying out over time in the oven. Your blog has taught me a lot.
Kara Jane
Hi Tannen, good point about the purple food coloring. I’ve done that in buttercream to cancel out the yellow and it works as long as one doesn’t use too much…there’s a fine line. So glad you’ve enjoyed the blog and it’s really fun to hear about everyone’s experiments with cake!
Vera
Have you experimented with making this recipe into cupcakes?
Kara Jane
I haven’t but I know others have mentioned they have. This recipe should work just fine as cupcakes though. Just fill the cupcake liners 2/3 of the way up and then bake at 350 instead of 325 and start checking them at about 18-20 minutes. You may need to bake them for a few minutes more.