This is the best one bowl vanilla cake ever. Well, in my opinion it is. This easy vanilla cake recipe is so quick to mix together, because you’ll just use one bowl! AND it’s a scratch cake that actually comes out moist, delicious and full of vanilla flavor.
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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!
A scratch cake that’s moist, delicious AND is made in one bowl…you just can’t beat that.
This recipe is very similar to my ‘favorite vanilla bean cake‘ recipe, but there are a couple variations in the ingredients and it’s got a totally different mixing method (which we’ll talk about in a bit).
This cake has a bit of a different texture than the the other vanilla cake as well, because we’re mixing it in one bowl, but I think you’ll really love the taste and how easy it is to make.
SOME OF THE INGREDIENTS FOR THE ONE BOWL VANILLA CAKE:
All purpose flour – We’ll be using all purpose flour for this cake instead of cake flour. I figure most people have all purpose flour on hand and if you’re wanting to mix up a cake in one bowl quickly, then you may not have any other flour on hand than all purpose…so all purpose it is.
Sour cream – We’ll be using my favorite cake ingredient…sour cream. I’m just addicted to using it in cake recipes. (You can always just use yogurt instead, but make sure to read the FAQ section of this post for other substitutions.)
Vanilla extract – I love using vanilla bean paste, so if you can get it, use that in the same amount the recipe calls for, but vanilla extract works as well and that is all I had on hand when I made this cake.
Almond emulsion – I feel like almond emulsion is a sort of secret ingredient that I like to add to cakes. I usually add in only about a ¼ teaspoon…not much. It just gives it a hint, but really makes a difference. Almond emulsion DOES NOT taste the same as cheap almond extract at the store. (At least it doesn’t to me.) So as my Mom always said, “Don’t knock it ’til you try it.”
MIXING METHOD FOR THE ONE BOWL VANILLA CAKE:
As the title says, we’re mixing this one up in only one bowl. I don’t know about you, but that’s exciting to me. It takes less time than adding certain ingredients to certain bowls, then mixing them alternatively etc. So, if you’re in a hurry, this just saves a lot of trouble.
You’ll be mixing this up using an adjusted reverse creaming method. Now, don’t panic…it’s really simple. I find the reverse creaming method, much easier than the standard creaming method.
History lesson:
- The standard creaming method is when you whip up the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then add in the other ingredients alternately.
- The reverse creaming method is when you add in all the dry ingredients first, then coat them by mixing in the butter, then add in the wet ingredients.
The advantage to the reverse creaming method is that the cake can withstand more sugar and liquid, plus since the butter and oil coat the flour, it keeps the batter from being over-mixed so easily like the standard creaming method.
If you’re interested in learning more about types of flour for baking cakes and mixing methods, you’ll want to check out my post on that here: Types of Flour for Baking Cakes Plus Mixing Methods
Basically, what I’m saying is that this is gonna be easy. (I’ll explain everything in the recipe card below.)
By the way, you’ll want to cover this cake with a really delicious vanilla buttercream and I’ve got ya covered on that front. Grab that recipe here: Vanilla Bean Buttercream
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TIPS & FAQs FOR MAKING THE ONE BOWL VANILLA CAKE:
- Make sure when measuring out your flour that you do NOT pack it down in the measuring cup. You want to scoop flour out of the bag or canister, then add it to your measuring cup. Don’t scoop with your measuring cup, or you’ll end up packing the flour into the cup and using too much.
- Make sure your oven is preheated to 325 F. It’s very important to preheat your oven.
- Make sure to grease and flour your cake pans (or use parchment circles), or your cake will stick to the pan.
- Baking powder and baking soda are not interchangeable, so you don’t want to substitute anything here.
- Make sure to use unsalted real butter, not salted butter and not margarine.
- Vanilla bean paste or emulsion is really great, but if you don’t have it, just use regular vanilla extract.
What if I don’t have access to sour cream?
I get asked this question a lot and there are a couple options: First you can use yogurt instead. If you don’t have yogurt, you can use this sub: For every cup of sour cream called for, replace with ¾ cup sour milk or buttermilk mixed with â…“ cup melted butter. (To make sour milk, or buttermilk, measure one cup of milk and take out a tablespoon of it. Add in a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar.)
Do I have to add the almond emulsion?
No you don’t, but I feel like it’s my secret ingredient though. Using ¼ of a teaspoon is not enough to give a lot of almond flavoring and most people won’t even know what that hint of flavor is. They’ll just know they can’t stop eating the cake! By the way, the emulsion is much better than the almond extract that they have at general grocery stores. If you can make yourself do it, just try it out. If you absolutely hate the idea, then you can omit it…I’ll work on forgiving you. 😉
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SUPPLIES & TOOLS USED FOR THE ONE BOWL VANILLA CAKE:
- Large Glass Mixing Bowl
- Hand Mixer
- Almond Emulsion
- Vanilla Bean Paste
- 8″ Round Pans
- Cooling Racks
- Large Icing Spatula
- Sprinkles
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:
The Best One Bowl Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
- 2 â…” cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter (room temp) (2 sticks)
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil (or canola oil)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup sour cream (or plain yogurt)
- ½ cup milk (use whole milk if you can get it)
- 3 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste if you can get it)
- ¼ teaspoon almond emulsion (optional)
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
- Grease and flour two, 8 inch round cake pans and set aside.
- Set the butter out and allow it to come to room temperature. It must fully come to room temperature. Don’t melt it though. (You can cut it into chunks on a plate and it will come to room temp quicker.)
- In a large mixing bowl, add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk together.
- Add the chunks of butter to the dry mixture and mix with an electric mixer on medium speed until you get a course, sand-like texture.
- Add the oil and eggs and mix at medium only until just incorporated. It’ll be thick at this point and you don’t have to keep mixing until it’s smooth right now.
- Add the sour cream (or yogurt), milk and extracts and mix at medium speed only until incorporated.
- Scrape down the sides of the bowl and then mix again just until it’s all incorporated.
- Do not over-mix. (Mixing for several minutes is too long.) Just mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Batter will be on the thick side.
- Pour into prepared pans and smooth level. Bake at 325 degrees for approximately 45 – 50 min.
- Cool on a wired rack, in the pans, for about 10-15 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto the racks and allow them to cool completely before covering with buttercream or freezing the layers.
- The tops of these cake layers will flatten out as they cool.
Notes
Nutrition
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Eunice
Thanks a lot.am enjoying your recipe
Kara Jane
I’m so glad! 🙂
Liz
Long story short , I have never had luck with making vanilla cakes however this one was actually amazing !!!
I did is margarine ( didn’t have any butter left ) also used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil and it turned out perfect and tasted amazing !
Kara Jane
Liz that’s so great! I’m so happy this vanilla cake worked for you and thank you for letting me know that using margarine instead of butter actually worked out. I’m a little surprised, but so glad it worked! And using coconut oil in place of the small amount of vegetable oil was a good idea. Thanks again for your wonderful review!
Nancy
Looking forward to making this! Do you have high altitude instructions? I love your recipes and blog!
Kara Jane
Hi Nancy, So glad you are liking the recipes! ? I don’t have specific high altitude instructions as being down here in Texas, I’ve no way to test it out, so I have no idea whether my instructions would actually help. ? I usually refer people over to the King Arthur Flour website. They have a really handy guide to adjusting temp and ingredients for high altitude baking. I wish I could help more with that, but I just have no experience baking in high altitude. Here’s the link to that information if you’d like to check it out: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Nancy
Thank you so much! I will check it out!!
Kelly
Hey Nancy!
You posted on here ages ago but I live in the Canadian Rockies and have no issues with this recipe! I make it exactly as it is and it’s my go-to for vanilla cake, SO unbelievably delicious, like I actually preferred it to chocolate cake (and I LOVE chocolate lol) Hope it works out for you too! 🙂
Kelly
Lady Webster
Thank you for your recipe. Can I also use this recipe to make Cupcakes ?
Kara Jane
I have not tried this as cupcakes yet, but I’m thinking that it should be just fine. You’ll want to heat your oven to 350 degrees instead of 325 though. Fill the cupcake liners up a little over halfway full, bake at 350 and start checking for doneness at about 18 minutes or so, but it’ll probably need a bit more baking time that that. I hope this helps! I plan to test these out as cupcakes myself and will update the post when I’ve done that. 🙂
Lady Webster
Great! Thanks for responding. I will also let you know how it goes.
Kara Jane
Sounds good! I hope you like them! 🙂
Katie
Could I use coconut oil instead of canola or vegetable oil? Or will it not work as good since it is usually solidified at room temp?
Kara Jane
Katie, coconut oil should work just fine. You can melt a bit of it and then measure out the 2 tbsps of it, but let it cool down a bit before adding it to the batter.
Angela
Would this be enough batter for a 1/4 sheet cake?
Kara Jane
Angela, yes this should be enough batter for a 1/4″ sheet cake.
Emily
I made this recipe twice and both times the cake fell in the center resulting in the center being very dense. I followed the recipe exactly and the second time I even baked longer. Can you help me figure out what I did incorrectly? The favor is fantastic though!
Kara Jane
HI Emily, that’s a mystery. I haven’t had a problem with that happening, but I’m glad you brought it to my attention. I tested it multiple times and I do know that these bake pretty flat, but haven’t had them sink on me though. I’m so sorry that happened to you though! Two things to check: Make sure you’re using baking powder and not baking soda and make sure that it’s not too old. It will lose it’s ability to work after it’s been in the pantry for awhile. The main culprit I see when cakes sink in the middle is when they’re over mixed. Scratch cakes are really picky and they just freak out when mixed too long. You just want to mix until the ingredients are well combined. Make sure you’re not mixing for a couple minutes…that’s too long. Now, this recipe is the ‘one bowl’ version of my favorite vanilla cake, so if you’re open to mixing a cake using two bowls, then you might also want to check out that cake. It has the same taste, but is a little fluffier because it’s mixed a different way. Let me know if you have any problems. I think most of the time we just end up mixing a little too long and that causes most of the issues. Oh here’s the link to that other recipe I was talking about: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/favorite-vanilla-bean-cake/
Krista J. Boschert
I absolutely loved this cake recipe and so did the birthday crowd. I was wondering if I could just add cocoa and/or melted chocolate to make it a chocolate cake and what other adjustments would l need to make? I don’t usually have chocolate on hand except semi-sweet chips but I always have cocoa in my pantry.
Thanks again for sharing the recipe!
Kara Jane
Hi Krista, I’m so glad everyone liked the cake! Yay! And thanks for letting me know that. 🙂 So, to make this a chocolate cake, you’d need to do quite a bit of adjusting with ingredients and also possibly the mixing method and I really couldn’t say for sure unless I tested it out whether it would work out or not. I do have a couple chocolate cake recipes on the blog though that are very similar to this one that you might check out. Here is one that is a one bowl cake as well: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/one-bowl-triple-chocolate-cake/ And here is another that isn’t a one bowl, but it’s easy to mix up, it’s very good and has good reviews: https://iscreamforbuttercream.com/chocolate-butter-cake/ I hope this helps!
hasini
hi. how much sugar can i reduce? I love cakes but i prefer less sweet
Kara Jane
Hi there, you want to be careful lowering the sugar in cake recipes because sugar actually does more than just adding sweetness to the cake. It helps with the texture and is what adds moistness to the cake. You might be okay to lower it by 1/2 cup (so try using 1 1/2 cups instead of 2 cups). I haven’t tested that out, but it may work. I wouldn’t lessen the sugar any more than that though, or you could have trouble with the cake’s texture and the cake might not be as moist.
Kendra Cameron
Hey there! If I’m wanting to make this cake smaller (1st birthday cake size lol) do I need to adjust the temperature of the oven and change the time? I saw your response about making them into cupcakes. Thanks for your guidance!
Kara Jane
I’m not sure what size pans you’re using, but if you’re make smaller cake layers like 6″ round cake layers, then you don’t need to change the temperature, but you’ll want to bake them for less time. I would probably start checking them at about 25-30 minutes or so. You may have to bake a bit longer, but I’d start checking then.
Clautia
I tried this cake a while back and loved it!! I’m now wondering is there a big difference between this and the vanilla bean cake? I see it uses cake flour. I also have a couple other questions
Would I be able to stack this cake and cover in fondant?
I’ve been looking for my vanilla cake and this is coming close to it! It’s the only recipe I found myself snacking on.
Kara Jane
There isn’t a huge difference between this one and the favorite vanilla cake. This one is just easier to mix together and in one bowl. I do find that it’s a little more dense than the favorite vanilla bean cake recipe though. Yes you should be able to stack this cake and cover in fondant. Thanks for your questions and I’m so glad you like the cake!
Clautia
Thank you for replying!!!! And okay great. I also wanted to know if this can be used to make cupcakes I can’t find a cupcake recipe on your website.
Kara Jane
Yes it should be just fine to make cupcakes. I’d bake them at 350 degrees though and just start watching them at about 20 minutes or so…maybe longer.
Melly
Can you halve the recipe and make in an 8″ square pan?
Kara Jane
Yes, I think that would be fine. I haven’t tired it myself, but I think it would work ok. You might not need to bake it quiet as long though.
Melanie Barnes
How do you deal with cutting 3 eggs in half for the recipe?
Kara Jane
You can just use one egg plus an egg white.
Shelley
This will be my go-to cake recipe. I followed the recipe exactly using freshly milled soft white wheat and used an oblong cake pan. It turned out perfect. We are not huge fans of icing so we top slices with fruit and a little cool whip. Delightful! Thanks for this wonderful recipe 😋
Kara Jane
Hi Shelley, I’m so glad you loved this one and thank you for the wonderful review. I love the idea of just serving this with cool whip and fruit as well. 🙂
Cindy Mechling
Tried this for my daughter’ birthday cake. We all agreed that is taste like a delicious wedding cake recipe! I will definitely use this one again!!
Kara
Hi Cindy, I’m so glad you liked this one! Thanks for the wonderful review. 🙂