Vanilla Cake

Made from scratch with pantry staples, this moist Vanilla Cake with Cream Cheese frosting recipe delivers bakery-quality results. The rich vanilla taste serves 12 people easily with no layers or fussy frosting required.

Ingredients and substitutions for Vanilla Cake

• Butter: Unsalted softened was used here as this is fresher than salted, however, you could absolutely substitute salted butter here.
• Sugar: As a result of using superfine or caster sugar, the nice fine granules dissolve into our cake and add sweetness without adding additional flavors. Icing or confectioners' sugar is best for the frosting as it dissolves best into the cream cheese.
• Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract helps give our cake it's signature and depth of flavor here. You could also add fresh vanilla bean seeds into the batter to really enhance the flavor.
• Eggs: As well as adding structure to the cake, the room temperature eggs will bind everything together, so are essential.
• Plain flour: Plain or all purpose works best here for a nice texture to the cake. You could replace with cake flour for an even more tender crumb, if you prefer.
• Milk: Full fat milk helps add moisture to our cake, but can be substituted with skim or non dairy milk.
• Buttermilk: Helps to add acidity to balance the flavors in the cake. It is recommended to use proper buttermilk here as this has the appropriate cultures needed for the recipe.
• Cream cheese: The core of our creamy frosting is room temperature full fat cream cheese, this helps to ensure the frosting is spreadable.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Vanilla Cake:

Step 1: Cake base: Stir the sugar, flour and baking powder in a bowl.

Step 2: Add: The butter and beat on low until the mixture has a wet sand appearance.

Step 3: Wet ingredients: Add the milk, buttermilk and vanilla extract into a small jug and stir until smooth and pour into the dry ingredients and combine on low.

Step 4: Eggs: Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in one egg and beat on low until it is fully combined. Repeat with the each egg.

Step 5: Pour and bake: Pour into the cake tin and spread out evenly and bake until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely.

Step 6: Frosting: Whip the butter until pale before tossing in the sugar and whipping until well combined and smooth.

Step 7: Cream cheese: Add the cream cheese and whip before adding in the vanilla extract and combine.

Step 8: Spoon: The frosting on top of the cake and smear over evenly.

Step 9: Serve up and slice: Dig in!

More single layer cakes you'll love

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Vanilla Cake

Sylvie Taylor

Made from scratch with simple pantry ingredients, this easy Vanilla cake delivers bakery-style results with a rich vanilla taste. Paired beautifully with a smooth, slightly sweet cream cheese frosting.

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Cooling time 1 hour hr

Total Time 2 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Servings 12

Calories 390 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Vanilla Cake

• 200 grams / 1 cup superfine/caster sugar
• 282 grams / 1 ¾ cups plain flour
• 8 grams / 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon sea salt
• 150 grams / 5.3 ounces butter softened
• 83 grams / ⅓ cup whole milk
• 123 grams / ½ cup buttermilk
• 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 135 grams / 3 medium eggs room temperature

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 60 grams / 4 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon butter room temperature
• 82 grams / ¾ cup + 1 tablespoon confectioner/icing sugar
• 187 grams / 6.6 ounces cream cheese room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

 

Vanilla cake

• Preheat your oven to 180C/350F and line a 20 cm or 8 inch round cake tin with parchment paper.
• Place the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
• Add the butter and beat on low until the mixture has a wet sand appearance and no butter portions remain that are larger than a pea (the smaller the better), approximately 2 minutes.
• Pour the milk, buttermilk and vanilla extract into a small jug and stir together until smooth, pour into the dry ingredients and combine on low until no dry portions remain in the bowl.
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in one egg and beat on low until it is fully combined, approximately 40 seconds.
• Repeat with the remaining egg and beat until combined.
• Pour evenly into the cake tin and spread out evenly.
• Place in the oven until golden, approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Remove and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning upside down onto a cooling rack.
• Set aside to cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting

• Place the butter into a bowl and whip until pale, approximately 3 minutes.
• Toss in the sugar and whip until it's well combined and smooth, at least 1 minute.
• Add the cream cheese and whip a further 30 seconds before adding in the vanilla extract and combine.
• Spoon on the top of your loaf and smear out over the entire loaf.
• Slice and serve.
• Dig in!

Notes

• Vanilla extract: Pure vanilla extract helps give our cake it's signature and depth of flavor here. You could also add fresh vanilla bean seeds into the batter to really enhance the flavor.
• Cream cheese: The core of our creamy frosting is room temperature full fat cream cheese, this helps to ensure the frosting is spreadable.
• Cake tin: A round spring form tin was used, however, a standard cake tin of similar size would also work well.

Recipe by Roamingtaste

Nutrition

Calories: 390kcal

Keyword cake, snack cake

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