Disclaimer: I am no absolute expert, I only play one on the internet. These are observations and techniques I use in my kitchen that work for me, my climate, my humidity, and my area. Your individual results may be different.
Alert the presses. I’m finally posting Part 3 of my very popular White Cake series.
I wrote large chunks of this months ago, but didn’t want to post without pictures. Then a few things got in the way – mainly my big pregnant belly. At the time, all I wanted was to finish my orders so I could get the hell out of a hot kitchen and sit down and sleep. Despite my plans to bake until the very end, I ended up shutting down the kitchen the last 7 weeks or so of my purgatory pregnancy. See, I had complications. Really annoying ones like gestational diabetes making me have to poke myself bleeding a billion times a day, ankles size of tree trunks, an aching back and glass in my hips, hands that seemed to loose all coordination, the attention span and comprehension of a gnat… and a demeanor that would make the Devil cower at my fat-assed feet. Just to name a few. But that’s all over with now, and I’m happy to report I have a very happy, very healthy bouncing baby girl. Literally. We can’t stop bouncing her. She won’t let us. She screams really loud. My arms are really tired.
But I digress.
10 weeks have gone by since she was born and I’m back to work, which means I have ½ of a brain to get this out in the world since I have gotten a LOT of email asking for part 3, which is way cool. What I still haven’t done is take pictures. I suck. So I’m winging it.
In my 1st post I tried to mimic a boxed cake mix by trying to use oil instead of butter or shortening. It didn’t work, and I don’t think it can work to get the results we want. What this did for me was solidify the argument that those box mixes have way too many chemicals in them, so I hope I shined more of a light on that.
I received approximately 164 emails (164!) asking for my white cake recipe, and I’m really sorry I didn’t share it with you at the time. Why not post my own? Because it’s finicky and not that I don’t trust you or think you can’t handle it, but I decided I’d rather post something that is a lot more foolproof for the home cook – because that’s what we all want. So I tested a few recipes and found one that is easy, moist, tasty, and is a billion times better then any stupid fake box cake. I then gave this to my sister (who is NOT a baker). And, well, if she can make this, ANYONE can.
But I’m going to take this one step further – see, there are lots and lots of recipes out there for white cake, but very few step by step instructions on how to actually make one or why you use the ingredients you are using. Let’s face it, if you landed here, chances are you are tired of trying recipes that fail and you don’t know why. So, I wrote a freakishly long explanation on how to make this one, breakin this bad girl down to take it one bit at a time, all in the hopes of a 100% success rate for all my readers (fingers crossed!). So, without further ado….
A Better Vanilla Cake, adapted from a Betty Crocker Cookbook circa 1950, posted on Cake Central,
With final changes and adjustments made by me
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees for cupcakes, 325 degrees for a cake (UPDATE: Everyone’s home oven is different – use your best guess for what temperature cakes bake the best in YOUR oven – you may need to bake at a higher temperature)
Should make 1 x 2 layer 8” cake with batter to spare and OR at least 2 dozen cupcakes. Position your oven rack in the center or slightly below center.
5 oz. egg whites OR 6 oz. egg yolks (UPDATE: Readers have reported success using 3 WHOLE eggs. I have not tested but it seems about right).
8.75 oz cake flour
11.5 oz. sugar
3 ½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. plus 1/8 tsp. baking SODA
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup whole milk OR buttermilk
3.5 oz. shortening OR unsalted butter
8 oz. sour cream
2 tsp. (or more) extract
First, you’ll notice most of the measurements are in ounces. Well, ya’all asked for a foolproof cake, and I firmly believe if you want a foolproof cake you need foolproof measurements. You can’t get that by measuring in volume (or cups). Invest in a digital food scale. You’ll end up using it more then you think you will and they are pretty cheep now. It also helps with troubleshooting if your recipe does not work. If you carefully weigh then you know your ratios are spot on and it must be something else that has gone awry.
Next, you’ll notice you have options with your ingredients because this recipe bends like a reed in the wind, meaning it’s a great base recipe that you can modify to suite your tastes and to change the flavor.
- Egg whites or egg yolks: Use at room temperature. Technically, a “white” cake is made with all egg whites. A “yellow” cake is made with all egg yolks. The color difference between the two finished cakes is marginal, call it egg shell to ecru. The main difference is texture and taste. A true white cake has a slightly dryer, fluffier texture and has an “eggy” taste. It also makes your extracts really pronounced – meaning if you add vanilla extract it’ll taste more like extract. OTOH, a yellow cake has a richer texture and a flavor that marries well with other flavors. When you add extracts to it, the extra fat in the yolks enhances your flavorings and makes them bright. My default cake is yellow. But what to do with the leftover parts of the egg you don’t use? I use all my whites in my Swiss meringue buttercream. If you have left over yolks make them into lemon curd (or make more cake!). Freeze either in an ice cube tray then pop the cubes into a zip lock freezer bag and they keep for months. Bottom line, there’s no need to throw any part away because they store just fine and there is always a use. (Update: Again, I have not tested, but 3 whole eggs seems to work if you want to use whole eggs).
- Cake flour: Yes, you need cake flour, NOT all-purpose flour. They are two different types of flour made with two different types of wheat. I have successfully converted a recipe that calls for all purpose flour to cake flour, but not the other way around. So for success, make sure you get cake flour. Also, I don’t use unbleached cake flour, I can’t get the texture quite right, so stick with regular white.
- Sugar: Regular white sugar or superfine sugar, either works. You can also use organic sugar, but I highly recommend you pass it through a food processor to break the crystals down since organic sugar has large course crystals which sometimes don’t dissolve all the way in the cake.
- Milk or buttermilk: Use at room temperature. I prefer the flavor of buttermilk. It lends a slight tang that boosts the overall flavor of the cake. Most people think it adds fat and makes cakes more moist, but that’s incorrect. Buttermilk is low or no fat and has less calories then milk, but what it does have is cultures containing acid for flavor and natural emulsifiers to help your cake come together and give it a nicer texture. The more cultured, the more flavor. You can use buttermilk in any recipe calling for milk, but you will always want to add baking soda (if there is none in your recipe) to help counter some of the acid. If all you have in the house is milk, go with it. Whole milk is best, but 2% should be fine also.
- Shortening or Butter: Use 68 degrees or colder butter, room temperature shortening. Well, this goes back to my 1st post about white cake. I use butter, but as I posted about, using butter is tricky. I suggest your 1st time making this to use shortening. If it works and you love the flavor, next time make it with butter and see how it goes. You probably won’t be able to taste the difference.
- Sour cream: Use at room temperature. Any sour cream will do, just make sure you stir your container if there is a puddle of water on the top. I have also heard that you can use plain or Greek yogurt, but I have not personally tried it.
- Extracts – want a nice vanilla cake? Use vanilla bean paste. Want almond cake? Use almond extract. Lemon cake? Use lemon extract with some lemon zest (do not use lemon juice). Coconut? Orange? Lavender? Hazelnut? You get my point. Use any extract – just be careful and add it gradually because each has a different strength. I taste my batter at my own risk with clean spoons despite the raw eggs to make sure my flavor is spot on and have never gotten sick. Taste at your own risk. Keep in mind the alcohol burns off while baking taking some flavor with it so even if your batter tastes strong, it should mellow.
OK, so I know you are going to ask, why no lemon juice? Personally, I don’t bother for several reasons. First, lemons are an acid. Acid causes problems with your leavening agents (baking powder/baking soda). Different regions, where we are in the growing season, organic vs. commercial etc. produce lemons with +/- pH so you could have one cake work by putting lemon juice in it, then the next cake not rise or it’ll deflate. But here’s the thing, pH levels aside, the flavor of lemon juice bakes out of your cake, so you have to add a lot of it just to get any flavor in the first place, which then adds too much moisture… which also kills your cake. You get much more bang for your buck by using lemon zest. That’s where all the oil is, and oil does not bake out. So skip the PIMA factor, pony up for a microplane zester and get some natural lemon oil extract. It bakes into the cake beautifully and tastes like real lemons without throwing off your pH. Stay away from artificial lemon flavor – it tastes like Pledge.
Now, mixing instructions. This is the reverse creaming method using just one mixing bowl – trust me, it works.
Measure out your eggs in a small bowl/cup and your milk in a separate measuring cup. Pour a bit of milk into the eggs and lightly whisk with a fork (a bit is like, a splash. You only want to use a little bit to help break the eggs up so they will mix into your batter quicker when you add it later). Measure all your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt) into a mixing bowl and combine with a wire whisk. No need to sift unless your flour is lumpy (humid areas). Pour in your milk/buttermilk, sour cream and shortening/butter. The only ingredients NOT in your main mixing bowl is your eggs and extracts. Beat with the paddle attachment on medium high for 80 seconds. This builds the structure of your cake. It’s a-ok if you only have a hand mixer, some have paddles, some don’t. Use it if you have it. Your batter should be somewhat light in color, a little thick and should start to slap the sides of the bowl with no chunks of butter remaining. Overmixing is hard to do because you are using cake flour and there are no eggs in your batter yet, but undermixing can be a problem and could cause your cake to fall so mix every bit of 80 seconds. When in doubt, go another 30. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Pour your eggs in 2 batches, mixing about 30 seconds or less between each addition or until combined. Scrape your bowl. Mix another 10 seconds or so. You should have a decently thick batter. Now you can add your flavorings. I add mine then stir with a silicone spatula.
Scoop into lined cupcake tins or into your prepared cake pans. Bake 20 minutes for cupcakes, 40 minutes for a cake or until done. Until done, you say? What the heck does that mean? Well, don’t overbake it.
Yeah, a cliffie. Sorry. But that’s a whole post all on its own, because its not just one thing, its several things to get a perfectly baked, even, moist cake. I promise, in my next post I’ll tell you how I do it.
Variations:
Strawberry or raspberry cake – replace all the milk/buttermilk and ½ of the sour cream with pureed berries.
Pumpkin: replace all the sour cream with canned pumpkin. Add 1 tsp. cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice to taste.
Coconut: replace the milk/buttermilk and all the sour cream with coconut milk. Add a handful of unsweetened shaved coconut.
Peanut butter: replace ½ of the sour cream with peanut butter.
Marble: Scoop out 1 cup of prepared vanilla batter and pour the remaining into your pans. Add 2 tsp. cocoa powder to the reserved vanilla batter then swirl it on top.
UPDATE 3/6/13… Banana: Sub out sour cream for mashed bananas. Please disregard any comment below with different instructions.
Original posted recipe on Cake Central can be found here, but has problems and makes a ton of batter.
So let me hear it! How did it go? Have more questions? Variation requests? Leave a comment!
Well dang I am totally bummed. Here I am trying out the long awaited white cake recipe and there may be a typo? Is there really 3 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp + 1/8 tsp of baking powder?
Aw hell, sorry! 1/2 + 1/8 baking SODA! I will correct ASAP!
thank goodness! I was hoping it was not the other way around as I had the b.p sifted in already! I will let you know how it turns out. I am hoping this is the end of my search for a good white cake!
I just wanted to tell you a million times over, thank you! This is the most perfect delicious white cake I have made and I have made MANY. I ended up using the yolks, butter, 6oz of sour cream and 2 oz of vanilla yogurt (it is what I had) and 2.5 tsp of vanilla bean paste. They were perfect in every way: fluffy, moist (even 2 days later!) just sweet enough. I topped with a vanilla bean SMBC (different reciped, your method). I now have to try a lemon and coconut version next. Thanks for sharing.
Great cake! I did a yellow strawberry version. Thank you for sharing!
Curious if you have made this with shortening. Given that butter is 15%-20% water, the version cake made with butter will have more liquid and less fat than one made with shortening. Everything I have seen pertaining to using shortening for butter advises accounting for that difference as it will impact the final product. If you have made it with shortening have you noticed any difference (not just flavor)?
Thanks for reading! I have no problems subbing shortening for butter in my recipes. Where I’ve have a problem is subbing liquid oil for a solid fat like shortening or butter. This original recipe in the Betty Crocker cook book actually calls for shortening to make a “white” white cake, but people have used butter (me included) instead with no problems.
Oh forgot to add, thanks for taking the time to both work on and post the alterations to the original recipe.
First I’ll say I LOVE your blog and your willingness to share your tips and tricks!! I have learned SO much reading your posts! Thank you for the time and effort you put into this!!!
I was really excited to try this recipe as I have been searching for my “go-to” vanilla cake…. I had a few problems, first WOW does this batter rise!! I normally fill my pans 2/3 full and this overflowed after only about 10 minutes in the oven!! My own fault….
After the cake cooled, the middle collapsed. Do you have any thoughts on that? I live at about 3500′ elevation… The only thing I did different was add 1/2 tsp brandy flavoring along with the vanilla.
The texture is super light and airy, almost like an angel food cake…. does this work well for stacking and carving? Do you have any suggestions to make it slightly more dense?
One more question, can I use whole eggs? It took 10 eggs to get 6oz of yolks and for the amount of batter I need to make next weekend, I would be using almost 3 dozen eggs!! Yikes!!
Sorry to be so full of questions! THANK YOU again!! I really appreciate your advice!!
Hello Holly,
Couple things can cause your cake to sink a little bit, but overfilling your pans will do it. Only fill them 1/2 way or slightly under. Make sure to use bake even strips. You want more dense? That’s an unusual request LOL! This cake is supposed to mimic the texture of what people expect from a box of white cake mix, so if you want something more dense you might want to try another recipe. As for the eggs, I totally understand, I guess I am used to going through a lot of eggs! If you volunteer to make a small test batch making it with whole eggs and report back on how it went, that would be awesome. I’d say split the difference and do 5.5 oz.
It should be just fine for stacking. I can’t say for sure about carving since Its not really my thing, but I know people use this recipe.
Thanks for reading!
Thank you for your reply! I will try it with whole eggs tonight and let you know. You can laugh at me now and call me dumb…. but yesterday I was rushing out the door when I tasted a cupcake and felt it was to light and airy, well…. it wasn’t cool all the way, and this morning I decided to break apart one of the cakes and test it and it WAS very much like a box mix as far as texture and density which I was looking for! DUH!!
Hello holly,
I too live at a similar elevation as you and I have found that with this recipe and most others I use the thing that prevents my centers collapsing is using one tsp of baking powder per 8oz of flour, and no soda. Not sure if this will fix the problem but it has always worked for me.
ok, I just baked it with whole eggs, 3 eggs measured just under 5oz and 4 eggs was 6.5oz. I went with the 4 eggs. The cakes taste just slightly eggy but are beautifully moist and have a wonderful texture. The only problem is they sunk again. Should I just use 3 eggs, or use 4 and scoop some out to get around 5.5oz? Or do you think the egg is even the problem causing the sinking?
Sweet! Saving me some work
How much did it sink? Did it just get a slight divit on the top that you can easily level off, or did it sink totally making the cake gummy and dense in the middle? My cakes often get a slight divit that I level off no problem. But if you are having the other problem, how old is your baking powder? Could it be expired?
I baked 2 6″ square cakes, they only sunk slightly, but feels a little gummy so far, still a tad warm. I also made 4 jumbo size cupcakes, they sunk a good 1/4 inch, but are not gummy or dense.(I have eaten 2 already!! :O ) My baking powder is about 4 months old and my baking soda is brand new, just opened today.
Did the cupcakes dome then flatten out? Let me know when the 6″ are cool and you cut into them. Sounds like everything is A-OK to me so far!
nope, they never domed, just were pretty flat in the oven, and then sunk in the middle as they were cooling.
They are concave. I think I will bake more tomorrow and try using one less egg…. we shall see 
I just tried this recipe last night and had a similar problem. I made regular sized cupcakes and they never domed. They either sank or spilled over the edges for the ugly “mushroom” effect. I’m so perplexed by this!
Oh no! Maybe it’s the temperature of your oven? These don’t dome very high, but they shouldn’t sink. Try cranking up your heat. Or maybe you overfilled your cups?
Hi – I followed you to your blog from cake central. I enjoy reading it. I have been doing a lot of practicing with scratch baking and was looking for a white cake recipe. I made your recipe yesterday and took it to a party. I used regular milk, egg whites and used butter, vanilla extract and vanilla beans. I made a rasberry filling with a ABC frosting. Everyone loved it! It gave me some confidence and next time I will try the SMBC.
One question though, the layers did not rise very high. I used 2 8″ pans. The taste and texture were great. Is it typical that the layers don’t get very high? They didn’t rise and fall – they just didn’t rise very much. My baking powder was new but the baking soda was about a month old – could that be the reason?
Hello! What temperature was your oven? How accurate is it? Normally your cake should double (or so) in volume. I try and shoot for baking my cakes at 325, but it depends on the oven. My home oven runs cold and has hot spots, so after lots of trial and error I know that my cake will be perfect if I set it at 335 because my oven is off (like most home ovens). So my advice is next time turn up your oven heat as high as 350 and see if it rises better.
I had the temperature set at 325 but I am not sure it is accurate. I will try it at 350 nexttime. I think I will get an oven thermometer also.
Thanks for the advice!
I absolutely love your ideas, thinking process, and final product! Your SMBC seems perfect. I enjoy baking and am baking a cake for my Mom’s new husband. He has recently been deemed ‘Gluten Intolerant’. So while I can find plenty of Red Mill gluten free flours, is there a specific one that you recommend, and do I need to reproportion my ingredients in order to use this gluten-free flour?
All the best to you and your beautiful new baby:)
Catherine
Thank you for your well wishes!
Gluten-free is a whole different animal that I have yet to even really tackle… but I do know that converting a recipe to gluten free is tricky and takes more then just gluten free flour in order to make it work. There are lots of resources online, a Google gave me this…
http://www.vegiac.com/forums/recipe-conversion/885-tips-converting-recipes-gluten-free.html
Hope this helps, and please post your results if you were able to convert this to a gluten free cake!
Hi Jen! Love your blog and enjoy reading your comments on CC! I’ve made IMBC and SMBC a few times and haven’t been happy with the results….too buttery for me….but I’m determined to try again using your recipe/method. Anyway…to the real point of my post….
For your pumpkin variation on this cake, you say to replace all the milk and 1/2 the milk/buttermilk with canned pumpkin. Do you mean all the milk and 1/2 the sour cream? Thanks!
Yes thank you!
I have to thank you… I have been fooling with the recipe from cake central so much with not much luck. The original cake recipe is well loved but very unstable. Very hit or mis. But so many people loved the flavor! I almost gave up with it.You have taken the time out to amend this and it is lovely. I just baked 2 8 inch square pans and they look lovely. I have yet to taste them but the batter tasted as good as the original! I have high hopes.. will probably tweet you when I taste them!! You are a genius!! Thanks so much for the informative write up!
I am so glad!!! Let me know how it tastes
Okay, I had a little trouble with this recipe, maybe you can help! I think I did two things wrong, first, I didn’t have cake flour on hand, so I did the “conversion” with the cornstarch…secondly, do I cream the butter/shortening in to the dry, then add wet, then add eggs slowly?? Thats what I did, could I have mixed too long?? Thanks for posting, Hopefully I will hear back from ya before I try again!!
Hello!
I’ve only tried the all-purpose flour with cornstarch thing once and it did not work, especially not for white cake. I only use cake flour if the recipe calls for it. As for mixing, you did not follow my directions
Trust me, dump the milk/buttermilk, sour cream and the butter into the dry, mix for 180 seconds then add eggs. In your case, you probably way over-mixed, especially since you used all-purpose flour and did the wet in stages. Due to the higher protein in all-purpose flour you probably over-developed the gluten. I hope you try again with cake flour and the dump-it-all-in method and let me know how it goes!!!
Do we mix for 180 seconds, or 80 seconds? Hoping to try this soon!
Hi! I tried this over the weekend and I thought it was “okay” but I don’t like the slightly sour taste to it. It was slight, but there…Can I just not use the sour cream, or is there a substitute that is less sour?
Bummer! You need the liquid component, so you will need something in it’s place. Here’s my suggestions, you can sub 1/2 of the sour cream for more milk/buttermilk, you can try replacing all the sour cream for yogurt (either plain or flavored), and someone recently told me they used pudding (pre-made, follow directions on package) in place of the sour cream and it turned out great. Let me know how it goes, and thanks for reading!
Oh, and I’ve noticed that the brand of sour cream makes a difference – for example, where I live Knudsen Dairy makes a sour cream that has a really strong flavor, but Daisy sour cream is really mild, in fact I don’t think Daisy has much flavor to it. Maybe give that a try also?
WOW! Thanks for the quick reply! I will try the pudding, I am super excited to try it, actually! Can’t wait!! I will let you know when I do. I have already baked this week (with my trusty mix), and no white for a couple weeks, but I may just have to make a cake for my family
I really want to go all homemade, from scratch. I have “cake mix guilt”. And I hate the chemicals in my bettercream fillings, so I have been stalking your site and the sites you recommend.
BTW I am annabakescakes from CC
Annabakes!!!! So glad you gave this a go! If you make the pudding from scratch (which is really easy) that will take you one step further in the right direction since mix pudding has chemicals too, but baby steps, dear! Baby steps!
I made your recipe last week and the layers baked up beautifully. I also made a 4″ cake to taste. When it was warm, it tasted kind of “eggy” and I ended up using two layers of the Cook’s Illustrated recipe. Yesterday, however, I took your layers (well, my layers out of your recipe) out of the freezer and tasted it after thawing. Oh, my! Did not taste eggy at all and had a very pleasing texture. Thank you. One question though, and pardon me if I missed this in all the posts I’ve read this morning, but you’ve mentioned reducing the baking powder for cupcakes but in this recipe you said it makes two 8″ layers and 24 cupcakes. Do they bake up nicely without the reduction in the baking powder?
I’m glad! Sometimes you need to let it rest for the flavors to develop. For sure, a cake straight out of the oven tastes different then cake that has had a chance to mature.
No, you should not need to decrease the baking powder, I have already adjusted both power and soda based on the weight of the flour and anticipated acid so that you can make cupcakes and cake without changing anything (which is a major difference from the original recipe posted on CC). These won’t have a massive dome when done, but they will not sink and should not pull from the wrappers.
Wow, that was quick! Thank you.
LOL! I didn’t even think of the pudding from scratch, but yes, it is easy! I used to make it all the time as a teen. Now I tend to reach for the Jello…. Motherhood! (I have 4 kiddos, my first were twins, at 20)
Hey Jennifer, I am going to make this again and I have a TON of pudding I need to use before I switch to the from scratch pudding. Do you think I should mix it, then put it in, or throw it in dry with extra liquid? If so, when should I add it? Wet with wet and dry with dry?
I’ve never done this, but I imagine you need to replace the sour cream for prepared pudding. At least that’s what I would do. Good luck and let me know how it goes!
Okay, I did something HORRIBLY wrong, lol. I *thought* I followed directions to a “T”, only substituting pre-made instant White Chocolate pudding (tasteless and BLAH) for the sour cream. Whole milk and Alpine shortening, since it is all I have. I thought the batter tasted rather salty, but was gorgeous but a *little* grainy looking. I baked and it puffed early and big, but got really liquidy. Then it ran over, and over
Then it browned a little and started sinking, and sinking and sinking, lol!!! I took a picture I am sending to your email, via phone message, in-case you want to post it and make fun of me. It is out now, and it got really brown before it solidified. I am going to taste it when I get back 
Any ideas what went wrong?
I am off to Kroger to get some mixes, and I will try again next week. Thank God I am an insomniac, since I am also a procrastinator!
LOL! I got the photo! My 1st thought, you said it tasted salty… did you reverse your baking soda and baking powder??? LOL I could almost bet that’s what happened because I’ve done that before! The cake exploded all over my oven and looked just like yours did.
Keep trying!
Well, I tasted it and it is still salty, but sweet and has a nice-ish texture. I think it was over-baked because the bottom was brownish, while the inside of the top part was white. It has crispy edges, but still moist. It tastes a lot like, and has the texture of, a cross between a sweet cornbread a salty buttermilk biscuit. I think my husband will eat it ;-D
I reread the recipe and I am sure I didn’t switch the soda and powder, but I looked at my used measuring spoons and I think I may have put a half Tablespoon and an 8th teaspoon of soda in, rather than half teaspoon and an 8th.
UH: !!!
I will keep trying, I have an all from scratch goal, but I am taking it easy so I don’t get over whelmed or turn out a crappy product.
This recipe was the best birthday present. After several attempts trying to make an amaretto cake, with awful results, FromScratchSF came to my rescue. This is a wonderful recipe. I paired the amaretto with a mango filling and butter cream icing. It was moist and delicious. No leftovers! Thank you so very much.
Link to photo: http://cakecentral.com/gallery/2159595
JWinslow
Hello,
how would you make this recipe a banana cake? simply adding mashed bananas and banana flavoring? maybe a little cinnamon? I’m new at baking from scratch and I’m very nervous about trying this for the first time for my son’s birthday party. your recipe sounds declicious though and I’ve heard nothing but good feedback. Thanks for your time.
Banana Version! I actually just did this myself. Replace the sour cream with roasted mashed bananas, and change to 2 tsp. baking powder and 2 tsp. baking soda. I normally don’t add other spices to my banana cake but feel free to experiment. You can also fold in 1/2 to 1 cup of roasted walnuts.
Don’t be nervous! It’s only cake! Good luck.
Silly questions, but how do you roast bananas? When I hear roasted, I think of placing the item over the flames to get a nice char, or in the case of nuts, heating them in a dry skillet till toasty. Thanks!
http://www.ehow.com/how_7319618_roast-bananas.html
So last night I made your White cake… and today made the pumpkin variation. I am happy to report that I had no issues with either. I used egg yolks and the shortening as suggested and weighed everything out. My pumpkin cake was SUPER moist but my white cake was a little dry. Do you have any suggestions on how to help with this issue?
I loved baking from 100% scratch instead of doctored box mixes and hope to find fabulous recipes to use in place of my WASC. Thanks!
If your cake is a touch dry, perhaps you overbaked it? You have to be very careful with that. A trick to make sure your cake is moist is right when it comes out of the pan and it’s still warm, pop it in the freezer and let it get almost frozen, if not totally frozen. Pull it out and use it right away or wrap it in plastic and pop back in the freezer. It makes a huge difference.
Hi jennifer,
just wanted one clarification. I am going to be making the pumpkin cake today. I wanted to know if i have to use the entire 15 oz of canned pumpkin for the milk and 1/2 of sour cream?
I also wanted to try the cake with high ratio shortening as the ratio of sugar is higher than flour. Any thoughts?
Hello! I just realized there was a typo on my pumpkin variation… I have corrected it on the blog, but it should read: Replace all the sour cream with pumpkin and add spice to taste.
I don’t know anything about hi-ratio shortening and don’t know how it effect baking. Sorry, but let me know your results!!!
Hi Jennifer,
I have tried the recipe with whites, yolks and and egg replacer. Some with all butter and some with shortening.
Here are my results.
White cake with butter and whites. Tasted good, light and fluffy and moist. But a little too sweet for me. But i personally like denser cakes.
Peanut butter cake with Shortening (Hi Ratio)- Tasted good. But one of the pans sank and the other one was perfect. Still not able to figure out why.
Pumpkin with egg replacer- One word Amazing.. could taste the pumkin.
Peanut butter with egg replacer- These were cup cakes but were a total disaster. They rose very high and spread out all around. I Though because i over filled them but all cup cakes were the same. I could not use even 1 to decorate. But they tasted good.
But i will experiment more. Till then Thanks a lot for you recipe.
One more thing, whenever i follow reverse creaming the cake comes out moist and light and fluffy. Guess that is the secret.
Hey, Lady! Could you please recommend a good cook book? I found the Cake Bible used and I want to add another to get free shipping, lol. I made your recipe successfully and now i want to make ALL my cakes from scratch!!
Hi Jen!
Thanks for this post! I’m always looking for a great white cake.
. I noticed right at the beginning you say it will make enough batter for one 2 layer 8″ with a bit left over AND 24 cupcakes. Does it really make that much batter or does it yield enough for the layer cake OR the cupcakes.
Thank you for that catch! Just corrected, should be OR, not AND!
I just made this into 23 cupcake. They rose nicely and didn’t appear to sink at all. I haven’t gotten DH to taste them yet because he’s more a vanilla guy than I am. But I wanted to say they did taste good. I had a question about the butter and it’s temp. I make your SMBC and usually take the butter out the night before so it’s nice. Is that too soft for this? I did find that even though I had let it come to room temp there were still some lumps in the batter. That didn’t seem to have any adverse affects during baking though, just some grease spots on the papers.
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! If your butter still was a little lumpy after the 1st part of reverse creaming, then it’s just a touch too cold, but it should be just fine. It just won’t rise as well and your texture may be a little more dense because you didn’t get a full emulsion. But that’s better then super soft butter, which can break down and cause your cake to sink.
Jen,
I have to say this recipe made the BEST cupcakes. I am not a fan of vanilla cake myself, but OMG they’re good! I made these on Saturday and tasted one….I was ho hum about it but others said they were good. I had some of your SMBC in the freezer (chocolate) and iced half with that and the other half with some left over frozen ABC from the freezer the next day. On Monday I took most of them into work as DH and I just don’t need cupcakes in the house. LOL. They raved (as they should) and for the first time people actually found me to tell me how good they were. DH and I ate the last couple last night (so 4 days after baking) and they were fantastic. I’m a vanilla cake convert! I even got an order for cupcakes from someone at the office based on those cupcakes.
So thank you again!
I have two questions –
1. Have you ever made these in a chocolate version.
2. Have you multiplied this recipe without issue?
Thank you SOOOOO much for doing so much research and testing for this AMAZING recipe.
I made it twice today. I used 9 jumbo eggs which gave me the yolks for one batch, the whites for a second batch, and just over 6.25 oz of whites left over for SMBC. In batch 1 I used buttermilk, 5.75 oz plain yogurt and 2.25 oz creme fraiche, butter, and a combo of vanilla paste & vanilla extract. In batch 2 I used buttermilk, 8 oz sour cream, butter, and same extract combo. For both I used cake flour, baking soda & baking powder purchased today. Both batches yielded 30 cupcakes (filled 1/2 way), and baked in about 18 min (my oven, I’ve noticed afterwards runs a little cool so they prob baked at 325-327).
Both are delicious and taste like typical white and yellow cake mix (but no unpronouncable chemicals – yay!!). I can’t wait to serve them!
Thanks again – your SMBC and cream cheese SMBC are my life-saving go-to recipes so I knew to come to you when I needed a kickass cake to go with them!
Awesomesauce! Creme fraiche, what a great idea, I haven’t seen that one yet. I bet they tasted really yummy!
I havent made these yet, Ive spent the past few weeks testing out over 20 or so vanilla cake recipes. Up until now Ive always use WASC for vanilla and scratch for my other flavors. So far Sylvia Weinstocks yellow is the best I could find, but just to tangy for me. My question is do you know what the results would be if using the whole egg? Im gonna try these out today and crossing my fingers they turn out well-w/ just yolks
I have not made this recipe with whole eggs (I always make a yellow cake because I prefer the flavor), although a few people commented that they were going to try it – sadly nobody reported how it went. I have a feeling it works fine. Please let me know how it goes!
I’ve made it both with all egg white and with whole eggs and I much prefer the egg whites only recipe. It turned out okay but I think it was a bit dense. If you want a good yellow cake recipe, I’ve used David’s Yellow Cake that is on allrecipes.com It’s quite good.
So I wanted to report back. So I made 1/2 the recipe and used 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks and used 1/2 and 1/2 instead of milk. They turned out fluffy and almost angel food like. The flavor was good, but I wonder if they need a bit more butter? Anyhow the only thing thing I didnt like is that when I checked on them after 16 mins they were nice and lightly domed. But not dont(I could tell by looking), so I left them for about 3 mins more and when I went to pull them out they had flattened to the top of the cupcake pan. Have you made RLB Yellow butter cake? I love the flavor of it but its way too soft for me to use, I noticed it uses slightly less baking powder and no baking soda, and more butter. Do you think too much leavening could cause them to flatten like that? If I can get the shape to come out right, they would be perfect and I could stop looking for a vanilla/yellow cupcake.
Thanks Crissy,
I’ve baked a ton out of the Cake Bible – but those recipes are far from perfect – she updates several in Heavenly Cakes, and for her Yellow Butter cupcakes she uses 1/2 baking soda, 1/2 baking powder!
Converting to use whole eggs might be your problem, it’s not ounce for ounce. For example, in the Cake Bible RLB uses 2 whole eggs (or 3.5 oz), or 2.5 ounces of egg yolks, or 3 oz. egg whiles for every 2 cups (7 oz.) cake flour. Using that math, I think this recipe needs 3 whole eggs. I have NOT tried it and don’t have time as of late, but if I were going to do whole eggs in a test batch that’s what I’d use. And to 1/2 he recipe I’d crack 3 eggs in a cup, lightly whisk, measure, then 1/2 it.
I think if your cupcakes are not doming or your cake is sinking, it could be:
1. Butter too soft when you used it.
2. Not enough or too much egg to support the structure created by the leavening.
3. Oven not hot enough.
Good luck!
Thanks so much, I so am trying to wrap my head around baking science! I dont have heavenly cakes, just the bible. My butter was definelty too soft, I had to slightly nuke b/c it was still not quite soft enough. As far as oven not hot enough I always bake at 335, works great for all my other cakes.
I did weigh my eggs and 1 whole egg and 2 egg yolks was exactly 3oz for me. I will try it again, b/c I think its worth perfecting, so I will try with all whole eggs and a higher temp.
Does the texture I came out with sound right? Sorta angel food cake like-it was good tho.
I will report back later tonight-must run to the store, ran outta sugar.
Ah HA! Your butter needs to be cool, NOT soft. See my post about butter, but it should be 68 degrees or colder. The finished texture resembles a box cake mix. If you are looking for something heavier then this is not for you – this recipe is specifically fluffy for those that have cake mix palates. Maybe try pound cake?
Does the reverse method seem to produce this type of cake. The texture is so soft and not like the typical “cornbread” texture Ive come across in most yellow cake recipe. Ideally I would like something similar to WASC(not sure if youve ever made it) Sorta dense like.
Reverse creaming is just a simplified way to make a butter cake that helps prevent over-mixing.
If you are looking for a somewhat dense cake, this recipe is not it. If made properly this should be a light, fluffy flavorful cake. I have never made or tasted the WASC recipe so many use on Cake Central, I don’t bake with box mixes… I suggest maybe going with a pound cake recipe.
Oh my tastebuds!! I made two cakes using your recipe, and i honestly have to say, this is THE BEST white/yellow cake i have made/eaten. i made one using egg whites, milk, and vanilla bean paste (thank you for that tip as well) and the other was with buttermilk and egg yolks. Both were fantastic. i can’t thank you enough for posting this recipe.
I actually was wondering what cake flour you use. I used Softasilk (it was on sale) but my husband noticed it said “enriched cake flour bleached” does that matter?
Glad it worked out, and your cake flour is fine!
OK, with the rave reviews and success stories on this post, I am now convinced it’s me….I can’t can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong and would like your input. I have made this 4 times now, and every time it is sunken in the center, and the texture is more like a coarse corn bread than a cake. It is not dry or overbaked, my baking powder is far from expired, and my ingredients were room temperature. The 1st & 2nd time, I used shortening per your suggestion; then switched to butter. The butter cake didn’t sink quite as much, but still had the same texture. Any ideas on where I’m going wrong? Thanks in advance.
Oh no! OK, what liquid did you use? Egg whites, yolks or whole eggs? Are you trying to use UNBLEACHED cake flour? Tell me exactly what ingredients you used and I’ll try and troubleshoot…
H, thank you for sharing this recipe and posting a detailed info on how to mix and bake it . For a newbie baker like me, every bit of info is very helpful to bake a cake properly.
I’m planning to try and bake this next week, but I’m a little confused on how to do the strawberry version. By “replace all the milk/buttermilk and ½ of the sour cream with pureed berries”, do you mean we’re gonna have to use 1 cup of strawberry puree + 4 oz sour cream? If yes, do you know how many strawberries we’ll need to puree to get 1 cup? Thanks in advance for helping!
That’s correct. and I think 1c puree is 1.5-2 lbs strawberries.
Hi, just saw this recipe. So it is correct? using 3 1/2 tsp. baking powder and then 1/2+ 1/8 tsp. baking soda? thanks for your help!!
Yup!
Just discovered you on CC and followed you here…I have learned so much!! I tried this today with egg whites and shortening…it was sooo delicious! I made a very popular WASC from CC the other day and wanted to compare the two. This was head and shoulders above the cake mix recipe!! I have a few questions I would love help with:
1. I made it with shortening as you suggested…thought it was great…what added benefit would the butter give instead?
2. It dipped slightly in the center (not gummy but leveling it didn’t quite take it all off). I may have overfilled the pans and did not use bake-even strips…could that be he cause?
3. I made cupcakes with the leftover batter and they didn’t dome at all. I must add that I may have overfilled (how full do you fill yours) and that I placed them in the muffin tin and had to place them in the fridge while my cakes baked.
4. If I wanted to reduce the sugar a tad, do you forsee any ill effects? How much would be safe to reduce it by?
5. Lastly, just curious why you prefer SMBC over IMBC. I’ve only made IMBC and love it and was going to give SMBC a go this week.
Thanks in advance…I know I just asked a LOT of questions! I would love to go all scratch and you are such an inspiration!
Hello!
1. Butter gives it a little more flavor.
2. Try baking on a higher setting – bump your cake to 350 and your cupcakes to 375.
3. Same as #3
4. Don’t not mess with the ratios. This recipe works because it has a nicely balanced baker’s percentage of sugar/flour/fat/liquid/egg.
5. I make SMBC because it’s easier, or at least I used to think so. As I find myself having to make 25 pounds of buttercream (or more) at a time I’m thinking maybe IMBC might be easier…
Hope this helps!
Totally helps…thank you for such a quick response!
I want to try this recipe tomorrow and I only by salted butter do you think it will matter if I use it or do I have to go out and buy unsalted. I was thinking to use the salted and just leave out some of the salt in the recipe do you think that will work?
Omit the salt completely.
Hi:
Thanks for all of this info, you’re so sweet to share your knowledge with us all.
My questions is; can you use bake this recipe larger pans with success? I watched RLB’s white cake video you posted and she said not to use large pans because it won’t bake well.
Thanks for your advice.
How large of a pan? Honestly I’ve never made this larger then a 9″ so I’m not sure, but I’m pretty sure you’d have to tweak the leavening. When I re-worked this recipe and altered the leavening from the original, I based it on sizes a home cook would normally be making, which is a 6 to 9″ cake or in 9×13 pan. If you are thinking of trying to make this in a 12″ or larger, you would need to lower the baking powder/baking soda because of the larger surface area tension. For a much better explanation of why you’d do this and how you’d do this, I suggest getting the Cake Bible and re-work the leavening on her Rose Factors vs. how many ounces of flour you are using.
This may be a dumb question…but I’m confused. Do I use my digital scale to weigh my egg whites, milk and sour cream or because they are liquid oz do I just use my liquid measuring cup and fill to desired oz mark? I know scales measure weight and measuring cups measure volume, but I’m still confused on how to get the most accurate reading. Thanks!
You want to weigh by ounces, not fluid ounces. One is by weight (your scale), one is by volume (your measuring cup). All my recipes are by weight unless indicated otherwise.
Thank you!!
Hi, again, I love your blog. when you have the time, can you tell us how much cocoa or melted chocolate to use to make chocolate batter. tia Hope ia have not overlooked it already. I
I don’t have a chocolate version of this recipe. Although I could probably come up with one… but not right now.
Thank you so much for replying so quickly. I understand that you can,t do it right now.
Thank you for your recipe. I made a single batch first this morning and it was horrible. After I was running through the steps in my head of where my measurements might have been wrong i looked up and saw my egg yolks sitting in a bowl next the the oven. Bingo, that was it. Then i did a triple batch. I had a double birthday party for my son’s at 1:15 and I started the whole process at 10. I got the cupcakes to the party just after the jump party was done and they were all heading upstairs for cake. i am now baking the rest of the batter and will be stuffing my face and enjoying my labor of love. thanks so much, again.
Woo Hoo – a recipe in weights instead of cups!!!! I am a soapmaker and am used to weighing everything. I hate trying to convert recipes. I have seen a lot of different weights for a cup of flour. Which weight do you use?
Jenn, I appreciate SO much your attention to the details while experimenting to find the very best recipe. What about the rising agents ? Single acting or double acting baking powder ? I see some disagreement out there about which is safe, which is best. Any thoughts ?
I only use double-acting. Don;t know if it’s safer, or what the disagreement could be about…
Hello! I tried this recipe this morning and wanted to report my results. I bought a digital scale yesterday for this recipe. I did cut the recipe in half. I used butter and buttermilk. Everything was room temperature. The batter came together nicely in the beginning. At the end the batter was not entirely liquidy, but certainly slid off the spatula easier than I thought it should. So, I baked them up and they rose a little and stayed pretty flat. By the time they cooled they were sunk in the middle. Not sunk to the bottom, but I couldn’t serve them to anyone the way they looked. They kind of mushroom’ed out a little. I suspect I put a little too much batter. It looked like 3/4 full to me, but maybe that’s too much. The flavor is great and the texture is wonderful. I’m happy w/ the way they turned out with the exception of them sinking. I will try the recipe again and only put batter half way in the cupcake liners. I wanted to ask if you thought anything else might have been the cause? Also, you said the batter should be a little bit thick, but how thick is that? Should it slop off the spatula or stay a little bit on it?? Kinda weird question, I know.
Huh, was your butter also room temoperature? That may be your problem, I only recommend using butter that is 68 degrees or colder. You may also need to crank up your oven to get our cupcakes to dome. I have gone as high as 400 degrees in some ovens! But as I said, these don’t dome that much, but they should not sink. So if you try this again make sure your butter is 68 degrees and you turn up the heat. TFR!
Hi again
The butter was at room temperature. My temp in the kitchen was probably around 67′ish. I will actually stick a thermometer in it next time, however I only have a meat thermometer. I did the trick where you set your oven to 400, pop the cupcakes in and lower the oven temp to 350 to try and get a nice dome. I will try again later this week.
Well crap…meat thermometer only starts at 120. I was thinking that when I said it. However, the butter was soft enough to leave a dent, but not go all the way through. It wasn’t hard and it wasn’t almost melty either. I considered it to be the right temp range. Either way, I will try again.
LOL! Please let me know how it goes…
Ok, me again
Very quickly I wanted to ask about the egg whites. I ended up measuring my egg whites in a liquid measuring glass. I am now thinking back on what I might have done wrong and I thought of this. I was supposed to weigh the egg whites, right?? On my scale?
Hello,
I tried to read through all of the comments to see if my question was already answered and did not see it, sorry if this is a repeat question, Can this recipe be successfully doubled?
I would also like to say that this is my go to white cake I love the simplisity of the whole process and I always have consistant results.
Thank You again
Hi Jen,
I’m planning to use your white cake recipe for a cake for my SIL in a 70s theme tie-dyed cake. I have a couple of questions.
1. Do you think I will have any problems colouring the batter if I use the egg white version? I’m thinking the yellow from the yolks might change the colours slightly.
2. I am planning on making an 8″ and 10″ tiered cake, both with the tie-dyed appearance inside. I usually make this in a 3×8″ pan. Do you think I could just double the recipe for the 10″ pan and make cupcake with the left over batter?
On a side note I made the egg yolk version today and only baked half of it at a time as I don’t have 2 8″ pans (I didn’t want to deal with having to torte the tier) and the turned out fairly dense and didn’t really rise at all. I remade the batter and this time I used it all in the 3″ pan with a flower nail, and although I totally forgot to put the over to 325, not 350, it seems to have come out okay and rose reasonably well. Since I need about a 5-6″ high cake for my “stack of pancakes cake” I need to make another recipe tomorrow in an 8″ pan, so will do it that way. I’m sure it will turn out. Love this recipe.
Pam
Thanks Pam! I don’t do it too often, but I have colored my yellow cake recipe before with no issues, but I’ve never done blue. Since there is a slight yellow tint not only from the egg yolks but also from the butter, I’d be concerned that it would turn more teal/green then blue (just like tinting SMBC). But I’ve done pink, orange and red no problem.
Don’t know what happened with your cake not rising much!
This recipe doubles & triples just fine, especially since all your ingredients are weighed. If you plug this into a spreadsheet you should be able to easily do all your math so you get a consistent batter no matter the quantity.
Oh, and everyone seems to have much better luck baking at 350.
TIP FOR THOSE USING 3″ PANS: Line the *sides* of your pan with parchment as well as the bottom. I recently started doing this with all my cakes and I am amazed at how it helps to bake evenly. I still also use bake even strips.
Good luck!
Jen, just wanted to let you know you saved my day with this! I needed a recipe I could adapt to milk free due to allergies, and it got spring on me last minute. I used this recipe with soy substitutes for dairy and it turned out great! Bless you!
That is WONDERFUL! I’m so glad it worked for you!
I am so excited! I am going to try this recipe tomorrow with NO changes so I can see exactly how it turns out. Will let you know.
I just made the white cake version with egg whites and it is awesome. I brought it in to work and everyone described the experience as biting into a cloud
I filled it with vanilla bean custard and iced with vanilla bean italian meringue buttercream. I test recipes like a mad woman and I am never ever satisfied because I am always looking for the next best thing but my search has seriously ended here. My cupcakes rose beautifully and didn’t over flow or sink at all. BTW, this is tigachu from cakecentral 
Awesome! So glad you loved it. Thanks for popping over
I will start off saying that I am not a lover of white cake and will avoid it at all costs, however I do love baking cakes and was requested to make a white cake. Therefore being who I am, I was not going to rest until I found what white cake lovers would really rave was a great white cake and then master it. I made this receipe today using buttermilk and the 3 whole egg route (since I was going to use vanilla bean paste and figured the pure white color wasn’t going to be a factor). I made a 4 layer cake alternating chocolate and vanilla and frosted it with a chocolate ganache and tried it. I will say that the vanilla cake was moist and had a good taste (which I didn’t anticipate I would appreciate since I am not a white cake fan). As I went to post a comment I looked at a few comments and am now questioning if I used the correct amount of baking powder. Is it 3 and 1/2 teaspoons or 3 (1/2) teaspoons that would equal 1 1/2 teaspoons? I used 3 and a half and it turned out great. I also failed to catch that I should have baked the cake at 325 and baked it at 350 and it still came out great. Maybe next time I will try to make this using the egg whites and a clear vanilla extract to try and get the picture perfect white cake. I can not thank you enough for posting this receipe, the clear explanation and what is always the hook to catch my attention is the pictures. The pictures are worth a thousand words and for me, it is great to have a reference of what the finished result should look like to know I didn’t waste my money and energy into something that might turn out to be a great smelling paper weight.
I used homemade vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste in the white version with egg whites and butter. I think my cupcakes turned out pretty white. I was actually shocked at how stark white it seemed.
Thank you so much for this recipe! I’ve used it twice now to make cupcakes. It is THE PERFECT white cake, and I think I’v tried them all. It even beats Rose’s white velvet. I followed your instructions exactly. So easy, yet so delicious. I used Spectrum shortening and egg whites and it came out perfect. I also tried the 3 egg variation and it came out good. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe with us.
You are welcome!
I am excited to try this recipe, Jennifer
Does it matter what kind of salt I use? I have sea salt! It’s not too coarse, but is there a difference in strength or chemistry from regular iodized salt?
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/kosher-vs-table-vs-sea-salts/index.html
TFR!
Thanks–I ended up finding the answer too, at that time. I basically ground the sea salt a little finer, and *then* measured.
Not sure what happened. I have used this to make 2 sheet cakes last week~ 12×18. The first I doubled the recipe, and it didn’t rise much and was a very thin cake. The next one I trippled the recipe, and it filled the pan halfway. It rose and began to drip off the side in a few areas. When it was done, everything was fine. I trimmed it, tasted it (YUM) and iced it. Wonderful! I thought yep this is my new white cake I cn go to. Now I doubled the recipe and used 2 3×8 pans baking at 350. They sunk to the bottom. They taste fine on the puffed edges, but about 1/2 inch thick in the middle. Both pans sunk. So I threw them out. Restarted the process. I again doubled the recipe. I normally make my layers a little taller, which is why I use the 3 inch pans. This time I divided the recipe into 3 3×8 pans. And again they sunk beyond any cake I’ve ever seen sink, except the ones before. I don’t get it. I weighed everything. I hate that I can’t get this to work. I thought if I could work it with sheet cakes, no biggie on these. Now I am about to pull my hair out! Wasted ingredients and time, and I have a cake due with no cake. I am a WASC user that I only used that recipe for my white cakes. i do NOT want to go to the store, head held low, and buy a box of mix. I hate MIX! But I am at a loss. Even using the 3inch pans, when dividing it into 3 pans, it still did not work. Help! Please? Oh and all of my ingredients are newer (within the lst few weeks). I used the egg whites and sweetex (hi ratio shortening). It all worked for the sheet cakes…
Oh no! OK, first, lets make sure your baker’s math is spot on: 1 batch calls for 8.75 oz of cake flour. If you tripled that, you get a total of 36.25 oz. So how many pounds/oz do you need? If you say 1 pounds 6.4 ounces, that’s incorrect. It should be 1 pound 10.25 ounces. Incorrect math is so easy to do when making larger batches, and one I was guilty of myself when I started weighing! This is a fine-tuned recipe, if you are off that much it will make your whole recipe fail. Anyway, could this be your problem?
Well if I had trippled it wouldn’t it be 26.25? Anyway that is how I measured it the first time when it didn’t work out. I doubled the recipe and weight out in one bowl the total ounces of cake flour 17.5 oz. It worked on the sheet cakes, last week. I actually made a 1/4 (9×13) sheet cake after I posted this. Used a DOUBLE recipe to fill the pan halfway. Came out just like last weeks 12×18. A little higher on the edges, a little lower in the middle, but I can trim it and it will be fine. The 2nd time tonight I made the 8 inch pans, when I divided the doubled batter into 3 pans, I weighed the sugar and flour like I was weighing out for one batch at a time. 8.75 flour, 11.5 sugar, then 8.75 flour again, then 11.5 oz sugar again, 2 tbs 1tsp baking powder 2tsp salt 1 and 1/4 tsp baking soda, 10 oz egg whites, 1 16 oz carton stirred sour cream, 1 cup milk, 1tbs 1tsp vanilla. I thought maybe the first time I had messed up somewhere or that shouldn’t have happened which is why I did it again an measured the flour and sugar in singular amounts instead of weighing them doubled. But nope, still a sinker. The 2nd ones dont taste as well either, way light and fluffy on the edges that rose, but more like a white sweetened corn bread…I am now on my 3rd attempt. This time I am sucking it up and doing one batch (no doubling) and equally poured it into my 8 inch pans. They are in the oven now. We shall see. If it doesn’t work, I’m going back to my lady baltimore recipe. Thanks for your fast repsonse btw.
And I am also from CC, following you!
OOPS! Yes, 26.25, typo. Are you baking at 350?
I’ve read your other posts about temps and you are absolutely right on–my oven doesn’t register 350 until I set it on 360/365 (and I let it heat up for at least 30 minutes, regardless of whether it beeps to temp). And my cakes never turn out correctly when I simply set it to 350. Everyone needs at least one in-oven thermometer, preferably two or three placed in different locations. My oven has hot and not-so-hot spots
Hi!
I’m wanting to switch from box mix baking to baking from scratch and came across your recipe–I can’t wait to try it! I had a question about the shortening though–does it matter which kind I use (Crisco type w/o trans fats here in CA or hi-ratio type like Sweetex)? Also, does this cake hold up well under fondant? What about for carving?
Thanks for your help!
I just finished reading part two and my shortening question was answered–sorry, I shoulda read everything before I posted, lol!
I would still like to know though if this cake holds up well under fondant and to carving ;0)
Ajane, have you tried this recipe yet with carving and fondant? I haven’t baked in a year while healing from surgery and will be making a topsy turvy for my “come back” cake next week. Have spent hours trying to get a definitive answer about the results from the box mix changes with the doctored recipes, then got fed up and started searching for scratch recipes. Read great things about this one, but nothing so far on how it holds up for carving and fondant. Thanks in advance for your input!
It holds up fine! You’ll have best results when the cake is cold.
Alright! Well I left a rave review on your FB page about this recipe. I did this as the yellow cake (yolks – no egg whites) and used vanilla bean paste. Incredible yellow cake recipe and will be my go to yellow cake from now on. Delicious! Moist! Very flavorful! My only mishap was that it seriously rises HIGH! First time I filled my cake pans 1/2 full. Way overflowed and wasn’t close to being done. Second time around I only filled 2 of my 8 inch cake pans 1/4 full. Did the trick ~ same with cupcakes. Only filled about a third full (I use extra tall liners) and perfect. Thanks for the recipe share.
Another try at this recipe: this time, I used all egg whites and all shortening, and baked them as cupcakes. My oven must be set at 360-362 to achieve 350/352, so with that ensured, I filled the cupcake liners 1/2-2/3 full. I probably over-baked a couple of minutes, but they still domed and stayed domed! The cake is light, fluffy, and almost like a firm angel food cake. They are great, but I still think I prefer the flavor of using butter and/or whole eggs. Once again, THANK YOU for an incredible go-to
Is it definitely 6oz egg yolks not 6 egg yolks? I baked it with 6 egg yolks and it came out perfectly. I’ve since reread the recipe and seen it says 6oz egg yolks which is 9-10 egg yolks (in the UK), can you please clarify it for me?
Yup – ounces! I am surprised that your cake came out though, maybe you could make a 2nd batch and use the full 6oz it calls for and let us know the differences in flavor and texture?
I think I know what happened to mine. I think the ones I used the egg whites only(since I needed a white cake) deflated because my kitchen was H.O.T. even with my a/c on it couldn’t keep up with how hot its been in my areas (104-106) and then having the oven on too, maybe was the culprit. I also made the yellow cake that week, but it didn’t turn out either. I think I filled that pan too much, it over flowed the sides and sank in the middle. I trimmed it, and used it as a base with a chocolte fudge filling and a chocolate cake on top. The flavor was there, the texture was something to be desired from sinking LOL. At least that one was for my neice so I wasn’t so concerned. This week I tried again! I am not stepping away because this is an AWSOME recipe when I had it work. This time I used 3 whole eggs. Everything looks fine, baked in 12×12. I get to taste it later today since it’s for my cousins baby shower! Trimmed offf just a little. Texture looks great, the flavor at that time was good. I’m thinking I’m back on track! This week my kitchen was so much cooler as the temps were in the low 90′s and upper 80′s and now they are still dropping. Oh and I forgot to mention before, when I made the wonderful white sheet cake with this recipe, I also made 3 6×2 rounds of a vanilla chai cake using this recipe. It also turned out delicious!
Glad it worked out! Your oven could have gotten way off because of how hot it was in your kitchen, or maybe your butter was too warm. If I were you I would have pulled the butter from the fridge about 15 minutes before using it to make sure it didn’t break down too much when mixing.
TFR!
I made the cake and it was awesome. I used shortening instead of butter. On day two the cake was still soft and moist. Love the easy mixing method. Definitely this will be go to recipe.
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe with everyone. This is, by far, the best cake recipe ever. My quest for the perfect recipe is over! I made 24 cupcakes for a baby shower at work and I recieved tons of compliments. Thanks again!
I loved your SMBC recipe and thought I’d try your white cake recipe this weekend for a dedication cake. I would love to do an apple cider cake paired with a cinnamon maple SMBC to welcome in the fall. I’m not entirely sure how to pull this off though.
Personally, I think getting a cake to taste like “apple” without using any type of artificial flavoring is really hard, so I’d do a cinnamon clove spice cake (this recipe with some cinnamon and clove grated in) with an apple compote filling and maple SMBC. Good luck!
I like it! I’ll try that!
I meant to come back and let you know the results of the cake, but things got crazy and it fell off my radar. I made the cake as suggested and it was a smashing hit! I used my last jar of canned apples for the compote and smushed them up with some cinnamon, nutmeg and a splash of local cider and just let the whole thing simmer until thick and the final cake was simply devine! I already picked up some more crispins for canning just so I can make this recipe all thoughout the year (but most definately for this year’s Thanksgiving!)
So for the pumpkin is it just a straight switch? Lose the 8 oz. of sour cream and replace with ONLY 8 oz. of pumpkin and not the full can of 15 oz.?
Mmmm….that apple recipe sounds delish, Neesa! Please share your amounts of ingredients you added.
Hi FromScratchSF! The cake was wonderful! I have use the egg whites and the cake was perfect. The cupcakes too was nice but really fragile out of the mold! And they had no small domes .. do you think for the cupcakes we can substitute half and half all-purpose flour and cake flour? Second question: I made a second version with egg yolks and I do not know why but my cake and my cupcakes were overwhelmed! I had to throw them in halfway through because it was sinking. But I put the same amount as with the egg whites .. I do not understand?
Hello, I’m not sure I understand your problems. The cake is supposed to be somewhat delicate to mimic a box mix. Subbing in APF will not do what you want it to do, which I think is to make it have a big dome? As I said in my original post, this recipe does not dome very much at all. I don’t understand your last question. Sorry.
Hhaha sorry my english is not very good.. It’s because (with the egg yolks) the batter of cake get out of the pan in the oven! (the batter rise very high and get out of the pan) :S
LOL But not with the egg whites… Weird no?
This is an amazing recipe! Thank you. I made my first 2 tiered decorated cake for a friend’s birthday and people are still raving about how delicious it was. I ended up making 3 batches (3-6″, 3-9″ & 12 cupcakes) and freezing them out of the oven (as you suggested). I defrosted & decorated them 2 days before the party and they stayed nice and moist. I used 3 eggs, shortening and the vanilla bean paste…YUMMY!!! After making the first 2 batches, I realized that I was underfilling the pans and overheating the oven by about 25 degrees…oops, but they were still delicious, so I’m thinking there’s not much more I can do to mess this up
Thanks again! Also, I had almost no doming, which usually always happens to me. Yay!
hello.. in your post, you said not to use lemon juice because of the acid, what about orange juice? i’m thinking of using orange zest and a bit of orange juice to make orange cake, will it works? thanks
Finally tried out this recipe. I used whole eggs and shortening but I tripled the recipe (I knew it was “bad” when I was doing it but I was trying to multi-task!). Next time I will definitely just make one batch at a time. Taste was delicious but the tops of the cupcakes looked odd and I had some trouble getting one of the layers out of the pan. I want to try this again – do you think that tripling was the problem – odd look and getting it out of the pan? I’m pretty sure it had something to do with it. Visiting from Cake Central – always appreciate your posts over there
Is it possible to switch some of the liquid for rum or is it better to use rum extract?
I finally tried your recipe and I want you to know that it is the best white cake recipe ever!!!!! Thank you so very much for sharing your recipe, you rock!! I am so very happy I found your blog!! and I wanted to follow your recipe to the T so I even bought a scale to measure all the ingredients and wow, it was well worth it!! I doubled the recipe and that worked great! I also baked and froze the cake and that was also perfect. Now I’m getting ready to try the almond flavor version. Oh also, instead of regular sugar I used caster sugar and that worked great. Thanks a million!!!!
Hi!
I have made this cake few times and every time it seemed ok, but it always had this chewy texture to it!
So last night I made the same recipe and the cake’s turned out like a rubbery texture! I also made triple recipe!:(
Thanks
I’m in the middle of making the coconut variation of this cake right now, it’s in the oven but I’m a little bit worried about how it’s going to come out, I think my batter came out too runny!
I weighed everything up, but in grams instead of ounces since my scales only have grams on them (I used google to convert from oz to gm). I also used plain flour mixed with cornstarch in place of the cake flour since cake flour is very difficult to find here in Australia! (mixing cornstarch through plain flour is a standard substitute here for cake flour), and butter instead of shortening since once again, shortening is difficult to find in Australia (we only have one readily available brand which is supposedly very bad for you since it’s made 100% from transfats :s )
I used your suggestion for the coconut variation to substitute the milk and sour cream for coconut milk and added a handful of desiccated coconut but I think using the coconut milk instead of sour cream may have been a mistake since it’s considerably changed the liquid content of the batter – maybe I should have added a couple of handfuls of the desiccated coconut to make up for it?? Anyway, I’ll let you know how it looks when it comes out of the oven!
Hi, without trying to ignore every suggestion you have made (if I did miss it, sorry, that’s A LOT of great comments!) can this be made with the traditional creaming butter and sugar method? I am in the UK and cant get cake flour here without spending an insane amount of money for flour and a long train ride. I think our plain flour has less gluten than american all purpose but it still seems to over mix with plain flour. I’ve tried mixing in half the flour and the last half in after just with a spatula but not much luck. I know its an awkward one but any ideas if there is any way to do it? Thanks!
P.S. it tastes incredible, its just the cake comes out a little dark and kinda funky despite the low temp, but the taste! I just can’t let this one rest! Happy 2013!
I’ve read you can “make” regular flour into cake flour by adding corn starch. Just search how to make cake flour.
Thank you for reading! But no, you are making all purpose flour with cornstarch. Cake flour is a different kind of wheat, milled finer and has a lower gluten content. You can’t “make” it anymore then you can “make” buttermilk by adding vinegar to milk. These are specific ingredients that the recipe calls for – if you try and fake it you will considerably lower your success making this recipe and any of the flavor variations.
Yes, I agree it’s not “real,” but she said she can’t get cake flour, so I thought maybe she could try the substitute. Hey, I’ll volunteer to do a bake test using both
)
Hey, I’ve been using this recipe for a while now as my go-to yellow cake and it ALWAYS turns out fabulous, thanks! I was wanting to make a pink champagne cake and was wondering if I could substitute out the milk for pink champagne, then add some pink champagne flavouring, or is that going to mess up the chemistry of the cake? Thanks!
Hello. I’m curious if you or anyone has ever successfully used oil in your base cake recipe? I would be grateful for any information!
NO. You cannot use oil in this recipe. I actually did Part 1 of this series swapping in oil to show what happens and it’s a disaster. You cannot use a liquid fat in place of a solid fat in a recipe. If you want an oil based vanilla recipe then look for a chiffon cake. The method is completely different then creaming or reverse creaming but it’s made with oil.
Thank you so much! I was just re-reading the beginning of part 3 and you mentioned the oil…sorry I missed that. I am very eager to try your recipe step by step tonight.
Thank you for sharing!
Oh my goodness! Seriously thank you for sharing this fantastic recipe!!! I just made it with a couple changes. I used part cake flour, part King Arthur AP flour, reduced the sugar by 1/4 cup, and used three whole eggs, and the cupcakes are amazing! Sooo incredibly light and fluffy. I made two dozen bite size cupcakes then took the remaining batter and added some orange zest and one tablespoon of fresh mango puree, and they turned out perfect! Go you for coming up with this fool proof recipe!
Just thought I’d let you know I just turned this into a chocolate mix from replacing flour with cocoa powder (1/2 cup). I was a little worried it was too thick so I added 1/2 tablespoon of whole milk. They turned out perfect as well!
Awesome! I’m so glad it worked! Did you bloom the chocolate first or did you just add it into the dry? I have been meaning to come up with a recipe but haven’t had a chance. And how did you find me?
I found your site this morning and LOVED it! I baked your white cake recipe with egg yolks and butter. Then I made the Swiss buttercream icing for the cupcakes. It all turned out wonderfully; thanks to the detailed instructions you shared. I can’t wait to try some other recipies but for now I’m never making American butter cream again!!
I found this page one day while searching for a base recipe. For the chocolate batter I substituted cocoa powder for the flour and sifted it into the dry.
Thank you so much for not only putting the time into perfecting this recipe, but then sharing it with all of us as well! I made a couple batches this weekend, experimenting with different flavors, and it truly is the best white cake recipe I have come across. My cakes were a tad on the crumbly side, but I am positive that is a tweak I need to make to my baking temperature (and perhaps adding egg yolks… I have been using whites only).
One more question regarding flavors though… has anyone managed to swap out the milk for flavored coffee creamer instead? Does this work? If no one has tried, I may have to give it a shot and report back
I have come across your blog/recipe numerous times in my quest for the perfect base cake recipe. I was always afraid to try baking using weight, but I think it’s time to give it a try. All these people can’t be wrong! LOL! My question is that I thought I saw many more flavor variations than you have listed here now. Am I mistaken? Thanks…. I also wondered about using coffee creamers instead of milk. I know some people do this, but this would completely throw off the sugar/oil/leavening right? Just curious if anyone had any luck adding these.
In the oven now! Fingers crossed! My butter didn’t seem to smooth out entirely even after 110 seconds of beating. Still tiny flecks in the batter. So we’ll see how it comes out. I’ve done reverse creaming before and never noticed this before. I’ve also never baked with weighted measurements. Seemed like not enough flour working into the butter. I did get a perfect 6 cups of cake-mix-consistency batter though! So it all seemed right. I hope the butter doesn’t effect the outcome.
Maybe this is why the recipe has shortening as an option? It blends in smoother?
So I baked two 6″ cakes and one 8″ cake for two different orders trying this recipe. The two 6″ cakes came out great! But the 8″ cake is sinking in the middle and is shrinking on the sides. Help! Is it because of opening the oven door? How does one bake cakes in various sizes in the same oven at the same time without effecting the outcome of the larger cake which has to keep baking longer?
I generally don’t bake different size cake in my home oven – it looses heat too fast and takes way too long to get back to temperature, and if I do, I always use convection. But even then it’s a bit of a risk. BUT – assuming I was, I’d figure, OK, the 8″ is going to take 50 minutes, the 6″ should take 40 minutes, so I’ll put in the 8″ first, let it cook for 15 minutes, then pop in the 6″. That way everything should be done around about the same time, or at least done enough that nothing will sink if you open the oven door.
It’s how I also time stuff when I’m at the bakery doing production, the stuff that takes the longest goes in first, the smaller stuff is added, then everything comes out around the same time.
Hope this helps!
I am making a wedding cake for a friend. Need three layers as follows:
1. 2 – 14″
2. 2 – 10″
3. 2 – 7″
Am excited about the prospect of this cake, but wanted to check in if anyone has directions on success of the larger size cakes with this recipe, and number of batches to make for each size. Thanks so much!
Do you think one batch would be enough to do a single 12 inch layer at 2 inches tall? The Wilton chart says 7.5 cups of batter, and I noticed someone left a comment that they got 6 cups out of this recipe…Thanks! (also here from CakeCentral
)
I think so – however I don’t measure my batter by cups. The Wilton chart is standardized for box cake mix – with scratch cakes it really doesn’t work so much as some batters are think, some are thick, and all rise differently. I measure each pan by weight and I’m afraid I’ve never taken the weights of this recipe to post.
Just wanted to report back that I did get a good sized 12 inch layer out of one batch of this, baked at 325 without a heating core or bake strips and it was lovely and level. I also used 3 eggs, and regular unbleached AP flour, because I didn’t want to spend $4 on a box of flour for one cake!
So this is an embarrassing question, but I just noticed the expiration date on the cake flour I have in cabinet- its July 2010- does flour freshness make a difference? I’ve seen lots of comments about levening freshness, but nothing about flour!
You’re amazing Jen, totally amazing. I’ve been searching and experimenting for 2 years to find a cake like this so I can go scratch all the way. I made this today and it was PERFECT. To make life easier I think I will premeasure all dry ingredients like a mix and then add wet ingredients like described.
One question- just found a site that claims you cake “make” cake flour by adding cornstarch to AP flour. That sounds kinda fishy to me. You would still deal with higher protein in the AP flour, no?
Hi Jen, I made this recipe as cupcakes today. They are so yummy!!! Very fluffly. I used butter, and full cream milk with vinigar in it to make buttermilk. And I substituted one yolk with the whites. The first tray was fine, shunk in the oven a little, but were fine. However the second tray I put in the oven resulted in concaved cupcakes. The 3rd tray was even worse the cupcakes looked like mutants, all lopsided and shrunk!! Do you think the batter got too warm and affected the cupcakes? Maybe the butter in the batter melted a little. All cupcakes shrunk a little before they came out of the oven. But the second and third tray ended up concaved. We have just finished Summer here so the kitchen was a bit warm. (Danielou from Cake central here).
Hello! Thanks for trying! My 1st flag is you adding vinegar. That does nothing for you with this recipe. Buttermilk has emulsifiers which is the primary reason we use it, along with adding a tart flavor. However, adding vinegar does not add emulsifiers or flavor, it only adds an acid that lowers the overall pH of your batter, so in this case I fear you canceled out the small amount of baking soda! You would have been much better off just using whole milk. My 2nd flag is this is made with all yolks, all whites, or whole eggs. Swapping out a hybrid has not been untested, so I think you either had too much or too little egg. I suspect too much since swapping 2 whites for 1 yolk is not a correct substitution (that I know of). Everything is by weight here. I encourage you to give this another go doing the recipe as written and let me know how it goes!
Thanks for that. I’ve always heard you can use vinigar to substitute buttermilk. So I’m glad you clarified that it doesn’t work.
Do you or does anyone have any tips on how to convert this recipe for high altitude? I’m living at about 5,000 feet? So many people commented that 350 degrees worked better for their oven temps, so I’m wondering if bumping it up to 375 is too risky? My cakes always fall
Also, you mention the butter should be 68 degrees or cooler? Is it safe to keep the butter at refrigerator temperature and take it out when I’m ready to incorporate it? You mention it’s tricky, is there such a thing as butter that’s too cold to work with for this recipe?
And a big thank you for what looks to be the perfect recipe after days of sifting through about a bagillion white cake recipes.
Oh, and I wanted to pin this on Pinterest but I didn’t see a matching picture–but a commenter thanked you for the picture? Am I missing something?
I have no experience baking in high altitudes since I’ve never lived in one, I’ve never even really read up on the subject so I’m no help to you. Sorry! But it would be great if you made this and repost back any high-altitude adjustments you made for success, as many before you have asked! As for the butter, it does need to be soft enough to cream evenly. The best temperature for this is 66-68 degrees. If it’s any colder you’ll get butter chunks. A few won’t kill your batter, but a lot will. You are incorporating air into your butter when you beat it with the flour which is building the structure of your cake, if your butter is still a solid mass it isn’t holding any air so you aren’t building a very good structure. I don’t know about Pinterest, this was written way before Pinterest was a thing so I don’t really know what pops up. Sorry!
Tried this yesterday with shortening and egg whites. Loved the taste, texture, everything about it!
Thank you so much for sharing!
Hello, this is an awesome recipe thanks a million!!! Ok, so the first time I tried it I followed everything to the T (used caster sugar) and it came out perfect! Now, forward to a month later I tried again but this time I used shortening (high ratio) instead of butter and my cake came out very crumbly around the edges and as I took it out of the pan a chunk broke off aggghhh, I wanted to cry
— anyway, could that had been because I used shortening instead of butter? did I over-mixed the batter? I tried to stick to the timing that you said…although, I did baked it in two 8″ pans at the same time, was this a mistake maybe? should I had just baked one at a time? Please help!! ok, thank you in advance!!
Oh No! Hurm, well the only thing that sticks out to me is using hi-ratio shortening. I’ve personally never used it so I don’t know for sure, but I know that it handles more sugar per volume then regular shortening, so that implies that it’s an even higher fat content or some other chemical that is a, uh, higher lube content? Anyway, I suspect that this might be the thing that threw off your cake. Sorry it didn’t work so well! Please try it again using either regular shortening or butter and let me know if it works!
Ahhhh, Jennifer thank you sooooo much for you prompt response!! I will definitelly try again with butter. This is the best white cake recipe I’ve ever tried and I’m not about to give it up! I will report to you with the results.
Someone recently mentioned Earl Grey cupcakes with lavender icing, and it was one of those ‘must try’ moments. I was hunting around online for the best way to infuse the tea flavor into the cake and came up with everything from reducing the tea (which would scorch the tea, so a major no-no), to steeping in milk or melted butter and then letting the milk or butter cool off to use. I refuse to reduce tea, since prolonged exposure to heat destroys the flavor. You’ve made it very clear that butter temp is crucial for the cakes, so I’m a bit adverse to trying that method, but to get the milk hot enough to steep would change the flavor profile of the milk too. Any suggestions?
I’d steep in the milk and let it cool completely OR get a spice grinder, turn the tea into powder and mix it in the finished batter! I bet that would be tasty! You could probably control how strong the tea flavor is better that way.
Just wanted to share my trial of this as a chocolate cake
I tried it by following kristianna’s suggestion of swapping out 1/2 c flour for 1/2 c cocoa powder. The first 13″ x 9″ cake came out perfectly (2 oz butter 1.5 oz shortening, 3 whole eggs)–the batter was a little runny, like the original white version, so I did not add the additional milk, as kristanna did.
When I did the second 13″ x 9″, I decided to note what the weight of the flour was when I took away the 1/2 c of flour–it was 6.5 oz. So, when I added my 1/2 c cocoa powder, I checked to make sure the weight went back up to 8.75–it didn’t
It was 8.3! So, I added more cocoa powder until it read 8.75. I was actually happy about this, because the first cake seemed like it needed a stronger chocolate flavor. Before the eggs and extract, it was definitely thicker than the first batch, but I still did not add anymore liquid. It actually turned out *not* much thicker in the end, when filling the pan, and the color was not much darker either, with the additional cocoa powder.
I cannot describe the differences in taste/texture yet, as I need the full 13″ x 9″ shape for this modified sheet (stacking two layers of 13″ x 9″ side by side to make an approximately 13″ x 18″, excluding trimming) and the cakes are in the freezer until stacking/decorating. When I trim, I will come back and update–I thought I’d share what I did so far, in case anyone else is baking in the next couple of days for the weekend. The cakes baked up just fine with the change
Thanks a lot for this update. As strange as it may sound I am NOT a chocolate lover, actually I dislike chocolate very much (yes, I’m weird) however, just about everyone(!!) around me are ‘chocoholics.’ So, of course,I do want to make some delicious chocolate cake (for them!) so I will try your chocolate version soon and come back and report here. Thank you again Leigh!!
Hi Jen, is it okay if the cake comes away (shrinks) from the sides of the pan just before I take it out of the oven or does this mean it’s overcooked?
Then it continues to shrink even after I’ve taken it out. Does it do that for you?
Awesome cake, this is a keeper – made it and served at wedding today and got rave reviews at church. Wanted to share some measurements that worked for me. I made one batch and it measure 5.5 cups. I made six batches for a three tier, 6″, 10″ and 14″.
6″ round – 2 cups (see below)
6″ round – 2 cups (see below)
10″ round – 1 batch
10″ round – 1 batch
14″ round – 2 batches less 2 cups (which I used in 6″ pan)
14″ round – 2 batches less 2 cups (which I used in 6″ pan)
CHOCOLATE VERSION update
I previously posted about following kristianna’s suggestion for changing this to a chocolate cake, but tried something different yesterday and it came out AWESOME! I hope this helps others (at least until the true expert weighs in, as I am not an experienced baker
).
I used: 3 whole eggs, increased butter to 4.0 oz, and replaced 1 T of flour with 1 T of cocoa powder (whisked in with dry ingredients). After I added my extract at the end, I folded in (using lowest mixer setting) 4.0 oz melted and cooled semi-sweet baking chocolate squares.
It is not a dark chocolate, but I wasn’t really sure how much more I could add without ruining the chemistry of the batter (again, I’m no expert).
Hopefully, Jennifer will eventually share whatever her chocolate cake secret is!