My Best Vanilla Cake - Stays Moist 4 Days! - RecipeTin Eats
My Best Vanilla Cake - Stays Moist 4 Days! - RecipeTin Eats
days!
Recipe video above. Your classic vanilla butter cake but with Japanese
techniques applied for the most plush, soft and moist yellow cake like
you’ve never had before. This professional bakery style cake stays fresh
and moist for 4 days — that’s unheard of!
This is THE Vanilla Cake recipe for all occasions — from layer cakes to 4.97 from 658 votes
birthday cakes, Victoria Sponge to strawberry shortcake … the
possibilities are endless.....
Frosting - classic vanilla buttercream provided, see here for my secret Less-Sweet Fluffy Frosting.
Different pan sizes - Note 9. Cupcakes - see Vanilla Cupcakes recipe. Metric/weights - click
button above ingredients. Sweetness - Note 11. Cake flour - no need, better with plain flour.
Guarantee success - read top 5 points in Notes below. For chocolate cake - see this recipe.
Course: Cakes Cuisine: Western Keyword: Cheesecake recipe, sponge cake, vanilla cake
Servings: 10 - 12
Calories: 339cal
Author: Nagi
Ingredients
2 cups plain / all purpose flour (cake flour OK too, Note 1)
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (check it's still active, Note 2)
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs (50 - 55g / 2 oz each), at room temp (Note 3)
1 1/2 cups caster / superfine sugar (granulated/regular ok too, Note 2)
115g / 1/2 cup unsalted butter , cut into 1.5cm / 1/2” cubes (or so)
1 cup milk , full fat (Note 5)
3 tsp vanilla extract , the best you can afford (Note 6)
3 tsp vegetable or canola oil (Note 7)
Vanilla Buttercream
225g / 2 sticks unsalted butter , softened
500g / 1 lb soft icing sugar / powdered sugar , SIFTED
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 - 4 tbsp milk , to adjust thickeness
Instructions
Preparation:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan) for 20 minutes before starting the batter (Note 8).
Place shelf in the middle of the oven.
2. Grease 2 x 20cm / 8” cake pans with butter, then line with parchment / baking paper. (Note 9
more pan sizes) Best to use cake pan without loose base, if you can.
Bake:
1. Pour batter into pans.
2. Knock out bubbles: Bang each cake pan on the counter 3 times to knock out big bubbles
(Note 10 for why)
3. Bake 30 minutes or until golden and toothpick inserted into centre comes out clean.
Vanilla Buttercream:
1. Beat butter with paddle attachment in stand mixer for 3 minutes on high until it changes from
yellow to almost white, and it becomes fluffy and creamy.
2. Add icing sugar / powdered sugar gradually in 3 lots, beating slowly (to avoid a powder
storm) then once mostly incorporated, beat on high for a full 3 minutes until fluffy.
3. Add vanilla and milk, then beat for a further 30 seconds. Use milk only if needed to make it
lovely and soft but still holds it's form (eg for piping). Use immediately. (If you make ahead,
refrigerate then beat to re-fluff).
Notes
To ensure success:
RECIPE NOTES
1. Cake flour works just fine with this recipe, but butter and vanilla flavour, and crumb is ever so
slightly better using plain / all purpose flour. Also, cake flour makes the cake surface sweaty and
sticky the next day.
2. Caster / superfine sugar are finer grains than regular / granulated sugar so it dissolves when
whipped with the eggs. Granulated / regular sugar sometimes doesn’t fully dissolve which doesn’t
affect the cake rise or texture but can leave some very brown sugar specks on the surface / sides.
Not a big deal - just visual if serving undecorated.
3. Eggs - important to be at room temp as they fluff better when whipped which is key to the fluffy
texture of this cake. Also, fresher eggs aerate better = better rise. Old eggs don't fluff as well.
Quick way to warm up fridge cold eggs - place in a large bowl, cover with warm tap water (just
warm, not hot), leave for 5 minutes. Wipe dry (to avoid residual water dripping into bowl), then use
per recipe.
Large eggs - 50 - 55g / 2 oz per egg this is the industry standard of egg sizes sold as "large eggs"
in Australia and the US. If your eggs are significantly larger or smaller in size, just weigh your eggs
and use 200 - 220g / 8 oz in total (including shell) or 180 - 200g / 7.3 oz in total excluding shell
(this is useful if you need to use a partial egg to make up the total required weight. Just crack
eggs, whisk THEN pour into a bowl to measure out what you need).
4. Baking powder - dead baking powder is a common problem with cake fails, even if not past the
expiry date. Here's how to check yours is still good.
Baking soda (bi-carb) won’t make the cake rise quite as well. If you have no choice, then use 3/4
teaspoons of baking soda.
5. Milk - if you sub with lower fat milk then the texture of the crumb becomes a little less tender.
Do not substitute with non-dairy milk, such as soy or almond milk.
6. Vanilla come in all sorts of qualities. I use Vanilla Extract. Better quality (more expensive) =
better flavour, but I think vanilla bean paste is wasted in cakes.
7. Oil - just 3 teaspoons makes a noticeable difference to the tenderness of the crumb AND keeps
the crumb moist for days.
8. Oven preheating - 30 minutes preheat is recommended to ensure no loss of heat when the oven
door is opened. Never use the rapid heat function on your oven for baking, no matter how fancy
your oven is!
9. Cake pans - the batter is quite thin so to ensure no leakage, best not to use a cake pan with a
loose base or a springform pan. If that’s all you’ve got, then use butter to firmly fill the gap (this
should be enough - I had no leakage when I did this) and for extra insurance, try to cut the paper
for the base slightly larger so it goes slightly up the wall.
Cake pan sizes - click here for a useful table of different cake pan sizes, cake height and bake
times.
2 x 20cm / 8" cake pans- per base recipe above, bake 30 minutes
3 x 20cm / 8" cake pans - 23 minutes at temp per recipe. If they don't all fit, put 2 on the
middle shelf and one on shelf below. Take out top 2 at 23 minutes, then move bottom one up
and bake for further 2 minutes.
2 x 23 cm / 9" cake pans - 27 minutes
3 x 23 cm / 9" cake pans - 20 minutes
2 x 15cm / 6" cake pans - halve the recipe, I haven't made this size yet but expect will be 25 -
27 min bake time.
12 cup tube pan or bundt pan (grease & dust with flour) - bake 1 hour, but note cake will not
be as fluffy as pictured and described
23 x 33 cm / 13 x 9" rectangle cake - 30 minutes
Cupcakes - refer to Vanilla Cupcakes recipe
Chocolate cake - different batter recipe works better, see this recipe
Perfect golden sides and base can be achieved by greasing generously with butter then flour
dusting base and sides. However, it's not my base recipe because very occasionally, the base will
stick a bit and some of the golden skin comes off. Safer to use paper!
10. Knock out big bubbles - banging cake pans on counter will knock out big air bubbles in the
batter that causes unsightly bubble brown spots on the surface and irregular holes in the crumb. It
does not burst the tiny bubbles that make the cake rise - they are too small to bang out!
11. Sweetness note - sweeter than Asian cakes, less sweet than typical Western butter cakes.
Please do not reduce sugar - 1 1/2 cups is minimum required to make the eggs foamy enough to
rise.
12. Different measures in different countries - tablespoon and cup sizes differ slightly from
country to country. In most recipes, the difference is not enough to affect the outcome of the
recipe, but for baking recipes, you do need to be careful.
This cake recipe has been specifically tested using both US and Australian cups (the two countries
with the greatest size variance) and the cakes were exactly the same. So you can have confidence
that this recipe can be used no matter which country you are in - only exception is Japan (cup
sizes are considerably smaller (200ml) so please use weights provided).
For absolutely certainty, opt to use the weights provided (click Metric toggle button above
ingredients). Professional kitchens only use weights.
13. Storage - if not frosting immediately once cooled, cover surface with baking paper (so it
doesn't stick to cling wrap) then wrap in cling wrap immediately then place in an airtight container.
Do not leave it sitting around for hours once cooled, cakes go stale quite quickly. Leave out rather
than in fridge, unless it's super hot where you live. Keeps in freezer for 3 months.
Frosted or wrapped unfrosted cake keeps perfectly for 4 days (as in, practically like freshly made).
Still good on Day 7 but a bit less moist. Keeps better if frosted because it seals the moisture in. If
frosted with buttercream, it can stay out on counter and is better stored this way unless it's hot
where you are (in which case refrigerate but take out of fridge a good hour before serving. Nobody
likes cold buttercream frosting or cake!) Avoid pre slicing - the area most prone to drying cake out
is the cut sides.
14. Frosting - If it becomes too sloppy/soft because the butter was too soft or your kitchen is too
warm eg Aussie summer (!), just refrigerate 10 minutes - remove paddle attachment and stick it in
the bowl - then whip again to re-fluff.
Nutrition
Calories: 339cal | Carbohydrates: 51g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 91mg |
Sodium: 97mg | Potassium: 190mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 31g | Vitamin A: 434IU | Calcium: 90mg | Iron:
2mg