After making cakes for 4+ years and feeling like I have the perfect vanilla cake, I recently realized that it isn’t on my blog yet. I can’t believe it! It’s about time to fix that!
For my vanilla cake, I knew I wanted a strong vanilla flavor that would really make it shine. It’s really important to have a good quality vanilla for a vanilla cake. During my time in culinary school, I was introduced to Nielsen-Massey Vanilla. They are a company who takes their vanilla seriously. Nielsen-Massey uses hand-selected beans and a cold extraction process that preserves the vanilla’s 300+ flavor compounds to ensure a full, sweet, and creamy flavor profile with velvety after-tones.
Tender fluffy cake layers
This cake is very similar to my (funfetti cake). I just made some minor changes and tweaked it a little. Some of those changes were adding a high quality vanilla and using cake flour. If you’re not familiar with cake flour, it will help your cake to be soft and moist. If you don’t have cake flour on hand, you can always make your own. All you need is corn starch and all-purpose flour. It’s 10% corn starch and 90% all-purpose flour. I suggest that you use a kitchen scale to ensure your measurements are accurate.
Vanilla Bean Paste
I was so happy when I found out about Nielsen-Massey’s vanilla bean paste. As soon as I learned about it, I knew that it needed to go into my buttercream. This buttercream will be one of the most beautiful buttercreams you have ever seen. It has specs of the vanilla bean spread throughout it, and the vanilla flavor is spot on. It is the perfect addition to my vanilla cake. If you can’t find vanilla paste, you can substitute regular vanilla extract, but if you really want to make your cake delicious, I have some great news for you. Nielsen-Massey gave me a coupon code for you to use on their products. You can go here and use the coupon 10CAKEBABE at checkout for a little discount. (You’ll thank me later, trust me)
How to bake the most perfect layers
I recently learned that lowering the temperature of my oven tremendously helps my cake layers stay light and not get so fried looking. In my house, we call it LOW AND SLOW. I used to bake all my cake batters at 350, but I have now lowered the temp to 325 and that seems to help keep the edges nice and white.
If you have been following me on Instagram, you know how much I talk about room temperature ingredients, THIS IS SO IMPORTANT. It helps the wet ingredients stay on the same playing field as the dry ingredients, which are already at room temperature.
Recipe
Best Vanilla Cake
Ingredients
For the cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 3 large whole eggs room temperature
- 3 large egg whites room temperature
- 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract I use Nielsen-Massey Madagascar bourbon Vanilla Extract
- ⅓ cup sour cream room temperature
- 3 cups cake flour
- 1 Tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ cup buttermilk room temperature
Vanilla Bean Buttercream
- 2 cups unsalted butter room temperature
- 7 cups powdered sugar measured and then sifted
- ¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons Nielsen-Massey Madagascar bourbon vanilla bean paste (can use vanilla extract if you don't have vanilla bean paste)
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prepare three 8-inch or four 6-inch round cake pans. Spray them with cooking spray, line with parchment paper, and spray again. Set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, oil, and sugar on high until fluffy and smooth, about 4 minutes.
- Add the eggs and the egg whites, one at a time to the bowl and beat on medium until well incorporated. Making sure that you scrape down the sides each time. Add the sour cream and vanilla, beat on medium speed for a minute.
- Turn the mixer on low and add ½ of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Then add half of the buttermilk and blend well, followed by the rest of the flour mixture, and the rest of the buttermilk while mixing on low.
- Evenly distribute the cake batter among the three 8-inch or four 6-inch pans and bake for 28-32 minutes, until a toothpick comes out with just a few moist crumbs on it, or until it starts to get a little golden brown on top.
- Remove cakes from the oven and let them cool in pans for 15 minutes before taking them out of the pan and placing them on cooling racks.
- When cakes are completely cooled, wrap each cake layer individually with plastic wrap and stick it in the refrigerator or freezer until you’re ready to frost. If you are a beginner, I recommend putting them the freezer because it is so much easier to frost a slightly frozen cake.
For the Vanilla Bean Buttercream
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter for about 3 minutes on medium speed.
- Add the sifted powdered sugar and mix on low.
- Turn the mixer to medium speed and add whipping cream, vanilla bean paste and salt.
- Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for an additional 5 to 7 minutes. The frosting will become lighter in color and texture.
- Before spreading the frosting on your cake, spend a couple of minutes mixing the buttercream by hand with a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula to push out the air pockets.
Assembly
- If the cakes need to be leveled, level each cake layer with a knife or cake leveler.
- Place the first cake layer on a cake board top side down and top with ½ or ⅓ of the frosting (depending on whether it’s an 8-inch or 6-inch cake).
- Repeat step two with the remaining cake layers top side up, but place the final cake layer top-side down.
- Apply a thin crumb coat around the cake and chill for 15 minutes in the freezer to set.
- Finish frosting the cake with the remaining vanilla bean frosting.