This butter cake is made with a combination of oil and butter to keep it nice and moist, yet still bursting with buttery flavour! It’s soft, fluffy and goes perfectly with a hot cup of tea.
How this butter cake is made
I experimented with a few different techniques, but found the traditional creaming method worked well with this recipe! Start with creaming together your butter, sugar and oil until light and fluffy. This is going to help incorporate air into our batter which will give us a lighter and fluffier cake. Then add in your eggs one at a time, allowing them to incorporate into the batter well. Finish off by alternating your remaining wet and dry ingredients on the lowest speed on your mixer until just combined.
What is the shelf life?
This cake can be stored at room temperature in an air tight container for about 3-4 days, and after that should be kept in the fridge. Ensure you wrap the butter cake with foil or glad wrap and then pop it into an air tight container to prevent the cake from drying out in the fridge.
What frosting should I use?
This cake is great on it’s own, but a frosting makes it even better! My personal favourite is Swiss meringue buttercream, but even a simpler no-grit American buttercream will work great!
Classic Butter Cake
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (220 g) butter - salted
- 1 cup (220 g) caster sugar - regular white granulated sugar okay too
- 1 tbsp unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola
- 5 large eggs
- 1¾ cups (220 g) all purpose flour - cake flour okay too
- 3 tsp baking powder
- ½ cup (112 g) buttermilk
- 1½ tsp vanilla essence/extract
Instructions
- All ingredients must be at room temperature before starting 🙂
- Preheat your oven to 150 °C (302°F) with the fan on (see note 1 if you don't have a fan function) and grease and line an 8 inch square cake tin (round okay too).
- Sift your flour and baking powder together in a bowl and mix it together. Set aside.
- Combine your buttermilk and vanilla together in a separate bowl and set aside.
- Cream together your butter, sugar and oil for about 5 minutes until it's light and creamy. If using a stand mixer, use the whisk attachment on a medium high speed.
- Add in your eggs one at a time on a medium speed, mixing well in between each egg. Scrape your bowl down as needed.
- Turn your mixer down to the lowest speed, and add in half of your dry ingredients until it's almost combined. Then add in your buttermilk/vanilla mixture and mix that until it's almost combined. Add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
- Pour the batter into your prepared cake tin and then bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for about 15 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool further. You can eat it while it's still warm, or if you're going to frost it, let it completely cool before adding any frostings on top.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
118 Comments
Hi i would like to know if i put the cake in a loaf tin, will it retain its moisture and still be soft?
Hi Zaakiya! I haven’t tried this cake in a loaf tin yet so can’t say for sure sorry, but I imagine it would be okay :). Just be sure not to overfill the tin otherwise the cake won’t cook properly. All the best!
I would like thank you for this an amazing recipe I made it today it was fluffy, buttery and tasty. Thanks a bunch 🌷
Awesome! So so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe 😀
Hi there thank you very much for sharing your Classic Butter Cake recipe. That is the best cake i have baked everyone love the cake. Can you bake fruit cake too. Thank you very much with lots of love all the way from Canada.
Hi Pamela! So so happy to hear you enjoyed this recipe and thanks so much for the feedback 😀 will note down fruit cake for future content 🙂
Wht is the pan size used pls
Hi Priya! It’s an 8×3 inch square cake tin 🙂
the taste is mind blowing thnk you so much for the recipe
Thank you so much Hafswa! So glad to hear you enjoyed the recipe 😀
Will this recipe work if I wanted to make a two layer 8 inch round cake?
Hi there! You will need to double the recipe or make 1.5x the recipe (if you want slightly thinner cake layers), for two 8 inch cake layers 🙂
What if we want to half the recipe to make a smaller cake…say just one cake pan instead of two?
Hi there! 🙂 This butter cake makes 1×8 inch cake. You can half the recipe, but then you would need a smaller cake tin (around 6 inches) to fit the batter 🙂
This is my “go to” vanilla cake recipe now, after never being satisfied with so many recipes out there. Love it!
Yay! So happy to hear that Sheridan 😀
Nice 👍 please make a blog of eggless cake
Thanks for the suggestion! Will keep this in mind for future content 🙂
Hi Mk,i am tee from Nigeria,i love your recipees.i love the way you carefully teach and explain.you are my favorite baker ever.your recipes,they are tested and trusted.They are my go to recipes every time.keep up the good work..Thanks alot.
Hi Tee! Thank you so much for your wonderful message, I’m so so happy to hear you’re enjoying the content and recipes 😀 really appreciate the love and support! Much love from NZ to Nigeria 🙂
This one is an absolute favourite of mine . So simple yet so good . Loved every bite
Awesome! So happy to hear you enjoyed it! 🙂
Gorgeous, gorgeous cake and so easy to tweak. I added cardamon and saffron and it was incredible!
That sounds amazing! I’ll have to try that sometime 😀 so glad you enjoyed the recipe!