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.
127 Comments
Hi MK
This is fool proof butter cake recipe. I am extremely thankful to you for sharing this recipe. I am excited to try your recipes and as and when I try them shall comment. I wish you Good luck and happy baking.
So so happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe Melanie! 😀
Maryam, where would I even start!!! My mom had a friend some 30 years back who used to bake wonderful cakes and she used to say so many stories about that. And i actually searched the recipe for this butter cake in so so so many places and never found until I stumbled on your video. I have so far tried two of your recipes and it’s a game changer, i literally loved it. Thank you so much for the recipes
Aww I am so so happy to hear that Jessy! 😀
How many eggs should I use if I have 60g of each egg ? Thx u.
I have tried baking your recipe of butter cake. Your recipe called for 5 eggs. May I know how many grams of each egg. I only have 60g eggs. So how many eggs should I use for this recipe?
Hi Iris! The eggs I use are around 62g (size 7 eggs), so your eggs should be okay so just use 5 as stated in the recipe 🙂
Thank you for your feedback ☺️ mk. My pan is only 6 inches by 2 inches do I need to adjust the butter cake recipe? And how??
Will this recipe work if I wanted to make a 9 inch round cake?
Hi Sidra! Yes that should work fine, I would just recommend checking the cake five mins earlier than the stated cooking time 🙂
Hi Mk, is this butter cake same as yellow cake?
Hi Sara! Yes it’s similar to a yellow cake 🙂 hope you enjoy the recipe!
I am learning how to make butter creams. I’m excited .
Awesome! All the best Sabrina 😀
Hi, if using unsalted butter- how much salt should I add for this recipe? Thank you!
Hi Isabel! 1/2 a tsp of salt should do the trick 🙂 enjoy!
This looks delicious! I can’t wait to make it. Can you make a coconut cake? I have yet to find the perfect one – close to the Pepperidge farm one 😉
Hi Ashley! Will keep a coconut cake in mind for future recipes 😀
I made this cake with saffron (as recommended by someone in the comments) – I used a mortar and pestle to ground the saffron and bloomed it in the buttermilk. Just phenomenal! Real game changer. Thank you so much Maryam.