This white cake has the most soft, tender crumb and is so easy to put together! Bursting with vanilla flavour and a slight touch of almond flavour to provide a more complex flavour, this will be your new go to white cake! Perfect for birthday and wedding cakes.
What is a White Cake?
A white cake is basically a vanilla cake that has no egg yolks in it. This gives the cake a white colour, making it great for weddings, or for cakes that need to be coloured.
Some white cakes also have a bit of almond essence or extract in them to provide a more complex, mature flavour. I love the flavour the almond brings – it’s not overpowering but just subtle enough to notice a difference, so I add it in mine 🙂
If you don’t necessarily need a ‘white’ cake and would prefer to use whole eggs instead, check out my vanilla cake recipe.
How to Make White Cake
Begin by preheating oven to 160 °C (320°F) with the fan on (see note 4 on recipe below if you don’t have a fan function) and grease and/or line two 8 inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release).
In a bowl, sift together your flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside.
Combine milk and vinegar in a small bowl. Mix and set aside.
Separate the yolks and whites from 6 large egg whites. You should end up with 225g of egg whites. Set aside for now.
In another bowl, add in your butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Using an electric mixer (hand or stand mixer are both fine – see note 2 on recipe card below), cream together for 3 minutes until light and creamy.
Add in egg whites in 3 batches on a low-medium speed, mixing well in between each addition (about 10-15 seconds between each batch.
Add in your vanilla flavouring, almond flavouring, and half of the milk/vinegar mixture and mix until well combined. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
Finish off by adding in half of your premixed dry ingredients to your wet mixture, and gently fold it in with a spatula until just combined. Then add in the remaining milk/vinegar mixture, and fold it in until just combined. Lastly, add in the remaining dry ingredients and gently fold it into the mixture until just combined. Do not overmix (see note 3 on recipe card below).
Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the butter, icing sugar, vanilla and cream.
Using the paddle attachment, mix on the lowest speed until the ingredients are combined (about a minute), and then turn up the speed to a medium high and mix for a full 10 minutes. Scrape the bowl down half way through.
The frosting is now ready to use!
How to Decorate a White Cake
OPTIONAL: Begin by trimming off all the caramelised edges on the top, bottom and sides of the cake layers. This will give you that clean white slice at the end. Also level the tops if the cake layers have a slight dome on the top.
Place your first cake layer onto your cake stand, and spread out a generous amount of the frosting on top.
Place the next cake layer on top and cover the top and sides with more frosting. If you have a cake scraper, you can use it to smooth out the sides. I like to do a little bit of piping on the top (I used a 1M piping tip for this cake), and piped little swirls on the top.
Moist White 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
White Cake
- 2⅓ cups (300 g) flour - regular all purpose (see note 1 if you want to use cake flour)
- ¼ cup (25 g) cornflour - also known as cornstarch
- 2½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt - omit if using salted butter
- 1 cup (240 g) milk - room temperature
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 6 large (225 g) egg whites - room temperature, size 7 eggs
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- ½ cup (105 g) unflavoured vegetable oil - I use canola
- 1¾ cups (350 g) white granulated sugar
- 2½ tsp vanilla essence/extract - use a clear version for a whiter cake
- 1 tsp almond essence/extract - use a clear version for a whiter cake
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1½ cups (340 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- 3 cups (375 g) icing sugar - also known as powdered sugar/confectioners sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla essence/extract
- ½ cup (120 g) cream - room temperature heavy or whipping cream, minimum fat percentage of 34%
Instructions
White Cake
- Preheat oven to 160 °C (320°F) with the fan on (see note 4 if you don't have a fan function) and grease and/or line two 8 inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release).
- In a bowl, sift together your flour, cornflour, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside.
- Combine the milk and vinegar in a small bowl. Mix and set aside.
- Separate the yolks and whites from 6 large egg whites. You should end up with 225g of egg whites. Set aside for now.
- In another bowl, add in your butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Using an electric mixer (hand or stand mixer are both fine - see note 2), cream together for 3 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add in egg whites in 3 batches on a low-medium speed, mixing well in between each addition (about 10-15 seconds between each batch.
- Add in your vanilla flavouring, almond flavouring, and half of the milk/vinegar mixture and mix until well combined. Now set your mixer aside as the remainder of the batter will be finished by hand.
- Finish off by adding in half of your premixed dry ingredients to your wet mixture, and gently fold it in with a spatula until just combined. Then add in the remaining milk/vinegar mixture, and fold it in until just combined. Lastly, add in the remaining dry ingredients and gently fold it into the mixture until just combined. Do not overmix (see note 3).
- Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins, and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for about 15-20 minutes, and then turn them out onto a wire rack to completely cool before frosting with the vanilla buttercream recipe below, or another frosting of your choice.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the butter, icing sugar, vanilla and cream.
- Using the paddle attachment, mix on the lowest speed until the ingredients are combined (about a minute), and then turn up the speed to a medium high and mix for a full 10 minutes. Scrape the bowl down half way through.
- The frosting is now ready to use.
Assembly
- OPTIONAL: Begin by trimming off all the caramelised edges on the top, bottom and sides of the cake layers. This will give you that clean white slice at the end. Also level the tops if the cake layers have a slight dome on the top.
- Place your first cake layer onto your cake stand, and spread out a generous amount of the frosting on top.
- Place the next cake layer on top and cover the top and sides with more frosting. If you have a cake scraper, you can use it to smooth out the sides. I like to do a little bit of piping on the top (I used a 1M piping tip for this cake), and piped little swirls on the 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.
107 Comments
Hello! Thank you so much for this recipe! It’s yummy! The frosting! 🤯 Could I ask, can the frosting start out. And, for how long? Thank you! 😊
Hi Michelle! So happy to hear you enjoyed the recipe 😀 and yes the frosting can stay out for a day or so and after that it’s best to refrigerate 🙂
Hello, thank you for all the recipes you provide. Questions, so the butter is at room temperature we don’t melt it in the microwave right? We just mix it in with the ingredients mentioned? Can we use this recipe for cupcakes as well? I’m just now starting to bake for a living, so I’ve been using box cake mixes. What ingredients can I leave out if I’m using a cake mix?
Hi Marina 🙂 You’re so welcome! And yes so the butter should be firm enough that you can make an indent in it with your finger, but not so soft that it doesn’t hold it’s shape. This will allow the butter to hold air when you whip it which makes cakes light and fluffy. Yes you should be able to make cupcakes with this recipe too 🙂 and when it comes to a cake mix I would follow the instructions on the box, but check out this video for some tips on how to amp up your cake mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6y0E468rDg&t=31s
I’m making this for a baby shower next week and my question is will these cakes hold up well (sturdy enough) to use your raspberry filling between the 2 layers?
Thanks 😊
Hi Jody! 🙂 Yes these cake layers are great for stacking and hold well with a filling 🙂
Can you please tell me what the recipe ratio would be for a 2 layer, 10 inch cake?
Hi Ruby! For two 10 inch cakes I would probably double the recipe 🙂 just make sure there isn’t too much batter in one cake tin. If you do have a little leftover batter you can use it to make some cupcakes 🙂
This cake looks amazing. My question is: can I use both cake flour and cornstach?
Thanks Pinky! 🙂 I would recommend using either cake flour OR all purpose flour+cornstarch only because using both may not provide enough structure for the cake 🙂
Thank you.
You’re so welcome Fiona! Hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
Lovely receipe. But what can i use instead of egg/ egg replacement powder. Please advise
Hi Ash! 🙂 Unfortunately I haven’t tried an egg replacement myself for this recipe yet so can’t recommend anything at this stage sorry!
Hi Maryam,
Thank you for all of your recipes, they are all lovely. Can you please tell me why you have used milk and vinegar mix rather then buttermilk like you do in your other vanilla cakes?
thanks again
Beth
Hi Beth! So happy to hear you’re enjoying the recipes 🙂 and yes sure! So I mainly use buttermilk for 2 reasons – flavour and texture. Because this cake also has almond flavouring in it, I didn’t feel it needed additional flavour, and texture wise I try and use milk and vinegar first as opposed to buttermilk as they’re more accessible around the world, but if I feel it’s just not giving me that fluffy texture that I want I’ll try buttermilk. For this cake the milk and vinegar worked just fine so stuck with that 😀
in the 2x recipe it also says to use 2-8 inch pans. is that correct? thanks
Hi Sherry! Ahh yes thanks for picking that up. That’s incorrect, so you would also double the number of pans so it should be 4 pans 🙂
I have liked this recipe and would like to learn jow to make more different types.
Thanks so much Catherine! 🙂 You can find my full list of recipes here: https://cakesbymk.com/all-recipes/