This rich, buttery, super tender yellow cake recipe is made entirely from scratch and is the best I’ve had. Its made up of moist vanilla cake layers that have extra egg yolks (for a richer flavor and color), followed by a super smooth, creamy and not-too-sweet chocolate buttercream. Perfect for celebrations!
What is a Yellow Cake?
A yellow cake is a classic vanilla-flavored cake known for its characteristic golden hue (it has more of a yellow color compared to a traditional vanilla cake or white cake). This is usually achieved by using whole eggs and butter in the batter, and some recipes (like mine) also use extra egg yolks to add extra flavor, richness and color to the batter.
Yellow cakes have a wonderful moist and fluffy texture and are often paired with chocolate frosting. They’re a popular choice for birthday cakes and other celebrations!
Why You’ll Love This Yellow Cake
When I say this homemade yellow cake recipe is one of the best I’ve tried, I honestly mean it. It is so much better than boxed cake mixes, trust me! Here are a few things about it that I think you’ll love 🙂
Moist & Fluffy
This yellow cake is SUPER moist and fluffy. When recipe testing, some of my taste testers said that it almost tasted like a sponge cake because of how soft it was!
This recipe uses a combination of butter and oil for a super moist crumb (oil is liquid at room temperature so adds more moisture to the cake), and buttermilk for a fluffy texture. I also use vinegar in this recipe to provide extra lift (when reacting with the baking soda), which contributes to how fluffy the cake is as well. For more info on the benefits of using vinegar in baking, click here.
I also opted to use cornstarch in this recipe for a softer texture. When paired with all purpose flour, it helps to mimic cake flour. For more information on this, check out this blog post.
Ingredients
The base yellow cake recipe uses common household ingredients that you probably already have on hand, besides maybe the buttermilk! No stress though, as you can make a homemade buttermilk substitute if you don’t have any buttermilk on hand 🙂
Chocolate Frosting
When experimenting with this recipe, I tried a few different chocolate frostings. I recently released a chocolate sheet cake recipe that has a easy chocolate fudge frosting and I initially paired the yellow cake with that frosting. I felt the frosting was a bit strong though and overpowered the flavor of the yellow cake.
I then decided to experiment with something a bit more light and fluffy, and decided to turn my silky smooth buttercream frosting recipe into a chocolate frosting by adding in some melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder. This created a wonderful chocolate frosting that had good chocolate flavor, but still allowed the cake to shine as well!
How to Make Yellow Cake
This section will run you through the process of making the yellow cake with pictures. For the full written recipe and ingredient quantities, head to the recipe card at the bottom of the blog post (or click the ‘jump to recipe’ button at the top of the page).
Yellow Cake
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) conventional and grease and/or line two 8-inch cake pans (I use my homemade cake release). If using a convection oven, decrease the temperature to 160°C (320°F).
In a bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside.
In a large bowl, add in butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Using an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer), cream together for 2 minutes until light and creamy.
Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition (about 10-15 seconds between eggs).
Add in egg yolks and mix until well combined.
Add in vanilla, vinegar and buttermilk 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 the flour mixture to your wet mixture, and gently fold with a spatula until just combined. Avoid overmixing (only mix until you can’t see anymore streaks of unmixed flour and the batter is uniform).
Pour the cake batter evenly into the two prepared pans. Drop the 8-inch pans lightly on the counter to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 38-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for 20 minutes, before turning them out onto a wire rack to completely cool.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
In a microwave safe bowl add in chocolate (break into smaller pieces if using a chocolate block), and melt in the microwave for 30 second bursts at a time, mixing in between each burst until the chocolate is almost melted (be careful not to overheat it otherwise the chocolate can burn – you can use a bain marie/double boiler if you prefer). Let the chocolate sit for a few minutes and then mix until smooth. Set aside to cool.
In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), add in butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and heavy cream. Mix on the lowest speed until the ingredients are combined, 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 should be fluffy and smooth.
Add in the cocoa powder and cooled melted chocolate. Mix until well combined and smooth.
Assembly (see video for demonstration)
Trim off the tops of the cake layers with a serrated knife so that they’re nice and flat. I like to trim the edges too but this is optional.
Place the first cake layer onto a serving plate/cake stand and spread out a generous amount of frosting. I like to use my offset spatula for this.
Place the next cake layer on top and spread out more frosting on the top and a thin layer on the sides of the cake.
Using a 1M piping tip, pipe some cupcake swirls on the top of the cake (or any piping you like). Slice and enjoy!
How to Store Yellow Cake
This yellow cake can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for a few days, after which it’s best to place in the fridge for up to a week.
Moist Yellow Cake Recipe
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
Yellow Cake
- 2⅓ cups (295 g) all purpose flour
- ¼ cup (30 g) cornstarch
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt - omit if using salted butter
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- ½ cup (105 g) unflavored vegetable oil - I use canola oil
- 1⅔ cups (332 g) white granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs - room temperature
- 3 large egg yolks - room temperature
- 1¼ tbsp vanilla extract/essence
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1¼ cups (285 g) buttermilk - room temperature
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- 1¼ cups (215 g) dark chocolate - I use 50% dark chocolate, but any good quality semi-sweet chocolate will work (I don't recommend using compound chocolate, stick with couverture)
- 1½ cups (340 g) unsalted butter - room temperature
- 3 cups (375 g) powdered sugar - also known as icing/confectioners sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract/essence
- ⅓ cup (80 g) heavy cream - room temperature
- ½ cup (50 g) natural cocoa powder - you can use Dutch processed too, but it will make the frosting more dark as opposed to light brown
Instructions
- IMPORTANT: For this yellow cake recipe I would highly recommend using gram measurements, especially for the flour for accurate results. It has a high fat/liquid ratio so slight adjustments to the quantities can throw off the balance of the cake 🙂
Yellow Cake
- Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) conventional (see note 1 if using a convection oven with a fan) and grease and/or line two 8 inch cake tins (I use my homemade cake release).
- In a bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Using a whisk or fork, mix until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, add in butter, vegetable oil and sugar. Using an electric mixer (hand or stand mixer are both fine - see note 2), cream together for 2 minutes until light and creamy.
- Add in eggs one by one, mixing well in between each addition (about 10-15 seconds between eggs).
- Add in egg yolks and mix until well combined.
- Add in vanilla, vinegar and buttermilk 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 your premixed dry ingredients to your wet mixture, and gently fold with a spatula until just combined. Avoid overmixing (only mix until you can't see anymore streaks of unmixed flour and the batter is uniform).
- Distribute the batter evenly into the two 8 inch cake tins. Drop the cake tins lightly on the counter to remove any large air bubbles and bake for 38-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs on it.
- Once baked, allow the cake layers to cool in the cake tins for 20 minutes, before turning them out onto a wire rack to completely cool.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
- In a microwave safe bowl add in chocolate (break into smaller pieces if using a chocolate block), and melt in the microwave for 30 second bursts at a time, mixing in between each burst until the chocolate is almost melted (be careful not to overheat it otherwise the chocolate can burn - you can use a bain marie/double boiler if you prefer). Let the chocolate sit for a few minutes and then mix until smooth. Set aside to cool.
- In a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), add in butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and heavy cream. Mix on the lowest speed until the ingredients are combined, 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 should be fluffy and smooth (see note 3 if it's not).
- Add in the cocoa powder and cooled melted chocolate. Mix until well combined and smooth.
Assembly (see video for demonstration)
- Trim off the tops of the cake layers with a serrated knife so that they're nice and flat. I like to trim the edges too but this is optional.
- Place the first cake layer onto a serving plate/cake stand and spread out a generous amount of frosting.
- Place the next cake layer on top and spread out more frosting on the top and sides of the cake.
- Using a 1M piping tip, pipe some cupcake swirls on the top of the cake (or any piping you like). Slice and enjoy!
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.
55 Comments
Hi can you freeze the cakes?
Hi Tina! 🙂 I haven’t tried freezing these cake layers myself, but I think if they’re wrapped well in cling wrap and placed into an airtight container they should be fine 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Hi! Is it possible to make only one pan by halving the recipe? I would like to test and practice first before wasting too much ingredients 🙂
Hi D! Yes you can totally half the recipe and make one 8 inch cake instead of two 🙂
Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe!
Hello! I am very interested in trying this recipe, however, I’d love to practice on a smaller portion…do I halve the recipe measurements if I would just want to make one cake ina 8×13 round pan? Thank you for your recipe and help!
Heya! 🙂 Yes you can totally make a smaller portion. Half the recipe will either make two 6 inch cake layers or one round 8 inch cake 🙂
Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe!
Very easy to follow, and substituted ingredients to make it dairy free as always, for my loves. For some reason, my cakes did not rise as high as yours look in the picture, and the cake itself was very crumbly, not dense. My judges unfortunately only gave me about 3.5 out of 5 stars on this one–they are tough to please! I’m not sure exactly what I did wrong.
On to the next one!
Heya! 🙂 So glad to hear you found the recipe easy to follow, but sorry to hear the final result wasn’t as good as you’d hoped! Sometimes when substituting ingredients, the final result isn’t the same due to different chemical reactions taking place in the batter. In terms of the height, it could be that the butter was too soft during the creaming stage (so not enough air was whipped into the butter). With the cake being crumbly, this is usually due to not enough liquid in the batter, too much flour or overbaking the cakes. I would recommend using the gram measurements (if you didn’t already) for best results 🙂
For more tips, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRy1KuFMdOo&t=1s
Hope that helps for next time! 🙂
I already have cake flour on hand can I just use that? Would it be the 2 1/3 cups plus the 1/4 cup added together?
Hi Jamie! 🙂 Yes you could try with cake flour – and yes you would substitute both the all purpose flour and cornstarch with cake flour. I haven’t tried cake flour myself, but it should work well for this recipe 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe Jamie!
Can I bake as a bunt cake?
Hi Lavallee! 🙂 I haven’t tried this recipe in a bundt pan myself so I am not too sure if it will rise well sorry! The cake is quite soft and usually for a bundt cake a sturdier cake will work better. Would love to hear how it goes if you do decide to try it out 🙂
Can you convert this to cupcakes?
Hi Renee! 🙂 Yes you can totally do that. Simply reduce the cook time to about the 18 min mark. Hope you enjoy the recipe 🙂
Hi there
I have tried out your cake recipe today.it was such a hit. Absolutely delicious so moist and the icing tasted really good.
Looking forward to trying out other recipes from your blog.
Awesome! So glad you loved the recipe Kim and that you enjoyed both the cake and frosting 😀
Hope you enjoy the other recipes just as much 🙂
is heavy cream same as fresh cream in nz ?
Hi Angelin! Yes that’s correct 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipe!
Is there enough batter to be used in a 9×13 pan?
Thank you!
Valerie
Hi Valerie! 🙂 Yes any of my cake recipes that use two 8 inch cake tins cake be turned into a 9×13 inch cake 😀 you might just need to reduce the cook time slightly as sheet cakes tend to bake a little faster. Hope you enjoy the recipe!