Homemade White Cake

This moist homemade white cake is sure to become a family favorite. It is soft, has a fine crumb, and is perfect for all sorts of special occasions.

If you are looking for a go-to white cake recipe, this one is a keeper! We have a few delicious homemade white cake recipes in our recipes section, including our White Velvet Cake, and White Cake from Scratch.

Why We Love It

• Ultra moist, fluffy texture
• Pairs perfectly with any filling or frosting!
• Makes plenty of batter for a three layer 8 inch cake
• Perfect for special occasions like baby or bridal showers, birthdays, weddings, and more.

What Makes it Different?

This Homemade White Cake is inspired by our Vanilla Buttermilk Cake and our White Velvet Cake. We love these recipes!

While lighter in color than our Vanilla Buttermilk Cake (due to the absence of egg yolks), it has a similar "fluffy factor", and is every bit as moist.

The crumb of today's Homemade White Cake is fine, but not quite as tight as the White Velvet Cake, or as light in color. (The cream cheese in the White Velvet Cake batter lightens it). We also have a "White Cake from Scratch" which is made with the Reverse Creaming Method of mixing- it is delicious also, but a bit more dense.

The buttermilk in this cake recipe adds richness and makes for a more tender cake. It is so flavorful, and perfect for any occasion!

How to Make Homemade White Cake

You can find the full, printable scratch white cake recipe further down in this post (along with ingredients and full instructions). Here is a quick look at our steps!

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch pans. We also add a circle of parchment to the bottom of each pan to ensure nothing sticks.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the dry ingredients: cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside

• In another bowl, combine these wet ingredients: buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla extract. Set aside.

• In the bowl of your mixer, add the softened unsalted butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.

• Add the six egg whites one at a time, waiting a few seconds after each addition. (If you are using carton egg whites like we did, just estimate. We did 6 little additions).
• With the mixer on low speed, (if using a stand mixer, use a paddle attachment), alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until combined.

• Divide the cake batter between the three 8 inch cake pans.

• Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
• Let the cake layers cool in the pans 10 minutes on a wire rack, then turn out.

• This recipe makes 7 cups of batter. Works great for cupcakes too!

Filling for Homemade White Cake

Any filling would complement this white cake perfectly. Some great options would be our Lemon Curd Filling, Lime Curd Filling, and Strawberry Filling, just to name a few! Today, we kept things simple with our homemade whipped cream.

This is a simple sweetened whipped cream recipe, which combines heavy whipping cream with confectioners' sugar and vanilla extract. Start with a chilled bowl and beaters for best results! (You can find the full recipe in our recipe card a bit further down.)

Easy Vanilla Frosting

Just as we feel that there are endless options for cake fillings when it comes to white cake, the same goes for frostings. Today, we used our go-to Vanilla Buttercream recipe.

We love this vanilla frosting because it tastes great, is super easy to decorate with, and complements the homemade white cake perfectly.

This recipe combines softened unsalted butter, confectioners sugar, a pinch of salt, a splash of vanilla, and a bit of milk or heavy cream. It is creamy and delicious!

Assembling the Cake

• When it is time to assemble the cake, make sure that your cake layers are completely cool (so that the filling or frosting doesn't melt!).
• If using a soft filling as we did, first pipe a dam of buttercream around the edge of the cake layer (about ¼ inch from the edge). We do this by loading the frosting into a disposable piping bag and snipping the tip away.
• Add the whipped cream filling within the dam. (The dam keeps it from escaping as the layers are stacked.)
• Top with the next layer and repeat. Then, top with the third layer. Using the piping bay that you used for your dam, fill in any gaps between the cake layers. Then, apply a thin (crumb coat) of frosting.
• At this point, we prefer to chill our filled, crumb coated cake in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm everything up. Then, frost the cake as usual.

Decorating the Cake

• Decorate however you like! We combed the frosted cake around the sides using a cake comb (as we rotated it on a turntable). Heating the metal cake comb under hot water will before combing the cake will make the frosting even smoother.

Then, we swirled pink buttercream frosting on the top of the frosted cake with an offset spatula.

• Around the bottom edge of the cake, we piped large buttercream shells using a 1M piping tip. (For more details on work with star tips, make sure to check out our Star Piping Tip Basics Video Tutorial!)

Recipe FAQs

Thanks so much for stopping by! We hope that you'll keep this Homemade White Cake recipe in mind the next time you have a special occasion to celebrate. It would make a perfect birthday cake recipe, bridal shower cake, baby shower cake, and more!

Homemade White Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist delicious white cake is delicate, moist, and fluffy! It makes three nice sized 8 inch cake layers.

Prep Time: 10 minutes mins

Cook Time: 25 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 20

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Ingredients

For the Cake Layers

• ▢ 1½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened (This is the equivalent of ¾ cup of butter. It should dent easily when pressed but still be slightly cool to the touch.)
• ▢ 2 cups (400g) sugar
• ▢ 3 cups (342g) cake flour
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g)baking soda
• ▢ 6 egg whites (We used pasteurized egg whites from a carton. We used ¾ cup- see carton for details). You can also separate the egg whites from the egg yolks and dispose of yolks.)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract (some bakers opt for clear imitation vanilla for a lighter color.)
• ▢ 1 ¼ cup (296g) buttermilk (full fat)
• ▢ ⅓ cup (72g) vegetable oil

For the Whipped Cream Filling (optional)

• ▢ 1 cup (240 g) Heavy Cream
• ▢ ¼ cup (29g) Confectioners' Sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon (4g) vanilla extract

For the Buttercream

• ▢ 2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter, softened.
• ▢ 6 cups (690 grams) powdered sugar Adjust to your liking- More sugar will give you a thicker consistency.
• ▢ 2 tsp. (8g) vanilla extract 8 grams, use clear imitation vanilla if you like a whiter frosting
• ▢ ⅓ cup (72g) milk or cream Adjust amount to your consistency preferences.
• ▢ ½ teaspoon (3g) salt

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350 ℉. Grease and flour three 8x2 inch pans. We also added a circle of parchment to the bottom of each pan.
• In a medium bowl, whisk the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt for 30 seconds. Set aside
• In another bowl, add the buttermilk, vegetable oil and vanilla. Set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, (and using the paddle attachment if using a stand mixer), add the butter and mix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugar and continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes until lightened in color and fluffy.
• Add the 6 egg whites one at a time, waiting a few seconds after each addition. (If you are using carton egg whites, just estimate. We did 6 small additions).
• With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid). After the last addition, mix just until combined.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
• Let the cake layers cool in the pans 10 minutes, then turn out.
• This recipe makes 7 cups of batter. Works well for cupcakes also.

For the Sweetened Whipped Cream

• Chill the mixing bowl and beaters/ whisk attachment in the freezer for 10 minutes.
• Pour the whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla into the chilled mixing bowl, begin beating on low speed gradually increasing to medium high speed.
• The cream begins to thicken (approx. 1 ½ minutes) and stiff peaks for. (When you can lift the beaters or whisk attachment from the bowl and the cream stands up, it is ready.)

For the Vanilla Buttercream

• Cream the (slightly softened) butter until smooth. Blend in the vanilla.
• Add half of the powdered sugar and most of the milk. Mix at medium speed until the powdered sugar is incorporated.
• Add remaining powdered sugar and milk and mix at medium speed another 3 to 4 minutes scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. I slow down the mixer to very slow. (#2 on the Kitchenaid) for 1 to 2 minutes. This will help eliminate air pockets in the buttercream. The texture will become very smooth.

Cake Assembly

• Place the first cake layer on cake base or pedestal.
• If using a soft filling as we did, first pipe a dam of buttercream around the edge of the cake layer (about ¼ inch from the edge). We do this by loading the frosting into a disposable piping bag and snipping the tip away.
• Add the whipped cream filling within the dam. (The dam keeps it from escaping as the layers are stacked.)
• Top with the next layer and repeat. Then, top with the third layer. Using the piping bay that you used for your dam, fill in any gaps between the cake layers. Then, apply a thin (crumb coat) of frosting. At this point, we like to chill in the freezer for 15 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm everything up.
• Finish with the final coat of frosting. Decorate however you like! We used a cake comb to comb around the sides of the cake, and then added additional frosting (tinted with pink coloring gel) to the top of the cake. We added a simple shell border around the base with a 1M large star piping tip.
• Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator (because of the perishable filling). Remove from the refrigerator 2 hours before serving for best flavor and texture, so that the cake and frosting have time to warm and soften.

Notes

Substitution for Buttermilk: No Buttermilk? Here is a substitution: To a measuring cup, add 1 Tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice. Add milk to the 1 ¼ mark, stir. Wait 5 minutes and it is ready to use.

Substitution for Cake Flour: Using all purpose flour (plain in UK) to make Cake Flour: For each cup of flour in a recipe, remove 2 Tablespoons of flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons cornstarch (cornflour in the UK). This recipe has 3 cups of flour so you will measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour, remove 6 Tablespoons and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch, whisk to blend

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