White Cake from Scratch
Need a fantastic recipe for a White Cake from Scratch? This white layer cake is amazing.
It is delicious, very moist, has a wonderful flavor, and holds up well to fondant. This white cake has become a new favorite for us.
It has a very fine crumb, and compared to some of our other white cakes (homemade white cake and white velvet cake), it is slightly denser.
Table of Contents
The Perfect Scratch Cake Recipe
Many years ago, when I first began to experiment with cake decorating, I baked with doctored cake mix recipes exclusively. They taste great, are super moist, consistent, and simple.
I was convinced that scratch cakes-especially white cakes and chocolate scratch cakes were-underwhelming. There's nothing sadder than a gorgeous slice of cake that is dry when you take a bite of it.
Well, here we are, more than ten years later, and we have hundreds of cake recipes from scratch that we just love! This was one of the first.
How White is the Cake?
Some white cakes are snow white- these are the ones that use clear vanilla, no butter, and egg whites.
While this white cake is light in color, it does have a slight yellow tint from the butter and buttermilk. But we are okay with this because of the richness that it adds!
For an even whiter cake, we have a delicious White Velvet Cake recipe which uses softened cream cheese in the cake batter- this lightens the shade of the cake while also enhancing the texture and richness. It's another great one for you list!
The Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing
Have you heard of the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing? With this mixing method, ingredients are added in a different order than with the conventional (aka creaming) method of mixing.
The results are a slightly denser cake with a finer crumb and a more velvety texture. You can see in the photo above that this cake as a fine crumb.
If you are unfamiliar with the Reverse Creaming Method of mixing and would like to learn more, you can find our link to a free to tutorial on the technique beneath the recipe!
*This recipe works well for cupcakes also, but as with most scratch recipes on our site, there is very little dome.
**For more information on the Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing, check out our post and video tutorial on the method! Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing.
Frostings that taste great with White Cakes
The buttercream frosting that we used in the photo is our Classic Vanilla Buttercream, however when it comes to pairing frosting flavors with this delicious homemade white cake, the options are endless! Here are other favorites to consider!:
More Vanilla Cakes!
We have more white cakes, vanilla cakes, and yellow cakes for you to try! You can find them all in our section of Vanilla Cakes.
Some of the most popular are our Homemade White Cake, Vanilla Velvet Cake, White Velvet Cake, and Buttermilk Pound Cake!
Enjoy the Recipe!
Thanks so much for stopping by. We hope that you'll come back again soon.
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
White Cake from Scratch
This moist, delicious, and versatile white cake recipe is amazing!
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups (350g) sugar
- 2 ½ cups (285g) cake flour
- 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
- 1Tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon (19 g) baking powder
- 5 egg whites ( you can separate egg white from whole eggs or use ⅔ cup from a carton of pasteurized egg whites found in the refrigerated section of grocery store)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla
- 1 cup (242g) buttermilk
- ⅓ cup (72g) vegetable oil
- 10 Tablespoons (1 stick + 2T ) (141g) unsalted butter, slightly softened (do not microwave) I cut the butter into ½ inch slices onto waxed paper a short while before I need it. Mine is on the wax paper only 6 -7 minutes. It should still feel cold to the touch. If it becomes too soft, refrigerate for a few minutes.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
- Grease and flour two 8 x 2 inch round cake pans
- In the bowl of your mixer add the dry ingredients, sugar, flour, salt and baking powder. Whisk for at least 30 seconds so the ingredients are well combined.
- In a separate bowl, add the egg whites, buttermilk, vanilla and oil. Stir with a fork to combine.
- With the mixer on low speed, add the slices of butter a few pieces at a time to the dry ingredients. Increase the mixer to medium speed and beat until the dry ingredients look crumbly and moistened by the butter. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- With the mixer on low speed, SLOWLY add ½ of the egg mixture, increase to medium speed and mix for 1 ½ minutes, the batter will become thick and fluffy. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings beating for 20 seconds after each addition.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans 10 minutes, then turn out.
- 6 cups of batter
So, my cake only rose to 1 1/4" for an 8" pan. It only filled it half way not 3/4. I do sift my flour, but I weigh my ingredients and have the bowl on the scale and sift into it.Just to reassure myself it weighs the same before and after sifting, as it should. So...I need taller layers. I'm guessing I need to double my recipe. I also bake at 300. My 6" cakes came out beautiful but I was able to fill the pans higher.
Your layers should have risen more than than. Possibly the butter was not blended well enough with the dry ingredients or after adding 1/2 of the wet ingredients it was not beaten for 1 1/2 minutes. During that beating, the batter will increase in volume and become fluffy. Do you think you had 6 cups of batter?
Hi,can you use 5 whole eggs in this recipe instead of just the whites,will this change how the cake comes out? Can this be used as a vanilla cake?
Hi Charlene, Using whole eggs will give you a yellow cake because of the egg yolks. If you want you cake to look white you would need to use the egg whites. If you need a vanilla cake, you could use the White Almond Sour Cream (a scratch recipe) and leave out the almond flavoring and you would have a vanilla cake. Here is a link to that recipe, https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes-tutorials/almond-scratch-recipe/. You could also use the White Almond Sour Cream (doctored cake recipe), if you are OK with using a cake mix.
Hi this cake looks amazing! I am going to make it for my sisters birthday. What is the recipe for the frosting on the cake, it looks incredible! And will the frosting do good in the summer weather?
I made this white cake recipe and all I can say is wow absolutely love the way it came out. so soft and no dome this is a keeper.
I did use pasturize egg whites and it turned out perfect. thank you for this wonderful yummy recipe.
Hi Linda, So happy you like the recipe! Thank you for posting your thoughts!
Hello! Thank you for the recipe. I have a question. Is the amount of baking powder correct? 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon? It seems to me a little bit too much. I made the cake and suddenly during baking it sunk in the middle.
Thank you very much in advance.
Do you still have the old scratch version available?
Hi Tammy- I've just added a link to the older white cake recipe that used to appear on our site--it can be found just above the final photo-- or you can click this link: https://www.mycakeschool.com/images/2016/06/White-Cake-Recipe-.pdf
@Anastasia, yes that is correct. I'm sorry that you had trouble with sinking, I'm not sure why that happened. However, if you are new to the Reverse Creaming Method of mixing, which this recipe uses, you may want to check out our video which I've linked just above the recipe in red. I hope this helps!
Hello Melissa and BeBe, I am making my firs wedding cake using this recipe. Can you tell me how do I figure out how much to make for a 12" 10" & a 6" round?