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
Hi Sarah, we have not made this recipe with whipped egg whites, let us know what you think if you use that method.
Hi, I am glad to have found this site! I just have one question to ask.... What brand of Cake flour do you use? Thank you so much!
Hi Pam, We are happy to have you on the site. We use Swans Down cake flour but you should have success with other brands also. If needed you can make a cake flour substitution...........for each cup of all purpose flour (plain in the UK) remove 2 Tablespoons of the all purpose flour and replace with 2 Tablespoons of cornstarch, whisk to blend.
Hi, I am making a cake for my neice's birthday and am thinking of this cake. I want it to be really moist (my husband has never thought any cake was), so I'm thinking of freezing cake after baking. I have never done this before and was hoping you could tell me how you do it? My concern is the cake sticking to the plastic wrap or something. I don't want to freeze them entirely just long enough to cool and then decorate. Thanks!
Hi Courtney, This is the process for freezing your cake layers. After the cake layers are baked, let them cool in the pan 5 to 10 minutes. Then turn them out onto a cake board circle ( covering the cake board in aluminum foil will allow you to be able to use again). When the layers have cooled another 5 or 10 minutes but are still very warm, wrap in plastic wrap. Wrap the layers individually, I use 2 layers of plastic wrap. You will need to freeze a minimum of 2 hours. If you are freezing for more than a day, you should also wrap the cake layers in aluminum foil in addition to the plastic wrap. If you are frosting your cake with a crusting buttercream, you can do a crumb coat while the cake is partially frozen, but if you are planning to use the Viva towel method of smoothing the buttercream, the cake must be at room temperature before applying the final coat of buttercream or it will take the buttercream forever to crust. Let me know if you have other questions.
Sorry but one more question! I'm wanting to split each cake layer to put frosting between and end up with four layers out of two cakes. Will this hold up to split them or will it fall apart?
Hi Courtney, Yes, it will be fine to split these cake layers. You might have problems splitting a warm cake so let it cool completely before splitting. If you have frozen your cake layers, let them thaw almost completely, then split.
I would like to make this cake using a 10x15 cake pan, will it would and how many batches will it take?
Hi Carol, you will need 11 cups of batter for a 11x15 pan (slightly less for a 10x15 pan). This recipe makes 6 cups of batter so you will need to double the recipe.
With using buttermilk doesn't one need to use baking soda to even out the acidity? 1/2 tsp of baking soda for every cup of butter milk so i thought. This will be fine without the use of baking soda?
Hi, I have tried this recipe and came out perfect and fingerlicious yummy.
Now I want to make this cake for an egg allergic. Can I use aquafaba instead of egg whites.
Hi Tisha, I'm happy you like the recipe. I am sorry but I don't have an answer for using aquafaba instead of egg whites. We have never tried that. If you give it a try, I would love to know the result.