This is the Best Homemade White Cake Recipe! Soft, fluffy and easy to make, this white cake from scratch is done in under an hour! An Easy White Cake Recipe you can make at home and decorate however you like!
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There are few desserts better than classic white cake! It's so easy to make a cake from scratch, and it tastes WAY better than anything from a box mix!
White cake is perhaps one of the most versatile cakes there is. It’s used in countless ways from a wedding cake to cake pops. My favorite way to enjoy is with a little bit of frosting and some fun sprinkles!
Whether you're celebrating a birthday, holiday, or just because - this simple vanilla cake recipe will quickly become your go to recipe! It's truly the best white cake recipe!
Why We Love This White Cake Recipe from Scratch:
- Easy to make: Making a white cake from scratch is almost as easy as making it from the box mix!
- Few Ingredients: Box mix cakes are made with cheaper/low quality ingredients. They're great in a pinch but if you want the best cake recipe - this is it!
If you're looking for cake with a little more flavor check out Red Velvet Cupcakes or Chocolate Oreo Cupcakes
Ingredients for Simple White Cake
To make this homemade white cake you'll need:
- salted butter
- white sugar
- all purpose flour
- baking power
- egg whites
- whole milk
- pure vanilla extract
You'll also need a cake pan. We like these 8x8 cake pans.
How to Make White Cake from Scratch
Here's how to do it:
- Cream together butter and sugar.
- In a separate large bowl, combine flour and baking powder.
- In a third separate mixing bowl, add the egg whites and whip until light and fluffy.
- Add the butter/sugar mixture to the flour mixture. Mix well.
- Stir in the milk and vanilla extract.
- Gently fold in the egg.
- Pour mixture into the greased 8x8 pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake. Cool completely before frosting.
How to Decorate Homemade White Cake
This white cake recipe is a blank canvas, you can decorate it however you like! Just be sure to cool completely before frosting! Our favorite way to decorate this is with Homemade Buttercream Frosting and rainbow sprinkles!
You can also turn this into Halloween Cake Pops or one of these Easy Holiday Truffles Recipes
Best White Cake Recipe Variations
Make it cupcakes - Use this recipe as the base for white cupcakes as well. Simply use a muffin tin and liners instead of a cake pan. You’ll want to start your baking time at 15 minutes and adjust it as needed.
Make it a yellow cake - If you would like to turn this recipe into a yellow cake, take away one egg and use the entire egg instead of just the whites. You can skip the whipping part for the eggs as well and just incorporate them into the wet ingredients.
If it’s too dry - Add a drizzle of milk to your batter, a little bit at a time if it seems too dry.
If it’s too thin - Add in some flour or a bit of powdered sugar if the batter seems too thin.
If the cake turns out dense - If your cake turns out too dense, then you’ve not whipped the eggs long enough. You can also try creaming your sugar and butter before incorporating them into the other ingredients.
Why does it taste eggy? - If your cake turns out to taste eggy, you’ve not folded in the egg properly. Yes, be gentle when folding them in, but don’t leave it partially unmixed or you’ll get an eggy taste to your cake.
How to Store Homemade White Cake
Storing: You can store this recipe for up to 4 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Freezing: We don't recommend freezing it. If you are going to freeze it, wrap the cake unfrosted tightly in plastic wrap before freezing.
Substitutions for White Cake Recipe from Scratch:
Butter: Butter is essential to this recipe. We haven't tried it with dairy free butter.
Granulated Sugar: White sugar helps give this cake a fluffy texture
All Purpose Flour: We don't recommend substituting the flour, but you can check out this article on Cake Flour vs. All-Purpose Flour or Substitutions for All-Purpose Flour
Baking Powder: Baking powder is essential for this cake to rise. Do NOT substitute with baking soda.
Egg Whites: Egg whites help make this cake light and fluffy. We don't recommend substituting eggs, but you can read this article on Egg Substitutions for Baking if you need to substitute.
Milk: You can substitute milk with half and half, low fat milk or non dairy milk.
Vanilla Extract: Helps to add flavor, we don't recommend substituting.
Making a Dry Cake Moist: This is a very moist cake recipe, but if you have trouble with it, check out this post for How To Make A Dry Cake Moist
What is the Difference Between a White Cake and Vanilla Cake?
A white cake and a vanilla cake have one main difference - the eggs.
A white cake only uses egg whites while a vanilla or yellow cake use the whole egg for the recipe.
Since egg yolks have a tendency to make a cake slightly yellow looking, they’re omitted when it comes to making a white cake.
The only other difference is that vanilla extract has a tendency to slightly change the color of the cake as well.
For this reason, clear vanilla extract is often used in place of normal vanilla extract, in white cakes. However, the vanilla extract amount is so small, it’s hardly noticeable, which is why many people go ahead and use whatever vanilla they have on hand whether they’re making a white cake or not.
Homemade White Cake Recipe FAQ
The main difference is that white cake is made with only egg whites, not egg yolks, giving the cake a paler color. Yellow cake is typically made with egg yolks. Both cakes are vanilla flavor
The key to a moist and fluffy cake is fat and eggs. Using a strong source of fat like butter, combined with whipped egg whites helps you have a fluffy cake.
It is made of butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, egg whites, milk and vanilla extract. The whites are key to making the cake white in color and fluffy in texture.
You can! Watch while baking though as the time may be affected. We also love this Moist Lemon Bundt Cake!
Milk will make a cake more moist. It has more fat and gives a better texture to cake.
Other Delicious Cake Recipes:
Here are some of our favorite easy cake recipes!
- Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake
- Lemon Raspberry Bundt Cake
- The Best Vegan Coffee Cake
- Italian Lemon Olive Oil Cake
- Chocolate Fudge Cake
Homemade White Cake From Scratch
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted butter softened
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 4 egg whites
- ½ cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a square 8x8-inch pan or one 9-inch round pan.
- In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
- In a separate large bowl, combine flour and baking powder and mix well.
- In a third separate bowl, add the egg whites and whip until light and fluffy- about 2 minutes.
- Add the butter/sugar mixture to the flour and baking powder mixture. Mix well.
- Stir in the milk and vanilla extract until combined.
- Gently fold in the egg whites until just combined.
- Pour mixture into the greased 8x8 pan and bake for 30 minutes at 350 or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake.
Video
Notes
- If it’s too dry - Add a drizzle of milk to your batter, a little bit at a time if it seems too dry.
- If it’s too thin - Add in some flour or a bit of powdered sugar if the batter seems too thin.
- If the cake turns out dense - If your cake turns out too dense, then you’ve not whipped the eggs long enough. You can also try creaming your sugar and butter before incorporating them into the other ingredients.
- Why does it taste eggy? - If your cake turns out tasting eggy, you’ve not folded in the egg whites properly. Yes, be gentle when folding them in, but don’t leave it partially un mixed or you’ll get an eggy taste to your cake.
Jisela Lopez
Did you use all purpose flour or cake flour because I heard there’s a difference between them and I don’t really know what it is but which one do I use??
lifebeginswithdessert
We used all-purpose flour. If you wanted to try the recipe with cake flour you would want to add an extra 3 tablespoons of cake flour. Enjoy!
Pepper Troop
Can you double the ingredients to make a 13 x 9. Cake ?
Liz @ Tasty Treats & Eats
I haven't tried this but I think it would work!
Pepper Troop
Can't wait to try it