This is the perfect classic white cake recipe. Light and fluffy, moist and full of flavor. There is a joke in the cake world that white is not a flavor, it's actually a vanilla cake. But a white cake is not just white. Let's dive into what makes the perfect, best white cake recipe.
Quick Glance at the Recipe: White Cake Recipe
- Recipe Name: White Cake Recipe
- Why You'll Love It: Soft, fluffy white cake with a delicate crumb and bright white color that's perfect for decorating.
- Time and Difficulty: 15 minutes - Intermediate difficulty
- Main Ingredients: All-purpose flour, egg whites, butter, sugar, milk, baking powder
- Method: Traditional creaming method with egg whites added to whipped butter and sugar.
- Texture and Flavor: Light, tender crumb with a subtle vanilla flavor and moist interior.
- Quick Tip: Wrap the cakes while still warm and flash chill them to lock in moisture.
Jump to:
- Quick Glance at the Recipe: White Cake Recipe
- My Experience With White Cake
- White Cake Ingredients
- What Makes A White Cake?
- How To Make A White Cake Step-By-Step
- How to Make Easy Buttercream Step-By-Step
- Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator
- Cups of Batter Needed
- Cups of Frosting Needed
- Watch: How To Decorate A Cake Step-by-Step
- Recipe
My Experience With White Cake
There's a running joke in the cake world that "white isn't a flavor." People say it's just vanilla cake without the yolks.
But professional bakers know that white cake really is its own thing.
By removing the egg yolks and using only egg whites, the cake becomes lighter in color and slightly more delicate in flavor. It also produces that bright white crumb that's perfect for wedding cakes and elegant layer cakes.
White cake, vanilla cake, and yellow cake are all closely related recipes, but the way the eggs are used changes the texture, flavor, and color.
This cake pairs beautifully with white chocolate ganache as a frosting - the vanilla flavor of the ganache complements the delicate crumb of the cake perfectly.
White Cake Ingredients
This recipe uses traditional baking ingredients you probably already have in your pantry.
All-purpose flour - Provides structure for the cake. I prefer all-purpose flour here because it gives the cake a slightly stronger crumb that holds up well for layered cakes. If you prefer cake flour, check out my white velvet cake recipe.
Egg whites - Egg whites keep the cake bright white while still adding structure and moisture. You can use fresh egg whites or pasteurized egg whites.
Granulated sugar - Sugar sweetens the cake and helps create a light, fluffy texture when whipped with the butter.
Unsalted butter - Butter adds flavor and richness to the cake. Make sure it's soft so it creams properly with the sugar. If you brown the butter you can make a delicious brown butter cake.
Milk - Milk adds moisture and helps create a soft crumb.
Vegetable oil - Oil keeps the cake moist even after refrigeration.
Baking powder - This gives the cake its lift and light texture.
Salt - Salt balances the sweetness and enhances the overall flavor.
Vanilla extract or clear vanilla - Vanilla adds flavor. Clear vanilla can be used if you want to keep the cake extra white.
What Makes A White Cake?
Many people confuse white cake, vanilla cake, and yellow cake, but the difference mostly comes down to how the eggs are used.
- White Cake uses only egg whites, which keeps the crumb bright white and gives the cake a delicate texture.
- Vanilla cake uses whole eggs, which results in a slightly off-white color and a richer flavor.
- Yellow cake uses egg yolks, which give the cake a deep golden color and a richer, more custardy flavor. Again, people laugh and say that "white" and "yellow" is not a flavor but making an order for "all egg yolk cake" just does not have the same ring to it. It's just a way of describing the cake so we all are on the same page.
White cake and vanilla cake are both commonly used as base recipes for flavored cakes, while yellow cake is traditionally paired with chocolate frosting or chocolate ganache.
The names might sound simple, but they're just shorthand so bakers know exactly what type of cake they're working with.
How To Make A White Cake Step-By-Step
Remember to always bring your cold ingredients to room temperature and use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients. I use "ounces" for my measurements because it's easier to mis en place everything out. If you prefer metric, you can switch the measurements on the recipe card below.
- Preheat your oven to 335ºF (168ºC) and prepare two 8" x 2" cake pans with cake goop or your preferred pan release.
- Combine the warm milk, oil, and extracts, and set them aside.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together: flour, baking powder, and the salt and set it aside.
- Place the soft butter into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth.
While mixing on low, Sprinkle in your sugar, and then let it whip on high until light and white (about 5 minutes) until lightened in color and very fluffy.
- While mixing on low, add the egg whites one at a time (roughly) to the butter mixture and let them fully combine after each addition before adding the next. If your egg whites aren't at room temperature, you can microwave them for a few seconds. Be careful not to cook them! Cold egg whites will curdle the batter.
Mix until smooth.
- Add ⅓ of your dry ingredients to the egg/butter mixture and mix on low until just combined.
Then add in ½ of your liquids, then dry, then liquids, and the rest of your dry.
Let mix until they are just combined.
- Add the batter into prepared cake pans and bake them at 335º F for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the center.
- Let the cakes cool for fifteen minutes, then turn out the cakes onto a cooling rack. Wrap the cakes while they are still warm and place them into the freezer to flash chill. This locks in the moisture. Once the cakes are cool but not frozen, you can then trim off the brown edges of your cakes and frost them as desired.
How to Make Easy Buttercream Step-By-Step
- Combine pasteurized egg whites and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip the mixture on medium speed until it becomes thick and glossy.
This creates the base for the easy buttercream.
- Begin adding softened butter one piece at a time while mixing on medium speed.
At first, the mixture may look curdled or separated. This is completely normal.
- Mix in the vanilla extract and salt. Then whip on high until light, fluffy, and no longer tastes like butter.
- Optional: Switch to the paddle attachment. Mix the easy buttercream on low for several minutes to remove air bubbles and achieve the smoothest possible texture.
Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator
Select an option below to calculate how much batter or frosting you need. Adjust the servings slider on the recipe card to change the amounts the recipe makes.
Choose a pan type
Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)
Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)
Cupcake Tin Size
Choose number of pans
Cups of Batter Needed
8 cups
Cups of Frosting Needed
5 cups
Note: measurements are estimated based off the vanilla cake recipe using standard US cake pans and sizes. Measurements used are for 2" tall cake pans only. Your results may vary. Do not overfill cake pans above manufacturer's recommended guidelines.
Watch: How To Decorate A Cake Step-by-Step
Before you start decorating, watch the video below where I show you every step of decorating a cake from start to finish. Seeing the process in action makes it much easier to follow along
- Liz Marek.
Recipe
Ingredients
White Cake Recipe Ingredients
- 10 oz milk room temp
- 2 oz vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract use clear for a whiter cake
- 14 oz AP flour
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 oz unsalted butter room temp
- 14 oz sugar
- 6 large egg whites fresh not boxed at room temp
Easy Buttercream Frosting
- 8 oz pasteurized egg whites room temperature
- 32 oz powdered sugar
- 32 oz unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Instructions
White Cake Recipe Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 335ºF and prepare two 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop or another preferred pan release.
- Combine milk, oil and extracts and set aside
- Combine your flour, baking powder and salt and set aside
- Place butter in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment and cream until smooth. Sprinkle in your sugar and then let whip on high until light and white (about 5 minutes)
- Add the egg whites one at a time (roughly) to the butter mixture while mixing on low and let fully combine after each addition before adding the next. If your egg whites aren't at room temperature you can microwave them for a few seconds. Be careful not to cook them! Cold egg whites will curdle the batter.
- Add in ⅓ of your dry ingredients to the egg/butter mixture and mix on low until just combined. Then add in ½ of your liquids, then dry, then liquids and the rest of your dry. Let mix until just combined.
- Add batter into prepared cake pans and bake at 335º F for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the center.
- Let cool ten minutes then turn out cakes onto a cooling rack. Wrap warm and place into the freezer to flash chill. This locks in the moisture. Once cool but not frozen you can then trim off the brown edges of your cakes and frost as desired. Chill cake.
Easy Buttercream Frosting
- Combine egg whites and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl with the whisk attachment. Whisk to combine on low then whisk on high, adding in your butter in small chunks, vanilla and salt. Turn mixer up to high and whip until light, fluffy and white.
Gold Drip
- Melt chocolate and water in the microwave and whisk until smooth. Add in a couple drops of food coloring. Let cool to about 90 degrees before attempting to drip over the chilled cake. Once chocolate is set, you can combine the everclear and gold dust to make a paint and paint the drip.
*note: this is a non-toxic gold dust
Nancy L Cook says
My all time favorite cake in the world is white cake with white buttercream frosting. I am getting ready to make my first completely decorated cake for my birthday. I've been fascinated watching your cake videos where you do the reverse creaming method. I love that idea because you say it keeps the gluten from forming and making the cakes tough. Am I able to do that method with this recipe?? If not, I'll probably try either the vanilla cake or the white velvet. I'm sure all are so very scrumptious!!! I "just" started watching YouTube to get better at cake baking and am soooooooooooo happy I found you. I LOVE just about everything I see you make. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. And, we live "kinda" close. I'm up in Longview, WA. My best friend lives in Portland and I'm there often. Take care and thanks again.
The Sugar Geek Show says
The reverse mixing method only works with cake flour because of mixing for so long. You could experiment and see if it would work with this recipe but mixing for a shorter amount of time. Yay PNW people!
Ginger says
Hi what is AP flour? Thank you.
The Sugar Geek Show says
AP stands for all purpose flour
Tessa says
Love your recipes and show. So much helpful information and added humor is great! Well done!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Aww thank you so much Tessa!
Erin says
I took this to a church get-together and it was an absolute hit! People even took some home for lunch the next day. I was worried because to me the icing kind of tasted like butter (good butter though) but everyone else that the icing was the best part! I will definitely be trying more of your recipes.
The Sugar Geek Show says
yay im so glad!
Angelica says
Liz can i use turn your vanilla cake into a white cake for the cake flour? If so do i just replace the whole eggs in the recipe for eggs whites?
Stephanie Maurice says
Just have a question, would it hurt this recipe to use lactose free milk such as the lactic brand?
The Sugar Geek Show says
You can definitely use that in place of regular milk with no issue
Bonnie Martin says
I’m looking for a great cake to serve at my wedding, and am wondering how to adjust the recipe for sheet cakes. I’m doing a cutting cake and a full sheet.
The Sugar Geek Show says
It depends on how big your sheet cakes are. quarter sheet cakes or half sheet cakes? 1 1/2 batches for the quarter, triple batch for the 1/2 sheet cake
Ben C. says
I apologize if I missed this in the comments but I would like to make a three tier 8” cake. Would I just add another 1/2 of all your measurements to make enough batter? Can’t wait to try this cake. I’m going to fill and top with strawberry Swiss meringue butter cream and strawberry purée.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Do you mean a three layer 8" cake? Yes I would do a 1 1/2 recipe. You can adjust the servings in the recipe card to re-calculate all the ingredients.
Harrison says
This may be a dumb question but will carton eggs do or should I be on the hunt for fresh eggs? Also, is there a brand of pasteurized eggs you can recommend?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I use fresh egg whites in this recipe because the carton egg white don't seem to work as well for this cake
Brooke says
Hello, if I make this in a 12" round pan, would I still bake at 335° for 35mins? Or would I need to turn up the temp and bake longer??
The Sugar Geek Show says
Don't turn up the temperature, just bake for longer. I use a baking core in 12" and larger cakes to help the center of the cake bake faster
Kc says
I don’t care for almond extract. Would I replace with vanilla or just leave it out?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Just leave it out. White cake is traditionally flavored with almond extract which is why it includes it.
Kim says
Made this for my husband's birthday. I used regular ghee for the butter and coconut cream instead of milk due to lactose intolerance and opted for avocado oil. I cut the recipe in half to make a 5in layer cake. It was a little dense (possibly because I had to refrigerate it over night?) But still delicious. Might attempt a gluten free version but those flours never seem to work out well.
Just wanted to confirm that the nutrition facts are only for the cake and not the frosting and gold drip?
Thanks!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Thats great! The nutrition facts are for everything 🙂 Servings are 1"x2"
Jan says
I will never need another recipe for white cake (which I love), and I've baked many. Frankly, have gone to great lengths to duplicate the texture of the white cake made by Wegman's, which I bought in a dire emergency and fell in love with much to my chagrin. This one absolutely DOES IT for me! I no longer envy those not humiliated by offering a cake they did not bake.
Made this in Europe, checking the protein content of the flour (that info made a huge difference, thank you, as the brownies I once put together there resulted in chocolate cake due to the flour): wanted to offer an example of an "American" cake. This is utterly different from "cake" in Europe, and they went crazy over it. Used Dr. Oetker bitter almond as well as the vanilla extract I'd brought from Mexico, and served with strawberries from the garden for a special birthday. Wish I could post a picture! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Thank you for the great review!
Glen J. Rowley says
Baking in 2" deep pans, do you fill your pans 1/2 to 3/4 full with batter ?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I fill 3/4 because I like full pans
Glen J Rowley says
Thank you !!!
Alex says
Thanks so much for this recipe. Of all the white cakes I've tried this is absolutely the most fluffy and airy. I love that I followed your directions to fluff it well in the beginning. I doubled it to get 4-6 inch cakes and ended up with 1-8" cake as a consolation prize.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Bonus cake! Always nice haha