EASY VANILLA CAKE

If you’ve never baked a cake from scratch, you will find this simple and achievable!

round plain cake dusted with powdered sugar on a white plate on a red cloth with white plates and forks in the background

THIS EASY VANILLA CAKE RECIPE.

Have you been too scared to attempt making a cake from scratch? Are most cake recipes just too complicated? Sick of the strange ingredients in boxed cake mixes? Then, stay with me. This recipe is for you.

Collage of four images, grated butter, round cake pan with paper insert, sifted flour and cake batter in round cake pan

Mama

WHAT MAKES THIS CAKE SO EASY.

This Easy Vanilla Cake recipe is made so simply. All the ingredients are added into the electric mixer bowl (you can use a hand mixer) at once and beaten until just lightened and creamy. More importantly, the ingredients in this cake are found easily in any supermarket and, actually, in most households. If you’ve looked at vanilla cakes before, you may have come across recipes containing sour cream, buttermilk or cake flour. These ingredients all make delicious cakes however you might not have them at home. With this cake recipe all you need is 8 basic ingredients.

unsalted butter
castor (superfine) sugar
eggs
flour
baking powder
vanilla extract
whole milk
salt

Plus with this delicious cake, it is perfectly acceptable to dust with icing (powdered) sugar in lieu of buttercream.

round plain cake dusted with powdered sugar on white plate on red cloth with white small plate and forks on the side viewed from above

Measure ingredients accurately and follow all directions to ensure the results are good and the cake or cookies are as you expected. With this cake, there are a few points to remember.

all the ingredients should be a room temperature
measure the ingredients carefully and don’t pack the flour into the cup
preheat the oven fully (this can take 15 minutes or even longer if you have an older model)
sugar should be lump free – pass through a sieve if need be
check the expiry date on baking powder
sift and combine the flour, baking powder and salt well
be sure to scrape the bowl after the initial 30 second beat to ensure all the ingredients combine
don’t over beat the batter
avoid opening the oven door to peek – you will let out the heat and that messes with the cooking time

HOW TO MEASURE FLOUR FOR THIS RECIPE.

Spoon the flour into the measuring cup, then level off with a knife. Don’t dip and scoop into the flour bag. This will pack the flour resulting in more flour than required.

BEWARE OF BAKING

POWDER DIFFERENCES.

Baking powder is a chemical raising agent used to make cakes, scones and quick breads increase in volume and lighten in texture. Most baking powders are double acting. This means that the baking powder is activated firstly by liquids (such as milk, eggs or water),then also activated by heat once the batter is in the oven. An important point to remember is that not all baking powders are equal! Different brands call for different ratios of baking powder to flour. In Nigeria, the brand I use calls for 2 teaspoons per cup of flour. In other countries, please follow the directions on the packet of baking powder you are using.

A BIT ABOUT THAT IMPORTANT INGREDIENT – BUTTER.

Butter is the king when it comes to baking. Whether you want flaky pastry or crisp cookies or moist bake, you need butter.

Salted or unsalted butter? Once upon a time, we all used salted butter and had no control over how much salt went into our baking. Salted butter is fine in savoury dishes but I want to ask you to do this simple test. Take a slice of white bread. On one end spread unsalted butter and on the other spread salted butter. Take a bite at the unsalted end followed by the salted butter. You will be surprised by how salty the salted butter is. Salted butter can make sweet baked goods too salty.

That brings me to the quality of butter. I know there are a lot of cheap butters that seem to be the same as their more expensive cousins. However it is not the case. Cheap butter has a different structure. It is not necessarily held at the correct temperature at all times during production. I discovered this when I first tried my hand at puff pastry. The butter just didn’t behave as it should have. I’m not scientific but it had something to do with the composition.

And this composition thing is the same reason why you need to be careful when bringing the butter to room temperature. You can do this a little more quickly by grating the cold butter on a coarse grater and allow to stand until softened. BUT, if what the recipe calls for “softened butter”, it shouldn’t melt or look oily. Again, melted butter has a completely different composition. Melted butter is sometimes be used in quick mix cake recipes.

HERE’S A BUTTER CONVERSION:

1 stick of butter = 1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons = 1/4 pound = 4 ounces=113 grams