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.

White Cake Recipe from Scratch- So moist and flavorful!

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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.

Moist and Flavorful White Cake from Scratch! Recipe by MyCakeSchool.com!

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 BEST White Cake from Scratch Recipe by MyCakeSchool.com! So delicious!

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.

The Reverse Creaming Method of Mixing results in a slightly denser cake with a finer crumb and velvety texture!

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!:

Delicious White Cake from Scratch! Recipe by MyCakeSchool.com.

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

256 Comments

Hi Ellen, We live close to sea level so we don't have first hand experience baking at high altitude. Below is a link to Craftsy's tips to high altitude baking. I hope you will find it helpful.

https://www.craftsy.com/baking/article/how-to-bake-at-high-altitude/

I’m making half sheet cake can this recipe be doubled

Hi Beverly, I have not doubled this recipe but you should be able to do so with no problems.

Hi Beverly. Could you tell me how thick the 8 inch layers are? Do you think I could get 2x 10 inch cakes out of this? I don’t mind if the layers are a bit thinner... thanks!

Hi Sarah, For one 10x2 inch round pan you will need 6 cups of batter, which is what this recipe has. Double the recipe for two cake layers. The layers would be very thin if you did not double the recipe for a 2 layer cake. I'm not sure how thin would be acceptable to you.

Ellen,

I also am in Wyoming at about 6,800-7,000 feet. It took a lot of trial and error but I used this recipe as a base and have a beautiful white cake recipe now. You're welcome to email me and I can send it to you or I can try to remember to post it here when I get home. dasie_760@yahoo.com

-aletha?

Thanks Melissa! Perhaps I'll make one layer and see if it can be sliced into two before I double the recipe. I need 4 layers in the end, but the thought of buying 20 eggs for one cake just kills me :-D

Would this cake be suitable for carving.

I thought I would share my high altitude version of this recipe. I live at about 7,000 ft. In a dry environment. I adapted Melissa's conventional mixing method recipe with a lot of trial and error and with the help of the king Arthur flour's website suggestions for those baking at high altitudes. Hope it helps someone ?

325g caster sugar
328g cake flour (I prefer king Arthur flour over softasilk)
6g salt
5g baking powder
6 egg whites
8g vanilla
242g whole milk
102g vegetable oil
141g unsalted butter
14g cake enhancer (sold on King Arthur flour website)

Grease and flour two 8x2 cake tins
Preheat oven to 340 °

Using the exact same ingredients there is a HUGE difference between the conventional mixing method and the reverse creaming method. I find creaming the butter and sugar together first works best for me.

In your mixing bowl add the butter and mix on medium until soft and smooth. Add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the oil and vanilla and blend well.

Next you will need two separate bowls. In bowl #1 sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and cake enhancer. In bowl #2 add the egg whites and milk. You will add the flour mixture in three parts and the milk mixture in two. Mix until just combined. Don't go over medium speed. So it looks something like this:

Flour mix
Milk mix
Flour mix
Milk mix
Flour mix

Do a good scrapping of the bowl and mix one more time until well blended together. You can also do this by hand so you don't over mix your batter.

Pour into prepared cake pans. Bake at 340° for 35-40 minutes. Let cool 10 minutes and turn out. Let cool another 5-10min and in plastic wrap. I have noticed that my cake pulls away a tiny bit from the sides when it is done.

I have doubled this recipe with good results.

I have covered in fondant and it held up well

I do not think it would hold up to heavy carving

Happy baking everyone!! ?

Hi Aletha, Thank you so much for posting high altitude baking instructions. There is nothing like first hand experience. I'm sure this will be helpful and appreciated.