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 â…” cup from a carton of pasteurized egg whites found in the refrigerated section of grocery store)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla
- 1 cup (242g) buttermilk
- â…“ 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
I follow the recipe exactly and have watched your video regarding the reverse creaming method. Sometimes it is successful and other times the cake shrinks so much !! I do not mix for longer than specified. I do not mix above medium speed. I do have a scale and oven thermometer. My leavening is fresh. Can you please tell me what is causing the shrinking to happen ? I hate throwing away all the ingredients after making a cake that isn’t successful and not knowing if this time it will work or not. I really do love the texture of cakes using reverse creaming and would like to get it right !!! Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks !!
What about baking in a 9x13 pan?
Hi Dawn, This recipe makes only 6 cups of batter and you need 7 cups for a 9x13 pan.
If I want to bake a 1/2 sheet cake, can I double the recipe or do I need to make more than a double recipe?
Hi Marie, This recipe makes 6 cups batter. The recipe can be doubled but we have never tripled it so I'm not sure about that. If your sheet pan is 12x18 you will need 14 cups batter.
Below are links to cake batter amounts that you will find helpful.
http://www.wilton.com/cake-serving-guide/cms-baking-serving-guide.html
I want to make 3 cups, so how to measure?
Hi Shakera, This recipe makes 6 cups of batter. If you only want 3 cups, make 1/2 the recipe.
I am looking for white cake with our cream. Can I sub the buttermilk for sour cream?
Hi Paula, Sour cream has a higher fat content than buttermilk, so it is suggested that you use 3/4 cup sour cream and 1/4 cup milk. Full fat sour cream is best.
I made this recipe into cupcakes. They were delicious & stayed moist for a lot longer than most cake recipes. However, the cupcakes did shrink quite a bit. Is there a way to prevent this from happening? I’m not a beginner baker & I followed directions completely. Any advice? Thank you so much! :)
Hello, I think there’s a mistake in the calculation of the sugar. Two and a quarter cups would be close to 285 grams (sugar). I made this recipe with 285 grams of sugar (and by the way, this is THE BEST RECIPE I’VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!!) and it was really good. Did you mean 2 and 1/2 cups of sugar or 2 and 1/4? Thanks
Never mind, I saw online that cake flour is 114g. I was calculating 128g (wrong dry ingredient).