Simple White Cake

By Addie

"This cake was sent home from our children's school. It is the simplest, great tasting cake I've ever made. Great to make with the kids, especially for cupcakes."

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

Preparation

Step 1

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x9-inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.
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REVIEWS: (1815)

This cake is fabulous! And it actually tastes just like a really good sugar cookie! I doubled the recipe and used 2 tbsp. of vanilla and 1 & 1/2 cups of milk. This cake is moist, dense and above all delicious! Plus it only took 35 minutes to bake. It was perfect for a cookies n cream cake. I will definitely make this again!

This recipe is SO WONDERFUL! (Be advised that this recipe as it stands is for a 9x9 cake not a 9x13 large cake.) I "taste-tested" it this past weekend to see if it was good enough to use at my daughters B-Day party... and OH MY GOSH everyone loved it! It is a dense cake, so if you are looking for light and fluffy, keep looking. But If you are looking for really good 'wedding cake' type of cake... here it is! I put on the "Buttercream icing" from LISKAGIRL on this site and it was really good combo!! One person said the cake with the frosting tasted almost like a really good sugar cookie! But it was not overpowering sweet. I followed other reviewers and added an extra 1/4 cup of milk. I also beat the heck out of every step. MAKE SURE you beat the sugar and the butter for 8-10 minutes!! BUT IT IS SOOOOO WORTH IT!! I couldn't keep away from it!

This recipe actually deserves 4 1/2 stars. I made it twice in the same night. The first batch was perfect! 5 stars all the way. The batter was rather fluffy. I made it the second time around (I don't think I let the eggs beat as long) The batter was a lot thinner (although both times I added about 1/4 cup of extra milk). After baking, The first batch was fantastic! Great cake, easy to frost. The second time around, however, deserves about 3 stars. As others have said, it had a cornbread type element to it. It was bad, but it was incredibly hard to frost. I made 9x13, 8x11, 9x9, and 4x9-inch sizes of this cake and it cooked well and evenly in every pan. All I can say is, pay very close attention to the directions, sift your ingredients, and let your eggs beat awhile. If your batter looks somewhat like yellowish Cool Whip, you're gonna have a great cake!

This is by far the simplest and tastiest cake recipe I've ever tried. I like to add a bit extra milk which keeps it soft and moist.

I've long ago learned to be skeptical of the results with white cake recipes. They can be dry, tasteless, or have what some call a similarity to cornbread. I wanted a white cake that was moist, sweet and flavorful, without having to resort to a pound cake recipe, which would be heavier. I wanted a light, fluffy cake with a tender crumb. Butter isn't going to necessarily get you that, nor is a shortage of eggs or sugar. In this recipe I was tempted to reduce the amount of flour, and increase the amount of sugar and eggs but decided to leave it alone, especially for the sake of properly accessing this recipe - except for one small change, which probably was an important one. I used half butter for flavor and richness, and half shortening, to help ensure moistness. Cream the shortening and butter very well with the sugar, a good few minutes, add each egg separately and beat well after each addition. I added the WHOLE milk alternately with the flour mixture, beginning and ending with the flour, and mixing lightly, only enough to combine the ingredients. I made cupcakes, and dropped about 1/2 tsp. raspberry jam in the center of the batter before baking. I frosted them with pink buttercream frosting. I tasted one before I frosted them to make an accurate judgment of their quality. Perfect. Moist, yes moist! Tender, flavorful and pleasantly sweet. The failure or success of this recipe is hugely dependent upon proper mixing technique and not over-baking!

I made this twice last week, for both my daughter's birthdays. The first time I followed the recipe exactly, and the cupcakes were a little dry, but still edible. The second time, I upped the vanilla to a full tablespoon and added about 1/8 cup more milk. They came out very moist and delicious!

Yum! I just made cupcakes with this recipe and they're delicious! I don't know why many people said that their cake was dense and dry, mine turned out fluffy and moist and yummy! This is a great recipe as long as you cream the butter til it's VERY fluffy and light, as well as when you add the eggs. I added a touch more milk, but other than that i followed the recipe exactly. It was great, way better that a mix, it's not as sugary and sticky. Thank you for this recipe, it's delicious!


Reviewed on Jan. 25, 2004 by FEEDMENOW
As advertised, it is simple to make and easy to change into whatever is needed for the occasion. We started this one off without changing the recipe and it came out nice. Can't wait to start fiddling with it. It's been a nearly a year and we've changed this up a few times for the better. If you want to stick as close to the recipe try this variation out. Add 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon of butter flavoring and substitute half and half for the milk. If you have a Kithenaid mixer, break out the whip instead of the batter blade. It produces a fluffier batter. Mix it until it puffs up a bit and bake it for the 30-40 mins. We used a 9x9-inch glass pan. Now if you have gotten to the 40 min mark and the center is still a bit liquidy, turn the oven down to 250 and let it sit on the top shelf of oven for an additional 10 mins. It will set up well this way and you don't risk burning the edges of the cake. This cake was gone in 1 setting when my in laws dropped in. We've also mixed strawberry jam into the butter/egg mixture and gotten great results and we've done a chocolate version by making the milk into a cocoa mixture. Next up to try will be spumoni. We love t

This came out PERFECTLY. I added more milk (3/4 cup) per other reviewers' suggestions and I also added some lemon extract and lemon zest to taste. It was the first thing I made in my new Kitchenaid mixer and I was very impressed with the results.

My 14 year old son likes to make this recipe. It is a nice cake with a good texture. We use regular flour, not cake flour, and it turns out fine.

This is really a five star recipe... if these few tips I gathered from the reviews are followed. (This recipe did double well for us.) 1.Do whip the butter and sugar for at least 8 minutes, and beat ingredients well at all stages 2. Aim for a yellow fluffy cool whip type batter texture prior to moving on to adding new ingredients 3. Do add an extra 1/4 cup of milk and increase the amount of vanilla.

I thinks it pretty crazy that 1280 people actually reviewed a baking recipe that doesn't have vanilla extract and salt, the two most crucial ingredients. I think this recipe is great with following changes: 1-2 tsp vanilla, 1/2 tsp salt, increase milk to 3/4 cup and use buttermilk if you have it. Also if you want a lighter texture you really need to use cake flour, if you don't have any make you own by replacing 2 tbsp of cornstarch in 1 cup of all purpose.

This cake was simple to make and is light and fluffy and tastes great. I did not change the recipe and used two 6" greased pans - I will be able to tort and fill each cake to make a nice tall cake! Thanks for the recipe!

Very nice flavor and texture. I made 12 HUGE cupcakes from this batter. As they mushroomed well over the top of the muffin pan, I had a little difficulty getting them out after cooling for a bit. Took the advice of others and added 1/4 cup more milk and 1/4 tsp. more vanilla extract. Will make these again but will try in the 9 x 9-inch pan.

Tried as written....Recipe may be simple, but the taste/texture was amazing! No more store bought cake mixes for this gal!

I baked this recipe today with no changes, and it is perfect!! A few tips... 1.) beat the butter and sugar until FLUFFY this takes about 2 good minutes 2.) add eggs one at a time and make sure its blended well in between. 3.) SIFT the flour and baking powder together 4.) Finally, let the batter mix at med. speed for a good 2 minutes This should give you delicious results every time !

Simple and incredibly tasty! Instead of using vanilla extract I used orange extract (just because that's what I was in the mood for) and it turned out great. I then divided the batter, added about two tablespoons of cocoa powder to one, and layered it to make orange/cocoa cupcakes. Thanks for the great recipe!

This is the best cake I have ever tasted. I typically think of white cake as kind of bland but this was not at all. I was a little worried because the batter had a slight aftertaste but once it was baked it had disappeared. The people that are getting a dense cake must be doing something wrong and I have a feeling I know what it is. They are so afraid of over-mixing the batter that they are under-mixing it. I creamed the butter by itself, then added the sugar a cup at a time(I doubled the recipe), then I added the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each, then I added the rest of the dry ingredients a cup at a time(after mixing them together with a whisk, since I don't have a sifter), and then once I added the milk I mixed it on high for about 3 minutes. When I put the batter in the pan it was almost the same consistency as cool whip. I cooked it for 35 minutes exactly and it was golden brown on top and moist and fluffy on the inside. The finished product was like eating a sugar cookie flavored cloud. The only thing I changed about the recipe was to add an extra 1/4 cup milk like other reviewers suggested. I iced it using a simple buttercream frosting(dyed green for st patrick's day) and it was absolute perfection. My husband loved it as well. He ate his piece in about 30 seconds and is planning on taking some to work tomorrow to share(if it stays in the house I will eat it all lol).