The Perfect White Cake

By BugsandCakes

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups cake flour
• 1 cup milk at room temperature
• 6 large egg whites at room temperature
• 2 teaspoons almond extract
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened but still cool

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from iambaker.net

Preparation

Step 1

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans.

Make sure milk and eggs are room temperature.

Pour milk (I used skim) , egg whites, and extracts into medium bowl and mix with fork until blended.

Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter, cut into cubes and continue beating on low for about 1-2 minutes.

Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to flour mixture and beat at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat for about 1 minute.

Pour batter evenly between two prepared cake pans.

add a comment...

Heather

Beautiful cake! I’m interested in trying it, since I usually think cake mixes make better cakes than homemade. :-O

I know what Heather means. I find mix cakes tend to be much more moist than homemade, particularly white cake mixes.

I’ll be trying this soon! I have always been a modified-box baker, but with the big push for less processed foods, I want to learn scratch. But the few I’ve tried weren’t very good. Thanks for sharing! I wonder if you can replace both extracts with another one for a different flavor. Hmm, I may have to try that at some point too.

Lovely – I have a go to white wedding cake recipe that I love. I may have to try this one just to shake things up some

Perfection! I can’t wait to make this cake!

Oh yay Amanda!!! I hear you on the white cake. There is something about it that DOES make it so hard making it at home & NOT from a box. But oh my gosh- there are times when I simply must have some. I’m glad you posted this. My mom has made cakes professionally for most of my life & I know that white cake is the one thing she still struggles with. She has never been able to give me a perfect recipe for it- so I am looking forward to trying this one.

Woah. This cake looks AMAZING. And I have to say that I’m with you on the whole bakery white cake thing. I’ve only had success that comes a little close to the store-bought version when I make an oil cake instead of a butter cake – the texture is right but the flavor isn’t always. I can’t wait to try this version! LOVE that shot of the single piece…

Heather

I am so glad you *bolded* the at room temperature directions. No use in creaming all that delightful butter and sugar together only to pour in 40F milk and have it all seize up again. All ingredients at room temp assure easier incorporation and the highest rise possible.

I’m a big fan of Duncan Hines French Vanilla cake mix……..but I’d LOVE to give this a try – sound so delicious!

This is funny because just this morning I was thinking about some cupcakes that I want to make, but my white cakes never turn out right. And then I saw this! I might have to give it a try. I love how you decorated this cake, too. So pretty!

I’ve always liked your white “cake mix” recipe, but now I’ll need to try this. My sister makes a pretty good white cake, too. Thanks, Amanda, for sharing. And that frosting job and that color are really cool!

This cake is gorgeous! Do you think this would make good cupcakes?

I have found this recipe to be too soft and tender for cupcakes – they tend to fall apart when you try to eat them! If you use 4 whole eggs in place of the whites, with the exact same mixing method, you get fantastic cupcakes with enough structure from the yolks to hold them together, but still super light and fluffy.

I found Cook’s Illustrated’s recipe for white cake about a hear ago, and it is definitely the best ever! I live at high altitude, though, and found that I needed to modify it for that. Adding 1 egg yolk and reducing baking powder to 1 tablespoon did the trick (after trying to adjust every other aspect unsuccessfully). So, if you have readers interested in a high altitude modification, that’s it!

I love the look of the cake and I imagine it could be adapted to make a lovely rainbow cake as well.

What if you want to make a larger cake like 12 in. or 14 in?

French Whisk

I can’t believe how perfect the timing was for this recipe to pop up on my news feed! I have been searching and searching for a fluffy, moist, and tender white cake and needed one right away. I nearly settled for the whiteout cake by the boys at baked but I’m so glad I trusted my gut and went with this one! It really is the perfect white cake! And I’ve tried many recipes so that’s saying a lot. Thank you, amanda! <3

I have been looking for a white cake recipe for my mother for ages. She’s not a sweets person (I know!) and her absolute favorite is boxed white cake. I try to make everything from scratch and have tested at least a dozen white cake recipes that she’s deemed, “too sweet.” Two questions for you – would you consider this a sweet cake? Can you taste the almond extract? I love the amaretto flavor but I’m sure my mom would find a reason to complain if she could taste it.

With the size of cake mix boxes shrinking and modified recipes from the manufacturers, this homemade from scratch will be so much better. Thanks for posting!

Make a lemon curd.

Hey I just made you amazing white cake and was dissapointed. I think I did something wrong! It was VERY dense. It baked well but was more like a pound cake and more suitable for carving. From you description I was thinking it would be a bit more fluffy—do you have any idea what I could have done wrong? I am pretty sure I followed the recipe to a tee… =-)

I am wondering if I could add lemon zest and juice to make it into a lemon cake? Thoughts?

Used this to make vanilla cupcakes, I switched out the extract for vanilla, cut it in half and added half a vanilla bean (I halved the whole recipe, or I would have used a whole) It’s AMAZING! I was surprised it was so good without creaming the butter and sugar or whipping the whites and no yolks, but it’s perfect for perfume-y vanilla. Little dry but I think some buttercream will fix that

You can replace it with vanilla or any other extract that suits you. I love using orange, coconut, or lemon extract.

Rum or maple extracts are some other options. You may need to increase how many teaspoons you use of these other extracts to get a noticeable flavor, though. If you want to do orange or lemon, adding some zest would help increase the flavor. Almond extract packs more of a punch than most.

You know what would be really tasty (though a bit exotic), is rosewater. For rosewater, I would replace some of the milk with it (up to 1/4 cup) and maybe add cardamom powder (maybe a Tablespoon.) That sort of flavoring for cake is a popular Persian dessert. It probably would work well, but I haven’t actually tested it with this recipe.

Absolutely gorgeous cake from the frosting to the fluffy white interior. I love the frosting technique, too. I am always at a loss for ideas when it comes to decorating. I know about 3 tricks, and I just refer back to them each and every time.

I just baked this recipe, (cooks illustrated) added jimmies to do the confetti version. My cake totally sank in the center. It is still usable, I will just fill with swiss meringue buttercream. I googled the problem, seems common with white cake. Do you have any idea why this happened. (it was baked all the way) Thank you.

I just made this white cake and i just have to say it turned out fantastic. Here in Greece we have no white cake box mix and no cake flour

Why did you choose to use an 8 in round pan? What difference did it make? Is the cake taller (rise more) with an 8 in round pan? What did you mean you were unsuccessful when you didn’t increase the time using the 8 in pan; was the cake not done?

Amanda, could you please tell me what tip you used to make the sides. Thanks so much

I made this cake for mothersday yesterday, I liked it but I agree with two of the comments above, my cake was not light& fluffy, it was more of a spongecake consistancy. Followed exactly as recipe said, but not sure how to change anything as I did like how it rose and overall a delicious cake. Will definitely make again

I want to make this as cupcakes how would I adjust the baking time?

If i used the amount of batter the recipe calls for to make cupcakes, do you think that there would be too many?

this cake was just so moist and delicious, this has to be by far the best white cake i’ve tasted from scratch. the only thing is that i’m not and almond extract fan so the next time i make this i will be using all vanilla.

Amanda, Did you refrigerate your icing before piping – to help “set up”? If so, for how long? Did you refrigerate cake after you placed icing? What tool did you use for piping the icing? The swirls are so pretty. Can you offer a beginner tutorial? My daughter asked for a vanilla cake for her birthday and this looks so stunning and sounds equally delicious that I know she’ll be thrilled! Awaiting your responses! Thanks. S <

I would love the answer to Sheryl’s question as well as I am making my daughter’s first birthday cake in the hot month of July. I plan on baking the cake in advance. Freezing it, then slice into layers, add in the icing layer and crumb icing layer then re-freeze. Defrost the day before ice and decorate the cake and then put back in the fridge only to pull out the cake a few hours before the party. Does that sound like a good plan?

I need to make cupcakes, what would the time and/or temperature alteration be for them? Thank you!!!!

If you want a moister cake decrease your sugar slightly and add more fat.

I’m going to try to make this. Before I do, I was just wondering what type of milk you use. We have almond milk in the house. Do I need to buy some full fat milk? Also, can raw sugar be used in place of the granulated? I just want to make sure. Thanks.

I used 2 TBS extra of milk, I forgot to add the sugar with the dry ingredients and remembered

during the last portion of mixing! I added it mixed a little folded the mix to finish and used a

cake turned out amazing and delicious! Light, moist and fluffy! A definite winner! I wished I could post

The only thing about this cake is it is super dry. You need to use invert sugar when you make cakes to keep their moistness.

I need to make a giant American Flag cake. How do I need to adjust the recipe for a rectangular cake?

Hi!! If I wanted to make this cake in a 12×18 cake pan, would I just use the recipe as is? Or would I need to double it?

Question: Should I use the whisk or paddle attachment on the mixer? I also have a paddle attachment that has flaps that scrape the sides of the bowl. Thank you in advance! I’m really excited to try this recipe and I just want to make sure I don’t accidentally overmix the batter.

I made this cake and it was delicious!! I am making my parents 50th anniversary cake and would love to make this one! I need to make a 2 tier cake with a 2 layer 8 inch on top of a 2 layer 12 inch. 1 recipe makes the 2 – 8 inch cakes, but is it a guessing game as to how many recipes it would take to make 1 – 12 inch? I am not a professional baker but I do bake a lot and love it, just have not had professional “lessons”. Can you give me some tips?

First of all I would like to say I have made this cake for 4 different occasions and it is a hit Great Cake but I have made a few changes to it to make it a little denser, I have used 4 whole eggs, 1/2 cup milk with 1/2 cup sour cream and add 1 small box of pudding (making sculpted cakes) have had good luck but now all the sudden it is caving in, in the middle what am I doing wrong. Please help

Hi Amanda, when you refer to butter as a ‘stick’ of butter, how much is that in weight and cake flour is self raising flour? I am planning on using this mix for a rainbow cake ..

I have been looking for a scratch white cake mix. I never could find one that tasted good and looked good at the same time. My “invention” was to use a Duncan Hines white cake mix, prepare as directed, then add 1c All purpose flour and 1T almond extract. Tasted great!!

This was seriously the BEST recipe ever. I used it to make rainbow cupcakes for my little cousin, and everyone loved it! It was extremely fluffy and the texture was great!

Oh, I am so excited! I am making this for my sons first birthday, and since it is a WHITE cake, it colors beautifully! I colored it blue, green and teal and did it rainbow style. The cake will be covered in fondant and decorated. I used the rest (I only did one layer) to make cupcakes, and will make minion cupcakes! So far it seems like a wonderful recipe, I can’t wait to taste it!

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