Moist Yellow Cake Recipe (Old Fashioned)
Why does yellow cakes give folks such a hard time? It’s one of those cakes that if you find a great yellow cake recipe, you stick with it! I’ve been testing out yellow cake recipes off and on for awhile now.
The problem with homemade yellow cake is:
1.) It’s hard to find a from scratch yellow cake recipe that has the texture of a fluffy box yellow cake but that buttery, homemade taste of a scratch-made yellow cake. I can’t tell you how many dry, crumbly and/or eggy tasting yellow cakes I’ve had in the past.
2.) Um…I can’t think of anything else right now.
I’m here to tell you that YES YOU CAN have a scratch made fluffy, moist, yellow cake with a beautiful crumb texture. YES YOU CAN have that classic buttery-vanilla taste of a homemade yellow cake WITH simple ingredients. YES. YOU.CAN!!! YES. YOU. CAN!!! Sorry I’m literally sitting on the couch watching Nutty Professor while I write this blog post. Remember that part?
Anyways, I’ve been fortunate to come across some really good yellow cake recipes, but something in me just can’t seem to stop searching, kinda like with macaroni and cheese. Never satisfied even when you’re satisfied. Well today I want to share the homemade yellow cake recipe I’ve been making for years.
It’s that classic, old fashioned yellow cake recipe with simple pure ingredients. No butter flavored shortening (which I normally put in cakes) or sour cream or yogurt (which I also love to put in cakes). It’s the kind of yellow cake I grew up eating, with homemade chocolate butter cream frosting, sprinkles and candles (yes yellow cake taste best with candles. I don’t know why but it just does!)
This yellow cake recipe is the stuff old school birthdays were made of. You know, when most moms actually made every birthday cake from scratch. Wait, am I telling my age?? I digress…
This yellow cake recipe bakes up super moist, fluffy and velvety soft without the eggy taste that really irks me. My grandmother occasionally adds in butter flavoring to take the buttery taste over the edge, but I never seem to have that stuff on hand so I don’t add it in. I think it taste great without it. Although, if you really like the taste of boxed yellow cake, you may want to add that butter-flavored extract to replicate the taste.
Watch me make this moist, homemade yellow cake from start to finish!
Get the Recipe: Fluffy, Moist Homemade Yellow Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened, room temperature (do not microwave)
- 2 cups white sugar
- 2 eggs, separated, room temperature
- 3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325. F.
- Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar.
- Add in egg yolks and vanilla, mixing until fully incorporated. Set aside.
- In a seperate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.
- Gradually add dry ingredients into wet ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk.
- Mix until batter is fluffy but be careful not to over mix.
- Beat egg whites until stiff and thick. (holds a nice peak)
- Very gently fold egg whites into batter and mix JUST until incorporated.
- Pour batter into prepared pans and spread into even layers.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let cake cool in pans until pans are warm to the touch.
- Carefully remove cakes from pan and place on a cooling rack to finish cooling.
- When cakes are completely cooled frost with chocolate buttercream frosting.
Video
Did This Yellow Cake Sink In the Middle?
*NOTE** Hey guys!! I see ya down there in the comments section (waving) and I see this cake is giving a lot of you a hard time with sinking in the middle (so sorry). Yellow cakes are notorious for giving folks a hard time and I was so sure this one would be a breeze for everyone. Ok let’s look into this.
I’ve tried to troubleshoot this cake so many times to see what could be causing the sinking but it comes out great for me each time. Go figure! I thought about removing the recipe and adding another in it’s place but so many have equally told me that it’s the best yellow cake recipe they’ve ever had.
It really is a GREAT cake and I’d love for you to experience it so I’ve listed some tips below that may help. Meanwhile I’ll also post my grandmothers yellow cake recipe as well (although I prefer this one).
What causes a yellow cake to sink in the middle:
1.) BEAT EGG WHITES CORRECTLY AND GENTLY FOLD THEM IN THOROUGHLY. I’m not yelling at you, I just want you to understand the importance of beating those whites until they are thick AND gently folding them in completely. It’s crucial for any cake that requires this method. If not, it could cause the cake to sink in the middle.
2.) Fresh baking powder. Make sure your baking powder is not expired. No seriously go check right now, you might be surprised.
3.) Don’t open the oven while the cake it cooking. Use the oven light if you want to peek at the cake.
4.) Don’t overbeat. Once you add in the flour be very careful about mixing to long. You just want the flour incorporated. I think this is the main reason cakes tend to sink.
5.) Increase baking time. If your cake looks like it’s still uncooked in the center let it cook a bit longer until the top springs back when touched. Keep a close eye on it.
Hello Diva Monique,
And Happy Easter!
I just found your amazing blog after eating 2 forkfuls of a Boston Cream “pie” that is awful. I followed the recipe and the yellow cake was crumbly and dry, the custard runny (the cake soaked up all the custard and was still dry!); the icing/ganache was good. But the problem was that thick crumbly yellow cake, and, yes, I grew up on it too (but the stuff we ate was dry and crumbly!).
I am going to follow your recipe, along with a separate custard one — for the 4th of July cake. It looks just great! And I love the sight of that little baby foot in the video while you bake!
I’m giving a 5-star rating for this recipe on sight alone — because I have cooked many a cake from scratch while home schooling and reading makeup blogs and entertaining on short notice! The buttermilk makes the difference!
Why would you ever review a recipe you haven’t tried? The whole point is too give cooks a reference to the results achieved from cooking the recipe. Thus just throws the whole thing off.
Thanks for sharing that story I guess.
My cake sunk. Disappointed.. I literally followed the directions perfectly.
This is the best cake I’ve ever had. I’ve made it several times. Mine has sank in the middle but I increased my bake time to 350 and left my cake in for 30-35 min. For cupcakes, I do 20 min. Mine is usually a light even brown all over but it’s impossible to bake it too long because it’s so moist. Love it
I am so excited to try this recipe and I will be trying it today. I see you used cake flour instead of regular flour. Do you think that it will change the consistency if I use regular flour. Thank you.
I went right by the instructions carefully especially because of the comments. It’s was a disaster. All the expense and planning on decorating it for Easter. Very upset. I am very cautious with getting my cakes done correctly. I have been wanting a good yellow cake and I don’t use cake mixes, however for this decorating I wish I had. It’s Easter morning almost ready for grand children to decorate. But don’t have a cake now. Just a lot of expense.
I think the recipe has too much butter making it too greasy. Maybe just 1/2 cup of butter. That would be one stick of butter. I think the cake might would do better. Also it might work better in an 8 inch wit two inch deep pan. No cake can rise and not sink w that much butter. Unless it’s a pound cake.
I don’t think we can eat it. So sad. My cakes r important to me. I take a lot of pride in my baking. I suggest removing this recipe.
I’m so sorry to hear that hun! This is the one recipe on my blog that seems to give people the most trouble. For that reason I’ve seriously considered removing it but so many people have also told me it was their go-to yellow cake recipe. I love it as well. I’d hate to remove it altogether. I’ve tried to troubleshoot this cake so many times to see what could be causing it to sink. It comes out great for me and I’d love for everyone to experience this cake when it behaves right. I’ve decided the best way to do this is to do a real time video so that you guys can see every single detail. I’d never want anyone to waste ingredients or get less than perfect results which is why I only post recipes that I’ve made multiple times and have tweaked. I will post the real time video very soon! I think this may help! Thanks for taking the time to leave me a comment.
Hi Monique,
Is it possible to list the dry ingredients in grams as well? The following are the weights I used:
– 1 cup unsalted butter: 226g
– 2 cups white sugar: 400g
– 2 cups cake flour: 240g
– 1 tsp baking powder: 3g
Are they accurate? Secondly, is this a flat/short cake? On the two occasions I baked this recipe, the cakes were about 2 inches tall.
Please let us know when you post new video. I have made this cake probably 20 times. One time it was amazing. The other times just okay. Can’t figure out the reason. Delicious taste but would like to get that fluffy light texture I got once so far. Please give us more precise details on how long to cream butter and sugar etc. maybe that would help. Thanks!
I searched forever for a homemade yellow cake recipe. I tried recipe after recipe that had good reviews and I always hated the results. They would come out dense and flavorless. I saw this recipe and it look different from all the rest so I figured I would give it a try. I FINALLY FOUND A RECIPE I LOVE! Thank you so much! I can not express how much it means to me to have this recipe. I gave up on finding a cake recipe and went back to box cakes for about a year. I can happily serve this cake to friends and family now and know that I made it from scratch and it tastes great.