This moist vanilla bean cake is my butter-based cake batter flavored with wonderful vanilla bean paste. Delicious on its own and can also be accompanied with many different fillings and frostings. Today, I make it a naked cake so the rich vanilla flavor can shine through.
About
The batter is a classic butter-based vanilla cake batter made with eggs, white sugar and all-purpose flour using the creaming method. A surprisingly simple and easy recipe to make from start to finish.
To keep it classic and bring the vanilla flavor out, I decided to use as little frosting as possible, keeping it naked. This is my vanilla buttercream frosting, which is very popular because it's easy and simple to make.
Having said that, you can try many different frosting options I have here on the blog such as:
Swiss or Italian Meringue Buttercream
French or German Buttercream Frosting
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.
I have over 30 plus frosting recipes on this blog. And I highly recommend checking them out.
Ingredients and Substitutes
- All-purpose flour - Yes, regular all-purpose flour works great. No need to look for anything else. And if you have only self-raising flour on hand use it but reduce the baking powder by half.
- Unsalted butter - I always use unsalted so I can control the amount of salt. And yet, if salted butter is all you have, use it and omit salt in the recipe.
- Sugar - I'm using white sugar so I can have a white cake. It's always best to use fine-grain white sugar, so it dissolves easily in the butter.
- Buttermilk - If you don't buttermilk on hand, don't worry. It takes just 5 minutes to make homemade buttermilk for baking.
- Vanilla bean paste - A good quality vanilla is very important especially in a vanilla cake. I'm using vanilla bean paste, but you can use vanilla bean scrapings as well as a good quality vanilla extract.
Step by step instructions (Save/Pin)
- Preheat the oven at 160 C / 320 F.
- Grease and line three 7-inch baking pans or two 9-inch baking pans.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time.
- Followed by the vanilla bean paste.
- Lastly, add the flour and buttermilk in three batches.
- Scrape the sides and bottom to ensure you have a smooth batter.
- Divide the batter between the prepared baking pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
- When done, cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely before decorating.
Assemble the cake
- Prepare simple syrup – cool completely before using.
- Once cooled, cut the domes off the cake layers using a bread knife.
- Brush each layer with the cooled, simple syrup.
- Place a cake layer on the cake board or cake stand.
- Top with a big dollop of buttercream – spread evenly with a straight-edged spatula.
- Then, top the second cake layer on top followed by buttercream and the last cake.
- Place the cake in the fridge if necessary, so the layers hold together.
- Spread more buttercream around and top of the cake.
- Use a bench scraper to smooth the sides of the cake and an offset spatula to smooth the top.
- Remove as much of the frosting, so the cake is barely coated but the naked cake can still be seen through.
- Decorate with strawberries or similar garnish.
Frequently asked questions
If stored properly, this cake will last for 2 to 3 days at room temperature. It can also be kept in the fridge for up to 5 or 6 days.
Yes. Freeze it on a tray for a few hours. Then, wrap well in cling/plastic wrap, followed by a parchment paper and then aluminum foil. Thaw wrapped in the fridge for 24 hours so the condensation will stay on the papers, not the cake.
No, this recipe works best with eggs. But, you can use my Eggless Vanilla Cake or Eggless Chocolate Cake to make a birthday cake.
Yes, you can. But brown sugar is more coarse, so make sure to cream it well. Having said that, brown sugar will also add a caramel color and molasses flavor to the vanilla cake.
I have not tried this recipe with either almond or coconut flour, but I do have a gluten-free chocolate cake recipe that is very popular.
If you don't want to make a layer cake like this, you can make this into a sheet cake - a 'Vanilla Bean Sheet Cake'.
You can also pour the batter into a well-greased and dusted bundt pan for a 'Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake'.
This recipe can also be baked into 36 beautiful cupcakes.
I have many chocolate cake recipes for you to try:
One bowl chocolate cake, Devil's food chocolate cake, Chocolate Fudge Cake, Death by chocolate cake, Classic, chocolate cake, chocolate birthday cake, chocolate ganache cake, chocolate mud cake, Simple Moist Chocolate Cake chocolate chiffon cake, Chocolate cake with whipped cream
Gluten-free Chocolate Cake.
This is a fairly simple recipe, and yet, I do have a one-bowl recipe decorated as a naked-cake as well. Perhaps you can try using that recipe as a base.
Yes, you can whip the eggs separately to make the cake light and fluffy just as I have done in my recipe for light and fluffy vanilla cake.
Yes, I've decorated this cake with fondant on many occasions.
Yes, this is a butter-based cake and works beautifully in tiered wedding cakes.
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Description
Ingredients
Cake
- 4 cups (500 g) All-purpose flour
- 2 ¼ cups (450 g) White sugar
- 14 oz (400 g) Butter (3 ½ sticks) unsalted
- 4 Eggs large
- 2 tsp Baking powder
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 ½ cup (360 ml) Buttermilk
- 2 tsp Vanilla bean paste
Vanilla buttercream
- 8 oz (227 g) Butter (2 sticks) unsalted, room temperature
- 3 ½ cups (420 g) Powdered sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (60 ml) Whipping cream (4 tbsp)or more for consistency
Plus
- ½ cup (120 ml) Simple syrup
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven at 160 C / 320 F.
- Grease and line three 7-inch baking pans or two 9-inch baking pans.
- Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time.
- Followed by the vanilla bean paste.
- Lastly, add the flour and buttermilk in three batches.
- Scrape the sides and bottom to ensure you have a smooth batter.
- Divide the batter between the prepared baking pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
- When done, cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Invert onto a cooling rack and cool completely before decorating.
Buttercream
- Cream butter and powdered sugar until well combined
- Add the cream and vanilla and whip some more until light and airy - at least 2 to 3 minutes
Assemble
- Prepare simple syrup – cool completely before using.
- Once cooled, cut the domes off the cake layers with a bread knife.
- Brush each layer with the cooled, simple syrup.
- Place a cake layer on the cake board or cake stand.
- Top with a big dollop of buttercream – spread evenly with a straight-edge spatula
- Then, top the second cake layer on top followed by buttercream and the last cake.
- Place the cake in the fridge if necessary, so the layers hold together.
- Spread more buttercream around and top of the cake.
- Use a bench scraper to smooth the sides of the cake and an offset spatula to smooth the top.
- Remove as much of the frosting, so the cake is barely coated but the naked cake can still be seen through.
- Decorate with strawberries or similar garnish.
Recipe Notes
Equipment
Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
Jody
I made this using two 8 inch by 3 inch round pans. Took an hour in the oven. I accidentally mixed the sugar with the other dry ingredients rather than beating with butter. It came out really dense and a bit dry. If it wasn't for the caramel buttercream frosting I used, it would not have been good at all.
Veena Azmanov
Jody, creaming the butter and sugar is a very important step. It dissolved the sugar in the butter and also aerates it. I'm sorry it turned out dry. Happy the caramel buttercream saved the day