One Bowl Vanilla Cake Recipe from Scratch
This one bowl vanilla cake recipe is a simple, easy and effortless recipe and ideal when you need a quick and easy cake. It’s baked from scratch and taste delicious on its own. Works as a great tea time treat, frost it for a quick dessert or decorate to create a celebration cake. Add flavor or fillings to create more variations of this classic.
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Baking a Cake from Scratch
Yes, this is one more addition to my baking from scratch series. By now you know I’m on a mission to get everyone to bake from scratch not just because it’s always better but because it’s so EASY!!
Here’s more of my ONE BOWL RECIPES for you. This is a vanilla and it’s pretty much the basic formula that works every single time.
One Bowl Vanilla Cake Recipe, Vanilla Cake, Best Vanilla Cake Recipe, Easy Vanilla Cake,
The Key to Success with one bowl baking
As I say in the other one bowl baking recipes – The key success of baking a one bowl recipe is the temperature of your ingredients.
- All ingredients must be at room temperature.
- If your butter is cold – it will not cream well and leave you with small butter pebbles which will bake unevenly in the cake.
- If the eggs are cold it will curdle the warm butter. So if everything is room temperature, it mixes into a smooth batter which is exactly what we want.
Let’s talk ingredients and substitutes (Save/Pin)
- All-Purpose flour – this is a simple recipe and works really well with regular pain flour or all-purpose. No need to go looking for cake flour or pastry flour.
- Butter – this is a butter based cake and is absolutely delicious. You can also substitute with margarine in equal amounts as well. If you want, you can use about 225 grams of vegetable shortening instead of 200 grams of butter.
- Sugar – since this is a one bowl recipe, you want to use a fine grain sugar that will cream into the butter easily.
- Eggs – You do need to use eggs in the recipe. If you can’t use eggs you can use my eggless vanilla cake recipe instead.
- Vanilla – I really like to use pure vanilla bean paste for my vanilla cakes. You can use store bought of homemade vanilla extract, bean paste or even substitute the sugar with vanilla sugar.
Recipe – One Bowl Vanilla Cake (Save/Pin)
Useful Tips and Tools
- If you bake often, it would be a good idea to invest in a cake mixer. Because often we try to mix by hand and then we are too tired to give it enough creaming or mixing. So, if you are making this cake go ahead and remove that K-Mix or Kitchen Aid from your kitchen cabinet.You don’t have to buy an expensive stand mixer, a simple hand mixer works great too.
- Having said that, a simple Bowl, whisk and Spatula with a little extra effort will do the trick too.
- Personally, I believe in weighing ingredients by weight, which makes my kitchen scaleone of the most valuable items when baking.
- The same goes for mymeasuring cups and measuring spoons. It’s always a good idea to have these handy and use them when baking rather than trying to guess measurements.
- I think one set of baking pans is a must for anyone a home baker. Personally, I like to bake three layers rather than torte my cakes and it bakes faster too. For most of my layer cake recipes on this blog I use 3 x 6-inch round pans or 2 x 8-inch round pans.
- Once baked always invert your cakes on a cooling rack. This encourages air circulation and prevents the steam from pooling at the bottom of the pan.
- Every oven works differently. So the baking times are just guidelines. In the case of cakes, a skewer inserted in the center is a great indication. If the cake bakes too quick or too slow compared to the time given it might be a good idea to check if your oven needs calibration. An oven thermometer is a great little gadget to help keep the oven temperature in check. All you need to do then is adjust the temperature accordingly
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Ingredients
For the Cake
- Unsalted butter – 170 grams (1 1/2 sticks)
- White granulated sugar – 200 grams (1 cup)
- Eggs- 3 large
- All-purpose flour – 220 grams
- Baking powder – 1 1/2 tsp
- Salt – 1/2 tsp
- Milk – 60 ml (1/2 cup)
- Vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste – 1 tsp
Frosting
- 60 ml (1/4) cup simple syrup
- I’ve used my Vanilla Buttercream Recipe but you can choose any from this list here
30 Plus Homemade Buttercream Frosting Recipes
Need a buttercream recipe in 5 minutes? Have a buttercream related question? Wondering what buttercream to use for your cake? It's all here in one place. 30 plus homemade buttercream frosting recipes for you to explore. With recipes, tips, trick, and troubleshooting, as well as popular questions, answered.
Method
For the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 160 C/ 320 F.
- Greece and line two or three 6 inch round baking pan.
- Measure all ingredient into a large bowl.
- Mix well with a whisk until well incorporated and no lumps.
- Pour into your prepared baking pans.
- Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes on the center rack or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Once baked let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then on to a rack to cool completely.
To Decorate
- Brush layers with simple syrup
- Use a spatula to frost the cake.
- Pipe any leftover frosting if desired.
- For a naked look – scrape off as much frosting off the sides of the cake.
- Decorate with seasonal fruits – we had cherries in season.
Don’t forget to save this recipe on Pinterest for later.
You can find a collection of my tutorials and recipes here on Pinterest.
One Bowl Vanilla Cake Recipe, Vanilla Cake, Best Vanilla Cake Recipe, Easy Vanilla Cake,
10 Tips to Successfully Baking a Cake from Scratch (Recipe included)
Learn how to bake a cake from scratch every single time with these 10 tips, step-by-step progress pictures, video tutorial, and more than 50 cake recipes. Understand cake ingredients and how they work before you can use them to get the best results with desired outcomes. This article is going to make you a better baker.
One Bowl Vanilla Cake Recipe
This one bowl vanilla cake recipe is a simple, easy and effortless recipe and ideal when you need a quick and easy cake. It's baked from scratch and taste delicious on its own. Works as a great tea time treat, frost it for a quick dessert or decorate to create a celebration cake. Add flavor or fillings to create more variations of this classic.
Print Pin Rate Adjust Servings Here: 12 servings
Calories: 295kcal
Prep Time: 7 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 37 mins
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 170 grams Unsalted butter
- 200 grams White granulated sugar
- 3 Eggs large
- 220 grams All-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 60 ml Milk
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
Choose from any one of these buttercream recipes
- 2 cups Vanilla buttercream frosting
- 30 plus Buttercream recipes
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat the oven to 160 C/ 320 F.
- Greece and line two or three 6 inch round baking pan.
- Measure all ingredient into a large bowl
- Mix well with a whisk until well incorporated and no lumps
- Pour into your prepared baking pans
- Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes on the center rack or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Once baked let cool in the pan for 5 minutes then on to a rack to cool completely
To Decorate
- Brush layers with simple syrup
- Use a spatula to frost the cake.
- Pipe any leftover frosting if desired.
- For a naked look - scrape off as much frosting off the sides of the cake.
- Decorate with seasonal fruits - we had cherries in season
Recipe Video
About Videos - most recipes has two videos - a quick version in the post & longer detailed version on this recipe card above (YouTube embed) Subscribe to my YouTube Channel Veena Azmanov
Nutrition Information
Serving: 78g | Calories: 295kcal | Carbohydrates: 36.4g | Protein: 3.1g | Fat: 15.6g | Saturated Fat: 9.5g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5.5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0g | Trans Fat: 0.6g | Cholesterol: 74mg | Sodium: 94mg | Potassium: 0mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 25.4g | Vitamin A: 0% | Vitamin C: 0% | Calcium: 0% | Iron: 0%
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
Tried this recipe?Mention @veenaazmanov or tag #veenaazmanov!
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maryam yousaf
Hi Veena!
I am looking for a moist cake recipe from long time which goes perfectly under fondant cakes and stay moist after referigerating. please guide me is this recipe suitable. Thanks
Veena Azmanov
Hey Maryam. Sorry for the delay in replying. Just found the message in the spam folder (not sure why)
Most of my cakes are good for fondant unless I state otherwise. This is a one-bowl but winning recipe that works perfectly every single time. I have a chocolate version too and both these will work for fondant covering too.
Louise Beske
Sorry i am confused, sugar-1 cup = 200 grams then it says flour 2 cups = 220 grams. I dont understand how 220 grams is 2 cups? I am new to baking ao sorry if i am wrong.
Veena Azmanov
Hey Louise.. yes, it sounds weird but it’s true – Sugar weight more than flour so 1 cup sugar is 200 grams and since flour is lighter than sugar its volume in weight is more so 2 cups four is just over 200 grams – Here’s a little more explanation – How to measure ingredients for baking
Julia
It’s interesting that the cake is baked at the lower temperature than 350F. I usually bake my cakes at 350 or 375F. I haven’t tried lowering the temperature? What does it do? Does it change the texture somehow? I think my oven would take longer than 30-40 minutes though. For some reason everything takes a lot longer to cook in my oven.
Veena Azmanov
Julia.. almost all my cakes are baked at 160 C or 320 F – that way they do not bake too fast with a huge dome. Nor do the sides bake with a hard crust. Try it. Mine is a conventional fan assisted oven.
Gloria @ Homemade & Yummy
My grandson LOVES vanilla cake. I just might make this for his birthday. Adding some funfetti…he will love it for sure.
Veena Azmanov
Oh that does work great too! I make that sometimes for the kids and they love it.
Sarah @ The Fit Cookie
This looks like such a nice cake for Spring! I bet this would make a great cake for Mother’s Day 🙂
Veena Azmanov
It definitely would be perfect for any celebration.
Melissa
Yum! Sounds so simple, but I bet it is delicious! Good tip on the room temperature. I sometimes rush it when in a hurry and things are still cold and it does not turn out!
Veena Azmanov
Thanks Melissa
Shikha Nahar
Hi I want egg less vanilla cske