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This is the BEST Basic Yellow Cake Recipe! It’s perfect for a layer cake, a sheet cake or cupcakes! This easy cake recipe is homemade – you’ll never need to buy a box cake mix again. If you’re looking for a classic yellow cake recipe, you’ve found it!
Homemade Yellow Cake Recipe for cake or cupcakes!
Have you ever wanted to find a recipe for cake that also works for cupcakes? Well, look no further, because this is it! I got so tired of trying to find a yellow cake that was an all-purpose cake recipe, that I decided to create my own.
I wanted to come up with one that would work cupcakes and cake. I needed a recipe with a texture that is moist, light and airy, and wouldn’t make me miss my good old standby, the box mix. And guess what? THIS is the recipe I was looking for – and you have been too:
- It makes an 8-inch or 9-inch layer cake, 24 cupcakes or a sheet cake
- It holds up to stacking with a tender yet sturdy crumb and tastes like the perfect moist cake you expect from a yellow cake recipe.
If you’re ready to never have to buy a box cake mix again – this is the scratch cake recipe you need in your life!
Important Ingredients Needed
- Melted Butter: Instead of softened, I use melted butter. I find it keeps the cake moister than with softened butter, and it has more flavor than oil.
- Eggs: Eggs give the cake structure and the fat in the yolk keeps the cake moist (and gives it the telltale yellow color).
- Vanilla: For flavor. For even more flavor use vanilla bean paste!
- Baking Powder: Helps the cake rise and be nice and fluffy.
- Buttermilk: I use buttermilk to add a little extra flavor, plus the tang from the buttermilk keeps the cake moist.
- All-Purpose Flour: You’ll notice this recipe has all-purpose flour, not cake flour. I prefer that because it’s easy to come by. Everyone has all-purpose flour in their pantry; not everyone has cake flour.
The main difference between cake flour and all-purpose is protein content: cake flour has about 8% and all-purpose is slightly higher. This makes for a bit denser of a cake (hence the extra baking powder and buttermilk in my recipe).
How to make the Best Yellow Cake Recipe
- Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium bowl.
- Add sugar to melted butter in a large bowl. Mix until smooth.
- Add an egg and mix. Continue mixing on low speed, adding eggs one at a time. You can use a hand mixer or a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.
- Add flour mixture and buttermilk in alternate additions, mixing in between.
- Don’t over mix! Add your cake batter to your desired pan and bake at 350 degrees f.
Frosting Choices
- Vanilla Buttercream Frosting – this is my favorite way to decorate this cake! I’m a vanilla girl at heart.
- Chocolate Buttercream Frosting – the classic birthday cake recipe!
- Cream Cheese Frosting – Who doesn’t love cream cheese icing?
- Peanut Butter Frosting – great for filling with a chocolate outside!
- Fudgy Chocolate Frosting – Another favorite chocolate frosting recipe, along with whipped chocolate ganache.
Tip From Dorothy
Expert Tips
- The buttermilk helps to keep your cake moist, tender, and airy. Although it is possible to make your own buttermilk, I recommend buying it for this recipe, as the homemade version doesn’t always produce the same result.
- If you really can’t find buttermilk, you can substitute with sour cream: 3/4 cup plus 3 tablespoons sour cream and 1 tablespoon plus 1/4 cup milk.
- Be sure not to over bake the cake: a cake is done baking when a toothpick entered in the center comes out clean.
- Cake layers can be baked ahead and covered with plastic wrap for up to 24 hours before frosting, or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Store leftover frosted cake in the fridge.
FAQ about my Yellow Cake Recipe
Yellow cake uses whole eggs, while white cake uses just egg whites. The egg yolks add a richness and color to the batter of a yellow cake recipe.
If you don’t have buttermilk, don’t worry. You can make this cake with ANY kind of milk, as long as you add 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice to the batter. However, I recommend using whole milk or full fat non-dairy milk – the more fat in the liquid the better the cake.
You can substitute vegetable oil for the melted butter. This makes it easy to make dairy-free. I recommend adding a bit of butter extract for flavor, but it’s not required.
I have substituted Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 GF All-Purpose flour in this cake with success.
Basic Yellow Cake Recipe
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 ½ cups (310g) all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 ½ cups (297g) granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups (296) ml buttermilk
For the frosting:
- 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, softened
- 4 cups (452g) powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons (30-45 ml) heavy whipping cream
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare cupcake pans with liners or grease and flour cake pan(s).
- Whisk salt, baking powder, and flour in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
- Using a hand mixer, cream sugar into melted butter until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, then mix in vanilla extract.
- Add dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk, starting and ending with the flour, mixing gently between each addition. Mix until just combined. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl.
- Pour batter into prepared pans and bake as directed. Cool completely before removing and frosting.
- Bake Time: 24 cupcakes: 14-17 minutes // Two 9-inch round pans: 24-27 minutes // Two 8-inch round pans: 25-33 minutes // 9×13-inch pan: 30-40 minutes
For the frosting:
- Beat butter until smooth with a hand or a stand mixer. Note: if you’re using a hand mixer be sure to use a very large bowl to avoid wearing the powdered sugar.
- Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and beat on medium speed until crumbly. Mix in salt and vanilla.
- Add 1 tablespoon of heavy whipping cream at a time, mixing between each addition, until the frosting is smooth and the desirable consistency.
- Frost cake or cupcakes as desired.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
- You can use a 9×13-inch pan, two 8-inch or 9-inch rounds, or make 24 cupcakes.
- This is also great with chocolate frosting!
- Store cake on counter for up to 3 days. Cake can be frozen (with or without frosting) for up to 2 months. Be sure to wrap it well in plastic wrap or an airtight container.
Recipe Nutrition
Reader Favorite Cake Recipes
- Do you love lemon cake? I have the perfect triple lemon cupcake recipe too!
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- Want an easy cake? Try my Oreo Mug Cake!
A Basic Yellow Cake Recipe is perfect to make both cake and cupcakes and is better than a box mix!
Last Updated on February 6, 2024
I love your basic cake recipe! Can I add crushed orios instead of sprinkles? I’m thinking for both cake and butter cream frosting! Thanks!
Yes you can that would be fantastic!
This recipe turned out excellent! I know because husband and young son
were quiet while eating it. LOL ! I will be making this again in the future. It’s a keeper for sure. It seems the more eggs in a cake recipe the better. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It’s now archived in my Pinterest!
Easy to access ingredients and simple recipe! I added flour and an egg, flour then another egg alternately and continued to do the same as directed with the buttermilk, as I was wary of the butter/sugar curdling with that many eggs added. We have home fresh laid eggs that are enormous so I thought I may only need 3 but it turned out perfect with the 4. Beautiful texture and seriously yummy!
This recipe did NOT work. It didn’t rise at all and was extremely greasy and eggy. It smelled (and kind of tasted like) scrambled eggs. I tried to make cake truffles out of it but had to scrap it because it was so bad. I followed the recipe exactly, so hopefully it was just a fluke, but I won’t be using this recipe again.
I’m sorry that happened! That is strange as I’ve made this quite a few times and haven’t had it happen. Two possible reasons for eggy cake: not beating the eggs enough and/or the cake is over baked.
This looks like the recipe I’ve always wanted 😃 I’m going to try it this week! I’m making a fairy castle cake for my daughter. Can this recipe be doubled? Or best to make it a few times?
I would make it twice if it needs doubled 🙂
I used this recipe for my husband’s 69th. Birthday and it turned out perfect! I added the vinegar to whole milk since we didn’t have buttermilk, as you mention about substitutes. I wondered if the recipe would also work with a bundt pan? Thanks for sharing your recipes!
I want to make this today my quest is should the buttermilk and eggs be at room temperature?
It’s good if they are but it’s not required.
This is delicious! And easy! I had a cup of browned butter in my freezer that needed to be used, so I tried this cake with that. Wow, fantastic! Thanks for a great recipe! (I made a 13×9 cake. My oven baked it in exactly 30 min)
So glad you enjoyed it!
I’m excited to try this cake, I will report back!! 🙂
Made this recipe for the first time. Followed the directions to a T. Opted to make cupcakes. Got two dozen out of this recipe. They are delicious! This recipe is a keeper. Thank you for sharing it.
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