Today on The Stay At Home Chef
I'm showing you how to make the most amazing vanilla cake.
And of course I'm giving you all the tips and tricks along the way so you can achieve bakery perfection at home.
This is the perfect vanilla cake base recipe that you can use with any kind of frosting or filling,
and you can even convert it to different pan sizes very easily.
It's been one of the top recipes on my website for years with hundreds of rave reviews,
and now you can get it in my cookbook, The Stay At Home Chef Family Favorites,
which you can order now.
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
You'll also want to lightly grease two 9-inch round cake pans.
You really just want a light coating, and then we will line the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper.
I'm sticking with two layers and 9-inches today because that's such a standard classic size,
but you can also use this same volume to make 24 cupcakes or a 9x13 pan.
For other cake sizes or cake pans you'll want to consult my website.
We have a little chart there that will help you figure out how much batter you need,
and once you have that figured out you can use the built-in scaling feature to adjust all of the measurements.
When it comes to a vanilla cake you want to make sure that your ingredients are at room temperature.
This will make them blend easier and give you a smoother batter without lumps,
which of course makes for a much better texture for your cake.
Add 1/2 cup of room temperature butter to a large mixing bowl, along with 1/2 cup of vegetable oil which I like to add for moisture.
Butter is great for flavor while oil is great for moisture, so I feel like this combination gives the best of both worlds.
Add in 1 1/2 cups of sugar and then we're gonna cream this together using a hand mixer for about 3 minutes.
Really take your time with this because this will evenly distribute the fat and the sugar which will determine a lot of the final texture of this cake.
3 minutes is the minimum.
The butter will get a little more pale and increase in volume.
You're looking for a smooth and creamy texture.
Once that's combined you'll add in 1 1/2 cups of your room temperature buttermilk,
along with 3 large eggs,
and 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract, use good quality for the best flavor.
from this point forward keep the hand mixer on a low speed and only mix ingredients until they're just combined.
Once combined it's time to add in the dry ingredients, and you have two options here:
You can just put all the dry ingredients in and mix it and you will have a wonderful delicious cake,
but if you want to level up your level of finesse what you'll want to do is combine all of your ingredients and sift them into the batter,
and they say if you sift it 3 times you'll get the best results.
You can use either a fine mesh sieve like this or you can use a sifter.
I actually default to just adding them in without sifting,
but I want to give that extra option for those seeking absolute perfection, because this will more evenly distribute the ingredients in the cake,
and you'll get just a more beautiful smooth cake.
We're using 3 1/2 cups of cake flour.
All-purpose works as well but cake flour is low protein and really finely ground so you do get a softer cake.
You'll also need 4 teaspoons of baking powder for leavening,
and 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
If you used unsalted butter earlier though throw in an extra pinch of salt.
Now sifting does add extra time and dishes so I totally understand if you want to skip it.
Don't worry about it you'll still have a delicious cake.
Mix this on a low speed until just combined,
and of course be sure to stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure that everything gets mixed in.
Divide the batter evenly amongst the prepared pans.
You can eyeball it or use a scale if you're going for perfect accuracy.
Spread it around to cover the bottom and reach the edges.
If you're worried about bubbles in the batter you can give the pans several good taps on the counter to eliminate air pockets,
and bring those bubbles to the top.
You can see the little holes where the bubbles have popped.
It looks like there's just two more on the surface there.
We're gonna bake these in the 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean,
Or you can use the tap test where you tap the top of the cake and see whether or not it jiggles.
If it jiggles that means there's still liquid batter inside so it needs a few more minutes.
Once finished transfer the cake pans to a wire rack to cool completely.
With this vanilla cake it's a little bit different and you want the cakes to cool in the pan to really trap in the moisture,
and give you that delicious cake that doesn't just dry out while it's cooling.
Once the cake is completely cooled you can eat it plain, layer it with your favorite fillings, and of course frost it with your favorite frosting.
I have 10 different frosting options in my cookbook as well as a couple different fillings.
You could even use this book to make a Boston cream pie.
So time to stop using that box mix.
Now you know that making a bakery quality vanilla cake is something you can totally do at home.
Be sure to visit my website www.thestayathomechef.com for more tips and tricks,
and get this recipe in my cookbook which you can order now: The Stay At Home Chef Family Favorites.
Inside there's a QR code with every recipe that will take you to a video demonstration just like this one.