Classic White Cake

  • Prep Time: 20 mins
  • Total Time: 50 mins
  • Yield: 2nine inch layers
  • About This Recipe

    “The fine moist crumb of this cake complements any type of filling and frosting makes for the perfect celebratory cake.”

    Ingredients

  • 12tablespoonsunsalted butter, softened
  • 1 1/2 cupssugar
  • 2cupsall-purpose flour
  • 2teaspoonsbaking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoonsalt
  • 6largeegg whites
  • 3/4 cupmilk
  • 2teaspoonsvanilla extract
  • Directions

  • Butter two 9-inch diameter by 1 1/2-inch deep layer pans or 1 (13 by 9 by 2-inch) pan.
  • Lined bottoms with parchment or waxed paper.
  • Set a rack at the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.
  • In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
  • Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.
  • Set aside.
  • Combine egg whites, milk and vanilla extract.
  • Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to butter mixture then add half the milk mixture.
  • Continue to alternate beginning and ending with flour mixture.
  • Scrape bowl and beater often.
  • Pour batter into prepared pan (s) and smooth top with a metal spatula.
  • Bake cake (s) about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.
  • Cool in pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack, remove paper and let cool completely.
  • Reviews

  • “I made this cake to give to my sister in law that was ailing.I used a carmel icing #24765 which complimented this cake very well. When we dropped it off, she gave us each a slice of cake.I have recently starting making my cakes from scratch and find them very simple to do.I love the flavor of this cake and will continue to make it in the future.”

  • “I was searching for a cake to properly complement ChrissyO’s Lemon Butter recipe #27934 and came up with your delicious cake, Steve! What a fabulous find!This cake stands completely on its own! Fabulous moist texture and flavor!I made a 13x9x2″ cake knowing that I would be serving it with the Lemon Butter.I followed your excellent directions exactly. I highly recommned serving this cake with the Lemon Butter- really tasty!!Thank you so much for sharing this recipe with us, Steve!!”

  • “I don’t know what I did wrong, but this cake turned out pretty dense and crumbly.It tasted like a big sugar cookie.I ate it anyway, though.”

  • “I am giving this cake a 4 star because I really had to mess with my oven a few times to adjust the recipe, second go around just to get it to turn out like these lovely other reviews! I first used two Fat Daddio’s pans which have to be adjusted already because they are anodized, dropping between 25-75 degrees. I am very sad to say the majority of the cake was cornbread like..right on…it was OVER DONE. You ask how I know this…the center was as perfect as I could of even imagine! I used the left over batter and filled up a FD pan 4x4x3 and cooked it at about 250-275 (older gas range) perhaps the density on top of the heat is causing it to cook quicker (kind of like with the whole dome concept) which took even longer but it was amazing! Bev I would have to agree with, as I was snacking on the middle pieces I was like, lemon icing YUM!! It would be so much more helpful if you could adjust the size of the pans instead of the servings. Just keep messing with it ladies, it was well worth tossing the other cakes! I also did up a few 9 pans, used Wilton’s four piece cookie cutter set and made little tiered cakes with tie dye effects. Turned out spectacular!!”

  • “This cake was great for my taste. Its a bit dense though. The big problem with me was that it didn’t rise evenly. That made it very hard to decorate, the way I was doing was with the offset spatula so there was a problem. Otherwise, this cake was great!”

  • “I made this cake for a birthday party. Everyone said the TASTE was good but the texture was heavy and dense. cornbread texture was right on, only more moist then cornbread. also the batter does not rise hardly any during baking so I was safe filling the pan full. I will hang on to the recipe won’t be the first I grab it did taste good tho.”

  • “While this cake tastes good, its not the right texture.Seeing other people mention this I thought I would whip the egg whites seperate and fold in, but that didn’t help much either. Really disappointed, whoever said it was like cornbread was right.I wish I could get box mix here but I can’t.Can’t go wrong with the box!”

  • “I was looking for a white cake recipe which calls for no sour cream and no white boxed cake mixes. Since this recipe offered both, this was my choice. I made one change to this recipe regarding the eggs. I saw some of the reviewers using three whole eggs instead of 6 egg whites, so adapted Recipe #243728 to fit the bill. I am trying to remember if I made it to use a 3 or 4 egg quantity. But I can tell you, the end result was excellent! I couldn’t believe it. I made these to give away to a friend so I will be making some for myself very soon and will update on the correct amount of egg replacer I used for the recipe. Thank you so much forsharing.”

  • “I loved this recipe! I did only use 3 whole eggs instead of the 6 egg whites. (I find it hard to throw away 6 yolks) definately delicious! I used it with kittencal’s chocolate buttercream frosting! YUM!”

  • “I made this recipe because I had all ingredients on hand and wanted to use it as the base for a cake with cranberry filling & white chocolate frosting (holler!!!).The flavor is good – somewhat sugar-cookie-ish, but for some reason mine turned out a bit fragile.I think it would be GREAT for cupcakes or something simpler, but my cranberry filling needs a strong base cake!Still tasty, though.”

  • “Loved the flavor of this cake however I did double the vanilla.Everyone enjoyed the cake but remarked on the heaviness of it.I was very careful not to overmix it so I’m wondering if sifting the dry ingredients next time would do the trick.I would definitely make it again just because it tastes so good.”

  • “i am giving this 5 stars because I can see how these would be perfect if i made them correctly. I was nervous to mix the batter too much and get a tough cake, so i just folded the batter and ended up with little butter “dimples” in the top (but a nice texture!). Also, I found them to bea tiny bit grainy and very buttery (not bad, just an observation).”

  • “I cut this down to make 6 cupcakes and did the whole egg option instead of egg whites. This was dense and moist without being too thick. Unique flavor and definitely the recipe I’ll be keeping! Thanks!”

  • “Very good! I used this recipe as the basis of Recipe #307831 and it worked out really nicely.The only thing I did differently was to use 1 1/4 cups sugar, but I think I would recommend using the full amount going forward.I baked the cupcakes for 20 minutes and they were moist inside with a slight crisp on the top ~ just the way cupcakes should be.I would definitely use this recipe again.”

  • “Maybe I messed up, but mine turned out really dense, like pound cake. I triple check the recipe and am a decent baker. I didn’t miss anything. The taste was great, but … is this really for TWO 9 inch layers? Each of my layers varies from 1/2″-1″ in height, and the edge was crispy. Also, usually when I’ve seen cake with just the egg whites, the whites are beaten stiff and folded in. This recipe doesn’t seem to do this…I’m pretty confused here.”

  • “Made this yesterday for my daughter’s birthday.I used Smart Balance butter, 3 eggs instead of the egg whites, and goat’s milk (allergy issues).It turned out great–taste, texture, everything.It’s not a sweety-sweet cake, which I personally enjoy–if you want it super-sweet, you can take care of that with the frosting.I shaped it into a seven, and frosted it with Betty Crocker’s white mountain frosting.Thanks for the recipe!”

  • “my dad asked me to make him a simple white cake for him, to eat with whipped cream and strawberries…. so i searched for a recipe, and decided on this one. its pretty bad. i baked it in a 9x13x2 pan, and it didnt rise. also, everyone told me it tasted like shortbread, but i found it tasted like a sweetish cornbread. not a very good recipe if you are lookin for a ‘fluffy’ vanilla cake. next time, i’m using a box mix!!”

  • “Very good. Made this cake for my first cake decorating class and used vanilla buttercream icing to frost. I also used 3 whole eggs and made it a yellow cake. Was a little disappointed because the cake was pretty crumbly and not quite as dense as I was hoping. Tasted great though. Thank you!”

  • “I used this recipe, with a butter cream frosting and took them to a bake sale.They were gone in no time!Thank you so much for posting and sharing this wonderful recipe!”

  • “This was absolutely delicious! This is the first homemade cake I ever made and it turned out great. I made it for my son’s 1st birthday and got great reviews from everyone there!”

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