An exceptional, yet simple Vanilla Butter Cake. Adapted from a master Cook’s Illustrated recipe, this sponge cake is made with pantry staples, has a velvety, tender crumb and keeps well for 3 days. An essential addition to every recipe collection!
Want to step it up? Try my ultimate Perfect Vanilla Cake.
Moist and tender Vanilla Sponge Cake
I call this a plain-jane Vanilla Sponge Cake, but it’s really anything but that. Everyone should have a classic vanilla sponge cake in their repertoire, and it took me many years to find the “perfect” one.
This is a classic, simple Vanilla Sponge Cake that is made with basic ingredients – eggs, milk, butter, flour, sugar, vanilla, baking powder and salt. That’s it. No sour cream, no buttermilk – these are not pantry staples in my world – or any other schmancy ingredients. Yes adding sour cream and/or buttermilk makes an even more tender, more moist cake. But I wanted to share a truly great Vanilla Sponge Cake that is made with just pantry staples.
I have a soft spot for old fashioned Vanilla sponge cakes. I am pretty sure the Women’s Weekly Best Ever Sponge was the first cake I ever (attempted?) to make. 🙂 Freshly made, they are lovely, albeit a wee bit dry for my taste. But the biggest issue I’ve always had is that after 12 hours, the sponge is incredibly dry. Even slathered with copious amounts of cream and frosting can’t hide it.
This recipe I’m sharing today is made with the same ingredients as old fashioned Vanilla Sponge Cakes, but there’s one very important step that you won’t see in any Women’s Weekly recipe books from the 1980’s: beating softened butter into the dry ingredients. THIS is the secret to a moist, tender sponge cake made without sour cream or buttermilk.
How do I know this?
Because this is a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. 🙂 They’ve gone and done all the hard work with the recipe testing for us.
Regular readers know I’m never going to win any awards in the cake decorating category. I’m much more focussed on the body of the cake – getting that sponge right. So I kept this simple and just slathered on lots of cream and and sandwiched it with strawberries. In addition to adding some lovely fresh juicy flavours into the cake, the strawberries also stop the cream from oozing out of the cake when you cut into it.
You’ll see in the video. 🙂
Happy weekend everyone! Hope you have a lovely one. I’m off to a festival of some sort – for a friends’ birthday. I’m not really a festival-type gal, so it will be an experience. I don’t even know what the festival is for – music, I’m guessing. Guess I should probably leave my stilettos behind. 😉 – Nagi x
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Vanilla Sponge Cake recipe video!
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Butter Cake (Vanilla Sponge Cak)
Ingredients
- 225 g / 2 sticks unsalted butter , cut into 8 pieces and softened
Wet:
- 4 large eggs (55 – 65g / 2 – 2.5 oz each), at room temperature
- 1/2 cup / 125 ml milk (whole or low fat, not no fat), room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Dry:
- 1 3/4 cups / 265g plain flour (all purpose flour, 7 oz) (Note 1)
- 1/4 cup cornflour / cornstarch (Note 1)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 1/2 cups / 330g caster sugar / superfine sugar (normal white sugar also ok)
- 3/4 tsp salt
Strawberries & Cream:
- 2 1/2 cups / 625 ml whipping cream
- 2 tbsp white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 400 g/ 14 oz strawberries , halved (1 1/2 punnets)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F (standard) or 160C/320F (fan / convection). Put the rack in the middle of the oven.
- Butter 2 x 20cm / 8″ cake pans (Note 2). Line the base with baking paper.
- Place Wet ingredients in a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Place Dry ingredients in a bowl and use a handheld beater on speed 1 (slowest) to quickly whisk.
- Add 1/3 of the butter, then put the beater whisk in the butter, and mix using speed 1. Once the butter is incorporated a bit, speed up to 5 and whisk for 10 seconds.
- Add another 1/3 of the butter then repeat, then add remaining butter and repeat again. It should look like wet sand (see video / photos in post).
- Add half the Wet mixture, beat until incorporated. Add remaining Wet mixture, then beat on speed 5 (medium) until almost completely smooth.
- Divide between cake pans, smooth surface (it levels out in the oven), then bake for 25 minutes.
- A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean but moist.
- Cool on cooling rack for at least 15 minutes then remove cake from pan.
Frosting / Decorating with Strawberries & Cream:
- Optional: Use a serrated knife (I use a bread knife) to cut the top off each cake to make it completely flat. This makes neat layers when you cut into the cake.
- Place cream, vanilla and sugar in a bowl. Beat on high with a handheld beater or stand mixer until firm peaks form.
- If piping little swirls around the edge like in the photos, transfer 1 cup of cream into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle.
- Place a cake on a serving platter. Spread a thin layer of cream over the top.
- Cover with strawberries, cut side down.
- Top with 1/3 of the cream.
- Place 2nd cake on top. Cover top and sides with remaining cream. Pipe cream around the edge.
- Decorate with remaining strawberries, as desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
More cake goodness
LIFE OF DOZER
You do not want to know how big the puddle on the floor was….EEEEWWWW!!!! (watch me teasing him with this in the video!!)
Hello Nagi
I stumbled upon your website by chance and am now determined to make this cake for my daughter’s birthday! I have baked the two sponges but they seem to be on the thin side, would you know how thick the layers are by any chance? (well, supposed to be!) If they are indeed too thin where could I have gone wrong? 🙁 I am not a novice baker but still far from experienced…
Many thanks x
Hi Olivia! Welcome to RecipeTin Eats! 🙂 Can I check the size of the pan you used? And does it seem “spongey”??! 🙂 N xx
Hi, thanks for replying! It’s an 8 inch tin as recommended and to be honest they don’t look very “spongey” or fluffy, although I haven’t cut them to check.
Hello Nagi!
I always have trouble making vanilla cakes/cupcakes. They always end up super dense or oily. When I made this cake it was very dense and dry. I may have cooked it too long? I also do have a stand mixer so was able to whip the ingredients well. Did it turn out dense because I overdid it?
Vanilla sponge/cake is the bane of my existence! I just can’t get it right! Help!
Hi Chantelle, I’m sorry to hear that, wish I could have been there to trouble shoot! Can you help me with some information so I can try to pinpoint the problem: how long did you bake it for, did you use 2 pans per the recipe, do you have a standard or fan forced/convection oven, how long did you beat it for when you added the wet into the dry ingredients? It shouldn’t be too long – maybe around 7 to 10 seconds after each addition. N xx
I think I baked it for your recommended time, I’ve often had issues with the middle sinking with these types of cakes. I used two 8 inch tins and have a fan forced oven. Maybe I over beat it, I’ll have to try again and be more gentle with it. I know it isn’t your recipe’s fault because I do this to every vanilla cake!
Hi! I love the recipe but I’d like to try chocolate instead of vanilla. Would you recommend using cocoa powder, and if so, how much? Thanks!
Hi Emma! Try my Chocolate Cake recipe 🙂 It’s the chocolate version of this – except even easier! N x
Hello,
I’d love to try the recipe. Do I need to halve the recipe for 2 × 7-inch pans?
Thank you!!
I’d still use the entire recipe otherwise it will be too thin 🙂 N x
Hello Naji,
I was wondering if it’s ok to use buttermilk instead of milk. If so would i have to make any adjustments?
Hi Sahar! Unfortunately I haven’t tried it with buttermilk but instinct tells me it will affect the outcome not in a good way. 🙂 Sorry Sahar! N xx
Nagiii will it be okay if I add butter icing instead of whipping cream to sandwich the cake🤔
hi in your video you didnt add cornflour but in the recipe it says cornflour? 🤔
Hi Shaz! You’re right, I sifted them together then just added them in one go and labelled it “flour” 🙂
Just made this cake for my birthday and it taste absolutely amazing!!! Everyone was asking about the recipe. It’s classic. The cake tastes a bit like Madeline cookies. Thank you for sharing!
LOVE hearing that Sasha!!! So glad you enjoyed it! N x
This is excellent!!! I doubled it as I used (3) 11×17 jelly roll pans to make a 3 layer birthday cake. The only adjustment I made was I used 6 eggs instead of 8. I have never made a cake where it called for mixing the butter in with the dry ingredients. It came out incredibly moist. I used a buttercream frosting with it. This is now my go-to Vanilla Sponge cake.
So glad you enjoyed this Jen! Thanks for letting me know 🙂 N x
Hi!
I’m trying to make the vanilla sponge cake and the recipe calls for corn flour/corn starch, but I think those two are different things? Please help!
Hi Nagi ! love your recipe. I have a pan size 14.5*10*2 incs.I am planning to make this vanilla sponge cake on my son’s birthday. I want to know is this mentioned measurement is fine for my pan ?? or i should increase the measurement?? if you are suggesting me to increase it then how much i have to increase? Looking for your help.
p.s.: I just start learning baking. thanks in advance . 🙂
Hello Nagi, if I were to double the recipe as you suggested here, do I need to change the heating and will the cake rise the same way with double ingredients in a larger pan? TIA
Hi Shilpa! You’ll need to use a much larger pan to double the recipe, what size do you intend to use?? 🙂 N x
Hi Anuva! That pan is quite a bit larger than mine, I wold double the recipe 🙂 N x
Do you think this cake would make a good Swiss rolls if spread thin enough? Or would it just crack when worked with?
Hi Karlie! Unfortunately this one isn’t suitable for a swiss roll, I’ll share a recipe next year! N x
Hi JD – cornflour doesn’t have a flavour, are you sure it was cornflour / cornstarch you used?? It is what makes this so tender, it doesn’t affect flavour! 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi! I do have Cake Flour on hand. Do I need to add in the other “Dry” ingredients?
Yep that’s exactly right Dan! Sub the normal flour 🙂
hi nagi, can i use this cake and cover with fondant… im going to make a wedding cake for my sister, and would like to try other recipe but chocolate cakes..tnx
Yes definitely!!! Congratulations to your sister! N x
I tried your recipe . The cake came out excellent . I didn’t use cornflour as I didn’t have it but I added yogurt to make it more tender as you mentioned here. We all loved it ! Thank you.
A request , can we achieve similar cake in a vegan way ? Please share the recipe if you have I will definitely try.
Thank you. Happy Baking ! 🙂
Hi Nagi. Used your wonderful sponge recipe to make a big cake for my husband’s 70th. I used the whole mixture and baked it in a swiss roll tin (23 x 33cm), a bit bigger than a lamington tin, and I made it twice, baked separately, so I got two really good perfectly baked rectangle cakes. I froze them until the night before the party, then sandwiched them together and covered with marscapone, mixed with whipped cream and lemon butter. Decorated with blueberries. The thing I loved was how well it sliced up and held together to serve. The cake received compliments from everyone. Thanks again.
That’s great Anita! So pleased to hear that, thanks for letting me know! N xx
Hello dear, I really want to give a try to this yummy cake!
However, I’m quite confused regarding the weights of the ingridients…..if 1/2 cup of milk is 125 gr, it means that 1 cup is gr250.
Therefore how can (please see below):
1 3/4 cups /=265g plain flour ???
and how much is 1/4 cup cornflour ?
I’m not sure regarding the quantity of flour and cornflour……
Thanks a lot!
Hi Luisa! Not all ingredients weight the same 🙂 For example, 1 cup flour weighs less than 1 cup water!
Hi Nagi,
Quick question, would Half and Half be ok to use instead of milk? We’re not big milk drinkers but always have half n half handy for coffee.
Sure thing Svetlana!
Hi Nagi! Thanks for sharing such a delicious recipe. I am not too good at making cakes but still cannot resist giving it a try. Will surely go for this delicious vanilla cake 🙂
Hope you love it Celine! N xx