Easy White Cake

easy white cake

This is another great basic cake to have in your repertoire. Its flavor is more subtle than yellow cake, with a lighter texture that is similar to classic American butter cake, and is very versatile, too. You can easily torte the cake into many layers if you want to add several layers of filling. We like two cake layers with one layer of filling and frosting on top (our favorite ratio of cake to frosting) with this easy white cake recipe.

Easy White Cake
Author: 
Makes: Makes two 9-inch by 2-inch cake layers or one 9 x 13 -inch
 
Ingredients
  • 3½ cups sifted bleached cake flour
  • 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 6 large egg whites, at room temperature
  • 1½ cups whole milk, at room temperature
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. Position rack in the center of your oven. Preheat to 350°F. Coat the insides of two 9-inch by 2-inch round cake pans with nonstick spray, line bottoms with parchment rounds, then spray parchment. Alternatively, prep a 13 x 9-inch pan the same way.
  2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl to aerate and combine; set aside. Whisk together the egg whites and milk in a small bowl; set aside.
  3. In a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter until creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar gradually and beat until very light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl once or twice. Beat in vanilla.
  4. Add the flour mixture in four additions, alternating with the egg white/milk mixture. Begin and end with the flour mixture and beat briefly until smooth. Divide batter evenly in pans (or pour into one oblong pan) and smooth top(s) with offset spatula if necessary.
  5. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes for rounds or about 3o to 35 minutes for oblong or until a toothpick shows a few moist crumbs. The cake will be tinged with light golden brown around the edges and top and will have begun to come away from the sides of the pan. Cool pan(s) on racks for 10 minutes. Unmold, peel off parchment, and place directly on rack to cool completely. Cake(s) are ready to fill and frost or use as is. Alternatively, place layers on cardboards and double wrap in plastic wrap; store at room temperature and assemble within 24 hours.
 

16 Responses to Easy White Cake

  1. lina November 24, 2013 at 1:35 pm #

    The video on youtube says to use 8 x 2in cake pans. This recipe says to use 9×2. I used this recipe and my cakes did not have the height the ones in the video did.

  2. Dede Wilson November 24, 2013 at 4:40 pm #

    Hi Lina, indeed you can make this recipe in either size pan, and the results will be as you described – narrower and taller for the 8-inch pans, or, wider and shallower for a 9-inch. We hadn’t associated this recipe with the video; I am sorry if there was any confusion.

  3. Jackie December 20, 2013 at 5:15 am #

    hi there! how many grams of butter is there in a cup? im in australia and we dont have ‘sticks’ of butter 🙂 just want to get it right 🙂 thank you!

    • Dede Wilson December 21, 2013 at 8:03 am #

      Thank you for writing! 1 “stick” of our butter, which is 1/2 cup, is 113 grams.

  4. Ivette December 22, 2013 at 9:21 pm #

    Does it matter which flower I use? And how can I measure the butter if its not in sticks can I use the measuring cups to get the measurement?
    -ivette

    • Dede Wilson December 23, 2013 at 10:19 am #

      Ivette, it absolutely does matter which flour you use. If a recipe calls for All-purpose, then that is the flour to use. We test our recipes with King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose. If you are baking from another source, check to see what flour they use. It will usually be mentioned. Flours have different protein contents and this can greatly affect your outcome. Butter can be assessed through stick measurements, if you have sticks, or by weight or by volume. One way to see how much butter you have is to fill a large measuring cup with 1 cup of water and add butter until volume comes up to 1 1/2 cups. That means you have 1/2-cup of butter. If you have a scale, which we would recommend, then 1/2 cup is equal to 4 ounces or 113 grams.

  5. Ivette December 22, 2013 at 9:54 pm #

    Also what is aerate when it talks about whisking the flour and the other ingredients?

    • Kristen December 23, 2013 at 9:44 am #

      Hi Ivette. Aerate simply means to incorporate air into the ingredients, which you do by using the whisk.

  6. Consentida February 2, 2014 at 12:03 am #

    Curious why you did not use this recipe for your coconut pineapple cake-what are the differences in these two white cakes?

    • Dede Wilson February 2, 2014 at 10:17 am #

      The coconut milk changes the flavor and texture a bit and I prefer it as it stands when making the coconut cake.

  7. Janella Lainhart April 22, 2014 at 12:26 pm #

    Can I double this recipe or does the recipe change.

  8. Janella Lainhart April 22, 2014 at 12:27 pm #

    Can I double the recipe or does it change?

    • Dede Wilson April 22, 2014 at 12:53 pm #

      Yes I have doubled this many times with success! Enjoy!

  9. Janella Lainhart April 22, 2014 at 2:56 pm #

    Thank you so much, just made this recipe and it is the best homemade cake ever, moist and tender. I’m making a 3 tier wedding cake in a couple of weeks this will be perfect. It hard to find a great scratch recipe. I’m sold on the King Aurthur’s cake flour. Once again thanks! 😉

    • Dede Wilson April 23, 2014 at 8:03 am #

      YAY! The cake flour is a great product. If you want to share, send your pics to dede@bakepedia.com. We love featuring our community member’s work on our Facebook page. Good luck and have fun! Email me direct if I can be of any help with the wedding cake.

  10. Ania Kuchta October 17, 2014 at 7:41 pm #

    Hi Dede, I was just wondering if I could make a chocolate version of this cake and if so how do I do it?

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