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!!)
ebony says
would the strawberries stay fresh?
Kym says
Hi, I’m wondering if you can make mini sponges with this recipe??
Nagi says
Hi Ebony, I store this up to 3 days successfully 🙂 N x
Josia Prince says
THIS IS AN AMAZING RECIPE… I added about 1/2 cup less sugar and about 1/4 cup more flour to the mixture!! I was sooo impressed on how light it was!!! I totally recommend to everyone!!!
Nagi says
That’s great to know it still worked Josia!! N x
Nonny says
Love love mega love it. The recipe is so good. Fluffy, moist, yummmm.
I reduced sugar to 250g, added: 130g of white chocolate melts.
Baked with one rectangular pan.
Oh my, was so heavenly and I couldn’t stay away. Even my partner was like… woow…
Nagi says
What a great sub Nonny, love this idea! N x
Brenda says
Hello Nagi,
I am excited to try this recipe for my sons second birthday, just wondering how to and if I can freeze it if I make it a week or so before hand, and if it will affect the texture?
Michelle says
Hi Nagi, you are right about the half and half being too heavy. I tried it, knowing it was quite risky, and it just didn’t work. In a pinch, would evaporated milk work? Thank you for the amazing recipes! Your recipes are always incredible!
Michelle says
Hi Nagi, thank you for yet another 5 star recipe! I have made this cake a few times previously, and it always turns out great! Is half and half an acceptable substitute for the milk, or is too heavy? It is all I have on hand.
Nagi says
Hi Michelle, it may be slightly too heavy here unfortunately – N x
Rania says
Followed the recipe to a T and it turned out perfect! Thank you!
Nagi says
Excellent Rania!! N x
Cath Pollard says
I cooked this beautiful sponge for my husband’s birthday. It was the best sponge I have ever cooked.Thankyou..It will certainly go into my favourite recipe cookbook now.
Nagi says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Cath!! N x
Lynne Bowling says
This sponge cake recipe was the best I have ever had. I followed the recipe directions exactly as written. The recipe was easy to follow and the cake turned out perfect. I did not assemble the cake like pictured, although it looks beautiful. I decided to cut each layer separately into pie shape cuts, topped each slice with fresh strawberry’s that I cut up and let macerate in a little sugar for a few hours. Then I topped each slice with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. The juices from the strawberries soaked into the cake and it was plate licking good. Each cake layer will cut into 8 large pie shape slices. The left over cake I just wrapped up tightly and served over the next 2 days, it was still moist and fresh tasting. We enjoyed all the strawberry sponge cake we could eat over the past 2 days. Thank you. This will be my new go to sponge cake recipe.
n. says
I would like to bake the cake using three 10″pans. How should I alter the proportions of ingredients?
Nagi says
Hi N. I’d double it just to be safe 🙂 N x
Natalie says
Thank you for this recipe! I decided to use 6in round ponds instead and they turned out well. If anyone is interested, the batter was enough to fill 3 6 x 2in round pans! I did have to bake it longer, for about 35 minutes but other than that, it’s a great recipe. Can’t wait to ice it tomorrow!
Nagi says
Great to know Natalie! N x
Becci says
Most delicious sponge I think I have ever made!
Nagi says
That’s great to hear Becci! N x
Sarah says
Hi Nagi,
Can I use Buttermilk instead of normal milk?
Nagi says
Hi Sarah, I haven’t tried with this one sorry – buttermilk may quite be too heavy for this light sponge – N x
Caroline says
Hi Nagi! If I halve the recipe, what size pan should I use? Thanks!
Nagi says
Hi Caroline, if you halve the recipe but still want two cakes, I’d use a 6″ pan – N x
Christine says
Hi, I wanted to make this for my mum’s birthday which is coming up but I don’t have any cornflour or cornstarch left. I was wondering if there was anything I could substitute it with?
Nagi says
Hi Christine – I talk about this in the recipe notes – you could alternatively use 2 cups of cake flour. N x
Christine Xu says
Sorry, I should’ve been more clear. I forgot to mention: I live in Australia and I can’t actually find any cake flour at supermarkets so that’s why I was wondering.
Wynona says
Hi Nagi,
I’m wanting to make this in 2 x 6” baking tins (For myself, hubby and 2 year old, so dont need the full recipe) – should I do 2/3 or half the recipe? And how long would you recommend to bake for in the 6” tins?
Teresa says
Mine didn’t rise 🙁 any idea why? I followed the recipe
Nagi says
Hi Teresa, sorry you had issues here – you definitely use baking powder?
Evelyn says
Hi Nagi!! I have to tell you that I love ALL of your recipes and so do my kids and hubby!! 👍👍 Just wanted good know, with this cake do you think it’s stackable? I want to make my daughter a birthday cake that will feed double the amount of people.. and also because I want it to look like a fancy tall cake.
Nagi says
Happy birthday to your daughter Evelyn! This cake is perfectly stackable – I just made it as a 3 layer cake using buttercream frosting 🙂 N x
Shai says
Hey Nagi.Cake came out fantastic with ur recipe.However,I was bit confused wd measurements of 6 serving size,couldn’t understand .13 cup for corn flour.I tried converting it but failed.So made it for 12.😅😅😋😋😋
Nagi says
Hi Shai, yes sorry it calculates based on a cup ratio – but the original recipe was for 12 and has 1/4 cup cornflour (if halving the recipe just use 1/8th cup) – N x
Victoria says
Can I use evaporated milk in the cake recipe?
Nagi says
Hi Victoria, I haven’t tried to be honest, I’m not sure if it will make the cake more dense. Love to know if it works though – if you give it a try! N x
Yva says
Thank you Nagi for this amazing recipe! Made this with your chocolate buttercream recipe and it was sooooo addictive! The cake was GONE in a very, very short time (I myself could not stop eating it, very dangerous indeed)..
My very discerning 11-year-old niece took a few bites and said, “..if you were to enter this cake into a competition——it would win”.
And thank you for being such an inspiration- leaving the corporate world to pursue what you love..and making a success of it!
Am on the brink of a career change myself (after 18 years in an industry that I didn’t particularly love)- so thank you for taking the leap and gifting us with all these wonderful recipes 😀 You have another fan over here, your website is now my go-to now for all my weekday dinners and baking 😊👌❤️from NZ