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!!)
Eugene says
How many minutes must I put the batter in the oven if I only made 2 servings?
Nagi says
Hi Eugene, what size pan are you using? – N x
Lourdes Martinez says
Hello! If I need to make a larger cake size like a 12” cake, will it work if I double or triple the ingredients to make a larger cake mix ??
Nagi says
Hi Lourdes, double would be plenty over the two tins – if not slightly too much. You’ll just need to adjust the cook times to ensure it cooks properly and just keep an eye on it – N x
Hoa phuong says
Hi Nagi! Can i use silicon pan ?
Nagi says
To be honest, I haven’t tried! I don’t see why not, but you’d still need to line it – N x
Hoa phuong says
Hi Tracy! Can i use silicon pan ?
Tracy says
My 7 year old son won first prize at our local show with this cake – thanks so much for a great recipe.
Nagi says
That’s the best news!!
Sarah says
Hi Nagi,
I am making this cake tomorrow for my daughters birthday. I wanted to know if I only have one 8 inch tin I’ve see you’ve mentioned before to do the batter over two times due to the active ingredient so do I just half the ingredients to do this ?
Nagi says
Hi Sarah, yes you’ll need to do 2 half batches. I would love to hear how you go!
Sarah says
Hi Nagi,
I will be making the Vanilla Sponge Cake recipe tomorrow but I only have one 8 inch cake tin and I have seen you’ve said that we should half the recipe cook and then do another because of the ingredients being active but do I just half the ingredients ? And if I am making a layer cake would the cake be thick enough to cut into two ?
Thanks
Sarah
Milia says
I bake a lot, like a cake a week with cookies in between, and this was a tasty and easy recipe. It was a nice sponge that is both light tasting but sturdy enough to hold up a thick filling of Bavarian cream and berries. One thing I will do differently next time is divide it into 3 8”pans instead of 2 because it took 10 more minutes to bake through, which made the cake a bit dry. Thanks for the recipe!
Susie says
Hi Nagi,
I’m baking your sponge cake recipe for a wedding cake. I usually freeze all of my cakes after filling and crumb coating them so the final coat of icing doesn’t get full of crumbs. It’s also easier to decorate while the cake still has a chill to it. Can I do the same with a sponge cake?
Thank You in Advance,
Susie 🙂
Nagi says
Hi Susie, yes you sure can!
Renee says
The cake recipe turned fluffy and moist and totally velvety like you said. I didn’t know I could bake like this. One word to the wise though: I paired the cake with a royal icing which made the whole thing way too sweet. I’m sure the whipped cream frosting would have been perfect! I guess it’s an excuse to make it again 🙂
Emma says
Hey! I am looking forward to making this sponge today. I am having to half the recipe and make twice as I only have one tin…I was wondering do you know what the cornflour is in grams?
Many thanks for the recipe!
Cheryl says
OMG is all that I can say. This cake was beyond delicious! I wish I could give it more than 5 stars! I took 1/2 to work and it was also a hit. I had loaned my cake pans to a friend at Christmas and didn’t get them back yet, so I made it in a 9″x13″ rectangular pan. I made it exactly as printed and it worked out fine. Just cut in half and had a 2 layer square cake. Thanks again for making me a rock star in the kitchen!
Nagi says
Thanks so much Cheryl, sounds like you nailed it!! And you must be the favourite at work 😉
Minh Thuy says
I just made this and it’s cooling down right now. So far it looks great, has a nice crumb to it and tastes really nice. Next time however, I think I’ll will be reducing the amount of sugar, as it’s personally too sweet for me.
Nagi says
Hi Minh, I’m so glad you like it – love to know what you think if you try it again with a reduced amount of sugar ❤️
Agnes says
Hi Nagi, love your recipes! Am planning to make this for a birthday- I’m a novice baker and a bit nervous. I own 1x23cm pan- rather than go and get another pan, could i bake one cake first then the next? Should I keep the mixture in the fridge til the next cake is ready to be done? I’m in qld so quite hot and humid during the day. Thanking you in advance.
Nagi says
Hi Agnes, no that won’t work unfortunately, once you activate the rising agent (the baking powder) you can’t leave it. You’re better to make a half batch and then cook. Then make another half batch for the second cake. You can drop the serving size in the recipe to 6 and you’ll get the amount on ingredients for a half batch. Love to know how you go!
Agnes says
I actually had to switch to a square pan because the round tin seemed way too big for the amount of mix i had for the half serve. But i did 2x half batches and both turned out perfectly!!! For someone who rarely aces cakes, this was a small miracle!
Rose says
Hi Nagi,
Thanks for the recipe! The base went well however I bought a spray whipped cream but it turned out not sticky to be used as frosting. Do you know if i got the wrong cream?
Nagi says
Hi Rose, yes you need to use thickened/whipping cream and beat it ☺️
Neha says
Literally the best vanilla cake I have ever made! Truly exceptional. Thanks so much for sharing this awesome recipe. It’s a keeper!!!
Nagi says
Woot! So happy you love it Neha!
Aminah says
Hi Nagi
Could u covert this recipe for me to fill 2 10 inch pans. Have to make it for a birthday and I’m totally perplexed. Don’t want to mess it up.
Kind regards
Aminah.
Nagi Maehashi says
Hi Aminah, I’d just increase the ratio slightly – drag the servings size slider bar to say 15 servings and all the ingredients will all increase for you. I hope you love it!
Aminah says
Thank you my dear. Really appreciate it. Shall I make the increased amount iin 2, 10” pans or 3
Kind regards
Kiki says
Hi Nagi!
First of all, I am sooo obsessed with your recipes. They are always a hit when I make them! This is def. my favourite sponge cake!!
I just want to ask, how many minutes (approx.) do you have to beat/whip the frosting until firm peaks form?
Thank you!
sarah says
Recipe looks good! Cant wait to try making this
Nagi says
Hope you get a chance! N x
Adelyn says
Can I bake three layer separatedly for three times ?