Simple White Cake

I've long ago learned to be skeptical of the results with white cake recipes. They can be dry, tasteless, or have what some call a similarity to cornbread. I wanted a white cake that was moist, sweet and flavorful, without having to resort to a pound cake recipe, which would be heavier. I wanted a light, fluffy cake with a tender crumb. Butter isn't going to necessarily get you that, nor is a shortage of eggs or sugar. In this recipe I was tempted to reduce the amount of flour, and increase the amount of sugar and eggs but decided to leave it alone, especially for the sake of properly accessing this recipe - except for one small change, which probably was an important one. I used half butter for flavor and richness, and half shortening, to help ensure moistness. Cream the shortening and butter very well with the sugar, a good few minutes, add each egg separately and beat well after each addition. I added the WHOLE milk alternately with the flour mixture, beginning and ending with the flour, and mixing lightly, only enough to combine the ingredients. I made cupcakes, and dropped about 1/2 tsp. raspberry jam in the center of the batter before baking. I frosted them with pink buttercream frosting. I tasted one before I frosted them to make an accurate judgment of their quality. Perfect. Moist, yes moist! Tender, flavorful and pleasantly sweet. The failure or success of this recipe is hugely dependent upon proper mixing technique and not overbaking!

This is by far the simplest and tastiest cake recipe I've ever tried. I like to add a bit extra milk which keeps it soft and moist.

As advertised, it is simple to make and easy to change into whatever is needed for the occasion. We started this one off without changing the recipe and it came out nice. Can't wait to start fiddling with it. It's been a nearly a year and we've changed this up a few times for the better. If you want to stick as close to the recipe try this variation out. Add 1 egg yolk, 1 teaspoon of butter flavoring and substitute half and half for the milk. If you have a kithenaid mixer, break out the whip instead of the batter blade. It produces a fluffier batter. Mix it until it puffs up a bit and bake it for the 30-40 mins. We used a 9x9 glass pan. Now if you have gotten to the 40 min mark and the center is still a bit liquidy, turn the oven down to 250 and let it sit on the top shelf of oven for an addtional 10 mins. It will set up well this way and you don't risk burning the edges of the cake. This cake was gone in 1 setting when my in laws dropped in. We've also mixed strawberry jam into the butter/egg mixture and gotten great results and we've done a chocolate version by making the milk into a cocoa mixture. Next up to try will be spumoni. We love to experiment!

THis came out PERFECTLY. I added more milk (3/4 cup) per other reviewers' suggestions and I also added some lemon extract and lemon zest to taste. It was the first thing I made in my new kitchenaid mixer and I was very impressed with the results. I made little flower cupcakes in my flower pan and dipped each one in glaze (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Vanilla-Glaze/Detail.aspx) - I added lemon extract to the glaze as well. These stayed moist and delish for days!

Works great using soy milk instead of regular.

After several attempts I was ready to give up on this recipe because it kept coming out so dense. I was reading another white cake recipe that gave times for beating. So, I tried it again and this time it came out SOOO much better (light and fluffy). Here is what I did: I added an extra 1/4 cup of milk but all other measurements I kept the same; beat the butter (which is softened) and sugar together for 10 min. on high using an electric mixer; then beat 5 min after each egg is added (I did NOT separate the white and yolk); I mixed the dry ingredients together; I alternated the flour mixture and milk into the batter ending with milk (add some flour mixture, then mix, then add some milk and then mix, then some more flour mixture and so forth); I brought the eggs, butter, and milk to room temperature before using. If you follow these steps you will have a fluffy, great tasting cake.

My 14 year old son likes to make this recipe. It is a nice cake with a good texture. We use regular flour, not cake flour, and it turns out fine.

This is really a five star recipe... if these few tips I gathered from the reviews are followed. (This recipe did double well for us.) 1.Do whip the butter and sugar for at least 8 minutes, and beat ingredients well at all stages 2. Aim for a yellow fluffy cool whip type batter texture prior to moving on to adding new ingredients 3. Do add an extra 1/4 cup of milk and increase the amount of vanilla

Ok, I think I've figured it out. Perhaps some of you are comparing this "homemade" cake to the boxed cakes. There is a difference. The boxed cakes include ingredients such a corn syrup and preservatives and other junk. That is why they taste so "good." This is a SIMPLE cake made from real food. It has a more floury taste when compared to box, but I find it to be a very mellow flavor. It was not foamy like boxed recipes, though it could not be considered "hard." This is honestly what REAL cake tastes like. Forget the box. This is better tasting, and better for you! (I even screwed up the recipe and had to add 1/4 cup of flour after the initial mixing. I think it's kind of hard to mess this up.) If you want to try a cake from scratch, this is the way to go. Good luck!

Super simple! I made it with a half recipe of "Banana Butter Icing," also from this Web site, and served it to a very happy two-year-old birthday boy! Thanks for the recipe!

First of all, I used this recipe to make cupcakes, which I would NOT recommend. I may try this recipe again in the future to make a cake, in which case I may change my rating. However, the cupcakes were for a friend for her daughter's 3rd birthday so they had to be cute. The cupcake tops cooked into each other and were flat and ugly. I tasted one and thought it was on the dry side, and I only cooked them for 15 minutes. I've made TONS of cupcakes before, both from scratch and from box mixes, and have never had cupcakes turn out this badly. I ended up starting all over again with a different white cake recipe, which turned out so much better - both on looks and taste.

I have just this minute finished baking this delighful cake with a young ten year old autistic child...and he and I are both thrilled! Thank you for sharing this with us! A beautiful rainy day project! The dividends reap great rewards for some time allowing him to feel proud of his labors!!

This cake was simple to make and is light and fluffy and tastes great. I did not change the recipe and used two 6" greased pans - I will be able to tort and fill each cake to make a nice tall cake! Thanks for the recipe!

I made this recipe as cupcakes tonight as a test batch since I'm making cupcakes for my cousin's birthday tomorrow. I followed other reviewers' advice, beat the batter thoroughly and beat the eggs thoroughly until fluffy, added 1/4 cup more milk, and the batter did end up very light and fluffy. The cupcakes came out of the oven perfectly domed on the top, but quickly fell flat. I piped pink peppermint frosting onto them when they cooled, and tried one. I was very impressed with the texture, and they did not stick to the liner at all when I pulled it away. But the flavor left a little to be desired. It tasted way too flourey and not sweet like I thought it would be. I had also added 2 tsp more of vanilla to the batter in hopes it would bring more flavor to the cake. Didn't work. I would make this cake again, but only if I could figure out a way to tone down the flour flavor. Update: I went ahead and used this recipe again for my cousin's birthday cupcakes, but I added about a tsp of honey to it. I made her rainbow cupcakes, so I'm not sure if the food coloring had something to do with it, but it came out much better this time around. It was sweet, and went perfect with my buttercream frosting. I'm upping my rating to 5 stars.

I baked this recipe today with no changes, and it is perfect!! A few tips... 1.) beat the butter and sugar until FLUFFY this takes about 2 good minutes 2.) add eggs one at a time and make sure its blended well in between. 3.) SIFT the flour and baking powder together 4.) Finally, let the batter mix at med. speed for a good 2 minutes This should give you delicious results every time !

I was thorougly disappointed with this recipe. Allrecipes.com has never really let me down before, until I tried baking this cake. At first, it browned rather quickly but the middle of the cake wasn't done. It made me nervous to continue cooking it, but it was necessary. When I finally took it out, it was a little darker than golden brown on top and resembled a yellow color. This was NOT a white cake at all. It fell apart, despite the fact I greased the pan, and the best way to describe the taste is sweet cornbread. When I first tasted this "cake", it immediately took me to a time of tasting cornbread. I tried to salvage the situation by loading it down with icing but it still was not like any cake I've had before. I expected so much more from this recipe. A part of me knew that when using a whole egg there was no way it was going to be white to begin with, but I could live with that. But, none of me knew I'd spent time trying to make cornbread, basically. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone who is in the mood to have moist, delicious cake. If you are, then this is NOT the recipe for you.

I made this when I had to make some cupcakes. I followed the recipe exact, except I thought the batter was too thick. So I added about 1/4 cup more milk. This made about 12-14 cupcakes, so I would suggest doubling the recipe if you need 24 cupcakes or a larger cake. They baked up wonderfully, it was a dense, moist yummy cake. I hand mixed this in a bowl because I did not want to over mix the batter, which can produce a tougher cake. It tasted like a sugar cookie in cake form, delicious.

Simple and incredibly tasty! Instead of using vanilla extract I used orange extract (just because that's what I was in the mood for) and it turned out great. I then divided the batter, added about two tablespoons of cocoa powder to one, and layered it to make orange/cocoa cupcakes. Thanks for the great recipe!

I baked this recipe for 240 of my students. They loved it. However I thought it was a little dry. When I made it again (just one cake this time) I added a package of instant vanilla pudding and about half of cup extra milk. This made it very moist. It is a very simple recipe and was a great way to introduce baking to my students.

This is the best cake I have ever tasted. I typically think of white cake as kind of bland but this was not at all. I was a little worried because the batter had a slight aftertaste but once it was baked it had disappeared. The people that are getting a dense cake must be doing something wrong and I have a feeling I know what it is. They are so afraid of over-mixing the batter that they are under-mixing it. I creamed the butter by itself, then added the sugar a cup at a time(I doubled the recipe), then I added the eggs one at a time, mixing well between each, then I added the rest of the dry ingredients a cup at a time(after mixing them together with a whisk, since I don't have a sifter), and then once I added the milk I mixed it on high for about 3 minutes. When I put the batter in the pan it was almost the same consistency as cool whip. I cooked it for 35 minutes exactly and it was golden brown on top and moist and fluffy on the inside. The finished product was like eating a sugar cookie flavored cloud. The only thing I changed about the recipe was to add an extra 1/4 cup milk like other reviewers suggested. I iced it using a simple buttercream frosting(dyed green for st patrick's day) and it was absolute perfection. My husband loved it as well. He ate his piece in about 30 seconds and is planning on taking some to work tomorrow to share(if it stays in the house I will eat it all lol).

This is my very first cake from scratch, and I am so pleased w/the results! I think the key to this cake is (as many other people have mentioned) really taking the time to beat the butter and sugar together, then adding each egg separately and beating it all together for a good while. halfway through the baking process I realized I ran out of (of all things) vanilla extract, so I used almond instead and I highly recommend making this with almond extract. I did increase the milk to 3/4 cup as others suggested. My end result was a moist and fluffy cake that had a lovely almond flavor. This recipe was so easy and the results were so wonderful that I don't think I'll be using the box mixes again. I see now that there is a huge difference and taking the time to make this from scratch was well worth it. Thank you very much for this recipe!

I really like this recipe, the cake is not super light and fluffy but it is not that heavy either. I did add another 1/4 cup of milk to this recipe and a splash more vanilla extract. Also for those who may not know make sure your butter is at room temperature, use your hand mixer to cream the butter and then add the sugar in a little at a time, blending until creamed and incorporated into your butter, you want a nice creamy whipped butter and sugar mix. Adding the butter in cold and combining all the ingredients at once will leave you mixing for a while. And adding the mixture in while there are still very visible sugar crystals will weigh down the cake which is why some are getting a more corn bread like cake.

Very nice flavor and texture. I made 12 HUGE cupcakes from this batter. As they mushroomed well over the top of the muffin pan, I had a little difficulty getting them out after cooling for a bit. Took the advice of others and added 1/4 cup more milk and 1/4 tsp. more vanilla extract. Will make these again but will try in the 9 x 9 pan.

I find it rather annoying when people just write how they modified the recipe and made it better. Orwhen someone gives it a bad rating for not following the directions or just failing to give it another try. That said, I did not find anything wrong with this recipe and I proudly give it 5 stars. Its a great cake recipe but I would not call it White as it has the egg yolks included so its yellow. It uses all natural ingredients though I can say its best to use full fat milk in it. If you want to cut down on fat eat a salad with lemon juice dressing for your meal. I live in Germany and used Irish butter and Full Fat milk 3.8% Fat, the cake did not have a cornbread texture at all. I do use a Kitchen Aid maybe that helps. The long whipping time of the butter, sugar gives the rich consistency but I would add, that a bit more milk might help, especially with my frailing oven. The only thing I did modify was to add a pinch of sea salt as I had unsalted butter. I made this for my sons 4th birthday, baked in the Nordicware Pirate Boat pan, I had to change the servings to 18 which fillled the pan perfectly! Thanks for sharing this recipe.

I am an avid baker and I know I followed the recipe to a "t", but was disappointed. I won't make this again.

This cake is one of the most delicious cakes I have ever tasted. I use this recipe as a base for other cakes, its quite outstanding. One downside is it tends to get dry with larger pans...anything larger than a 11x13 and the corners dry out. I have tweaked it to the best of my ability but no luck. Otherwise it stays moist and delicious and is great for layers!

READ THIS REVIEW, not the most popular ones! -- I don't know what it is with this cake. Some reviewers rave over it. Some reviewers say it turned out dry. The secret, they say, is adding extra milk (1 1/2 cups total in a doubled recipe), extra vanilla (2T in doubled recipe), and beating the fire out of it when creaming the sugar/butter & adding the eggs. Well, I am on the lookout for the perfect white cake recipe, and this one was recommended to me, so I decided to try it out when I was asked by a friend to provide the cake for her birthday party. I avidly read reviews, followed the above instructions to a T, and kept my fingers crossed. I even subbed vanilla bean paste for the vanilla, creating some truly phenomenal cake batter. Unfortunately, once baked, the cake did indeed turn out dry and crumbly. Edible, for sure, but disappointing. So, it sounds like this cake is a shoot, pure and simple, -- you may or may not be one of the unlucky ones for whom it fails!

This is the first time no one in my family of 5 refused to eat cake. Even my husband who eats any kind of cake threw it away. I had the computer automatically double the recipe for me so maybe that was the problem. The cake was hard and dry and resembled bad cornbread or hard pancakes. Yuk!

Tried as written....Recipe may be simple, but the taste/texture was amazing! No more store bought cake mixes for this gal!

I made a double recipe because I wanted a 9-inch layer cake. I'm a very experienced baker, and I found this cake to be heavy and dry. My husband commented that it was like a pound cake...I think he was being kind. Maybe using cake flour instead of all-purpose flour would have helped. In the future, I'm going to stick with my trusted Bonnie Butter Cake recipe for white cake. It's moist, light and delicious.

I made some changes like I used 1/3 cup of crisco butter shortening but you can use reg. crisco, I creamed it with the suger and butter and I out 3 eggs not 2, I used 1 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 1/3 teaspoon of almond extract.The almond really set's this cake off and I only 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract and I also used 1 1/2 cup of butter milk. I like the to use the buttermilk,crisco because it will help your cake not to be dry bake this cake oneday before you need it and oh my God it is so so good. Waiting that one day help this cake's tast to come out .PS IF YOUR LOOKING TO MAKE A NICE MOST YELLOW CAKE all YOU HAVE TO DO IS USE THE BETTER crisco shortening IT HELP CHANGE THIS CAKE FROM A NICE WHITE CAKE TO A NICE YELLOW MOST CAKE. BUT DON'T FORGET USE THE BUTTER MILK IT REALLY HELPS,I WOULD GIVE THIS CAKE 10 STARS.THANKS FOR GIVING ME 2 GOOD CAKE'S OUT OF ONE

I must say, this was extremely disappointing :( I made these into cupcakes, and they came out extremely flat and dense. I did exactly as instructed in the directions, but they just didn't work out.

DEFINITELY add 1/4 c. more milk it makes this cake absolutely perfect. Moist, and dense makes it the best white cake recipe ive tried, great for a wedding cake. I will be using this witht he milk adjustment as my usual white cake recipe from now on. If you are looking for light and airy this is not the cake for you, but I love the texture of it! I baked for full time

This recipe was wonderful! The batter was too thick for me at first, so I added a little more milk, so that instead of 1/2 cup, it was more like 3/4-1 cup. I suggest adding milk to desired consistency. The cake was moist and was nothing like cornbread. I made cupcakes and added buttercream frosting, and it was exactly what I was looking for. Simple, yummy recipe! I plan to use this recipe again. Edit to add: Use plenty of vanilla and/or lemon flavoring.

4 1/2 stars! Great cake! Came out perfect, used the recipe for a wedding cake. I did however change the milk to 2/3 cup and added a table spoon of vegetable oil, for moisture and preventing it turning into a corn cake crumble. That little trick made all the difference! I recommend you do so also! :)

Maybe it comes out better as cupcakes. My friend and I both tried it and it was more like a coffee cake. Not at all what we thought it would be.

Although this recipe was pretty good, I would have to agree with another user who said that it tastes like sugar cookies. On it's own I think the cake is delicious, but with frosting it didn't taste qutie right. As other users commented I too added a little more milk.

For those of you who like a white cake to be light, fluffy, and/or moist, this is not the cake for you. It had the density/look of cornbread and was not very sweet either. I would not recommend this recipe to anyone or use it again.

This is a great cake with an amazing crust that tastes just like a sugar cookie. You need to wait for the butter to reach room temperature and then you should cream it with a mixer. After you cream it, THEN add in the sugar and cream both of them for a long time, just like other people have said. Also, sift all your dry ingredients. If you do these things, the texture of your cake will be incredible and completely not like corn bread. Also, very importantly, I would definitely add 1/4 cup of heavy cream and a little more vanilla. I added the 1/4 cup of heavy cream and the moisture was just right, however, it needed some more flavor, that's why I'm saying to increase the amount of vanilla extract. Or, alternatively, you might add raspberry extract, coconut extract, orange extract, lemon extract, etc. in addition to the recommended amount of vanilla extract depending on your taste. This won't disappoint.

I used 1 TBL. vanilla and ff 1/2 & 1/2. Very nice and easy! Thanks!

I have used this recipe 3 times in the last two weeks, it is THAT good! I did a triple batch and split in two baking sheets for about 1-2 inch tall cakes, then filled them. It did get a bit burnt on the edges, while the middle was moist, so next time I may bake it at a lower temperature for a little longer time.

My child's favourite cake, and she helps me make it too! The only change I make to this recipe is that I mix the sugar and butter in a LARGE bowl. Otherwise, I run out of space for mixing.

Would have been 5 stars if I hadn't had to add the additional 1/4 that others, thankfully, suggested. With that single change, however, I got a dense, almost pound-cakey texture and a very happy birthday girl. This is definitely a keeper, and so much better than a box it's not even funny. Like night and day. TIP: Beat the ingredients really well, as others suggested. Your patience will be rewarded.

THE best white cake I've ever had! I've made this twice now and have had rave reviews both times. I used this recipe for my grandmother's 80th birthday cake and she told me that she wants me to make her another one for her Christmas present! To those who complain about it being like cornbread, I have to wonder if maybe your baking powder is bad? I had to throw out one cake because mine had expired. The cake didn't rise and it looked and tasted like cornbread. Problem solved after buying new baking powder! I added about 1/4 cup milk after reading the reviews, but other than that followed the recipe. This is a wonderful cake, thank you so much for sharing your recipe!

I made this cake for my friend's birthday and WOW! This is awesome. I made a large 9"x13", two layered cake. If you want a 9"x13" layered cake, double the amount of the recipe and then divide the batter between three 9"x13" pans. This way your layers will have the best thickness (my layers were too thick, I will make a 3 layer cake next time). For the frosting I whipped two cups of heavy whipping cream with 3/4 cup of confectioner sugar and 4 tbsp of cocoa liquor to my desired consistency. For the filling I peeled and chopped 10 small apples and boiled them with 1/2 cup of water and 2tbsp of sugar until it was soft and jam like. I added a zest of one lemon into this jam, coated the layers with the frosting and filled them with this filling. And for the cake, I substituted vanilla with the zest of one medium orange. I received so many wows in the party and everyone loved the cake. It took a lot of time but it is definitely worth it. Oh and two more things: add 1/4 cup more milk as other users suggested and beat every step very well. Thanks for posting this recipes SCOTTOSMAN.

Very nice! I made this recipe 4 times with triple the ingredients each time and it was wonderful. Tripling this recipe makes about 4x9in rounds which is what I wanted. It was also a perfect fit for my kitchenaid mixer (5qt). I did cream the butter and sugar a full 8 minutes before starting to adding the eggs! I baked them at 325deg in a convection oven (since I had 4 pans going) and the time was still between 30 and 45 minutes. I also froze the cakes and they did get a little stiff from freezing (yes..after thawing) but it made for an easy cake to build with and was still a big hit. I also made one triple batch with 2 sleeves of crushed oreos tossed in before baking and WOW..that was awesome.

YUMMY~! I added some red food coloring to make it red and put it in little hearted papers. It came out beautiful. I will use this recipe again and again

Yummy!!! We love it!

This is a very good white cake. I used 3/4 the amount of sugar and sifted the flour before mixing. I did add a bit more milk but I don't think it would have made much of a difference. I made this twice in a matter of days, one with strawberries and cream and the other with blueberries and cream. Delicious. EDIT: I have also made this into 12 cupcakes, baked for 20 minutes. Came easily out of the greased pan.

This was very easy to make and came out wonderfully. I was looking for a nice simple recipe and this really delivered. I'd definitely use this one again. I followed it word for word, except I used almond extract because we'd just run out of vanilla and I hadn't noticed. Still came out very tasty.

This is absolutely the best “go to” cake you can have in your back pocket. Pick a flavor and go with it, pick a frosting and voila. I use this mostly for when I do strawberry shortcake. What I do different is I butter the pan well and then coat it with sugar. So when you take it out the cake is crusted with a lovely layer of sweetness. Then all you need is a dusting is powered sugar or a drizzling of some glaze. Add some freshly whipped cream and some strawberries and it’s the best!

These were not to my liking! I made them for my daughter's first grade birthday celebration at school with pink buttercream frosting. They looked great, but they smelled and tasted like corn muffins. The first grade class didn't like them much either. They licked the frosting off, complained that they smelled like corn. I was very embarrassed. It could have been something I did in preparing them I guess, but I do bake often and I made sure to follow the directions as written and to let the butter cream long enough. We won't be trying these again, and I will make sure to test future recipes before bringing them to school! : )

I give this 4 stars - not as a birthday cake - but a great sweet cake. I made two cakes for my husband's birthday and let him choose which one he thought would make a better frosted birthday cake. He choose the "Heavenly White Cake" (from this website). He said this cake was very good - but had a slight "cornbread-like" consistency. I do agree - but don't let that stop you from making this VERY tasty cake. I would make cupcakes from it - but as a cake - think it would be the PERFECT cake to use as a base for Strawberry Shortcake!!! Will keep this recipe and use again - just not for a birthday cake application.

Totally awesome and super easy! I followed the exact recipe except I made mine rainbow by using gel food coloring, it came out amazing!

This cake is good as is if you whip the eggs and butter long enough, but it could be better. I graduated pastry school and am always on the hunt for a perfect white cake- even in school we use a chiffon cake, which just isn't the same. I would suggest making the following changes: have ALL ingredients at room temperature. The batter will combine easier this way without overmixing. Whip the eggs in a bowl with a whisk first- until they are paler in color. Then add sugar. I also used 1/2 cup oil instead of butter- this makes it more tender since oil is liquid at room temperature and butter is solid at room temperature. Mix in the oil. Then add 3/4 cups buttermilk. Sift together the dry ingredients and add last. I used 1 3/4 cup cake flour instead of all purpose- it will be less "cornbready". Whatever you do, don't overmix after the flour is added. This will make it tough.

EXCELLENT simple white cake. Perfect for cupcakes or layer cake. Variation: I added about 1/2 Tablespoon of finely grated lime zest, 2 Tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice and omitted the vanilla. I've also made it with lemon zest and lemon juice. Very fresh, lively taste with a moist, fluffy texture. I've made in more than a dozen times, with perfect results every time. Recommendation: Beat well after each egg, it really helps to make a wonderful texture. (I used 3/4 cup of sugar instead of the full cup because my frosting is sweet.)

This cake was terrible. For people who can hardly bake, this MIGHT be okay...and it is certainly simple. For people who do bake a lot, try a different recipe. This cake looks nice and it is moist (added milk) but not as moist as the recipes that I always make(my mother's)... The taste leaves much to be desired. I am shocked that this recipe has such high reviews.

I have been using this recipe for about 3 years now. It is really more yellow in color than white. If you want an excellent yellow cake use David's Yellow Cake!!! With a few changes this one can be 5 star add 1 Tablespoon Veg oil and change to 2 teaspoons baking powder and 3 eggs. The original version is a little dry for me. I like this best as cupcakes!

If you find this cake comes out too dense, whip your butter and sugar longer. Sometimes you can whip up to 15-20 min. Then add your other ingredients. This will make your cake light and fluffy

I did not care for this recipe. i followed the recipe perfectly, but my cupcakes had the flavor and texture of dense pancakes. i was trying to make cute cupcakes for my friends for valentines day, and now i have nothing for them. i was very disappointed; i will not make this again.

I tried this cake after reading a lot of good reviews. What a mistake!!! The cake turned baked very evenly and turned out light and fluffy which was good but it tasted awful. I will not ever make this cake again. It is a good thing that I tried this out before using it for a birthday cake!!!

I found this cupcake to be good really. Like other reveiwers I added 30 ml extra milk. The taste was good except that I think I overbaked the cupcakes a tad (no fault of the recipe though). I would make it again for sure.

This cake was absolutely scrumptious! It tasted more like a vanilla cake than white, but I absolutely love this cake!

I have literally tried a couple dozen vanilla cake recipes and this one is simply amazing! It's so tender and moist and light. I made sure to beat the butter, sugar, and eggs forever to ensure a light and moist cake. I will be making this again in a few days for a get together and I know my friends will love this cake!

GRRAAAAEEEEAAATTTT CAKE! TURNED OUT JUST PERFECT. I made cupcakes instead of one big cake...i also devided the batter in half and added cocoa to one half, then i swirled the two halves together! TURNED OUT SUPERB! THNX FOR THE RECIPE! Sam A.

I don't normally review recipes that I've changed, but I think this one is worth it. A friend made me margarita cupcakes for my birthday & I've been craving them ever since. I wanted to use this recipe (since I had no box mix) and make it into a margarita cake. I used less vanilla extract (not a huge fan of it). I made cake flour out of the all purpose and sifted several times, I replaced the milk with Jose Cuervo margarita mix. I always throw scratch mix cakes into the freezer before frosting (it had cooled a bit). I think it keeps them from drying out so much. Scratch cakes are naturally going to be dryer than box mixes (no preservatives). I topped it with a delicious lime cream cheese frosting. It's fantastic!

I usually am a from-the-box cake maker around my house. Usually. I think this recipe is going to change that. While I stuck to the recipe like glue, I have to make an addendum: unless you are using a standing mixer, the extra milk is needed. I slowly creamed the butter/sugar IN the mixer, added the eggs one at a time and waited until the first one was completely blended in when I added the other. This recipe is so amazingly simple, but it requires patience. I love how soft the cupcakes came out and the taste is great. Just remember to BLEND the ingredients - it really should be about the consistency of cool whip, if not marshmallow-y. Now, I have to figure out if I'm even going to bother icing these babies!!!

Wow! You can go either way with this recipe!! I normally use this when I need a simple cake, but this time I also used pineapples and some sprinkles and the result was a great pineapple cake. Great texture, very soft and....gone before I knew it haha! I have a picture so you can see how it looked like!

it tasted really good! i don't think i beat or mixed it long enough because i was in a bit of a hurry so the cake came out a little dense. hopefully my next attempt will be perfect!

I just made this recipe, but having celeacs disease and being lactose-intolerence made it so I needed to make a few ajustments. For one I used almond milk instead of regular milk, and for two I used gluten-free rice flour. With most recipes it dosn't work with those changes, but with this one sure it does! I love it!

This was the very first totally from scratch cake I've ever made. I won't be going back to box after this it was moist and so tasty. My kids even loved it they keep begging me to make another one. I just might.

The cake was soo heavy and I had to cook it twice as long to get the center to cook. And I followed the recipe exactly.

My 7 year old son loves to make this recipe and take it to school. All his classmates love it. It is light and fluffy, and very easy to make. It is absolutely delicious. We usually put a vanilla frosting on it. The recipe calls for 1/2 c. milk, but you may have to use a bit more, to smooth out the batter a little more.

This is easily the best cake recipe I have. It was the first one I ever made from scratch & I havn't found one I like more yet. Simple, quick, & made with things you always have around anyway. One thing to note, although the title says "white cake" it's really vanilla cake. Also, I don't recommend doubling it -- two seperate batches seem to come out better. This is a keeper...and we're *major* chocolate lovers!

Favorite - Easiest - Most Versatile. This is my go-to vanilla cake recipe. I spent years trying to find a great white cake, years of recipes with buttermilk, sour cream, odd extracts, etc... No more searching. I found it.

This was the worst, driest cake I have ever made or tasted. I do not recommend this unless you add oil to moisturize it.

used this to make some cupcakes yesterday. and my mom loved it! :) used 3/4 cup milk instead of 1/2 cup and it turned out so goooood! also colored the mixture rainbow with wilton icing colors. see picture :)

I was craving something sweet but had limted ingreditions because i haven't went grocery shopping yet so i used what i had .And just to let you know this simple white cake was deelish. This recipe was simple and yet tasty.I did let the egg and butter get to room tempature i whip the heck out of the butter and sugar for at least 5 minutes.I sepearted the eggs and egg whites.So i beat the egg yolk for 2 addition minutes the mix should look verypale looking but fluffy.I didn't wanna used all milk so i used half cream cheese and half milk.I did have enough sugar but i thought it might not be sweet enough so i mixed 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup confectioner sugar.i sifted the flour.I add 2tsp vanilla extract 1/2 tsp almond extract and i whipped the egg whites and folded it in the batter at the end. Great Simple White Cupcakes..

I made this recipe exactly as written, except I used margarine because it was late at night and that is what I had. They turned out PERFECTLY!!! I had to make them to add to a batch of cupcakes for my son's birthday that I had made from a box but didn't have enough. So I looked for a recipe and this one looked good and easy. My husband taste tested them and couldn't tell which one was from a box and which one was homemade. I will NEVER use a box again, but I will use this recipe and play with adding flavors, etc. AMAZING recipe - not dry or heavy like a pancake at all!! TOtally light and fluffy and delicious!!!

Can't believe this recipe only has an average of 4 stars. This is hands down the best white cake ever! I have made this DOZENS of times- as a white cake, for cupcakes, as a base for strawberry cake, base for muffins. etc... it is a fantastically rich, dense, moist cake. I don't see how anyone would ever have a problem with this recipe turning out. It has turned out perfectly for me every single time, one of those awesome recipes you know you can always count on!

I believe this is my first review. Had to write. So simple that I literally prepared it in 5 minutes. Butter and sugar creamed with a handheld mixer - 1 minute. Cracked eggs one handed into mixer as beater beat - 30 seconds. Put the beater down to add vanilla - 10 seconds. Dumped flour/baking powder mixture in ALL AT ONCE - 1 minute. Dumped milk in - 30 seconds. Poured into Pam-sprayed and floured pan - 20 seconds. Ok - less than 5 minutes but you can use the excess minutes to mix dry mix and to powder your pan. Toothpick tested at 30 minutes and it was ready! RESULTS: I couldn't wait so I cut it immediately after pulling from oven and place a slice on my plate. AWESOME. I was very surprised at how good it was. I loved it. I will always use this recipe because it's SUPER FAST and super good. If you mess this up then boiling eggs might be a problem for you.

This cake is awsome, I made it for my boyfreinds birthday and everyone loved it. I only made a couple changes after reading a handful of reveiws and those adding more milk and follwing the directions. I also made it into a marble cake... I took about a cup of the cake batter and added 3 heaping TBS of cocao powder and mixed it up really well the added to the batter in the pan. I made a chocolate buttercream frosting to put on top and it tastes sooooo good! I would totally recomend it!

perfect white cake!! very simple to modify, for example I have taken this as a base to what my family now calls "Dee's Signature Chocolate cake" which I just melt down 1/2 bag (sometimes more) of semi sweet chocolate chips and mix in whipping cream and add that to the white cake mix

This is a quick recipe to make. I was looking for a simple cupcake recipe for kindergarten class and this is it. It taste like a sugar cookie in a cupcake form.

I doubled the recipe to make 24 delicious cupcakes. This recipe is the absolute best. I sifted the unbleached all-purpose flour, used 1.5 cups of superfine sugar, and whipped the eggs with the vanilla until light and frothy. I poured unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze (in place of milk) into the egg/vanilla mixture before beating the wet into the dry. For an extra touch, I stuck a sliver of Lindt orange chocolate into the middle of the cupcake prior to baking. Topped with chocolate fudge frosting... decadent.

I was disappointed, it was bland and heavy. I am a experienced baker and followed the recipe. I am going to try again because it had so many great reviews. Next time I will try what others suggest and use 1/2 shortening. I will also double the vanilla or use lemon extract. * I tried this cake again and discovered some tricks. use cake and pastry flour and sift it. The second time it came out light, fluffy and moist.

This cake is FABULOUS!! I substituted buttermilk for milk and made cupcakes. They were so moist and light and gone quickly. I can't wait to try it with a sheet cake.

This is going to be my go-to white cake whenever any recipe calls for white cake. This is AWESOME and no comparison for the package white cake mix. The cake is moist and absolutely delish! I followed the recipe as is and used the batter to make Sweetheart Cupcakes (by Celeste - recipe on this site). I made 18 cupcakes and they were gone in a flash. My cupcakes took about 24 mins to be completely done, and just for the record, I used brown eggs instead of white ones. Thanks a ton for sharing SCOTTOSMAN!! :)

I found this recipe almost 4 years ago and it was so great, I have been making it again and again for birthday cakes. This recipe is awesome just the way it is. However, I recently tried a spin on it that brought it to an even higher level of wonderfulness. I added 1/3 cup of sour cream and substituted cream for the milk - so decadent!

Tasted great and we will make this again.

Cake was too hard when cooled.

I give this 5 stars my whole family and I loved it, it was very moist and sprang to touch. I followed the recipe exactly and made cupcakes. :p

I was worried about making this cake this morning, with so many negative reviews about the cake being very dry and dense and needing more than 1/2 cup milk. I followed the receipe and had more milk ready just in case I needed more. After putting in the 1/2 cup milk, it was so super smooth, there was no reason to add more milk. That surprised me after what I read about the batter needing more milk. I made cupcakes, so, when they cooled off, I had one so that I could finish this review, it was the most perfect, moist cupcake I ever ate!! I really don't understand how so many people can have different opinions, so, don't let this receipe scare away a new "baker" that wants to try this cake! Only different thing I did was use egg whites since I can't have yolks and used Lataid milk since I can't have dairy. Perfect cupcakes!!

I make a lot of cakes as a side business. I use a recipe for all my vanilla cupcakes that is almost exactly like this one. It is quite a heavy and dense cake though and I am making a wedding cake and was looking to have something a bit lighter. I didn't think that this recipe would be since it is all the same ingredients just different measurements, but I thought I'd give it a go. I followed the recipe exact except for two slight variations. I added 1/4 tsp of salt to take the sweet edge off and I sifted the dry ingredients to make the cake lighter. It work awesome. I doubled the recipe and got two 6" round cakes and 12 cupcakes (for my family to eat :) I am very pleased with this recipe. As the old saying goes, Out with the old...in with the new!! NOTE: Be sure to NOT over mix your batter. Only mix until all ingredients are combined plus maybe an extra 30 at the end. I always use REAL vanilla extract. It cost 3x more then artificial vanilla, but makes a HUGE difference in the taste of any cake. Well worth the money spent. Use room temp eggs. This will help with the over all texture of the cake and again makes a huge difference in the quality of your final product.

My boyfriend loved this cake! He said it was better than wedding cake (his fav). I sifted all the dry ingredients & added nearly 1 cup of milk. I think my secret ingredient was: 1 tsp of coconut extract. YUMMY! It's light and fluffy and I dont think i'll have any to take to the office...we're probably going to eat it all today.

I used this recipe to make a 6 layered rainbow cake. I made 2 batches and separated each batch into thirds for coloring and baked in a 9" round pan. (I did cut the baking time down to 20 minutes which was perfect) This cake came out AMAZING! it was the first time I made a cake from scratch and I am sorry I didnt find this recipe a long time ago! I can't wait to try it again, maybe next time with lemon extract instead of vanilla...

I don't know why but these were awful. It was easy to make and looked great when they came out, but they were hard, dry, plain, and had a bad texture. Sorry, but I'll NEVER make these again.

An amazing white cake! I must say, I'm a chocolate cake kind of a person but I thought this might be an interesting cake to try and I followed some of the other reviewers on adding extra milk and vanilla and it was amazing! So good! My boyfriend really doesn't even like white cake but was devouring this one!

I made this cake exactly as posted. Topped it with homemade chocolate fudge butter cream frosting. It was great. My friend (it was her birthday cake) loved it too. I didn't have any of the negative issues posted by other reviewers. The flavor and texture were delicious. The portion is small. I only had an 8x8 pan and it was just the right size. Would suggest doubling the recipe for a layer cake or larger portion needs. Will make again soon!