Using the paddle attachment, mix on a low speed for about a minute until the ingredients are combined (this will prevent the icing sugar from flying everywhere!). So to make this easy buttercream, begin by adding your butter, icing sugar, vanilla and milk to the bowl of a stand mixer. However, if you still want a less sweet frosting, I’d recommend a Swiss meringue or French buttercream. This vanilla buttercream is literally the easiest thing ever! It is an American buttercream so is a ‘sweeter’ frosting, although my recipe does use a lot less icing sugar compared to a regular American buttercream. Allow the cakes to completely cool before frosting. Once the batter is done, evenly distribute it into the two 8 inch cake tins and cook for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Gluten is what gives bread great structure, and although we want SOME structure for cakes, we don’t want too much otherwise it’ll make our cake tough and dense. It’s important to do this step by hand as this will prevent us from overmixing our batter and developing too much gluten. Lastly, add in your remaining dry ingredients and fold through until just combined. Then add in your buttermilk, and fold that through until just combined. So to do this, add in half of your dry ingredients and fold it into the wet mixture until just combined. Now the last step is to fold in our dry ingredients while alternating with our buttermilk. Next add in the vanilla, white vinegar and half a cup of buttermilk, and mix until well combined. This method combined with different ingredient combinations finally led me to this cake – THE BEST VANILLA CAKE I’VE EVER MADE! 😀 I decided to go back to the original mixing method I used for my first vanilla cake, but instead of using my mixer to mix in the dry ingredients, I decided to hand mix the dry ingredients at the end. Sometimes when you know something works, you don’t need to try and be fancy or different to recreate something similar. When I would reduce the fat content, then the cakes would dry out really quickly. I tried with just regular flour too but my cakes kept coming out a little dense. I think the problem was that I was using a cake flour substitute instead of actual cake flour (cake flour is banned here in New Zealand so I use a flour and cornstarch mix instead). I PROBABLY MADE 30 CAKES over the span of a few months trying to get that perfect texture, but I just couldn’t get it right. I read so much about the reverse creaming method and was determined that it would be the new method I use to make my vanilla cake. You then mix the remaining wet ingredients into the flour. This is where you first beat the butter with the dry ingredients and sugar, coating the dry ingredients with a layer of fat which prevents gluten formation. Now for some reason I became OBSESSED with the reverse creaming method. Because many people were struggling with my first vanilla cake recipe, I was determined to come up with another recipe that was simpler, and less dense. When I launched my new blog, my goal was to create simple recipes that people could easily recreate. I’ve tried so many vanilla cake recipes, and even have an old recipe of my own on YouTube! Many of you love that original recipe, but many were also struggling with the initial creaming process because of the high oil content. Why it took me months to come up with this recipe

By being ‘gentle’ with the flour, you’re going to prevent too much gluten from forming (which is great for things like bread, but we don’t want TOO MUCH gluten in a cake!). This recipe uses an electric mixer at first, but when it comes to folding in the dry ingredients at the end, you want to use your hands. Vinegar and buttermilk help to break down the protein in the flour, resulting in a fluffier cake.Īnother factor is the mixing method.

Secondly, this recipe uses oil, vinegar and buttermilk to really amp up the softness! Oil is liquid at room temperature, resulting in a moist cake.

Cake flour has a lower protein content than regular flour, which results in a more tender crumb.

This recipe uses a cake flour substitute (a mixture of all purpose flour and cornstarch – cake flour is actually banned here in New Zealand which is why I can’t just use regular cake flour!).

Well, there’s a few different things at play here! What makes this vanilla cake so soft and moist?

1 layer vanilla cake recipe