Name: Best Classic White Cake
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 12 slices
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 ¼ cups cake flour; 1 Tablespoon baking powder; ½ teaspoon salt; 1 ¼ cups buttermilk; 4 large egg whites; 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract; 1 ½ cups granulated sugar; ½ cup unsalted butter 1 stick, softened; 8 oz cream cheese softened; ¾ cup powdered sugar sifted; ½ tablespoon vanilla extract; 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Classic White Cake

There’s only 8 ingredients needed for this fluffy, delicious white cake that bakes up in just 30 minutes! Perfect for a party, in layers, or baked as a sheet cake, it’s great for birthdays or just any day you want cake!

Total 45 minutes

Serves 12 slices

Desserts

American

Jump to the recipe

slice of white cake on a plate with strawberries and a fork

Why this cake recipe is our favorite

This white cake is light and spongy and oh so delicate. It’s great for a bridal shower or a birthday and uses simple ingredients that are probably in your pantry right now. White cake can be dressed up or served with a simple white frosting. I’ve used this same recipe for my pink lemonade cake as well, which is perfect for summer.

RELATED: you might also like this recipe – Strawberry Cake

Ingredients and expert baking tips

labeled ingredients for white cake recipe: cake flour, baking powder, salt, buttermilk, egg whites, vanilla, sugar, butter

I use cake flour, but if you don’t have any you can use all purpose flour by following this calculation. Replace 1 cup of cake flour with 1 cup all purpose flour MINUS 2 tablespoons all purpose flour PLUS 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
If you don’t have buttermilk, you can add 1 tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice plus enough milk to measure 1 1/4 cups.
Some white cake recipes call for whole eggs, which makes no sense to me. That makes it a yellow cake simply because of the yellow from the yolks. Separate the eggs and only use the egg whites. You can save the yolks for making banana cream pie, Key Lime pie, homemade banana pudding, or my white chocolate ice cream!

ingredients for cream cheese frosting: cream cheese, heavy cream, powdered sugar, vanilla

I love cream cheese frosting, but it’s even better when you fold in some whipped cream. I guarantee you will love it!

removing a slice of white cake from platter

How to make this beautiful white cake from scratch

Whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
Whisk together the buttermilk, egg whites, and vanilla in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In mixer with paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer, beat butter and sugar at medium speed for a full 3 minutes, until the mixture is very light.

white cake batter in a bowl with a mixer

Reduce speed to low and gradually add half of the dry ingredients and half of the wet ingredients. When combined add the remaining dry and wet ingredients. Beat until combined, scrape down side of bowl if needed. Beat two minutes more on medium speed to aerate the batter.
Divide the batter between the two 9 inch pans and smooth the tops with a rubber spatula.

two round cake pans with baked white cake

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the cakes are well risen and springy to the touch – a thin knife inserted into the centers should come out clean.
Transfer the cakes to cooling racks and cool for about 5 minutes, then remove from pans, peel off parchment, and let cool completely.

How to make my cream cheese frosting & frost the cake

Using the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, sifted powdered sugar, and vanilla until smooth and creamy. Remove to another bowl and clean out mixing bowl.

stand mixer paddle attachment covered in cream cheese mixture

Switch to the whisk attachment and beat the heavy cream at medium-high until stiff peaks form.

whisk attachment covered in whipped cream

Gently fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture. When most of the cream cheese and whipped cream are incorporated, whisk the frosting together to make smooth, about one minute.

Folding frosting ingredients together in a bowl with a rubber spatula

Place one cake layer onto a plate and spread 1/2 – 3/4 cup of the frosting on top. If you prefer more frosting in the middle, feel free to add more!

two cake layers with cream cheese frosting in between on a cake platter

Place the second cake layer on top of the first, and frost the top and sides of the cake.

frosted white cake on a cake stand with a blue towel and strawberries in the background

How to freeze this cake

This is my favorite white cake recipe. If I’m not making this for a party, I actually make the two round layers but frost them both individually. Then I cut those rounds into triangle slices and place them on a wax paper lined jelly roll pan. That goes into the freezer for a couple hours to set.

white cake slices on a jelly roll pan, frozen cake slices in a freezer bag

Then I remove the frozen slices and wrap them all individually in plastic wrap and store them in a freezer bag. Whenever I want a piece of cake, I remove one, unwrap it while still frozen and place on a plate. In about 20 minutes the cake is thawed out and ready to eat. Delicious!

You can also freeze and thaw the entire cake in the same manner!

white cake with two slices removed sitting on a cake plate

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This recipe was originally published on June 29, 2009 but has since been updated to include helpful tips and new photos.