The Best Classic Yellow Cake Recipe
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A classic yellow cake recipe makes an essential cake recipe for any kitchen. Made of simple ingredients, this makes the best yellow cake for every occasion.
There’s just something about a freshly baked cake topped with swirls of chocolate frosting that brings a smile to my face. Usually, it signals a special occasion, such as a birthday or anniversary, a party of some sort, a celebration. But then, there are times that I think that by the end of a hectic week of my son’s classes and long hours studying, my husband working, and all that goes in and out of a week for any family, the weekend is reason enough to celebrate! Those are the times that I pull out this classic yellow cake recipe that is incredibly moist, tender, and perfect every single time. It’s like the little black dress of cakes – but the favorite one in your closet. You know the one? The one that makes you look slimmer, is the most comfortable and you always get compliments when you wear it out? Yes, that’s like this cake.
Made of simple ingredients, this classic yellow cake recipe is easily one of the easiest cakes to make. This one bowl cake can easily be mixed by hand, hand mixer or even a stand mixer, making it a perfect go-to cake recipe. I love that it is also one that my family calls “the best”!
Here’s my Classic Yellow Cake recipe. I hope you love it as much as my family does!
Classic Yellow Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, , softened
- 2 cups (396 g) granulated sugar
- 4 large (200 g) eggs
- 2 large (28 g) egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon (2.6 g) kosher salt
- 3 teaspoons (12 g) baking powder
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 cups (454 g) buttermilk
- 2 1/2 teaspoons (11.75 g) vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350º F. Prepare two or three 9-inch round baking pans or a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick baking spray or by coating with butter and lightly flouring, shaking away any excess flour and discarding.
- Cream together butter and sugar until a light yellow in color, about 2-3 minutes. Incorporate eggs one at a time, being sure they are fully incorporated before adding the next. Then, incorporate egg yolks the same.
- Whisk together salt, baking powder, and all-purpose flour in a large mixing bowl. Spoon half of the mixture into the butter, sugar and egg mixture and stir until combined. Add half of buttermilk, then add the remainder of the flour mixture followed by the remainder of the buttermilk. Stir in the vanilla.
- Divide the cake batter between the baking pans or pour into the 9×13 baking sheet pan.
- Bake until the cake springs back to the touch and a toothpick or skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, about 25 minutes for two 8-inch pans, 30 minutes for two 9-inch pans, and 35 minutes for a 9×13 baking pan. You can follow my tips for how to tell when your cake is done.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool about 8-10 minutes in the pan placed on a wire cooling rack. Then, turn the cakes out on the cooling rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Enjoy!
Robyn xo
Would this cake work well as a wedding cake. In other words, would it cut cleanly?
Hi Sheron,
I think you could use this recipe for a wedding cake. I know several people, including a pastry chef, have used my Best White Cake (Ever) recipe for wedding cakes if this one does not work as you want it to. My advice is to do a trial run and make the cake just as the layer cake to see how it works for you before making as the wedding cake. Hope this helps!
I’ve used this recipe twice now. My household absolutely loves it!! So yummy and moist! And holds up well for a few days; well, I think 3 is the longest it’s lasted in the house so far. 😀 Thank you!! This has quickly become a staple recipe for birthdays in our house.
Thanks, Rebecca. So glad everyone loves the cake!
??? This is just a general question. How do you determine the amount of batter needed for different size pans. Example; Your Yellow Cake recipe is for 2 9″ pans, but I would like to use it for a 11×15 (I think thats my pan size) sheet pan. Is there a chart that helps with ingredients to calculate how many cups of batter it will make for various size pans. Sorry, I’m a novice baker and still learning. I will post pics in a couple of weeks
Made 24 cupcakes perfectly…golden and delish!
Thank you so much Beth!
How many cupcakes does this recipe make and how long should they be baked in an oven temp at 350?
I have been making this cake for a while with your recipe and it has always come out moist, delicious and it doesn’t over rise, it gives me perfect layers for my cakes! I am actually using your recipe to make a cake for a VIP customer this weekend (www.sugarbread.net/blog) to see who I make it for, but your cake turned out amazing!! I have developed recipes before and I know how long it takes and the time involved so thank you so much for taking the time to do this for us and sharing the fruits of your labor with us!! I think when people measure correctly get their ingredients to room temp, make sure they have fresh ingredients and don’t over mix like most recipes this will come out spectacular! Thanks again!!
Thanks so much Kelsey! I’m so glad to hear that you enjoy the cake! I appreciate you sharing your thoughts! 😉
Success! After reading about the various issues that people had with this recipe, I took a leap of faith and tried it anyway. And I’m glad that I did because it was delicious.
– I used two 9” cake pans that I bought recently. They are made by Nordic Ware and have higher sides than typical round cake pans, so there was no issue with batter spilling over into the oven.
– I had extra large eggs, so I reduced the number of whole eggs by one – 3 whole eggs and 2 yolks.
– The recipe says to stir the dry ingredients together, but I sifted them. This does a better job of aerating the flour and distributes the salt and baking powder more evenly.
– I used buttermilk as called for, but was careful to make sure that it was well shaken. I shook it before pouring out the first cup and adding it to the batter and then shook the bottle again before pouring out the second cup.
– I was surprised at the number of comments complaining about the cake being dense, which is exactly why I wanted to make it in the first place! If you look at the picture of the cake slice you can see that this is a finely textured cake with few, if any, air pockets. This is as it should be since you are not beating the batter, but stirring it. The resulting batter was thick, just as I had anticipated, and the resulting cake dense but not tough.
– I did have to bake the layers for 50 minutes, but did not have a problem with the bottom or sides over cooking. However, I was disappointed that the tops of the layers didn’t brown nicely, but since I was frosting this cake so it really didn’t matter.
I’m so happy you liked the cake, Norma! Thanks so much!
Best cake ever used 13×9 pan had to cook an extra 15 min but I’m in the deep south my flour is always a bit wetter with the humidity.
so soft fluffy and moist this is my new go to yellow cake recipe all the others I have tried are dry.
So happy thank you my niece requested a butter cream frosting I could have eaten it with nothing like a pound cake.
This southern humidity is something for sure, isn’t it, Desiree?!
I’m so happy you enjoyed the cake! Thanks so much! xo
I tried this recipe a couple of years ago and it didn’t turn out for me. Your white cake was fine. Yesterday I decided to try it again. After reading a number of reviews which was about what happened to me I tried it in a 9×13 pan with parchment it rose fine after 38 minutes the top cracked in about 3 or 4 places the stick looked done but where it was cracked looked wet and doughy 10 more minutes then changed to convection for 5 more. Taste great with strawberries and homemade cool whip would also be good with chocolate butter cream icing. I don’t profess to be a professional I’ve been baking since 2013 mainly Coconut Cream Pies and Dream Horns from scratch so if can make this cake anyone can. Oh I’ve tried some of your other recipes which I liked real well.
Baked this cake for my wife’s 72 birthday plus the perfect chocolate buttercream frosting. The recipe is her fav and Wow, like Home Runs and Touchdowns, as name implies “Perfection “. Even I, as a diabetic type 1 had to have 2 pieces! Do you have any guess about nutritional content? Thank you!
I made this and the Best Chocolate Cake for the men’s shelter today. My husband’s group goes there once month to feed the guys. I regularly make your Best Chocolate Cake, everyone loves it. Today was the first time making the Yellow Cake. I asked him to tell me how it tasted. He said, “Yeah, you can make that for me anytime.” It was a hit!
That’s so wonderful to hear, Francine! I’m so happy that everyone enjoyed the cakes! Thanks so much! xo