Best Homemade Yellow Cake Recipe Ever
A tried-and-true recipe for a classic yellow cake recipe that really is the best yellow cake! Made from scratch, it is tender and so fluffy and moist!
Well, the day is finally here.
As many of you know, I’ve been on a quest to perfect the best yellow cake on the planet.
And this is it.
I’m sitting here wondering why the earth hasn’t stopped moving or why the President has called me personally yet (actually, scratch that, I’d rather have a call from Bobby Flay).
I mean, this is a big day. Monumental, some would say.
But probably only if they are a total baking nerd like me.
So yeah, I’ll stop waiting around for any phone calls.
While this post is a bit involved (I couldn’t help but share the testing results with you!), the truth is, the actual best yellow cake recipe is super simple so don’t let the explanations scare you.
If you follow the recommendations thoroughly, you’ll end up with the fluffiest, most delicious yellow cake ever.
Sidenote
Many of you were shocked when I said I was on version #16 or something like that.
Lemmetellyousomething: the best yellow cake didn’t just fall into my hands easily like I thought it would and I knew I couldn’t give you just an okay yellow cake.
It took a ton of testing and my family and I have eaten more yellow cake in the last couple months than is probably legal.
For some reason, yellow cake is a bit fussier to get just.right then, say, chocolate cake (my most beloved recipe for chocolate cake is a one-bowl recipe where you basically throw everything together without room temperaturing anything and it comes out completely divine).
I’ve been amused by all of you who have left comments and emailed me about what on earth I’ve done with all 16+ yellow cakes; apparently this is a source of much concern.
There were two or three variations that honestly were inedible (either burned or so dry, even my toddler couldn’t choke them down).
The others have been widely shared with friends and company and I even have a few unfrosted layers hanging out in my freezer for when we get the hankering to crumble it up and toss it on some ice cream.
So rest your weary minds: the yellow cakes were well taken care of and devoured, although I don’t think anyone in my family will be requesting a yellow cake for his/her birthday for a long time.
We are a little yellow-caked out.
I’d Be Lost Without Them
A special, super, huge thank you to two very important people (I kind of feel like I’m giving an acceptance speech at The National Convention for Best Yellow Cakes here):
Nicole, a wonderful friend of mine, was the one who finally gave me the insight I needed for the last step in perfecting this cake (a huge blessing because I didn’t know if I honestly had another yellow cake in me and her advice resulted in the.perfect.cake) and Lisa, sweetest sweetie ever, who willingly tested this cake for me (multiple times) in order to provide all you high altitude dwellers with essential tips for success.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
The Evolution of Testing the Perfect Yellow Cake
When I first set out to perfect the best yellow cake, I started with three recipes popular online (David’s Yellow Cake from allrecipes.com, Deb’s yellow birthday cake from smittenkitchen.com and Cook’s Illustrated Yellow Layer Cake).
I made each of them as is. While I am a fan of each of these sites and resources, respectively, the cakes were all lacking to me.
David’s Yellow Cake was a little dry with kind of a weird, spongy texture, the cake from Smitten Kitchen was reminiscent of cornbread and the Cook’s Illustrated yellow cake was by far the driest of them all.
I set about modifying ingredients and amounts and methods and while someone smarter than I probably could have pared the testing down to just a couple of cakes, what can I say, it took me a while.
For all of you interested in the ins and outs of testing, I’ve included probably more details than anyone wants below the recipe.
If you don’t give a hoot (don’t worry, I still love you), the recipe for this best-ever yellow cake is below just waiting for you to make it.
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Ingredients: please read below the recipe for information on specific ingredients. I made and tested this cake over 16 times and have fine-tuned the ingredients and the methods. That isn't to say you aren't welcome to substitute and change, but in my yellow cake experience, this match up creates yellow cake perfection (substituting all-purpose flour, using cold eggs/milk, overly greasy soft butter, and a multitude of other factors can result in a dense, dry cake). Cake Flour: if you are making your own cake flour using one of the two simple methods I posted about, don't worry about making one cup of cake flour at a time, instead, use 210 grams all-purpose flour and 45 grams cornstarch; sift twice. Then add the other dry ingredients and sift once more. For High Altitude: add an additional 2 1/2 tablespoons cake flour before sifting (that would be about 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour and 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch if using a homemade cake flour substitute). Update: I've heard from several of you that while the cake tastes amazing, it is sinking in the middle or is baking flat. I can't analyze the why's too much because it will make my head pop off since I dedicated months of my life to this cake anyway. When I had too much leavening in the cake (2 teaspoons baking powder + 1 1/2 teaspoons soda), the cake rose too much in the oven and then deflated so I scaled it back to what worked perfectly for me. But here's the deal, if you are worried about sunken layers, increase the baking soda. My suggestion would be 1/2 or 3/4 teaspoon. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.Perfected Yellow Cake
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
Recommended Products
Ok, let’s talk…
I’ve jotted down all the details of why the type of ingredients/method matters for this cake. Read on, read on!
I’ve mentioned it before, but I rarely use unsalted butter.
I tested this cake with both unsalted and salted and adjusted the salt amount accordingly. In the end, there wasn’t a difference in outcome, so I stuck with my go-to: salted butter.
I use the Land o’ Lakes brand mostly (sometimes the Sam’s Club brand). If you want to use unsalted butter, increase the salt to 1 teaspoon.
Also, butter temperature really matters. It should be soft enough to gently slide a finger through with a bit of pressure but not sludgy, greasy or overly soft.
The time I accidentally used overly soft butter (uh, it somehow stayed on the counter for, like, 12 hours because even though I love baking, my five kids still take precedence over making a yellow cake), it resulted in a greasy, weirdly spongy cake.
I did not test this cake with margarine, coconut oil, shortening or the like so you’ll have to experiment with those if desired.
Also, whipping that butter for a good 1-2 minutes is extra important. And beating the heck out of it and the sugar for another 4-5 is non-negotiable.
Doing this creates air which helps create fluffiness in the baked cake.
The cake(s) that I tested where the butter was minimally whipped were not nearly as fluffy. And fluffy = greatness.
I know, I know. Using room temperature eggs is a total pain in the behind.
I’m right there with you! I hate recipes that require it. And so when I first started testing cakes, I refused to do it.
And my cakes were looking like this:
So I crumbled, no pun intended, and used room temperature eggs the next time I made a cake and the difference was remarkable.
Light and fluffy where before the cake was slightly dense and a bit crumbly.
There may have been other factors at play, but as I messed around with the recipe, it was very, very clear that room temperature eggs are important.
If you are like me and often forget to plan in advance, don’t fret – place those chilled eggs in a bowl or liquid measure filled with very slightly warm water for 15-ish minutes and you’ll be good to go.
Speaking of the eggs, it was my friend, Nicole (as mentioned above in the post), who encouraged me to scale down the whole eggs from four to three and add an egg yolk or two to replace the missing whole egg – two egg yolks managed to be the perfect answer.
Egg whites add structure but can take away moisture from baked goods, hence the three whole eggs + two egg yolks in the recipe.
Don’t be like me and get tempted to sub a whole egg for the two egg yolks.
You’ll get a pretty decent cake but not a fantastic, best-ever cake. Know what I mean?
I was quite in awe of the difference two egg yolks made.
However, when I used all egg yolks and no whites, the cake was slightly gummy and not as fluffer-fluffy as I wanted.
I was sure that plain old milk was the only liquid I needed in my cake.
At about cake #10, I was fairly positive it needed to be one cup of whole milk, even though the thought made me cringe since I never have whole milk on hand.
However, I knew perfection was the goal so I put my whole milk annoyances behind me and moved on…until my friend Nicole (yes, she’s brilliant and I want to be her when I grow up), helping me troubleshoot my cake conundrums, suggested that a bit of acid in the recipe would create the tenderness I was after.
I was befuddled why I was getting a really, really good cake that was still just so, very slightly dry.
In the end, it wasn’t necessarily dryness but a lack of tenderness I was noticing.
And the adjustment of sour cream to compensate for the reduced milk did just the trick (plus adding baking soda in for the acidity in combination with the already present baking powder, which took a couple rounds because I misjudged the amount of baking soda at first and there was so much leavening power in the cake that it sank in the middle…badly…however, once the baking powder and soda were adjusted accordingly, the cake was magnificent).
The real plus was that after I added sour cream, I used 1% milk instead of whole without sacrificing any moisture or tenderness.
As much as my heart wanted a fabulous yellow cake without having to use cake flour, it didn’t happen.
The cakes I made with all-purpose flour were dry and dense with a much coarser crumb, slightly reminiscent of dry cornbread.
And uh, I don’t want cake that tastes like dry cornbread.
Cake flour is lower protein than all-purpose flour and also has a finer texture (thanks to the starch in it) which results in a much finer crumb in a baked cake. The good news is that even though the recipe requires cake flour, you can make your own (my kitchen tip from yesterday gives you two super easy methods).
If you have a kitchen scale, use it. You’ll get very precise results.
If you don’t have a kitchen scale, buy one. Ok, just joking. Kind of. I know not everyone can do that (but you should really put it on your wish list). If you are measuring using cups, measure with a light hand.
Spoon the cake flour into the cup and gently level off with a flat edge.
For this recipe, if you are making your own cake flour, don’t mess with making one cup at a time, instead, I’ve done the math for you: you’ll need 210 grams of all-purpose flour and 45 grams of cornstarch. Sift it twice. Then add the baking powder, baking soda, salt and sift once more. Make sense?
Also, for high altitude, I’ve got your back. Ok, actually, my friend, Lisa, has your back. She tested this recipe for me – she lives at 5,400 feet elevation.
She made the cake twice, the first time it fell significantly. She added an additional 2 1/2 tablespoons cake flour (if using a homemade cake flour substitute, that would be about 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour and 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch) and the cake baked up perfectly (along with a slight increase in baking time and buttering the heck out of the pans).
This sifting action, called for in the recipe, is in addition to any sifting you may have done if you are making your own cake flour.
You don’t need to sift twice, just give the flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda a quick sift through a fine mesh strainer.
This was one of the last variables to add to the best yellow cake recipe. The last few cakes I made were so good. But just not quite there.
I should have considered sifting earlier on, but again, I was trying to minimize fussiness.
Once I sifted the dry ingredients prior to incorporating into the batter, the results were far superior – lighter and fluffier (let’s see how many times I can use those two descriptors in this post).
Ah, the gorgeous batter. It may look just slightly curdled and that’s ok.
Spread it evenly in the pan (hasn’t been done in the picture, just so you know – don’t leave your batter lumped up like that) and give it a quick tap or light drop on the counter.
When I didn’t do this, there were significant air bubbles in the baked cake. You don’t want to drop it from the rooftop like a crazy egg-drop challenge and you don’t need to tap more than once, just a quick light drop will suffice.
I only ever baked the cake in two 9-inch pans to keep testing criteria similar, however, I think it could also be made in three 8-inch pans.
Cupcakes and sheet cakes will have to be an experiment until someone reports back. I have them on my radar also, but it may be a little while before I actually try them.
As for the cake pans, significant greasing (with butter and cooking spray and possibly flour, too) is needed for the cake not to stick.
I also line the bottom of the greased pan with a parchment round that I’ve cut out and then grease the top of it.
My magic number for baking was right at 27 minutes; however, keep in mind that all ovens vary slightly.
Lisa, my awesome friend who tested high altitude baking for me, needed more like 30 minutes for her cakes (she made the recipe twice).
Phew! I’m tired! If you made it this far, you seriously deserve a big huge kitchen nerd award (from one baking nerd to another).
Now, the big question…
929 Comments on “Best Homemade Yellow Cake Recipe Ever”
This is by far the best yellow cake Recipe I have found.It taste like the yellow cake my Mother use to make for Sunday dinner.I am 67 years old.Thank you.Thank you.
It was so good!!!!! I did a tad less than 1/2 tsp baking soda baked for 28 minutes and was perfect my whole family loved it. It’s not like corn bread at all or too sugary and it’s super light and fluffy just make sure u follow every step exactly and the temperature of ingredients should all be the same. Whipping the sugar and butter for 6 minutes in the beginning seemed long but made it so light and fluffy. Thank you so much!!
My batter was very thick. Thicker than a box mix that would pour easier out of the bowl (I never use boxed mixes myself), but it was very soft and easy to guide out of the bowl with the spatula. Does that sound like the right consistency? I measured everything the way the recipe said, even making my own cake flour using a scale, and all the sifting. I’m using a 9” round pan and a 6” so I hope it turns out!!
Yes, this cake batter is thicker than a boxed cake mix batter. Did it turn out?
Mel —
I’m making an Italian Cassata Cake at the moment (similar to Cannoli Cake) and this is the yellow sponge recipe I’m using as the base. I just pulled them out of the oven a few moments ago and they look beautiful. They did not fall whatsoever. I baked them for 28min and let them sit inside oven turned off for another 2min before taking them out. I used two 9″ Williams Sonoma Goldtouch Springform pans and my trusty Bak-Klene ZT Nonstick Spray (never fails me). Can’t wait to taste this tomorrow when we celebrate my daddy’s 75th birthday. I usually pay a lot of money to have his favorite Cassata Cake shipped from a pastry shop in Baltimore (they only do overnight), but this year I decided to step it up a notch. I think he’ll be thrilled! Thanks for your tireless efforts in perfecting this cake and your graciousness in sharing it with us. Your recipes haven’t failed me yet! God bless.
Hello! I just baked this cake (without altering any quantities of ingredients, I was able to make three 6-inch cakes and 12 cupcakes) and I have to say, it’s delicious! Very moist and it has the perfect “classic yellow cake” taste. I have just one complaint that prevented me from rating it five stars–it’s super crumbly and therefore hard to frost! Even after refrigerating the cake layers to make a “crumb coat” I still found it to be a bit difficult to frost nicely. Any ideas on what could be causing this; perhaps it’s the length of time I shortened my baking times by to account for my cakes smaller sizes? Thank you, Mel!
Hi Katie, if the cakes are super crumbly, it sounds to me like they might have been over baked by a few minutes?
This is an amazing recipe! It works beautifully, and my cake is still moist the next days.
I love this recipe! My husband and oldest daughter ask for it specifically every year for their birthdays and my husband says it is the best cake he has ever had. EVER. Super dense, flavorful…it is great. I have made it 3 or 4 times now and I get the same great results with no modifications, and I live at altitude. I have been baking for a long time and this cake beats all the rest!!
I thought I found the perfect recipe. You put so much work into it. Alas, no. I frosted a cornbread cake. My husband told me to just use a mix next time.
This is by far the BEST yellow/vanilla cake I have ever made. I made it a few years ago, but for some reason I lost it and then I recently found it again. I made it this past Sunday and let me tell you, I frosted it with vanilla ABC and it is soooooo very good! The vanilla comes through so pronounced and pleasantly. Thank you so very much for this wonderful recipe. I will not be using any other recipe for yellow or vanilla cake.
I have made this recipe multiple times per request of people that have tasted it. It has always been perfect. I did just do a sheet cake 11×15. I doubled the recipe. It took 32 minutes. There was a slight dip in it, but otherwise great. Frosting will obscure any of that. Hope that helps.
Late to the party on this one, but this cake is SO good! I made it gluten free with KAF “measure for measure” and cornstarch to replace the cake flour. I got three thick 6 inch layers of this. Baked for about 35 minutes since the layers were tall. No sinking! Seriously so happy to have this recipe in my arsonal. Thank you!
This is the best yellow cake recipe hands down. My search has ended! It tastes just like a bakery cake (but better)…like the yellow cakes from your childhood birthdays!
Great recipe and appreciate all the tips. After reading all of the many many comments, I would think all the failures are “user error” of one kind or another. If the recipe was that bad or incorrect the failures would out pace the successes by a mile. For all those who have the need to post “nasty” comments instead of offering a thank you to Mel for going through the trouble and taking the time to post a recipe for everyone to make and enjoy, a simple “it didn’t work out for me” would do!
I made this cake for my birthday last year. I got a great yellow cake which I had been looking for that didn’t come out of a box. Birthday is tomorrow so planning on making it again. For the life of me I cant remember which chocolate frosting recipe I used. What was this one covered with?
I use this one: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Fabulous recipe! Follow as written….however…I used a 13x 9 pan and it took almost an hour….but that’s ok….wish I could post a photo! This is a bouncy, moist cake
Haven’t made it yet, but can tell it’s a fine recipe. But firstly, what about buttermilk instead of sour cream/milk? Do you know if that would be a better improvement as an ingredient? Great article though and look forward to making it as is. Thanks
I have no clue what these other people are talking about, this recipe is excellent! It turned out beautifully for me and has such a rich flavor. Thanks so much for working so hard on this recipe, it’ll definitely be my new go-to!
Absolutely Delicious! I’m a pastry chef and mastering the perfect yellow cake is always a challenge. The recipes out there are either too dry, cornbread consistency, flat, no flavor etc. I wanted to give this a try because I never use sour cream in any of my cake recipes BUT I have a specific brand that I use with my cheesecakes and when I have switched to a generic brand of sour cream, my cheesecake was terrible. I believe if you use the highest quality ingredients, your product will be exceptional. The brand of sour cream worked SO well in this recipe! Thank you for sharing!
tried this recipe TWICE. both times it turned out nasty. her comment on it “falling” is beyond me… it bakes over, bubbles on your oven floor, and then falls flatter than a pancake.
don’t waste your time on this nasty recipe.
Hi Kristen, sorry to hear this recipe didn’t work out for you. In all due respect, let me point out that it isn’t necessary to create additional profiles with different names and email addresses to also leave “nasty” reviews. I am able to tell from the dashboard that the IP address is the same, so I just went ahead and deleted all the other comments you left. 🙂
How do I bake 2 cake pans at the same time. I see various ways but would like your opinion please.
Is your oven big enough to put the cake pans side by side on the same rack?
worst cake ever, flat, horrible texture, just threw it away
couldn’t agree more. i bake all the time. this recipe is garbage.
Hi Mel,
I made this cake exactly to your instructions. Thanks for the detailed analysis of common changes and how they affect the outcome. I was convinced! The cake turned out perfectly. The only change I was forced to make is that the baking time needed about 10 more minutes – I’m assuming that my oven needs calibrating. I look forward to checking out other recipes from your blog.
Thanks for all your hard work Mel! Delicious ! Made it with a pastry cream and strawberries between layers and topped it with cream cheese frosting and strawberries !
I will keep this in my rotation ☺
Quick question. Have you tried 1 cup of buttermilk in place of 1/2 c milk and 1/2 c sour cream? I will try it with the sour cream since this will be my first go, but just curious, as I usually have buttermilk on hand.
I haven’t tried it with buttermilk but I believe others have.
I didn’t have cake flour, sour cream, or milk. Look at the “do not substitute” note and tried it anyways. So good, fluffy and moist!
My substitutes: vanilla greek yogurt, sugar-free vanilla almond milk, all purpose flour/corn starch combo. Reduced vanilla to 1/2tsp, removed 1 tbsp of sugar, and 1/2 tsp of soda.
Hello, Mel! I have tried previous recipes of yellow cake and they all seem to have the texture of cornbread, very disappointing. When I tried your recipe, I knew when I pulled it out of the oven that is was going to be delicious as it looked moist and fluffy. Well, let me tell you, your recipe was AMAZING! I am so happy because I made it for my sister and brother-in-law’s birthdays this past weekend. Their upcoming birthdays are back-to-back Oct 13/Oct 14 and have been married over 35 years. The cake was beautiful and made the event extra special. All the guest enjoyed it.
I doubled the recipe, used 8-inch pans, and put about 2-1/2 cups of batter in each cake pan. I followed all your suggestions. Brought the eggs to room temperature and also the mixture of milk and sour cream to room temperature. Used 3/4 tsp baking soda. My cake turned out moist, fluffy, and rose perfectly. I did add colored sprinkles to the cake per my sister’s request. I used baking strips so the sides of the cake did not turn brown. After the cake was completely cooled, I wrapped it in plastic wrap and left it out until I was ready to frost the next morning. I did not refrigerate it.
I would of made your recipe for buttercream frosting but had to use a different recipe that used shortening (for stability) and powdered because the weather here in Cali was a bit warm for buttercream.
Thank you, Mel, for all your hard work and sharing your tried and true recipe for yellow cake! Finally a yellow cake that I can be proud of giving to family and friends.
Wow, wow, wow! This cake is pure perfection! My family loved it. The only thing I did differently was I increased the baking soda to 1/2 tsp (pursuant to your notes). Thanks to all your hard work, I have found my go to yellow cake recipe.
I am anxious to try this recipe! I am a very beginner baker so I have a very basic question. If I am not able to bake the cake on the same day that I want to serve it can I make it a day ahead of time? Would I frost the cake and store it covered for 24 hrs?
Yes, you can frost a day ahead of time. There’s always a risk the cake may dry out a little (I recommend leaving it at cool room temperature vs refrigerating it).
Warning to all cake bakers out there: DO NOT refrigerate your cake! I’m so sad! I made this cake yesterday to serve to house guests tonight. In my ignorance I refrigerated it thinking that was the best way to keep it. Even though I took it out of the fridge a couple of hours before I served it, it was dry-ish and dense. Very disappointed that I ruined this cake’s texture. Arghhhh!
I had been so excited to test this cake out and see what all the fuss was about. Oh well, I guess I’ll need to make it again, right? Thank you, Mel, for your meticulous work to help us be amaze-balls in the kitchen! 🙂
A follow up note: after the cake warmed up on the counter overnight, it was much softer and lighter in texture. So…yay! Great cake! 🙂 Thanks, Mel!
Looks like my previous comment didn’t post. It went something like…Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! Definitely one of my ULTIMATE “Go-To” recipes. PERFECT every time! Couple of questions: Can the sour cream/milk combo be subbed with buttermilk? Can I bake a day ahead and stored in a Ziploc or container on the counter until ready to assemble? Have you tested doubling the recipe or do you recommend not doing so? Thank you
One more question…Have you tested doubling the recipe or do you recommend not? Thank you
I haven’t tried doubling – sorry!
Thank you Thank you Thank you…This recipe is a LIFE SAVER & my ULTIMATE “Go-T0”!!! Only one question, Can the sour cream/milk combo be subbed with buttermilk? Also, is it OK to bake a day ahead and store on the counter in a Ziploc or container until ready to assemble?
Way to sweet. Baked fine but this cake was so sweet without icing on it even my wife a self admitted sweets fiend said its to sweet. I ended up tossing it out and going with a recipe I’ve used before. Nice crumb and cake structure just cut the sugar back way back.
My kids and I baked this for my husband’s birthday and it was delicious, light, and beautiful! We followed the room temperature directions and used the exact amount of measurements as the recipe originally states. Do not underestimate the importance of using cake flour. We do not have a scale, though, so we were unable to weigh ours. What we did do was lightly spoon the flour into our measuring cup and level it off at the top.
Also, we used three cake pans to create three layers and 22 minutes was the perfect baking time. We just made sure the tops started to get a golden light brown before pulling them out. Be sure to let them cool for a while before trying to pull them from the pans! We live in Ohio and it’s summer time (88 degrees) and we had air conditioning on in our house. Hopefully this helps someone out there gauge their cooking time.
Frosting – we used the whipped chocolate buttercream frosting of Mel’s and it was delicious! I do think I’d like to try one that uses cocoa powder rather than melted semi-sweet chips next time just to see which one we’d prefer. The quantity her recipe makes was the perfect amount for our three layer cake.
Thanks again Mel for yet another wonderful recipe with excellent instructions!
Thank you for all your hard work in cake experimentation!
I made this cake for my birthday and it really is the best yellow cake. It was a slice of heaven in my mouth, fluffy, moist, tender, and delicious. Topped mine with strawberry buttercream frosting instead of chocolate frosting. Followed the directions very closely and it came out perfect. I made sure my ingredients were room temperature and weighed out the cake flour and sugar for accuracy.
I feel bad for all the people whose cake didn’t come out the best it could. For reference, the day I baked the temperature was about 77 degrees Fahrenheit (probably hit 80 degrees in the kitchen at some point); couldn’t find the humidity for that specific day, but the average daily humidity for that month is 60%; and the elevation I bake at is 942 feet (287 meters).
Like I mentioned above, I made sure my ingredients were at room temperature, paying extra attention to the butter to make sure it didn’t get too soft or greasy (I actually stuck the butter back in the fridge for a little bit because I felt like it was getting too soft before the eggs, milk and sour cream were ready). I weighed out the cake flour and sugar on a digital scale to be as accurate as possible. I used whole milk and regular sour cream. I stuck with the 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda. I used an electric hand mixer; I don’t have a stand mixer, but I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to whip it well enough with just my muscles and a spoon. I never put the cake in the fridge in order to keep it moist and soft days after baking (I kept the leftovers in the microwave on a plate with some plastic wrap on the exposed, unfrosted parts, lol).
Hopefully this information helps someone figure out what variables caused their cake to not come out as well as they had hoped!
Again, thank you for this magnificent cake.
I was very excited to a make this cake! The directions were thorough and the reviews were raving, I though it the perfect recipe to try for my mother’s 58th birthday (she requested yellow cake with chocolate frosting- perfect!)
However, after following the directions very precisely I wasn’t thrilled with the results. The cake LOOKED beautiful, it was fluffy without leavening and just the right gold color, but when we all dug into our slices, the family consensus: “dry”. A slight cornbread-y texture as Mel had mentioned of other cakes.
Now I do not blame the recipe, as it has seemed to work for many others. So I am hoping I can get some feedback on how to fix this problem? I do live at high altitude (in Denver, 5280) I followed the high altitude recipe with the extra cake flour, and upped the baking soda to 1/2 tsp as baked goods in my oven usually have a bit of a sinking problem (although second guessing myself now… if I may have confused the baking soda and baking powder, could that have been the problem?). I found that mine did not need 30 mins to cook, and looked ready to go at about 27 mins. I also make the cake the day before, not sure if the moisture just left my cake more quickly than the traditional baked good?
Thanks Mel for taking the time to perfect this recipe! I am hoping to get mine up to your level!
Hi Madeline – I’m sorry the cake was a bit dry. After reading your comment, there may be a few things that could help. First of all, adding the extra flour can help the cake rise properly for high altitude from what I’ve read (and not sink like cakes are prone to do at high elevations), but it can also create a drier texture because of the extra dry ingredients. If you aren’t sure about the baking soda and baking powder, that might also contribute, but I don’t think that would be a main factor (especially if the cake rose fine). It also could be that the cake overbaked by a few minutes. I’ve read online that cakes can bake more quickly at high altitude. Even over baking by a minute or so can change a moist and tender cake texture into a dry texture – and if you served this the next day, that could definitely be why. Did you refrigerate the cake overnight? Refrigerating without a layer of frosting can dry cake out significantly if it isn’t the type of cake that is going to be warmed up to be served (like a pudding cake or something).
Lol to Zeena’s sad cake below…
I made this cake for my mom’s 61st birthday just earlier this month, and followed every detail in the recipe + studied all the tips. I love cooking and bake every now and then, however I’ve never baked a cake from scratch before and it came out great! Fluffly, rich, flavorful and not too sweet, and definitely MOIST.
For my filling I made an ube spread/ube halaya (okinawa yams) with butter + coconut condensed milk. And decorated the cake with fresh whipped cream.
Definitely making this recipe again for my own bday soon, I want to try topping it with a mango based filling. Thanks for this recipe Mel!
Cheers
Hi, Mel.
Over the last six months I have seen this recipe in “the best cakes cupcakes” section several times. I had even read the narrative about your experience and the recipe directions a couple of times. Finally, I got up the courage and decided to make it yesterday evening. I followed the recipe exactly from making the cake flour, softening the butter, getting the eggs to room temperature, etc. The one adjustment I made was that I added 1/8th teaspoon baking soda for a total of 3/8 teaspoon baking soda. The cake was beginning to look done at 20 minutes, but I followed your advice and resisted. I waited until 25 minutes and then did the toothpick test. Perfection! I cooked the cake for 10 minutes, put a cooling rack upside-down on the cake pan, and flipped it. It was beautiful! I usually just deliver my victorious spoils of baking to friends, but this time decided to try it first myself. I made my buttercream frosting and frosted the cake. I tasted it and it turned out great! It was light, fluffy, moist, and didn’t sink in the middle. Since I used a dark metal 9-inch round pans, the only change I will make for next time is to flour the pan after spraying it with Pam. Thank you for another spectacular recipe, Mel! Also, I loved the “OK, LET’S TALK . . .”. Of course, this is coming from the baking nerd who calculates out the surface area of the cake surface to be frosted in order to determine what percent of the frosting I made should be for the middle layer of the cake, for the top of the cake, and for the side of the cake. 🙂
When I first read this article, I thought that this would be the perfect cake. I bake a bunch by following many recipes that my father provides me (he’s a chef) and they tend to be successful, and I also follow many online recipes as well which turn out successful too.
Last night was my husband’s birthday and I wanted to bake a cake for him on my own, so I did my research and found good reviews on this cake and went with it.
The cake was NOTHING like described. I did every single thing as recommended, and it turned out very squishy (not fluffy at all). It looked very, very odd but did have flavor. I cannot deny that the flavor was good (of course it tasted good since anything with sugar tastes good, right?)
I am very disappointed because I was extremely excited to make this cake.
It is nothing like advertised.
Please, whoever reads this comment, do NOT follow this recipe because you will be disappointed and have a cake that looks like a rotten sponge.
P.S. I honestly never leave comments but I am so aggravated right now because I felt deceived.
Do you think it’s possible your butter might have been overly soft? I am planning to make this recipe and have been reading it carefully and Mel suggests that overly soft butter might make a spongy cake! I don’t always take stuff like ingredient temperature too seriously but given your unlucky results and Mel’s warnings I am going to be vigilant. Hopefully I have better luck. Hope the rest of the birthday was nice.
I’m sorry that your cake didn’t come out the way you expected. Is it possible that you had a measuring error?. I am a seasoned baker and (unfortunately!) still make the occasional rookie mistake. I have made this recipe four times and have found success each time. It’s my opinion that this is a great cake. It comes out fluffy and beautiful each time.
couldn’t agree more! this recipe is HORRIBLE!!!!! i made it twice, and am beyond annoyed.
This is an excellent recipe! I’m a novice cake baker (I’m more into breads and other desserts) and some of the cakes I’ve made in the past haven’t been great. This one- with all the specific directions- came out amazing. Fluffy, rich, moist, great flavor and texture. Followed all the directions exactly.
Do you measure the cake flour and then sift, or sift first and measure second?
I use the weight measures so I weigh the amount of cake flour needed and then sift with the baking powder and baking soda.
I was craving the yellow box cake that I grew up eating. This was that and even better since it’s from scratch! I will definitely be making this again – perfect texture and flavor! Though next time decrease the sugar a little for my personal preference. I felt lazy and didn’t want to make a layered cake so I put it in a 9×12” pan. The only thing I had to do was halfway through the baking turn the temp down to 325 so it would cook in the middle and not burn on the sides. Ended up baking perfectly fine and moist!
You’re right, I used a 13x 9 pan and it baked almost an hour….I had to put a foil over the top during the last 15 minutes
I was thinking of making this cake and I only have 9″ darker ceramic pans. Will these work?
I’m worried those might over bake the edges too quickly – if using them, you might want to decrease the oven temperature by 25 degrees.
Hi so I am going to make this, but I need to make it in a 9×13 pan, so would I half the recipe, or……?? Thanks
The recipe should fit just fine in a 9X13-inch pan (lots of people have commented indicating they’ve done that with good results).
I can NOT say enough good things about this cake! I made my own cake flour with the “scale” method included in the recipe. All ingredients were room temp. I baked it in 2 – 9” pans that were greased and floured for 25 minutes. Cakes released nicely. The cake is light, flavorful and so moist. I topped it with chocolate Swiss merengue buttercream and it made the perfect birthday cake for my sweetheart. This will be my go-to yellow cake recipe.
Shiela, what recipe for chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream did you use?
My SO’s birthday is today and yellow cake with chocolate icing is his favorite too.
Hanna…I’m so sorry that I never saw your question. I’m about to bake this cake again and was refreshing my memory about this cake. Here is my Swiss Meringue go-to recipe. Be sure everything is room temp. It’s light, fluffy and delicious!
https://pin.it/7uGA5EP
I tried this yesterday. The flavor is spot on, but I didn’t get much rise. I’m going to try again with the the suggested increase in the baking soda.
I might separate all the eggs, beat the 3 whites to soft peaks and fold them in at the end.
Hey!! Slim chance you’ll reply to this before I make it, but… do you think it’ll be ok to make 3 layers in 9 inch pans? I have a scale so I plan to make them completely even. I’ll definitely watch the time and test them sooner. I just want to make sure I have 3 layers bc I’m using a raspberry filling in between layers and want there to be more than one!
Yes, that should work!
Made this yellow cake today “to the letter” have to say it is truly the best I’ve tasted, and I’m not young. I iced it with Italian meringue buttercream so it is beautiful to look at as well. Thanks.
This was my first time making a yellow cake from scratch, and I was delighted that it came out amazing! I made it on a 13×9 cake pan with no problems. Thanks so much for the recipe and ahell the time and effort that went into it!
Where is the yummy looking frosting recipe that’s on this cake? I need it all!
Here it is: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
This is the best homemade cake I have ever made. I did 3, 8-inch cake pans and they were perfect at 23 minutes. I also swapped vanilla for almond flavoring and then iced it with seven minute frosting and covered it in shredder coconut. INCREDIBLE! I cannot tell you how good it feels for a homemade cake to finally turn out:) thank you so much for the recipe
We decided to make this cake just because … quarantine is hard. My 7 yo helped and we had so much fun making it. But eating it was even better. Even the baby said mmmmmmm while eating. Pure delight! We used vanilla Italian buttercream and piped a tooth on top since the tooth fairy is also physical distancing. Thank you for this recipe!! I will make again and again and again.
Thank you for sharing this recipe with all of us. I have made this cake couple times. By far, this is the most perfect yellow cake I have ever tasted. Can I substitute the flour with gluten-free flour? I am wondering if I need to adjust the measurement in this recipe. Do you have any tips by any chance? Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Hi Nixie – I haven’t tried this with gluten free flour so I’m not sure – I think others have commented below with GF results!
So, so good. I made this cake last year for my hubby’s birthday. His favorite cake has always been yellow w/chocolate frosting (out of the box). Now that I’ve made this for him I’ll never be able to go back to a boxed cake mix again! So worth the extra effort. I also make your “The Best Vanilla Buttercream Frosting” for all my birthday cakes. It is just as amazing!
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday. It was soft, moist (but not mushy), with the perfect crumb – not too loose or delicate, but not too dense. Flavor was really good, but you do taste the egg. I used a generic frosting recipe, which was just okay. This is the first time I liked the cake better than the frosting!
Can I use half and half rather than milk?
I haven’t tried that but you could experiment.
Salted or unsalted butter? Which do you use?
I use salted butter
This is a great recipe and I loved all the details in the instructions. Cake has a fluffy moist crumb. I made it in a 13×9 pan and baked a little longer. About 33-35 mins. Thanks so much for doing all the trial and error for this great final recipe. I will have to try the lemon version that another reader did.
I made this for my husband’s birthday last week (during Coronavirus quarantine) and it was FANTASTIC! Our family of 3 at the whole cake in 48 hours . Thank you for helping to make a birthday during a tough time very special.
This was a very easy recipe to follow and the final product tasted amazing! I made a lemon cream cheese frosting for it and added some lemon zest and juice to the batter – my family devoured it! Will definitely make this again, thank you for sharing your recipe.
Do you think I would be able to use recipe as is for 13×9 pan ilo 2 nine inch rounds?
Yes
I made it in 13×9 for my oven was about 33 – 35. Came out great! What a great recipe. Thanks much.
I want to try this cake recipe, but I don’t have sour cream. Is that a deal breaker? I do have buttermilk…
You can definitely try buttermilk (I think others have tried it in place of the sour cream and milk)
I love this recipe, I’ve made it many times. I want to add chocolate chips to the dough, when and how much do I add? Please let me know. Thank you, I love your recipes!!!
I haven’t tried that, so you’ll have to experiment. I don’t want to lead you astray. Good luck!
Getting ready to make your cake. – one question, though…I often use the bake-even strips around the cake pans while baking. Would you recommend against this in light of some comments of the cake falling? Or do you think it might in fact help?
I don’t think it would be a negative thing, Nancy – I haven’t used them for this recipe, but I think you could try!
Love your helpful hints. I usually just jump to the recipe but I read yours and just wanna day thanks!
Oh my goodness! Was looking for a fluffy yellow cake recipe to make some chocolate chip cupcakes. I hit the jackpot! Just took them out of the oven and broke into a piping hot one (yes – you should let them cool down…oh well!) So amazingly fluffy, perfect sweetness, and the chips so melty and gooey! The recipe made a dozen regular size cupcakes, plus 24 mini cupcakes and some left over for a little three inch cake. Thanks for the perfect cake for the perfect chocolate chip cupcake!
Correction – I made this recipe times 1.5 – not doubled but 1 and 1/2 times the recipe. Hope that makes sense.
I followed the recipe to a T and both my cakes were terribly fallen in the middle. A total fail. Feel quite ripped off after all the hoopla. Have been baking for decades and have never had a cake turn out like this.
Try cupcakes – they are amazing! I bake ALOT and this is the best yellow cake recipe I have ever baked.
Omg, there is ALWAYS one.
The cake was the best I’ve ever made! I would also love to have the frosting recipe that is in the picture. Thank you for sharing with others. You never know how many people are blessed by good food.
Here you go! https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
What recipe do you recommend for frosting?
Yes will make it this weekend GA
I just attempted this and forgot to add the salt. Is it going to be terrible??
A wonderful recipe!
I made three 9 in layers and baked for 22 mins
I also used buttermilk instead of milk.
Delicious.
Moist and light❤️❤️❤️
I baked this cake using the exact ingredients and it turned out perfectly. So light and fluffy and a great taste. Thank you for sharing.
I am using to make cupcakes. I like my cupcakes to be very moist. I cook them 17-18 minutes. This is a good recipe but just wondering if you had any tips on how I can get them to be more moist? I followed directions exactly. I didn’t even measure out flour and sugar, just weighted them as the recipes states. When I measured the weight was actually all over the place.
Just made this recipe for cupcakes and they came out so beautifully! The texture of the cupcake was right on.
It made around 30 cupcakes and I use buttermilk instead.
Thanks for all the hard work put into finding a great recipe!
I’ve now used this recipe several times and love it! I’ve read your notes and some of the comments about the cakes overflowing or falling in the middle and I have an observation to add. Altitude! I can NOT use cake flour at altitude in any cake recipe. I’ve tried many and they all have the same result…overflowing or falling in the middle. I just substitute all purpose in all recipes and they bake up just fine. I don’t make any other high altitude adjustments.
Anyways, I glanced through the comment thread, but didn’t see anyone else with this observation so I thought I’d add it.
Love the recipe!!! Tried at least 10 yellow cakes, and this is by far the best.
Hi this recipe looks awesome. I love all of the detailed explanations.
I am making a tiered cake. How much of this batter should I make for a 6”, 8”, and 10” cake pan (all my pans are 2” tall) ? I would like to know how much batter should go in each pan basically. Also, , should I adjust time or temperature for these sizes?
Thanks so much for putting in the time to research all of this for a perfect cake so that we that make it don’t have to
The recipe makes enough for two 9-inch pans so you’ll probably need a triple batch to fill up those pans…but that’s just a guess. Fill them about halfway full. And yes you’ll need to keep an eye on the time!
Made this today for my brother’s 71st birthday. Beautiful texture and flavor! The “topper” was chocolate sauce to pour over it made by our 92 year old mother, who got her recipe from the label on Hershey’s cocoa 60+ years ago! Thank you for something ‘new’ to go with the ‘old’.
That sounds lovely! Do you have the recipe from the chocolate sauce that you topped your cake with? Thanks!
Hi, do you think buttermilk could be used to replace regular milk and sour cream? Would I have to use equal amounts?
I haven’t tried that, but you could experiment – yes I’d use an equal amount of the total sour cream + milk in the recipe
Looked all over for a yellow cake recipe for my husband’s birthday. He requested a yellow cake with chocolate icing. Needless to say, this recipe did not disappoint. I followed it exactly as written and my husband LOVES it. The chocolate buttercream icing is delish as well! This recipe will definitely be added as my go-to yellow cake recipe. Thank you for all your trial and error to make this perfect.
After trying to make a most basic delicious yellow cake and failing i was somewhat upset and made it my mission to find a good recipe. This cake is incredible, absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing, and for taking the time to perfect it. Which you have.
What’s your recipe for the chocolate icing?
Here you go: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Do you think it would be ok to substitute Greek yogurt for the sour cream?
I haven’t tried that but you could experiment.
Hi,
I was hoping you could tell me where I may have gone wrong. I will say that I used microwaved soft butter and cold eggs. The cake was good but it came out very dense like a pound cake. It was not light and fluffy. Did the eggs or too warm butter cause this? Please let me know thanks.
Hi Megan, if the butter was too soft and the eggs cold, it could definitely have impacted the texture. Room temperature eggs and cool room temperature but not overly warm butter is really important for this recipe. Also, overbaking or over mixing can make a difference too
I looked up this recipe under the category high altitude cake recipes. This will be my first time baking at 10,000 feet. There is no mention of high altitude in the recipe and comments. Will this recipe work at 10,000 feet?
I’m sorry, Nancy – I don’t know! Chances are it’ll need some high altitude tweaks. I don’t live at high altitude so I can’t say for sure exactly how it will fare at that elevation. Good luck!
LOVE IT! SADLY, I didn’t have sour cream so I substituted with 2 oz of cream cheese and it makes me excited to try it with the sour cream but it was last minute for my son’s school and all the stores are closed. This cake was a perfect amount of crispy barely around the The edges and super soft.we had to use the rest of the next time a cake for home and we ate like a half of it that night. Which we should have but my gooooddnessss this cake was good
I have tried so many recipes trying to find the perfect cake which has the same perfect result every time. Success at long last, thank you ever so much for this delicious, fluffy, moist & best of all tastes great. I needed three, three layer cakes this weekend that I’m donating to a local church fair to help raise money. Selfishly, I also wanted to make the best cakes possible to show off my talent and possibly drive up some business.
I doubled your recipe & evenly divided the batter into three ten inch pans. I’m very aware of the great results when parchment paper is used, I just hate missing with it when fitting to a cake pan. Somewhere I read of someone using shorting instead of butter, I took a chance & also flowered the pans. The cakes released flawlessly to my happy surprise. I also used my (sorry, don’t know the proper name) moistened pan wraps to help keep the cakes level. Nine perfect cakes in a row and all perfectly level, can not thank you enough for the perfect fail safe & repeatable cake recipe, I’m so happy and can’t thank you enough!
I made this cake for my daughter and husbands birthday and it was amazing.
I followed the directions to the T and it was incredible. My daughter requested Strawberry whipped cream frosting with the delicious yellow cake and it was delish.
Thanks for another incredible recipe. 10 stars for this recipe.
This cake is AMAZING!! I am having about 25 guests over on Tuesday so I was thinking of making 2 of them. Do you think it would be best to just wait until Monday to bake them or do you think they will still be fresh if I made them on a Sunday? Thanks for all your tips. This is my husband’s FAVORITE CAKE!!
I would definitely try to make them Monday if you can!
Has anyone tried to freeze this cake once baked? I want to make for my son’s birthday but we will be traveling so need to make during week but serve on Saturday. I read your comment it is best day of…
Yes, it freezes great. (I’ve only frozen it unfrosted).
OMG…Thanks you for all your trial and error. I follow your recipe and I made one of my best cakes ever.. again thank you for sharing I didn’t have any sinking and My cake was beautifully perfected in 27 minutes.
Hello Mel. Your scientific presentation to baking is spot on and quite warranted! Baking is a science much more so than cooking! I am eager to try out your recipes but rely on aluminum free baking powder. Have you tested this version against the traditional version in terms of performance and quantity? Thanks!
Hi Tom! I haven’t tested aluminum free baking powder but I’m hopeful it will work just fine in this recipe. Sorry I’m not more help!
Hi Mel, thank you for the detailed description of the ingredients and how to use them. I am going to bake this cake today for a friend’s birthday and am super excited. I have very less experience in baking and want to bake this perfectly as I have a reasonably large audience (peer pressure. hehehe)
I was wondering if instead of baking in 2 different cake pans as I have only one, can I bake it in a single 9inch pan and then cut it in the middle?
Please let me know if it’s possible and what adjustments will I have to keep in mind for that.
Thank you!
I’m afraid that if you bake all the batter in one 9-inch pan it will overflow. It would be best to bake two separate batches.
This cake is absolutely fabulous. Thank you soooooo much for sharing. Though I am very busy and work 3 jobs I love to treat my loved ones to only the best on their birthdays. I have made it for my daughter’s birthday and it is now my go to recipe whenever I have a crowd to impress. I always share your story of perfecting this masterpiece. Kudos to you, I take my hat off. I also have done this to perfect flan which is my personal favorite. You are not alone my friend. It takes a special person to give their loved ones the absolute best thing they can get which is your time and a moment shared with this divine treat..
My first yellow cake from scratch was dry and blah. I was so bummed as it was the first birthday cake I ever made for my (new at the time) husband. The next year I went searching and researching and finally found this recipe…..my husband was flabbergasted! Said it was the best birthday cake ever. I have made it every year since (5 years!) and once in a while throughout the year. This cake, with the chocolate buttercream frosting, is amazing. I followed the recipe to a T and my cake looked just like her pics:) Thank you so much for this recipe! I thought after this many years….I should probably say something. Totally a keeper. Don’t even look anywhere else!
Hi Mel, I’m wanting to make this cake for my daughter’s birthday. She wants a rainbow cake so I was planning on doing a double batch and then making each layer a different color. Do you think mixing in food coloring will be too much mixing and ruin the texture of the cake?
I’ve actually done the same with this cake a few years ago helping a friend make a similar sounding cake for her daughter. It definitely did make the cake texture a little less soft and tender…but the kids didn’t seem to notice. 🙂
This cake recipe looks delicious! Can’t wait to make it this weekend. How thick are the layers when using the 9″ rounds?
1 1/2 to 2 inches
At the moment I’m unable to access cake flour. What amount of all purpose flour would I use for this cake. Thank you so much for sharing!!
Do you have cornstarch? If so, you can make your own cake flour: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/kitchen-tip-how-to-easily-make-your-own-cake-flour-two-methods/
I baked this delicious yellow cake today, flavor is great.
I increased the baking soda to 1/2 teaspoon to prevent the cake from sinking. It still sunk somewhat so next time I will increase to 3/4 teaspoon. I did bake it as a 9×13 and increased the time an extra 5 minutes.
Hi, do you have a good fudge chocolate frosting recipe for this cake?
This is my favorite chocolate frosting for cakes:
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Thank you! I’m making this for myself today as Birthday treat. Thank you
Hi there,
I tried out your yellow cake recipe today! I used whole milk and followed the instructions to a T. The cake tasted so great however my cakes didn’t rise flat instead they sunk in the middle? Any ideas as to why. I made sure not to overheat the batter and I even folded near the end. Any advice would be appreciated!
It sounds like they might have needed a few more minutes of baking (did they sink during baking or after you took them out of the oven?).
I did put it in the oven few minutes longer the cake was fully cooked through just sunk in the centre. The cake didn’t rise right while it was baking. I was keeping a close eye on it and it didn’t look right as it was baking. It’s really a bummer because the taste of the cake was so good!
This is the best yellow cake I’ve ever had! It’s very soft but it’s sturdy enough to be stacked. It’s not hard to make and uses ingredients I always have in my kitchen. I love that the recipe is for 9” cake pans (my standard) and I made 1.5x the recipe and baked it in three pans. The layers were the perfect thickness for a layer cake. I can’t say enough about this amazing cake. Thank you for a fantastic creation!!
Hi Mel! Would using 6 inch cake pans work and if so, would you recommend I make 3 6-inch layers or 4 6-inch layers?
Thank you!
Hi Dana – I would probably suggest three 6-inch layers if the pans are 3-inches tall, if they have shorter sides, I’d go for 4 layers.
Thank you! Should I adjust the oven temp?
No, I’d leave it the same.
Hi this recipe looks awesome. I love all of the detailed explanations.
I am making a tiered cake. How much of this batter should I make for a 6”, 8”, and 10” cake pan (all my pans are 2” tall) ? I would like to know how much batter should go in each pan basically. Also, , should I adjust time or temperature for these sizes?
Thanks so much for putting in the time to research all of this for a perfect cake so that we that make it don’t have to 🙂
This is a fabulous cake! Made 2 last weekend for 2 special birthdays. Use disposable 9×13 pans for transport. Baking time was approximately 35 min…..They were perfect! Iced them with dark chocolate buttercream frosting. Best yellow cake recipe I’ve ever tried. This is DEFINITELY a keeper. Thank you!
First time making a scratch yellow cake and it was absolutely delicious! Followed the instructions to a T! Made this for testing purposes so I did 2 6” rounds (baked for about 20-25 min) and some cupcakes (baked for about 18 min). This will definitely be my go to yellow cake recipe! Thank you for all of your work and testing!
i love this cake its everything you said and more this will be my go to yellpow cake recipe
I just want to let you know this recipe is wonderful! My husband and I cook a lot, and this one is *really* well done! I read it through, and we took your advice to add a bit more soda. The whole family agreed it was the best cake we’ve eaten in ages! Your work perfecting this recipe is greatly appreciated!
I love this cake. I wanted to try it as a sheet cake in a 9×13 pan. Any suggestions on if I should adjust cooking time or need to increase the ingredients? If so by watch percentage? Thank you 🙂
It should work fine in a 9×13 pan and will probably need 25-30 minutes to bake (give or take).
Not sure if my previous comments went through. The cake did taste good, but it definitely sunk in the middle, making for a thick layer of icing. No complaints were heard though so that was good!
This cake looks heavenly I am making it tomorrow for a friends birthday. Has anyone used buttermilk instead of milk/sour cream combo? Just curious. Thank you.
Just made the cake… wanted to thank you for all your time and energy and research!!! Turned out so good…love love to bake and cook and always appreciate the best recipes
Thank you! So happy this worked out for you!
Made this cake, relatively no taste. It wasn’t light or moist. NOTE: Don’t worry, Bobby Flay won’t call you on this cake.
Bobby here–Mel, what’s your number? This cake is the holy grail of yellow cake. 😉
hahahahahahaha
is this really bobby
HORRIBLE RECIPE! couldn’t agree more.
Does this cake stay moist the next day? I’ve tried a few yellow cakes that were amazing the day they were made, but extremely dry the next day.
I personally think it’s best the day of, but if it’s kept well-covered and stored at room temperature, I think it tastes pretty good the next day, too.
I just found out that I’m allergic to eggs, milk, and soy, but I was planning to make this cake for my daughter’s birthday. Do you have any suggestions for substitutes that would work for the eggs and butter?
Hi Rebecca, I’m afraid I don’t! I’m sorry! I extensively tested this recipe with eggs and butter and haven’t tried it with any substitutes
My daughter and I baked it together and it is so delicious!! I always tell my friends that you can’t go wrong with a recipe from Mel!
Hi! First of all, thank you for doing the hard work to create-from what I’ve read-the BEST version of yellow cake! I wanted to ask your opinion on adding strawberries to the cake. My daughter wants a strawberry cake for her birthday (actually, she’s turning one so I suppose I want a strawberry cake for HER birthday lol). And I don’t want to ruin the texture of this cake by adding something extra. The strawberries would be reduced so they’re not so watery. And I’m definitely doing a strawberry icing. Thoughts? Thank you!!!
I think if the strawberries have been reduced to a thick jam-like consistency it may work – although adding anything to this batter that changes the liquid-to-dry ingredients ratio may affect texture (since I haven’t tried this in particular I can’t say if that would be good or bad!). But if you are really after a strawberry cake, it is worth a try!
Mel. Do you think I can make this in a bundt pan? I love your recipes and as my sister and I like to say, Mel never let’s us down! Lol! We say your name like you’re our friend. Thank you!
Hey Kristy – I haven’t tried that but I’m pretty sure it would work out! If the bundt pan is dark coated, you’ll want to watch the baking time closely so the cake doesn’t burn (or consider turning the oven down by 25 degrees). Good luck!
I made this as a cake, and it was perfect! As cupcakes, they still tasted great but did not have a domed top. They were flat and bubbly.
Mine were too. Not a cup cake recipe. The cakes look fine but had that kind of topping. I haven’t tried the cake yet it
Hi Mel!
I’m planning on making this recipe as cupcakes and as stated by many in the comments, they come out great. However, I couldn’t find any comments on time and temp. My questions are, how long should I bake them for and should I use the same temp as stated above? As always, thanks for your time and your fantastic recipes!!
Yes, use the same baking temperature but check them after about 16 minutes (or before if your oven tends to bake hot/quickly).
Perfect! Thanks! 🙂
Have you tried this recipe as cupcakes?
Yes, it works great. 🙂
This truly is “The Best Yellow Cake Ever” I’ve made this recipe twice and it came out perfect each time. Now, what is the best chocolate frosting ever?
This is the frosting I love: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Can I make this in a Bundt pan? How long and what temperature? Thanks!!
I haven’t tried that so I can’t say for sure. I’d probably use the same temperature and try about 45-50 minutes?
This is a great recipe! I didn’t use cake flour and it was still awesome (I like a dense cake with a coarser crumb though…) Next time I make it I’ll either buy cake flour or go to the trouble to make it. Not at all dry and really nice clean vanilla flavor. I’ve tried a bunch of scratch cake recipes and this is my favorite. Five stars.
I made this cake for a birthday sheet cake size 12 x 18. And it was fantastic! Thank you so much for posting this. When I saw you had baked it 16 prior times and had finally decided on the perfect recipe ~ I knew I was going to use your recipe!
This cake is Amazing! Truley! I used this recipe for cupcakes… it worked pretty well. I followed the recipe verbatim…. even down to the sifting even though I didn’t know why until I read more of your blog later. Ok but… whats weird is some of the cupcakes domed perfectly and others went sorta flattish. That didn’t seem to affect the texture though. I now wish I had taken a picture. I also read your update and nodiced that you have 1 1/2 tsp. baking soda listed as the original amount and had to scale it back, but the actual recipe has 1/4 tsp. That’s seems to be a big difference? Is the actual recipe supposed to read 1 1/4 tsp.??? All that aside I am truly grateful for this recipe and all your trials. Thanks agian.
Hey Crystal, yes the 1/4 teaspoon is the right amount of baking soda. if some of the cupcakes domed well and others didn’t, it might be a mixing issue…like maybe the ingredients weren’t mixed enough? Do you think that could be the case?
I guess that is possible… I’m always so afraid of over mixing. Maybe I’ll try double sifting next time…. and a heaping 1/4 tsp. baking soda, ty ty.
Hi. This is Ava from London, UK. Made this cake for my daughter’s 15th birthday yesterday together with cream cheese icing (your special one) and it was AWESOME. Thank you so much Mel. Best cake I ever made.
I baked 27 minutes exactly and made the cake flour mixing white flour with a bit of corn flour as you suggested. The cake was moist and soft and beautiful except when I took it out of the pan (waited 10 mins and let it cool on rack for an hour) and as I was icing it, it crumbled a bit. Any thought as why this could have happened?
Hey Ava! Glad you liked this recipe! Did the edges crumble or was it crumbly throughout?
Questions – is it okay to put chopped up strawberries into this cake, or will the moisture from them mess up the ratios?
Also, I have pastry flour, is that okay? Or should I add 1 TBSP of cornstarch instead of 2?
Hi Kyla, I’m afraid adding strawberries (they have a very high moisture content) may make the cake gummy or dense – it will definitely alter the texture. I don’t know how pastry flour compares to cake flour – but you could experiment using. Good luck!
This is my rating
Thank you for your reply to my question about the whole milk. I made the cake yesterday and this will be the one for my daughters birthday. I did use the whole milk and because of fear I took your note and used 1/2 tsp baking soda and I also increased the vanilla to almost a tablespoon and it took 30 min to bake. This cake came out perfect. I am also looking for a white vanilla cake but didn’t see one on your website. Thank you for this recipe.
I am planning to try your recipe..my question is about the milk can I use whole milk with the sour cream because I have both whole and 1 percent does it matter
I believe either can work; I usually use 1% or 2%.
I’m in the UK and we don’t have ‘cake flour’
Is this flour that has baking powder added already, what we call self raising flour?
No, it isn’t self-rising flour, cake flour is a lower protein flour that is very fine in texture.
I am sooo extremely thankful and appreciative for all of your efforts in creating this recipe! I have nearly pulled out my entire head of hair searching for the perfect yellow cake recipe. I thought….”How can a yellow cake be so hard to make???” Well until now, every recipe that I tried was either dry, lacking flavor, sunken in the middle or a combination of these. Finally, a recipe that is perfectly awesome!!! The mosture, the taste and the texture are lacking NOTHING! Thank You a million times over!!!
Thank you so much, Dana!
I made this cake today as two 8” rounds (baked for 30 minutes) and the cake turned out perfectly!!! Thank you so much for such detailed instructions and all the time and energy that went into your recipe! It’s perfect!!
Instead of 2 pans I devided in 3, turned out good.
I’m a semi-naked. I was attending this bakers class(my cousin & I until she passed away) One of the things I learned when it came to uneven cake layers was: buy the cake pan strips and dip in cold water prior to wrapping them around the pans before putting them in the oven. This cooks the cakes evenly and helps with the cakes falling.
Made this cake today as part of a layered chocolate/yellow cake with mocha buttercream filling between layers and chocolate buttercream frosting on the outside for my son’s 14th birthday. Simply amazing yellow cake. Perfect taste and texture. Thanks!!!
Sounds like an amazing cake, Marc! Thanks for the comment!
Tasty! Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I used this recipe along with your chocolate buttercream icing and will use them again next time there’s an occasion that calls for yellow cake.
Great cake!!! Made it a few days ago it o oh lasted 24 hours in my house making two tomorrow for Christmas. Thanks!!
Curious to know what the importance of sifting is with the flour? I am somewhat new to baking, have seen the verbiage but never done it. Thanks
Sifting makes for a lighter cake texture.
I normally don’t post. However, this cake is delicious. I did just a hint of lemon. This is an awesome recipe.
I made this recipe last night and my cake layers turned out great but I think I should have baked my cupcakes longer. The tops are still sticky but if you cut the top off the bottoms taste fantastic. On day one the cupcakes were, dare I say, too moist and airy! The cupcake holder held no shape (I’ll try grease proof baking cups next time, I thought these were but apparently not). But the next day they were much more dense so perhaps I just didn’t let them cool enough before taste testing. Great recipe and easy to follow.
I do have one question though. The batter itself and the cake as an after taste taste somewhat salty to me. I haven’t frosted them so perhaps the frosting will negate that taste, but can I make this recipe with unsalted butter or get rid of the additional salt and not ruin the integrity of the recipe? Did anyone else feel theirs was salty?
Thanks for the great recipe!! I’ll be adding almond extract next time to experiment.
Yes, you can use unsalted butter (or dial the salt in the recipe down a bit)
Crumb cake!!!!
I live in NY. A bakery Ebingers, closed 20 years ago, there are still blogs lamenting the loss of that crumb cake!!
Barbra Streisand , a woman who could afford anything! Was on tv twice talking about Ebingers!!!
CRUMB CAKE
Yeast dough
PLEASE!!
Can I bake them ahead of time and freeze ? Does anyone have any experience with this?
I know you can freeze your chocolate cake recipe with amazing results … any chance this one can fair as well in the freezer?
Yes, this cake freezes well.
Thank you so much!
This comment is about some of the comments you received regarding your yellow cake. If you read dozens and dozens of comments as most of us have, and you are the only one that found the pans over -flowed, you did something wrong. If you bake on rare occasion, you know that oven temps differ, humidity while baking differs, different butters have different amounts of water, sugar crystal size differs between brands, etc, etc..
Well done on this cake recipe! Thanks for going to the time and trouble.
Thanks so much, Bob!
This recipe sounds amazing! Could I make this into a marble cake? Have you tried that? If so how would you recommend doing it?
I haven’t tried that – sorry! Good luck if i you experiment!
Do you use the whisk or paddle attachment on your mixer?
I use the paddle attachment.
Thank you!
This is my go-to cake recipe. I feel absolutely delighted when everybody who tries it gives me the highest praise as a baker and I wanted to pass that back along to the real genius who tested this until it was perfect. I learned so much about the consequences of my actions in the kitchen the first time I made this (I’ve made it at least 4 times now.) Thank you for the wonderful detailed ingredient explanations that accompany this recipe. My next challenge will be to find the perfect vegan and gluten free substitutes for this cake. I’m thinking xanthan gum and egg replacer powder.
Thanks so much, Haley!
Best yellow cake ever! I didn’t weigh anything, I measured instead. I fluffed up the cake flour before I measured it, Then sifted it together with the rest of the dry ingredients. I microwaved the butter, a stick at a time, for ten seconds each, to get it to room temp. The cake was done in about 20 minutes. Light and moist. I frosted it with the recipe on the hershey cocoa can, but I used a TB of instant expresso powder, dissolved in a TB of hot water, with the milk.
Everything came out perfect. It looked just like yours! Thank you!
Worst recipe I have ever tried. A waste of time
what problems did you have?
It would be helpful if you would give specific reasons for your negative review.
This is really by far the tastiest cake I have ever tried. Thank you for perfecting it! I will use this recipe for many years to come.
Do you think its sturdy enough for fondant it would be a 2 layer with fondant? im just scared it ill crumble on the drive
I think others have used this cake with fondant with good results (I haven’t, though, so I can’t say for sure).
I’m planning to make this Friday for a party, but question — is it too tender to halve each cake layer, for four layers, to put some raspberry curd as a filling? It looks so fluffy it might just crumble apart if I take a serrated knife to it, and I don’t want to mess the perfect cake layers up.
I think it is sturdy enough to handle that – but I haven’t tried it personally. It is light and fluffy but it has a more sturdy crumb than a boxed cake mix.
Hi Mel,
I’m very excited to make this cake tonight for my husband’s birthday! Yellow cake w chocolate frosting is his absolute favorite. Do you have a chocolate frosting recipe that you recommended?? Thank you so much!
Heather
I love this one: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
I made this cake for my husband’s birthday and received such nice compliments. “Best cake they had eaten in a long time!” I love all the background information Mel supplies. Especially loved the explanation on the role of each ingredient and how to adjust for any misbehavior we might experience.
I’ve baked this cake 3 times this week, for a layer cake I’m making for a church event. Two more to go. Using a 9×13 pan, recipe as is, comes out exactly right at 38 minutes.
Hi! I just made this cake. I doubled the recipe so I could make a 2-tier cake – 3 later 8” and 3 layer 6”. When I pulled the first batch of cakes out, I thought it smelled eggy. After pulling out the second batch, a little bit of cake stuck to the pan, so I sampled it. It’s definitely eggy tasting. What am I doing wrong? Thanks!
Never double recipe for cakes. I really can’t tell you why, but it never works. So take the time and make each recipe it is in your best interest.
I was reading the notes section and you mentioned a part about overly greasy butter, So I was wondering what kind and brand of better do you recommend ?
Hey Amanda, I use the Kirkland brand of butter.
This cake is so freaking incredible. By far, the best yellow cake I have ever eaten.
Thank you so much.
Ok so I’m back…cake turned out beautifully. Everyone said the cake was delicious.
So happy to hear that!
I’m currently making the cake and I added the 1/3 c flour, 1\2 c milk mixture, 1\3 flour, 1\2 milk mixture, and 1\3 flour. However, I have a lot of dry ingredients (flour mixture) leftover. Is that normal or was I supposed to use that all? That’s what I was left with after I followed the directions!
It’s not 1/3 of a cup, you split the entire amount of dry ingredients into 3rds. Hope this helps
The 1/3 means to split all the dry ingredients into thirds and add 1/3 of the mixture at each addition. Does that make sense?
How could this recipe fail with a name like Mel’s Kitchen…My business name as well. Well, my husband asked me to make a cake for a friend’s birthday…called me at work asking if I had energy to do this..Ha…energy is somethi g I had very little of. Ever the dutiful wife we trudged to the store to get a few ingredients and home. Very easy to make. Smelled
absolutely fabulous baking. The cake is now cooling on the rack and I will wrap and put in the fridge until tomorrow morni g when I get up before dawn and frost the cake. I’ll let you know how everyone enjoyed it. I might add I thought of adding a drop of yellow food coloring to give a slightly more yellow color.
This cake recipe is awesome and easy to make. The cake is so moist and a great Texture and the favor its ready Delicious. For sure it’s a Perfect recipe for a yellow cake can’t beat it! I’ll be making this cake recipe often and it a keeps!
Thanks for the awesome detail and for going through the teething problems, so the rest of us kitchen nerds don’t have to! I was wondering if there is a frosting recipe you would like to suggest or should I go with my old and favorite one?
I love this frosting: https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Hi Mel,
After trying over a dozen yellow cake recipes this summer, I can honestly say my search is over. I have finally found the perfect yellow cake recipe!!
Thank You Thank You Thank You !!!
Yay! This makes me so happy. 🙂
I would love to see more tips on making g cakes as well as fresh breads! Thanks!
I have not made your cake yet but am planning on doing it. My question is about multiplying the recipe. I would like to make one 16 inch layer which would take two full recipes. Have you made larger ones and if so did you have any problems? roy
I’ve doubled this recipe before with great results but I haven’t baked all the batter in a larger pan (like the 16-inch layer cake you are wanting to make). It’s often hard to get that size of cake to bake evenly but craft/baking stores sell metal utensils (sometimes a cone shape) you can place in the center of the cake before it’s baked that ensures the larger cakes will bake more evenly. That might be a good idea for a cake that large.
Hey there Mel! This cake is fabulous. After making it so much I began to only use 2 cups of cake flour sifted due to cakes being dry. When doing that it worked perfectly. Recently I made a half sheet cake with this recipe and cut the flour to 2 again, however I quadrupled the batter. It cake out very dry. I cooked it on 325 for an hour. Any ideas of what I could be doing wrong with this half sheet? Why would it come out so dry and pound cake like when my cupcakes and other cakes are fine?
Hi Terri – I’m not really sure other than super specific/fine-tuned cake recipes like this sometimes don’t take well to being increased at that level. The most I’ve ever increased this cake is to double it. I think the over mixing required for a quadruple batch may have caused the dry texture but I’m not sure.
I just got finished making this cake, following your instructions to a T, and I have got to say- this is the BEST yellow cake I have ever made or dare I even say ever eaten. When you say over and over “fluffiest, lightest”, that is exactly what it is. I am so blown away. The only “issue” I had was using 9 inch pans at 350 did get it quite browned on the outside waiting until the minute the middle was set enough. I’m wondering if I should try baking it on a lower heat next time like 325 for longer. Have you tried this before?
Thank you so much for this recipe, its magical and tastes like the lightest ever sugar pillow in my mouth! Also, it BLOWS AWAY the “best ever white cake” pinned all over pinterest, which is way too sweet, crusty, and uses shortening which I absolutely hate using. Well done, thank you for taking the time to test this until its perfect, because it truly is!!
I’m so glad you loved it! Ovens vary so much, so while mine browns just right at 350, it might be worth trying it in your oven at 325 for longer. Let me know how it turns out if you try it again like that.
Just made this delicious cake again- this time I baked it at 325 for 45 mins exactly and it came out perfectly springy, not too browned like my other layers cooked at 350!
Thank you again for this amazing recipe!
Out of curiosity, have you made the classic yellow cake recipe from the KAF baking companion? I know it wasn’t part of the recipe development you listed, so I’m wondering if you’ve tried it and how it compares to this one. I am debating which to make for a birthday this weekend.
Hi Megan – I think I made that recipe a long time ago, but I don’t remember. If I did, it didn’t leave an impression (good or bad). 🙂
These were so stinking good!!! The only thing I changed was using one cup of buttermilk instead of milk and sour cream because I needed to use it up. Oh my goodness, the best homemade cake I’ve made so far. I made cupcakes and they were perfect for me at 17 minutes in the oven. Thanks so much for posting this recipe!!
This recipe seemed so fussy while I was making it (at 10pm, so there would be less chance of toddler distractions). I was sort of hoping that it wouldn’t actually be the best cake ever, because then I could just go blissfully back to the box mixes. However, when I took the cakes out of the pans, my first thought was “Aw crap!” because they smelled so delicious. I knew right then that all the sifting and room-temperaturing and creaming and egg separating and dirtying 4 bowls-ing was going to be worth it, and my cake making life would be forever changed. Thanks Mel, you truly crafted the best yellow cake recipe ever!
Hi – Unless I have missed it, what temp is this baked at? I am assuming 350, but it does not say. Thanks!
350 (it’s in step #2)
Must use 3 pans. I used 2 9inch and it overflowed and took forever to bake. It was a real mess.
Let me first say thank you for taking the time to perfect this recipe! It was a great! My husband has been begging for this and I promised him Father’s Day after school got out. All the other comments for other recipes had me discouraged and quite frankly scared to try…and I’m a chemist! But I’m glad I tried with your recipe because it turned out great with the perfect amount of crumble and moistness!
Mel
This recipe was awesome!!! My favorite of all I’ve ever baked.
Unfortunately, I had more batter in one pan than the other and that cake (I think because it had too much batter in it) baked funny on the top. Any suggestions for the correct amount of batter in each pan? This was so delicious. Thank you for sharing.
I usually pull out my kitchen scale and weigh the batter in each pan. Otherwise, you can scoop in a cup of batter alternating pans so you make sure an equal amount gets into each pan.
Looks amazing! Thanks for posting! I was wondering if I can use buttermilk instead of sour cream?
Thanks
Someone above commented that she used buttermilk ainstead of the milk/sour cream and that it still came out fantastic. I say go for it! Worst that’ll happen is you make another cake ♀️ (And still eat the sad one )
I just wanted to take the time to let you know my experience with your recipe. This is hands down the best cake recipe of all time…. I have made a wedding cake, a birthday cake, even turned the batter into a coffee bundt cake with streusel. Incredible. Today in the midst of dealing with a cranky toddler, I messed up and poured the 1/3 flour in before the eggs! In a panic, I immediately added all eggs at once, mixed sloowwly, then followed the rest of the recipe exactly. I was sure they would end up splotchy or eggy tasting, but no. They came out perfectly (in 3 8″ pans) I still don’t even really know how that’s possible. Anyway i just wanted to thank you for the hard work you put into perfecting this recipe. It shows. And the whole blog post is super informative. Deeeeelish!
Thank you so much, Rebecca!
My go to yellow cake…we all love it! For summer fun, I add strawberries or blueberries!
Hi,
I was wondering g if this would be enough batter for a 3 tier cake using 8 inch pans?
I’m not sure, how deep are the pans? The cake layers would probably be on the thin side so you might 1 1/2 the recipe.
Thank you so so much for this. I’m a mom of 3 that like you could make a mean chocolate cake but yellow was like rocket science to a kindergartener. I need all of these thoroughly laid out details explained. I would hug you if I could. I’m trying this and I know it will be 100 times better than any yellow cake I’ve ever made from scratch. So much I was doing wrong. xoxo
I hope it worked out for you, Jasmine!
It did! Thank you so much! I made it for my sons 5th birthday. It had the same moist fluffy crumb of my chocolate cake. I was thrilled.
I would like to add that I used 1/2 tsp baking soda and cooked it in a bundt pan for 40ish minutes. I used my food processor to cream the sugar and butter. And this might be a good tip for others so I’ll add it here, I made sure that once I mixed the wet ingredients with the dry that it was in the preheated oven within 10 minutes so that the first half of the double acting rise baking powder would still be in effect.
Did you use 2 eight inch or 2 nine inch pans?
I usually use 9-inch pans.
Where is the recipe for the Chocolate Frosting?
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Will this recipe work for cup cakes? I have tried a few and haven’t found any that would work. The cup cakes always turned out where I had to trim off the side and that’s never fun.
Many people in the comments have made cupcakes and I think it’s worked great!
I am using this recipe for a 6-layer rainbow birthday cake. When should I add food coloring?
You don’t want to overmix the batter, so I’d probably try to do it before adding the flour.
Hi there!
I was looking for a yellow cake recipe I could convert into gluten free. I had some criteria: It had to be a butter cake (because the reverse creaming method works best with GF cakes); I had to be able to sub some of the white sugar for brown sugar; and I had to be able to add some spices like cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg.
I made my own cake flour with a GF AP flour (and your tips), used the reverse creaming method and then… filled the mini cupcake cups too full and left them in about 90 seconds too long. lol I would say 14 minutes at 350*F would probably do it.
I did manage a sheet cake. I think I put it in for 26 minutes total but it should have come out at 25, it was slightly crispy at the edges.
So, I used your yellow cake recipe to make a spice cake, which turned out amazing. Then I used someone else’s salted caramel buttercream. I probably should have used yours, their recipe was …not right. It ended up needing milk in the final stage and came out tasting like those molasses candies you get at Halloween.
It’s a great recipe, worked well for the conversion!
Thanks so much for your detailed review – this will be so helpful for others wanting a gluten-free version!
Oh Mel, I am very new to baking. Like a month new. My first project was a cheesecake and it came out perfect the first time. (I still can’t explain that!) My hisband’s favorite cake is yello cake. I read your whole story and it was so funny and entertaining. I did everything like you said and it came out so dry. I need all the help I can get! Could this simply be that I overbaked it or did I miss something crucial? The flavor and color were fantastic but it was so dry that it was not edible. Help!! As I said I am a complete virgin to making cakes. Any feedback would be appreciated.
Hey Heather – sorry the cake came out dry! Did you use a scale to weigh the ingredients? What kind of oven do you have? Gas/electric? Convection? So many factors could play into this, but generally if a cake is as dry as you explained it was overbaked quite a bit or overfloured.
Hi Mel, do you think it is possible to make this into a lemon cake? Maybe with lemon zest or lemon flavoring?
You could definitely try! I don’t know how strong the lemon flavor would be, but you could try pure lemon extract and lemon zest in the batter.
Just came upon this recipe and am now on my second rum cake using it as the yellow cake base. It’s perfect. I have hunted forever for a suitable replacement for the yellow boxed cake most recipes ask for. I use bakers joy to coat my bundt pan as I find it the easiest way to ensure a seamless release each time. Baked for about 42 min and it’s perfect both times.
Thank you!!
I baked this cake last week for a friend’s birthday, and it was FABULOUS! Thanks for all the time and work you spent fine-tuning this recipe.
Have you tried layering this cake with your Unbelievable Chocolate Cake? Are their density similar?
Also, how do both cakes hold up when layered with fruits in between layers? Thanks!
I haven’t, but I think if you wanted a fruit flavoring, the best way to get that (based on my experience with other frostings) is to pulverize freeze-dried fruit and add it to the whipped frosting.
I haven’t tried layering the two cakes. I do think the texture of the two cakes is a bit different, but it would probably work ok.
It looks delicious… would you try to make a RUM CAKE with this recipe? (Not for your five kids) I was looking and looking for a recipe made from scratch and I could only find a recipe made with boxed yellow cake and vanilla pudding. I tried a few times and ended up putting twice the glaze amount among a few other changes. And it is really tasty and fluffy and moist… but i can’t help to wonder what on earth they put in the box.. i wanted a more natural cake… whole wheat flour and brown sugar maybe in my future trials… i love homemade cakes but I also would love to have something a little bit healthier whenever possible.
First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to perfect this recipe! I just wanted to chime in and let anyone looking know that this recipe can be successfully adapted to be gluten free. I subbed out cup for cup with King Arthur Gluten Free All Purpose flour + 3/4 tsp xanthan gum, followed everything else to a T, and it turned out perfectly! I have tried all week, with little success, to find a tender and moist gluten-free yellow cake recipe. This one is so good and the texture is so on point that most people probably could not tell it was not made from flour. Thanks again!!
Thanks for the gluten free notes, Madelyn!
OMG! This cake is sinfully delicious! Mel you really perfected this yellow cake recipe! Thanks!
Ok I just made this and it is delicious! Crazy how it can be perfectly dense & fluffy all at once, and sweet but not too sweet.
I followed the recipe to the T (except for the Greek yogurt I used in place of the sour cream). My only issue was, I used a 13×9 inch glass pan and found it difficult to get proper alteration recommendations off of google, so I improvised.
I baked it on 350 for 25 mins then noticed it was brushing, but still highly in the middle, so I kept it in there an additional 5 minutes then checked it with a knife. It was still a bit wet in the center so I let it go 5 more minutes on 300 then I just turned the oven off and jet it sit 5 more minutes. I was worried it would over cook but sure enough when I took it out, it was perfectly firm and soft all around. I tasted the edge piece first and even that was moist!
Thanks for this recipe!
Did you try buttermilk with this?
I did and it’s ok, but I like the texture a little better using the sour cream/milk.
Hi Mel! I have made this cake in the past with great success! I have been asked to make it this weekend for a friends 40th birthday party and I am hoping you can help me out…. I have always made it on round pans but I will need a cake for 40+ people so I was planning on using 2 9×13″ pans and layering them. Do you suggest I double the recipe? I am concerned this would be too much batter? Thank you for your help!
Hey Jessica, I think you should double it for two 9X13-inch pans. If the pans start looking too full, you could save a little batter and make a few cupcakes, but I don’t think a single batch or even a 1 1/2 batch would be enough.
Thank you!!!
I made this cake and it was terrific in texture and moistness…..actually quite perfect! My only question is the color…….mine looked closer to a white cake rather than yellow. I went back through the recipe to make sure I did everything correctly and I did. In the past I have only used boxed yellow cake so maybe a scratch yellow cake isnt going to be as yellow….any thoughts?
By the way…..your recipes are terrific! I came across your site when searching for salsa recipes. Your tomato best salsa ever is outstanding!!
Thanks, Cathy! I do think this homemade cake is lighter in color than a boxed mix; I wouldn’t worry about that! 🙂
I will definitely try this recipe since I am always seeking a moist cake. I will also try the rum cake with this recipe. As far as the color, I use a few drops of yellow food coloring just to give it little tint. I use color in my 7 Up Pound cake recipe as well.
I am soooo happy to have read of your experience. At least I don’t think I am crazy any more because I do the same thing. I start with research and then goes the hands on practice and experience. I have always wanted to perfect three things that top my list: apple pie, yellow cake, and chocolate cake all from scratch of course. So thank you, thank you very much. It is so beautiful to be able to share recipes and to experience all of these spectacular results. Thank you and happy baking.
Finally tried this recipe and loved that it made the perfect sized 2-layer cake!
Perfection! And that crackly top layer is amazing! I had to peel it off and sample 🙂 Been looking for this recipe for years!
Just wanted to make note for anyone out there having issues with it falling… One major thing I discovered this week is that you can’t do the convection cycle with this recipe. Bake on a regular oven cycle. I had two batches fall because of the convection. My theory is that it was causing the top to set and rise too fast without the structure inside to set and support it.
Not saying this will solve everyone’s problems, but wanted to share if anyone else was having issues. I also grease and flour my pans. The flour gives it some grip to help it rise and cling to the pans long enough to set.
Happy baking!
I had baked the cake twice and it fell both times, but I always use the confection cycle! Thank you for the hint. I did the high altitude adjustments (Denver area) so convection must be the culprit. I will try one more time, for I’ve not been disappointed with any of Mel’s recipes, and I use many!
The best yellow cake I’ve made over decades of baking! Thank you for sharing .
I was so disappointed in this cake! 🙁 I’ve made carrot cakes & Italian cream cakes homemade but never a yellow cake, so I was excited to try it. I made this for my bfs bday & luckily the chocolate frosting recipe I used was delicious & saved the cake. I also used raspberries & toasted almonds to decorate which distracted from how dry & bland the cake was. I hate saying a boxed cake is better than homemade, but the yellow cake mixes I’ve had are definitely better than this recipe.
Thank you for this recipe as a base, it is wonderful! I usually use an organic box mix and wanted to try a scratch version and didn’t know where to start. I did make some changes! I also baked the recipe into CUPCAKES. All turned out good. My changes were as follows: I used Quinoa Flour and Whole Wheat Flour vs. all purpose. Increased Baking Soda to 1 tsp. Substituted 3/4 Cup Half & Half for Milk & Sour Cream. Now, for those who do NOT like very sweet baked goods, I don’t either, here is a suggestion, use ORGANIC CANE, DERMERA or TURBANADO SUGAR instead of regular granulated sugar, and reduce the total amount of sugar in the recipe by 1/4 – 1/2 Cup, depending upon how much the original recipe calls for. It usually works, and it worked for this recipe as well.
Thank you for the information on baking.
I don’t like much sugar in my cake, I learnt that sugar not only makes cake sweet but also add moisture. What can I do to tone down the sweet taste of sugar in my cake or reduce sugar and still make my cake moist.
Thank you.
I’m not sure – you’ll have to experiment. Good luck!
This turned out great! My husband will only eat box cakes so I am going to surprise him with this cake. I did add a teaspoon of butter flavor. It took longer to cook and one of the edges didn’t come out of the pan (hence, you stated to grease, re-grease, and use parchment paper) LOL This is definitely a keeper. Thank you for your hard work.
Do you have the recipe for the chocolate icing? Thanks!
Yes, please share your chocolate icing recipe with us! Attempting this cake recipe for my brother’s birthday on Friday per his request of yellow cake with chocolate icing 🙂
https://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Forgot to rate the cake. Here is my rating. Perfection.
Hello Mel: Pat here: The exam is over and the cake was rated very highly. Moist and very light and very tasty — thanks to you.
The chipped up cranberries worked very well –much better than the whole cranberries and in my view did not affect the quality of the outcome. In fact, it added a lot of flavor and look and feel. I also substituted orange flavoring for vanilla– delightful,I thought.
While I iced my cake for the exam, I thought that in the future—and I will do this cake again and gain —I would steer away from icing and serve with a cranberry compote. I had used lemon curd for the filling and my instructor thought that stewing the fresh cranberries and adding the lemon curd might work.
What I truly liked about this cake is that it is reliable—I have baked it three times and got the same good results. I had been struggling with another recipe and kept getting a gluiness in the middle. Ugh! Drove me crazy.
One thing about this cake, though, is that it is easy to over bake—at around 25 mins it looked way undone. So I added another five mins — and that was a bit overdone. I did a second baking and did a better job on the timing.
Second, this cake is delicate and needs careful handling. In the first baking, in addition to being overdone, when I turned it out onto the cooling rack, it sort of dropped onto the rack and I think that also contributed to a flatter cake.
On the second baking, I let it cool completely in the pan (well, I did go to the beach to de-stress and had to leave it) but when I returned I gently lowered it onto the cooling rack and it maintained its height perfectly. So gentle handling is important for this cake.
Your feedback is so valuable. Thanks, Pat! I’m glad all went well for your exam! I love the idea of lemon curd with this cake. I appreciate all your comments!
Loved your ideas about salted butter instead of unsalted butter but, the tip to use extra 1 teaspoon of salt was very helpful when using unsalted butter. Like your tips about the eggs, 1% milk or buttermilk. All your tips to bake this recipe the part about how to avoid air bubbles and having items at room temperature. Keep up the good work and thank you for sharing your ideas and your friends idea.
Hello Mel: Pat, student baker, here again: regarding my practice cake being too crumbly —I had sort of anticipated my cake rising and falling in the centre (my history with other recipes), so I had increased the baking soda by a 1/4 teaspoon (re your note). Now realize in my case was not necessary and may have been the cause of the crumbliness. So will be sticking to your tried and true.
Will let you know how my cake is judged in final—cranberries and all.
I am not yet sure how this cake turned out as I am using it for practice for my cake baking exam and i have to ice it. however, it looks to me as if it did not rise as much as it should. i suspect it may have to do that I added raw cranberries—some of which I used whole, the rest cut in haves I think dismay be affecting the cake. For the real exam cake, i thought i would pit the cranberries through the food processor to reduce the weight of the cranberries.
what do you think? should i forego the cranberries entirely? i wanted the cranberries to give the cake a more celebratory tone for exam purposes.
Hi Pat, I can’t attest to how cranberries will affect the outcome of this cake, so you might leave them out if you want the cake to turn out as described in the recipe. Good luck!
Thanks so much for your kind response, Mel. I just cut a little corner of the practice cake and it is fine — perhaps a little too crumbly, not sure, but may be due to the cranberries, Otherwise, the cake is fine and tastes great. I think for the final I will scale back on the cranberries — this time use fewer and run them through the processor so I get a finer consistency to what I add. I want to do so as it is a Christmas cake and the cranberries are my nod to Christmas.
I will let you know how it turns out. Thanks so much for all your hard work. Love the cake.
Good morning. I am preparing to make this cake but I have a dilemma. My cakes tend to come out a little tight. I believe I’m over beating them. When incorporating the flour to the batter how can I avoid doing this? Please advise. Thank you
I made this cake tonight and followed the instructions exactly including making my own cake flour. I used a bundt pan instead of layers. I want to note that I didn’t think clearly about the baking time and set my timer for the amount I would have needed for cake pans – about half the time required for a bundt. I opened the oven door, tested for doneness and pulled back a tester covered with batter. I closed that door, reset the timer, and said a prayer. The cake continued to bake and did not drop or otherwise do anything to make me sad. It smells wonderful and the batter on the tester was delicious. I iced it with my brother’s frosting made from butter and chocolate chips. Smooth, creamy and fluffy. The cake is destined for a Thanksgiving birthday celebration and I expect it to be a hit. Will update my comment after it is served and tasted.
The instructions are written very clearly so although there are several steps, it is not difficult to follow. I will probably never make another boxed cake again based simply on the texture and taste of the cake batter. Thank you.
I rated the recipe for all the above factors and have no reason to think I will remove a star after tasting.
Mel – My husband asked me to bake an upside down pineapple cake for his boss’ birthday, and I stumbled across this recipe while preparing to do a practice run. So very glad I did! I’m a bit of a novice baker, but you explained things so well. The batter worked perfectly in the cast iron and wowed everyone who I had try it. Thanks so much!!
Could 3/4 of a cup of buttermilk be used instead of milk and sourcream? I am making a cake tomorrow, didn’t want to go back out to get sourcream,
I think you could probably try that – I had the best luck using the sour cream/milk mixture but buttermilk would be a close substitute.
I am planning to make this cake tomorrow for my daughter’s birthday party on Saturday. I will make the whipped cream frosting to go with it (my daughter likes all vanilla!) so I am planning on assembling on Saturday. Just wondering if the cake itself should go in the fridge without the frosting? From Friday until Saturday? Or should I leave it out?
If it’s just from Friday to Saturday, I would wrap the baked cake layers in plastic wrap and keep them at room temp overnight.
Thank you Mel, I am excited to try it. Love your recipes and your super hard work!!!
Mel–At what altitude are you baking this cake? Just wondering if I should use the original recipe or the high altitude. Thank you!!
I’ve made this at sea level and 2,400 feet. 🙂
Truly. The. Best. Yellow. Cake. Ever. Mel, you’re not kidding. I want to thank you for all the work and research you did to make my little ol life easier! I needed to bake a “simple” apple cake in which the apple flavor stood out. I used this cake recipe and diced up some peeled Granny Smith apples in the batter. No cinnamon. The apples shone through and the cake was sooo moist yet fluffy and melt in your mouth wonderful! I used a whipped Mascarpone filling/frosting, leaving the sides naked, and provided a pitcher of caramel sauce to pour over each slice. Thanks again!
Lori
Oh my goodness, that sounds divine!
I have never left a comment but I feel the need to on this one.
I wanna start by saying I am 27 and I suffer from a bad chronic illness that has caused me to not be able to do what i love like bake as much as i would like. So a recipe working is very important cause I don’t have strength to redo something and this recipes was so beautifully explained thank you thank you for putting so much time into this so i didn’t have to.
The cake came out absolutely beautiful, like I did a happy dance when I cut into it and saw that perfect crumb.
Again thank you so much for this amazing yellow cake recipe. This will be going in my collection that I will share with my daughter when shes older.
People if you need a yellow cake recipe please give this one a try you will not be disappointed.
I just made this and the cake also sank in the middle for me (which I don’t particularly mind- easier to frost!!). It may be due to the fact that there is a lot of leavening and air, but little structure from the cake flour. The cake is super super tasty, but I am wondering what would happen if we used a mix of cake and AP flour, or just AP flour to stabilize the air. Just my food-science-y thoughts!!!
yellow cake was excellent and it came out very good , thanks for the post.
I am wondering if this will work for high altitude in Colorado? Or what adjustments would need to be made. It sounds delicious!
Hi Kathy – usually cakes made at high altitude need a couple tablespoons extra flour, but I’m not a high altitude expert, so you might want to google any other tips before making this.
I just made this cake and I have to say it takes the cake, its the best cake I’ve ever made. It is so moist and tender, my family will enjoy this very much.
Simply delicious.
Just made your yellow cake recipe tonight and I am so delighted with how it turned out. Thank you for all the directions and details you included in your recipe. For someone who doesn’t bake often, it was exactly what I needed. Now to decide on the icing. 🙂 thinking of adding a ganache in between the layers and your whipped chocolate cream icing on top. Thanks again!
Question do you know how many cups of batter this makes???
Probably about 6 cups of batter, give or take.
I made this today. Like you, I have been searching for the perfect yellow cake. This is the best one I’ve tried. Thank you for all your hard work in perfecting this recipe. It will be my go to recipe for yellow cake!
Wondering about the sheet came pan..,did you ever try that?
Can I use this recipe for a sheet cake pan? I have an order for 10 sheet cakes. Luckily it isn’t until Oct. so I am trying recipes. It’s hard to find recipes using a sheet pan. every time I type in sheet pan I get sheet cake recipes. Whatever help you can give me I will appreciate it. Thanks
I haven’t tried this cake in a sheet pan, but I’m guessing it could work very well! Good luck if you try it.
Hi Mel! I used this recipe for cupcakes & they were delicious, but crumbled quite a bit when I tried icing them. The texture was so tender, and the flavor omgosh!! I didn’t have milk or sour cream, so instead I used kefir, and whole milk yogurt (stoneyfield farms brand, nor Greek) but they still came out wonderful. I’ve tried way too many recipes & yours is the best one by far. Can’t wait to try the chocolate cake too!
I just baked this in one of those big pans shaped like a number — a 1 in this case. I followed the instructions exactly, weighing everything with my kitchen scale. I am in NJ, and often have to adjust recipes due to high humidity. I didn’t mess with this one at all. I was worried as I baked it because the pan is quite deep and I wasn’t sure how long it would take to set. I started checking it at 25 minutes and all said ended up baking it for about 37-38 minutes. It is cooling now and I think it turned out, but I’m going to guess I could have taken it out 2-3 minutes sooner. The edges are a bit caramelized. It was hard to tell for sure if it was done. The top started getting darker than golden brown and the edges were definitely looking done, but the middle appeared to stay very loose for a long time. Again, I think it must be due to the deeper pan. If I knew more about baking, I’d probably adjust the temp or time to account for the different pan. Anyhow– thanks Mel! I can’t wait to serve it tonight. Off to make the chocolate frosting! 🙂
So I just finished frosting and eating a slice (or two) of this cake and it was DELICIOUS! Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into perfecting this cake. It really paid off!
This cake is moist and fluffy and the flavor is so good. I bake everyday and am always trying new recipes to find the very best cakes. I have found a great chocolate and white cake recipe, but a yellow cake recipe was still not perfected in my book. Now this one is in there right along side the others!
Thank you so much! I’m so glad I found your recipe
Thanks, Kelley! I’m actually on the hunt for the perfect from-scratch white cake recipe. Do you mind sharing your go-to white cake recipe?
Thank you for doing this. I appreciate the hard work you put into testing this recipe. I’m on my 4th attempt at yellow cake, and looking at your recipe it looks like exactly what I was headed toward. I’ve been struggling with a delicious flavor and a strange flaky cornbread type crumb (even using cake flour) I plan on trying this today but if you have any tips before I get started, I’m all ears
This is the best yellow cake recipe I’ve ever made and I’ve made quite many! Makes an absolutely delicious 3 layer 6 inch cake for me. My family fights over the scraps! I especially love how this recipe uses up my leftover egg yolks from macarons. I follow the recipe to the T, but usually use about 3/4 cup buttermilk and top up with whole milk to make a cup because i don’t normally have sourcream at home. Works wonderfully still to yield a very moist and tender delicious cake. For other bakers hoping to sub sour cream for buttermilk, i find that subbing one entire cup of buttermilk makes the cake too tender and…. fudgy… almost. I can’t really describe the texture but it tastes better without that much buttermilk. Thanks for the great recipe! Its definitely my go to now 🙂
This is definitely my go-to yellow cake recipe! I have made it now about 10 times. My husband loves yellow cake with chocolate frosting. This cake is moist and tasty. Just make sure not to overbake and it will be perfect! In a pinch, I’ve used vanilla greek yogurt to sub for the sour cream and it’ perfect. Thanks for sharing such a delightful recipe.
I’ve made this several times, and it’s come out perfect every time thanks to Mel’s specific and detailed instructions!! I can’t ever go back to cake mix with deliciousness like this!
Hi! I just made the cake and it turned out awful. 🙁 I then did some checking on the weights and 2 1/2 cups flour does not equal 9oz. One cup of flour is around 4.5 oz so in the math I know that would be around 11 1/4 oz. Also the sugar is too much in oz. I maybe should have done the grams but haven’t checked that yet. Anyway, it must be a very nice cake, if I had the right measurements. And I thought weighing it all would be better! I followed everything else exactly, I bake cakes all the time, just sad I have to throw it away! Should have stuck to my tried and true! Anyway, just a mention to maybe help others who have had some problems.
In my cakes, I normally add mayonnaise to add moisture. Would that work instead of the sour cream?
You could certainly try!
I made this cake for my moms birthday. She is an excellent baker so the pressure was on! I like baking from scratch but will often use a jiffy yellow cake because yellow cake can be so fussy. I was very happy with the outcome and will use this recipe again, thank you!
I’ve made a lot of cakes, this one really is the BEST yellow cake.
Hello Mel. Could I set aside some of this batter and add a good baking chocolate or unsweetend coco to make marble cupcakes?
You could definitely try, Terri – I’ve haven’t tried converting this particular recipe to chocolate so I don’t know how that would affect the consistency and texture.
Hello. This is really the best recipe ever. I made this into 24 cupcakes. I do have a question. If i wanted to make these into alcohol cupcakes what would i have to change? I want the moistness and bite, everything the same just would like to make alcohol cupcakes! Please help me.
Hi Terri – I’m not help here since I’ve never tried that. Sorry!
This was the best homemade yellow cake I have ever tasted! I made it and it came out perfectly and everyone loved it. Thank you for your last 16 plus attempts at perfection and thank you for sharing your experiments of what worked and what didn’t. Your recipe is a keeper and will be used by for years to come. Thanks! Diane
Thank you, Diane!
Is low-fat buttermilk a suitable substitute for the milk and sour cream?
I think others have tried it – I’ve only ever used the sour cream/milk mixture because it seems to work the best for a fluffy cake.
I made this recipe today, but did cupcakes instead of baking cakes. They came out great! They are very moist and have a great taste. I went to culinary school, and in my one baking class, we literally made yellow cake every week. It was awful. Very dry, bland, and crumbled apart. So I was a little nervous to see how this recipe would turn out. I needed a good yellow cake recipe and this is definitely the best I’ve come across so far! I followed the recipe exactly. Make sure you do this, or you will not get the results you want. The only thing I will say is they didn’t rise that well for me. I did do 1/2 tsp of baking powder. But maybe next time I’ll try 3/4 tsp. There is definitely a science to baking, and this recipe proves that.
Thanks for the report, Kristen!
How long did you cook them?
Ok Mel– tell me what you think of my idea. My birthday is on Sunday and I like making my own birthday cake. I have a wild idea to use this cake recipe for a version of Boston Cream Pie… using your Bavarian Cream as the filling. Toying with the idea of making it into mini Boston cream cupcakes… I haven’t made this cake yet, but it’s been on my list for a while. What do you think– would the cake be the right texture to hold up the cream? In my head it’s a blue ribbon combination…
I think it would be perfect! Happy early birthday!
For the record– it was delish. I used one cake round, split it, and used about half of the Bavarian cream layered in between. And of course topped it all with ganache. It was a very happy birthday! And now I have another cake in the freezer for another time! Win win!
I have done exactly what you want to do and they are amazing!!
Hi Mel awesome job. This is one of my favorite recipes. I made it for my mom and she loved it. Question…Can it be used to stack say as a 10 inch bottom tier? Or is it possible to carve it?
I haven’t carved it, but I have stacked it in a layer cake and it held up just fine.
Bless you , you sweet thing. I’ve been looking for THE perfect yellow cake recipe for some time. I grew up on boxed mixes but can’t bear to use one in my kitchen. Somehow all the cakes I make from scratch end up so dense and dry so I get discouraged easily. I can’t wait to try this recipe! Thank you for testing 16 recipes or I don’t have to!
Um YOU ARE SO AWESOME! Such a fun post to read, I can’t wait to actually make this cake. My son has a birthday at the end of the month, maybe he can be convinced? Your perfect chocolate cake has been my go to for a while now. Every time you mention having something in your freezer I get a hankering to see it…. is that weird? Will you show us? But seriously.
Haha. You would be scared if you saw my freezer! Maybe someday I’ll be brave enough to share. It’s glorious and frightening at the same time. 🙂
Hi Mel
Ive made this for a second time now and again it turned out absolutely perfect, pairing with your magical vanilla frosting which is indeed magical. I think when someone says this recipes fails for them (excluding high altituders which I have no experience of) my personal feeling is that they do not realise that while this is a very innocent looking recipe with measurements etc – this is an incredibly scientific cake. The butter – has to be exactly as you have described – the ingredients have to be exactly room temperature – I use a thermapen to check they’re at 21 degrees, the eggs need to weigh exactly 50grams each and yolks 16 grams each as you have stated on your page all about eggs.
I have not baked for 40 years, only about 2, but I expect those very experienced bakers are cutting very, ver,y slight corners which this cake will not allow.
So yes, its an unforgiving cake recipe, but if you follow the instructions EXACTly, by jove is she amazing!
Thank you for all the hard work on this recipe. Im no longer going to order birthday cakes now, simply make this one from scratch myself.
I agree completely with what you say! I’m so happy this cake has worked out well for you, thanks for your comment!
No worries! Id love for you to try this with ducks eggs – the yolks are richer and the whites have a slightly higher protein content giving better structure. Ive only made it with duck eggs so far and it has come out amazing, but I would love to know if you think theres any difference.
I have been baking for over 40 years, and decided to try this recipe for my son-in-laws birthday. I followed the instructions exactly as they are written, and it was an absolute disaster. The surface was extremely bumpy while cooking and when it finished baking, the layers were sunk in the center. I used 1/2 teaspoon baking soda as was suggested to try to keep that from happening. I had to throw the cake out and quickly make a boxed yellow cake. I love making things from scratch and normally have great results, but unfortunately, this was a total fail.
I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you, Donna!
I have been making the same chocolate birthday cake for 14 years until suddenly this year my youngest (7-year-old) announced that she doesn’t like chocolate anymore (where did I go wrong!?) and she wants a white cake with white frosting. Spent about 2 hours reading and dithering on the internet until I decided to go with this cake. Followed your instructions to the T and it came out amazing! First time making a yellow cake and it came out soooo delicious. Thank you so much for taking the time to explain everything and in such detail!
Yay!
I bake.. a LOT so not like I’m unfamiliar with the kitchen. wanted to try something different for my son’s birthday. Added the extra soda and the cake didn’t fall or anything.. looked quite nice but defintly not a high rising cake. Just letting ya’ll no that in my opinion ithat is closer to a pound cake. Very very dense.
Mel- I’m thinking of baking up the layers for this cake today but I don’t need it until Sunday (busy weekend though). Could I bake it and freeze the layers, and then just pull them out Sunday and frost it fresh?
Absolutely!
I have also been trying to perfect a yellow cake recipe and thought I had a good one. It uses double the flour and double the milk, same sugar, same eggs. Your recipe is definitely fluffier. I am curious, you use 1/2 S sour cream and 1/2 milk, where did you get when using all buttermilk? I would think the acid level and texture would be similar.
Have you engaged in a similar experiment for icings? I have been trying to perfect vanilla and chocolate buttercreams. I have found that different shortenings provide different results. For vanilla, I find CK high yield provides a better flavor than sweetex. I am at a out 2/3 butter to shortening. For chocolate, I find the sweetex is better, as the flavor is more neutral. However, I am having a very hard time with a choc buttercream recipe. I have upgraded to Valhrona cocoa, but cant seem to get the right balance of sweet to chocolate to texture. I am at about 1.25x sugar to fat. Any suggestions? want to trade notes? I too have made about a dozen cakes/icings the past couple months. Feel free to email me. Thanks
Do you think you can add instant pudding to ensue it’s moist?
I haven’t tried that…you could definitely experiment, though. 🙂
One other question, do you think this would hold up with a 3 layer cake with buttercream frosting? Wasn’t sure if it would hold up good or not.. also, I tried this recipe this weekend in cupcakes and oh my goodness, AMAZING!!! Thank you for a great go to recipe. They were a hit!
Yes, I think it would work jut fine as a three layer cake!
Thank you thank you thank you I! For two decades I have attempted to duplicate a yellow cake that I ate while living in Jamaica that had a wonderful sturdy body but a special open crumb which gave it lightness. The cake had been prepared by a non-measuring baker who did all the mixing by hand. i just never have been able to create it UNTIL NOW!
with this perfect yellow cake!! I baked your recipe with all organic ingredients (except corn starch which is non-GMO) in a 9 x 13 for 30 minutes. I will not even frost this one, just serve with some chocolate ice cream to my family.
I am so grateful to you for allowing me to end my search!
So happy to hear this, Rosemary!
I made this recipe exactly as stated only increasing the baking powder by an additional quarter teaspoon. It was the best yellow cake I ever tasted!! Thank you so much!
Taste good but the texture is like corn bread.
Wow! Like, Oh. My. Gawd!!! I am super particular about cakes and if it doesn’t meet my standards the first time, it’s dead to me. This cake turned out better than I could have imagined! I’ve tried SO many yellow cake recipes over the years, and I’ve always been disappointed due to density and dryness. I even had myself convinced that boxed yellow cake mix was the way to go, which is embarrassing to admit because I’m a full-blown, homemade kinda girl. I made this cake earlier today and followed the instructions exactly and it produced the most perfect, tender, moist, flavorful yellow cake I’ve EVER tried. I will be putting this recipe down as my go-to yellow cake recipe! Also, I’m a registered dietitian and totally LOVE food science, so reading your blog was a blast! I loved your story of what worked and what didn’t and why! A thousand kudos to you for working so diligently so the rest of us can simply pull a card from the recipe box and have a masterpiece every time! Thank you!!! <3
Yay! So happy to hear it, Anna…thank you!
If you are making three 8-inch layers, what would be the baking time?
Probably just a few minutes less than the recipe states – each oven differs in exact temperature so check closely so the cake doesn’t overbake.
I just tried this recipe and my cake came out AWESOME!! I have been on the hunt for the perfect layer cake recipe from scratch. One failed attempt after another had me so discouraged. I stumbled upon this recipe and decided I’ve it shot. It came out exceptionally well. Unbelievably moist and tasty. Family is giving it 2 thumbs up!! Thanks for sharing and for all the tips and explanations for each step.
I can’t thank you enough for sharing all of your trials and lessons learned. Yellow cake is my favorite, and before today, I’d only attempted to make it once…to a disastrous end, so I’ve been too nervous to try it again (since I only tend to bake when we’re having company). But due a family request, I decided to give it another try today…and thanks to you (pretty sure it was not letting eggs come to room temp that did me in before), I now have no fear and the best recipe I could ever hope for! Sooooo delicious! Thanks!
This cake is moist and very tasty. I will stop looking. thank you so much for all of your research. too delicious. ThAnka Mel!!!
I made this the other night and it turned out perfect! I had to sub plain yogurt for the sour cream and it still turned out great. Thanks!
This cake turned out perfect! It took forever to bake and was very brown on top, but the taste was amazing! I added a lot of raspberry jam to the batter to make it raspberry cake. I used whipped cream frosting instead of chocolate. It turned out great!
How do you think I should adjust this if I am making a rectangular sheet cake?
Are you talking about a rimmed baking sheet (like 11X18-inches or similar)? I’d probably 1 1/2 the recipe for a pan like that.
Quite possibly the best yellow cake I ever made. The layers were near perfect. Thanks
The Naked Baker.
I made this cake today and it was delicious, thanks for a great recipe.
This cake was too sweet. I should of gone with my instinct and cut the sugar down to one cup. If you don’t like sugary desserts I would cut the sugar almost by half
Hi Mel,
Do you ever put your granulated sugar in a food processor to make this cake, so that the sugar is finer?
No, I don’t do that.
I’ve only left comments on blog recipes a few times in my life. This recipe definitely deserves it! This yellow cake is indeed perfection. My daughter always requests a yellow cake for her birthday, and every year I try a different recipe that leaves a lot to be desired…though she doesn’t care 🙂 This year I felt that the cake was so good, that it was almost a shame to frost it! I used your chocolate buttercream frosting which was lovely, but I think I’ll go with vanilla buttercream or white frosting next time so the cake’s incredible taste can come through. It really is so good that it doesn’t *need* frosting and I’m thinking of making it as a sheet cake and serving with whipped cream and berries in the near future…Thank you for taking the time and effort to create this masterpiece!
Wonderful cake. Used 1/2 tsp. Of baking soda. Baked for 10 minutes longer. Followed everything else. I was looking for a great yellow cake recipe. Thanks!!!
How many cups of batter does this make? I’m trying to figure out how many batches to make for this wedding cake I’m making and need to go buy the right amount of supplies.
I’ve never measured the exact cup amount (for total batter) but just adding up ingredients, it’s probably right around 6.5 to 7 cups.
A few mods:
1) separate yolk from white, add yolk to batter when recipe says but then beat the whites into fluff and fold in as your last step in batter construction.
2) NEVER bake a cake at 350. This is cake suicide… i preheated to 335 and left em go for 25 minutes never opening the oven. After that, knock it back to 300 and bake BY EYE. if you start to see any harsh browning (which you shouldn’t at that temp) just set a piece of LIGHTLY greased foil or parchment paper on top to deflect the dry heat. if you give a shimmy and see NO movement pull them IMMEDIATELY it might be too late.
3) Toothpick inserted should come out WITH some moist crum. clean toothpick=dry cake. add moisture back to it with a misting of simple syrup.
I see that you say others have reported back about cupcakes, but I cannot seem to find those comments. I have looked multiple times. I am planning on making cupcakes from this later this week and would like to know that they turned out good for others. If not, maybe someone could point me to a good yellow cupcake recipe? 🙂
Here are a few of the comments that have made cupcakes:
This was the first time I ever baked a cake from scratch and it turned out delicious…I made cupcakes with the recipe and I followed the directions to the T. On my first batch of cupcakes, I filled the cupcakes with too much batter, the middle sank in, and the edges were sugary/crystalized, sort of like creme brulee — “which was actually a yummy twist”. They were still yummy and my fiance loved it.The second batch, I filled perfectly with batter, the middle didnt sink in, and I haven’t tasted them to know if the edges are crystalized – it doesnt look like it though! . The next time I use this recipe, I will bake it in a cake pan. Thanks for the recipe!
I have made this cake 3 times now. It is delicious. I even made cupcakes using the same batter (17 min cook time). Thanks for your hard work to find the perfect recipe.
I followed the recipe exactly but the cake was not done at 30 minutes. I’m at an hour now and ended up raising the temp for high alt according to another article that said higher heat, not longer time. But it’s still not done. I’m at 5000 ft but I thought this was a high alt recipe so no clue what I did wrong.
If I use the whole milk can I skip the sour cream and still get great results? I always have whole milk on hand.
You need the acidity in the sour cream, so I wouldn’t leave it out.
Hi again. Just noticed that the flour is stated as 9 ounces, which doesn’t equate to 2 & 1/4 cups. Wouldn’t it be more like 9 1/2 ounces??
Usually, 1 cup equals 4.25 ounces.
Please advise. Thanks
I explain this in the post but I always use 5 ounces per cup of flour.
Well, to be honest, I’m still searching. Tried this out, followed everything to a “T”. I have baked about a million cakes in my lifetime, this one was just ok, certainly not perfect. Taste was very bland, cakes fell horribly HORRIBLY in the middle, Managed to salvage that with frosting, but then there’s a huge mound of frosting in the middle. Also, you state can be made for 2-9″ rounds or 3-8″? only enough batter for two 8″ and they turned out small and thin. If you’re looking for the “Perfect” yellow cake, keep on looking!
Did anyone ever use 9/13 pan. How long to bake?
Hi- I baked it today in a 9 x 13 shiny aluminum pan for 30 min. at 350. It was ‘just’ done at 30 min. It could have gone to maybe 32 and been just fine too.
Thanks, Mel, for this delicious recipe! My husband said it tasted like Nilla Wafers and my kids and I couldn’t stop eating it! Used high altitude adjustments and it still sank a little but it was so good that I didn’t care what it looked like. This will be our yellow cake recipe from now on!
Hello. I was wondering if anyone had tried making cupcakes with this recipe yet? If so, how did it turn out? If not so great, what did you do to ‘perfect’ it?
I believe several people have reported back after making cupcakes up in the comment thread. 🙂
Mel, just wanted to say thank you so much for taking the time to perfect this recipe, I just made it this w/e and it is the best yellow cake I have ever had !
The only changes I made were using greek yogurt instead of sour cream as I can’t find that easily where I live + adding a bit more salt as I used unsalted butter…
The cake was delicious, fluffy, moist, tender…just Perfect =)
What is your recipe for the chocolate frosting? Did I miss the link somewhere? Thanks!
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
Also, could you tell me how many sticks is a cup of butter ?
Thanks !!
One cup of butter = 2 sticks.
Thank you
And also is it Vanilla extract you use ?
Yes.
Sorry, this may be a silly question but when you say “2 teaspoons vanilla”, is it vanilla extract ?
Have you had anyone experiment and double the recipe and try baking in a 12 by 18 sheet?
I don’t recall anyone making it like that and reporting back yet, Kassie.
I just made your vanilla cake recipe as a 10″x 15″ sheet cake, using a Fat Daddio pan. It worked fine..
I set my oven temperature to 340 degrees. Yes, 340 degrees.
Used cake strips as an “insurance policy” to make sure it baked evenly.
Stuck a flower nail in the center to further insure doneness in the center, however, I really don’t think it was needed.
It was perfectly done in 36 minutes (which may vary depending on oven variables. Looks great!
Here’s a postscript with a question for Mel. I made this cake again, this time, using 9″ round pans and the texture was quite different than the sheetcake vesion. It was kind of “cornbread” like. Any thoughts on why the consistency was different than the nice close grained velvety cake I made last time?
Hmmm, Sandi, that’s odd but it’s kind of intriguing to me. I wonder why the texture would have changed? To be honest, I don’t know, but let me do a little sleuthing and perhaps some experimenting and if I figure anything out, I’ll let you know.
Oh! Another question regarding the flour. Perhaps your flour weight is based on using bleached cake flour which weighs a little less per cup than unbleached cake flour(as in King Arthur brand which weighs 4.25oz per cup!). Does this mean the recipe can be thrown off by not using bleached flour??
No, I don’t use bleached flour. I use unbleached all-purpose flour – and for this recipe, I use it in combination with the cornstarch. There’s no real standard for what a cup of flour should weigh – Cook’s Illustrated (a highly reputed source) says 5 ounces whereas King Arthur Flour (another good resource) has it in the range of 4 ounces. And all that can change depending on the type of flour. For my own personal standard, I use 5 ounces per cup of unbleached all-purpose flour for recipes like cookies and things like that. This yellow cake recipe was tested and perfected using weight measures so I’d stick with that if you have a kitchen scale for a more reliable outcome. You can see for the overall weight of the cake flour, it’s less than 5 ounces per cup for this recipe. I wouldn’t get hung up on what the flour weight is based off of – I settled on the weight of the flour for this recipe based on how the cake turned out and not necessarily by the standards set by other recipes. Does that help?
Thanks. I appreciate your clarification on what flour you use. I only use King Arthur unbleached cake flour even though it’s more expensive than all purpose! I did adhere to the 9 ounce weight in your recipe and I always use a scale!
I have made this cake several times, always as a sheet cake (that’s how my husband likes cake) and it has turned out perfectly every time! Also I used regular all-purpose flour every time.
Thank you for all your hard work! What do you think about Greek yogurt instead of sour cream?
I haven’t tried it with Greek yogurt but I believe others up in the comment thread have (sorry I can’t remember the specific details of how it came out).
I love this cake and everyone loves it. But sometimes it comes out really dense. Please help!
Overmixing the batter at the very end can cause a dense cake so keep an eye on that.
I am successful with every cake I bake EXCEPT a yellow cake. A friend requested one for her birthday so I was stuck. I read over your wonderful, very detailed instructions & followed it perfectly, or so I thought. I haven’t even iced it yet. Your yummy chocolate buttercream is sitting on the counter waiting to be administered to my sad looking cake.
I cooked it for 27 mins. The center had a nice crown though looked a little loose. The sides had pulled away & I didn’t want to overbake. After 10 minutes the middle of the cakes had collapsed. The sides stayed put. I really don’t want to fill the depression with buttercream. I’m going to vertically half the cake, build up the indentation with the other half. My friend will get a nice half of a cake.
350 is WAY too much dry heat for a delicate cake to handle. start off with 345 for 10 minutes. drop to 335 for next 10 minutes. < without opening the oven. after that, knock the heat back to 300 to finish and DO NOT STEP AWAY from the oven. cakes need to cook without drying out or browning too much. so lean on the low and slow side. lightly oil some foil or parchment and perch atop the cakes if need be.
I baked this yesterday as a trial run for my friend’s 25th birthday. I followed every instruction, except I baked it in a large copper heart pan (her birthday is also Valentine’s day). The texture was lovely, though a bit dry. I think that may have something to do with the large copper pan and possibly a minute too long in the oven. However, the taste was lacking depth. It somehow fell short of expectations. Maybe it needs more vanilla? I’m not sure. The batter was scrumptious, but once baked it lost some of its character. Perhaps it was the pan, but it was a lot of trouble to go through for my friend to declare it tastes like box mix.
This is the best yellow cake recipe! I have tried several recipes and was thinking that a from scratch yellow cake, that tasted good and was not dry, wasn’t possible. Thank you Mel.
Would it be ok for me to make in a 9×13 instead of the cake pans? Have you tried it?
Many people up in the comment thread have made it in a 9X13 with great results.
hello ,Mel I made the yellow cake and everyone loved it.But my guestion is why after 3days the cake start to get a litter dry and it was kept under a cake doom?
I think most cakes tend to dry out after a few days – that’s my best guess as to why your cake dried out after several days.
Mel – thank you for a great recipe. I’ve tried cook’s illustrated’s and smitten’s yellow layer cake as well and this one is clearly the best. do you prefer this chocolate frosting or your magical chocolate frosting? I used magical (with 5 oz of chocolate) and it was great but still not a perfect 10/10. The vanilla magical frosting is perfect, but the chocolate, in my book, can be better. I find the flavor of both vanilla and chocolate magical frosting to be similar to swiss buttercream. have you ever tried that?
Hi Johnny – yes, I’ve tried Swiss buttercream and I agree that the magical frosting is similar in taste. I actually prefer the whipped chocolate frosting on my site for this yellow cake. It’s perfection (in my book).
I made this cake today for my birthday. My brother literally licked his plate clean of the whipped chocolate buttercream. Turned out great! Thank you for the wonderful directions!
I made this cake yesterday for my granddaughter’s 23rd birthday. We had a small dinner party of six. It came out very nicely (baked for 33 minutes in an 8 inch round pan) and I iced it with chocolate creamed cheese butter frosting. Rick, tall, delicious, nice looking presentation. Thanks for the recipe and mixing instructions.
Made as directed but hafted recipe and put into 12 cupcake tins. Cooked 20 minutes. Turned out absolutely perfect. I covered with a cream cheese icing and sprinkles. Husband was so impressed.
This is an amzaing recpie. i have tried so many cake recpies and htis is by far the best
thank you for doing so much reasearch and saving us the pain!
i never write on these things either so it realy left an imprint
I just made this cake for my son’s birthday and I can’t say enough about this recipe! This cake was absolutely delicious! The texture was perfect and it was moist and wonderful! This is the first yellow cake I found that is so delicious I would eat it without frosting. Thank you for this amazing recipe!
I never comment on blogs but because your recipes absolutely ROCK I felt compelled to say thank you! I am trying to limit the amount of gmos and pesticides my family is exposed to in food at home and your cake recipe absolutely eliminates the need for Duncan Hines or any other boxed cake mix! I am able to use all organic products and the cake taste absolutely awesome! I have mad it two days in a row and they demolished it both days…..thanks for your hard work and creativity! Yo are appreciated!
I forgot to add that I added a couple of teaspoons of sprinkles to half of the batter for confetti cupcakes. Those turned out great, too!
Thanks for all the work you put in to this recipe. I used it to make cupcakes for my son’s birthday. I made the recipe EXACTLY like it reads (making my own cake flour as directed). It turned out so great that one the adults who got to have one wrote me a thank you note! She said that it was the most moist cupcake she could remember having in her 75 years. She asked for the recipe and I sent her to your website. Thanks again!
So delicious!!! I made it as a sheet cake and it worked out great. It smelled so yummy while baking I had to eat a corner when it broke off lol. Thank you for sharing!!!
Thank you so much for working so hard and sharing your results. I have made this cake twice now, using 3 8-inch pans. The cake is so moist and very tasty. I have a question about the texture though. I’ve made other cakes that have a very small crumb, and they tend to be a little dry. Each time I’ve made this cake, the texture is similar to corn bread – a little heavy, with larger holes than I’d see in a yellow cake. Have you every had this result? Wondering if its the amount of baking powder? thanks for any advice you can give!
Hi Alison – that’s a good question, I experimented greatly with the amount of leavening when I was working on this recipe and so I’d hate to mess around with it – having said that, you could certainly try playing with the baking powder amount to see if it gets a finer crumb.
Hi, I made this for my birthday and it was divine! I’m wondering if anyone has made this as a bundt cake? If so, how did it go? My in-laws are in town this week and I have a beautiful new bundt pan that I’d like to use so I thought I’d try this recipe with it.
If anyone has any advice (updates to recipe, baking time, etc.), would love to hear them.
Thank you!
Amy
I haven’t made it in a bundt pan, Amy – good luck if you try it!
My cake collapsed. Now I am panicked to find time to make a cake for my 2 year old daughter’s birthday. This is the first negative thing I have ever written online but I have to warn others and save them from late night tears. Should have known seeing all the other comments and disclaimers.
Hi Jessica – I’m really sorry your cake didn’t work out. I know how frustrating that can be when you are down to the wire! I’m not sure what you mean by all the other comments and disclaimers – there are hundreds of unsolicited reviews for this recipe from people that have made it with great success (I’ve also made it dozens of times). I’m very sorry it didn’t work out for you!
This came out just as you said – moist, light and fluffy. My search for the perfect yellow cake is finally over – thank you SO much. I was wondering if you have ever tried storing or refrigerating this cake in the fridge? And does it keep it’s texture? Thank you again!
Hi Meredith – yes, I’ve stored the cake in the refrigerator. I think it does best served at room temperature so I try and take it out several hours before I want to serve it. As long as it is well-covered it does fine in the refrigerator.
I’ve made this cake at least 5 times with great results! Thank you so much for putting all that time into perfecting the cake so the rest of us can reap the benefits of it. Have you ever used this recipe as a base-recipe for a lemon cake? It seems like it would be wonderful but I’m not quite sure how to approach it .
I haven’t tried it as a lemon version, Margaret – but it sounds delightful. Let me know if you experiment!
This is indeed the perfect, moist, fluffy, yellow cake recipe I have ever tried baking. This is my go to cake now for my mocha nougat cake: yellow cake, creme patissiere, mocha italian meringue butter cream, and chopped peanut brittle. Thank you for going to the eleventh mile to figure it out!
I made this recipe and was struck stupid by how good it was! Thank you for putting the dedication into perfecting it, and sharing it with the world! I had to make a sheet cake bc that was the only pan I had on hand, and so it had to bake closer to 40 minutes. But the results were fantastic! You have made me a yellow cake lover 🙂
I made this cake yesterday for a friend’s birthday and it was absolutely delicious! I took it out at 25 minutes, but I should have checked it a couple minutes earlier because it think it would have been done around 23 minutes.
I want to say thank you. I have made 4 yellow cakes with different recipes from different websites and they all turn out, well, different. From dry, to dense, to cornbread, to just plain yucky. The last one I made was good and fluffy but was still a little dry. I will deff be trying yours when this new cake is gone. I had almost given up but that doesn’t get you anywhere. Thanks again.
I just stumbled across your yellow cake recipe. You are a lady after my own heart! I can’t wait to read your blogs!
I tried this cake and it was a huge FAIL – I tried to follow the instructions as closely as possible, and it came out an inedible MESS! The center totally collapsed, and the rest fell apart when I tried to frost it! (But it was starting to burn, so it wasn’t that I just didn’t bake it long enough?!) Trying to follow the directions so closely also caused it to take like 2 hours to make…biggest waste of time ever!
Attempting this has possibly put me off baking for good!
Thank you thank you thank you! My husband is the most possible person to impress. He’s not rude or critical whatsoever, he is just stone faced like a throwback from a bygone era of men, and/or slightly high functioning on the autism spectrum (seriously I consider this a possibility, not being insensitive)…he would make an incredible spy because he is impossible to crack or excite. It was his birthday yesterday. I wanted to make him a cake from scratch, and a baker I am not, so of course his favorite cake would be the most challenging to conquer: yellow cake. I have major ADD, baking has always been a challenge for me as I tend to accidentally skip key directions and lose track of time. But I was determined to double up on my meds and take on this challenge once I found your magnum opus of a recipe.
I made sure everything was good and room temped, although I see now you specifies not to leave the butter out overnight which I did do because I needed it that way for the buttercream recipe I used. Also, I mid read the directions just a little and added the dry ingredients before the milk/sour cream mixture, and I’m also not sure if I was supposed to be beating the batter with an electric mixer or only using a spatula ( I did the former ) but other than that I followed your instructions better than any in my life and although I haven’t naked a cake from scratch since I was 18 (11 yrs ago) my yellow birthday cake was a success! It was fluffy and even, moist yet airy, very cooperative as i stacked it into a 4 layer, 2 tier. I have a photo I don’t know how to show you. Thanks so much for all your hard work, you definitely perfected this recipe. I have a regular gas oven and live in Indiana, I ended up having to remove my cakes (I did one layer at a time) at the 22 min mark.
Thanks again !
First, I want to say a huge thanks for your efforts on this recipe…#NailedIt!
Made my wife this for her birthday this week and she (and the kids) were blown away. Made me look like I knew what I was doing, once I started sifting. I made the chocolate buttercream frosting as well, but doubled it to make sure the cake was sufficiently over the top, which it was.
Looking forward to experimenting with some of your other recipes!
How long would you bake 2 8×8 square pans? I’ve previously followed the Wilton guide, and it suggests 40-45 minutes at 350. Thanks!
I’d probably start checking after about 32-34 minutes.
Thanks! The first time I made this recipe, I made cupcakes, which were honestly the best cupcakes I’ve ever eaten. I made the square cake, and it was perfect. This will be a great birthday cake for my daughter. (I’m having a piece of my “test cake” for breakfast – after two days in a covered cake stand, it’s still very moist.) Great recipe!
I too have tried my hand at baking some yellow cakes and I have to say yours has turned out the absolute best. I don’t normally comment but I had to say a big thank you for sharing your recipe with us! Thank you too for all the time and effort that you invested in perfecting it! I have to agree that using weight measurements made a tremendous difference! Your recipe was the answer to my prayer for a delicious yellow cake!
This really is perfect. It’s the perfect combination of fluffy but substantive, flavorful but not greasy. I followed your weight measurements instead of cup measurements, then I did a side by side comparison to see how close I was just measuring with the spoon and level off method and it was rather significant. If anyone has problems with this recipe, I would venture 90% of the time it’s due to inaccurate measuring. Kitchen scales for the win!
This cake is perfection. It was the first successful yellow cake I’ve ever made, after many that were like cornbread with frosting. I recently tried another from a blogger that I really trust (so I won’t name them), and it came out dry and sticking to the pans. Yellow cake is no joke! Making yours for the second time today–can’t wait to have it again. Thanks for making sixteen of these so we don’t have to!
By the way, I made 1.5 times this recipe for two 9×13″ pans. Here are changed measurements for anyone who would like to do the same.
1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
4 large eggs, room temperature
4 large egg yolks, room temperature
3 1/4 cups + 2 tablespoons cake flour (6 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch + 3 cups (minus 1/2 tablespoon) all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
3/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350F. Mine were done at exactly 27 minutes.
I just baked this cake yesterday and it came out great! The only thing I tweaked in the recipe was that I doubled the amount of vanilla in the batter. If I do it next time, I might try to make the cake flour with the combination of AP flour and cornstarch to try to avoid that somewhat metallic aftertaste of cake flour. Other than that (which didn’t seem to bother anyone but me), it was awesome!
I frosted the cake with the Cook’s Illustrated Foolproof Chocolate Frosting (I used a combo of semi-sweet and dark chocolate). If you haven’t used that frosting before, I highly recommend it 🙂 .
This is a great recipe! Typically I am a terrible baker but I followed your steps and it actually came out great…a total first for me
I love this cake yummm
This was the first time I ever baked a cake from scratch and it turned out delicious…I made cupcakes with the recipe and I followed the directions to the T. On my first batch of cupcakes, I filled the cupcakes with too much batter, the middle sank in, and the edges were sugary/crystalized, sort of like creme brulee — “which was actually a yummy twist”. They were still yummy and my fiance loved it.The second batch, I filled perfectly with batter, the middle didnt sink in, and I haven’t tasted them to know if the edges are crystalized – it doesnt look like it though! . The next time I use this recipe, I will bake it in a cake pan. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this cake today and boy! They were spetacular! The only thing i changed was that i used half butter and half oil, because a cake that dry out too fast after cutting is the biggest peeve of mine, and i understand that butter cakes tend to dry out too quickly after a cut. But other than that, your recipe is absolutely amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with novice bakers such as myself. I love yellow cake, but had such a hard time getting soft, fluffy tender crumb and one that rise well too. And your recipe and techniques definitely made that possible. Too bad i made it just for trying it out without anh occasion to share it wih, i already ate half of the pan in less than an hour. goodness!
Hi! I am hoping to use this recipe for my Sister in Law’s Baby shower..! “Diner cake” is her all-time fav 🙂 I am making it into a taller layer cake, so I wanted to make sure you think it can handle the weight? It’ll probably be 5 layers tall (obviously I’ll need to make extra batter for this). I plan on making this on Thursday for her party on Saturday.
What are your thoughts? Thank you!!
Sounds like a fun plan! I haven’t made it at quite that scale but I think the cake is sturdy enough to handle the layers.
Awesome! Thank you!! And thank you for doing all the testing of cakes to find the perfect one! I’ll have to let you know how it turns out! 😀 -Bryce
I’ve made this cake twice (I’m fourteen btw) and the first time it had amazing texture, but not quite that yellow cake favor I was going for. The second time I added about 2 teaspoons butter extract and it was fantastic, my family loved it. In case anyone was wondering plain Greek yogurt works great as a substitute for the sour cream (we didn’t have any).
I appreciate the time and effort put into this cake. However, mine fell and was extremely greasy. I followed the recipe exactly and even added the recommended extra baking soda. Kind of disappointed, but I appreciate you sharing the recipe. Hope it works for others.
Thank you for all the time you spent testing yellow cake recipes! My son and I are researching yellow cake recipes, and we are anxious to begin trying a few, though we would like to limit the number, and your research will probably help us to do that. You said that you had tried Cook’s Illustrated…Cook’s Illustrated has two recipes:
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/4142-fluffy-yellow-layer-cake
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/recipes/652-yellow-layer-cake
The first one listed has you fold in beaten egg whites, whereas the second one does not–it follows the “high ratio”/”two step” mixing method of coating all the dry ingredients with the fat, then adding the liquid in two stages . Which recipe did you try? (We’d like to stir clear of it since you said it was dry!) 🙂
Also, with your recipe, did you every try buttermilk instead of the milk? (So that you were using buttermilk AND sour cream?) And did you ever experiment with beating the egg whites in separately? Or using the high-ratio method of mixing?
Thanks!
Peach cobbler
I love this post and I cannot wait to try this recipe today for my Mother-In-Law’s birthday! I was wondering, do you find it makes a difference when you use Cane vs. Beet Granulated Sugar? I know in my cookie recipe Beet Sugar gives me the desired texture where as Cane make it more crispy… What about with cakes? Thank you!!!
Hi Shannon – I haven’t experimented with the differences between the two sugars. Generally I stick with regular, every day cane sugar.
I made this yesterday and it was wonderful! I did not change a thing. I frosted it with sweetened whipped cream and Fresh strawberries between the Layers and on top…perfect! Thanks Mel. 🙂
I’ve made this cake many times and it’s always a delicious yellow cake. When I did bake this cake in a 10 inch round, it turned spongy and the texture was strange. I tried it 3 times and the texture was the same…? I wish I knew why the texture was spongy…maybe I need a heating core? Even thought the texture was off, just adding a little frosting and this cake is still the BEST! Love your recipes Mel!
That’s definitely odd, Julie. I haven’t baked it in larger pans but I’m guessing it has something to do with that and maybe if it’s baking unevenly. Sorry I’m not more help! If I ever get a chance to bake it in a larger pan, I’ll check back in with my results.
Hi,
I am going to bake the cake for my son’s first cake smash and yes it didn’t get time to try it out beforehand. Fingers crossed!!! No retrys have to get it right.
Couple of questions:
I need a small cake so can I bake it in Pyrex glass. Any tips?
I have brown granulated sugar. Will that make a difference to the color or texture of the cake?
Previously when bake the sugar didnt melt or dissolve when whipped with butter. Is that expected? Will it make a difference.
Thank you so much!
Hi Roopa – I wouldn’t recommend a glass pan as they bake differently (usually the temperature needs to be decreased by 25 degrees). Also, brown sugar will completely affect the texture of the cake and I haven’t tested the cake with that type of sugar (it has more moisture) so I’d recommend following the recipe as written. Good luck!
I want to ask if the sour cream in this cake makes it taste tangy. I’ve tried sour cream before and it makes the cake taste tangy which I don’t like. But I’m going to try it anyway. Just wondering. Thank you!
I don’t notice a definite tangy taste – but I like sour cream/buttermilk in my baked goods so I might not be looking for that type of taste difference.
I have the exact same question.
Can you bake and freeze this cake ahead of time? Also can I make it into 12″ layers? I’m baking my brother’s wedding cake and I think he would really enjoy this!
Yes, you can bake and freeze the cake and I think it would work well as 12-inch layers but if you want more than one, you’ll need to increase the batter. Good luck!
You have never failed me Mel so I’m going to say I screwed up somewhere. I have an oven thermometer which read 350 but it took close to 40 minutes to cook. It didn’t sink and looked great but it was pretty dry. I used room temp everything and beat the heck out of the butter and eggs. I checked them at 20 min and the middle was no where near done so I rotated them. Maybe should I just cook one at a time ? I really want this to work haha.
Hmmm, Gigi, not sure why it was so dry! It is pretty important to not mix too much at the end (after adding the dry ingredients). You could try baking one at a time and see how it goes – even a few extra minutes of baking can dry out the cakes – any chance they would have been done around 36 or 37 minutes?
At 20 I checked them and they were far from done so I let them go another 5. I was confident they were set enough they wouldn’t sink at that point so I kept checking every two minutes or so. I’m always cautious about over cooking. The outer part of the cake looked done while the middle was still so jiggly. I just wish I knew why so I could fix it next time
It truly was perfect. Best yellow cake I’ve ever tasted! Thanks for working so hard to perfect it for us!!
Hi! Thanks for this lovely cake! I have been hunting for yellow cake forever and it’s the hardest cake to perfect for odd reason.
The problem is, I followed everything exactly. My oven isn’t that great so I put it on fan forced. Which means the sides cooked too quickly and te middle didn’t cook as I had to take the cake out before it overcooked/burnt.
So my question is how would you vary the temperature & time for fanforced grill cooking?
Hi Rabia – I’m sorry but I’m not familiar with that type of oven and can’t give you any good advice. Good luck experimenting! Sounds like you might need to lower the temp but again, I’m not completely sure since I’ve never used that type of oven before.
I just made this cake, and wanted to tell you how great it was. I did need to bake it a bit longer then listed (about 34 minutes), but the texture and moistness were perfect. I think the only thing I might try the next time I make it, is to add a touch more vanilla.
Thanks for your countless hours of perfecting this cake…..my family really appreciates it.
The most delicious, moist, fluffy, heavenly yellow cake I’ve ever had! When I put it in the refrigerator for the night (because I didn’t read that I shouldn’t-oops) it came out the next day as the most delicious pound cake I’ve ever had! Weird.. But I feel like I don’t lose out either way. 😉
They are 9″ by 2 3/4″
On my first attempt for this cake it sunk in the middle and poured over the sides.
I followed the recipe exactly. I don’t know where I went wrong.
It sounds like maybe your cake pans have much shorter sides than mine. What do they measure?
I followed the recipe exactly. The layers came out crumbly and baked unevenly. This cake will be great with fruit, but it is not a good cake to decorate with buttercream as it falls apart easily. So we will enjoy it for dinner with fruit and whip cream! Thanks for sharing.
Sorry this didn’t work out for you, Celia. From the way you described the cake, it sounds like it might have overbaked a bit. Good way to salvage with the fruit and whipped cream. 🙂
This is the best yellow cake recipe I have come across in years.Thanks for sharing.
Mel, this ones a winner! I made it this morning for Easter. Important to emphasize the need for parchment rounds that cover the whole bottom, made the mistake of sloppily cutting the paper, leaving a small crescent shape on the edge of the pan uncovered, when I turned the cake out that part stuck on the pan, leaving me with the incredibly unfortunate consequence of having to taste what remained in the pan! Though a benefit for me if trying to make an aesthetically perfect cake, could have been quite the bummer. Absolutely adore the texture of the cake, buttery, light and just absolutely delicious. Followed every step to a ‘T’ weighing the flour and sugar. Can’t wait for tomorrows’ guests to try it! Does anybody have any tips for storing it?? I read not to refrigerate, in that case should I wait to frost it till tomorrow? Or can I frost/decorate today and leave the whole thing at room temp? Maybe just a crumb coat? or does it matter at all?? Any input would be appreciated!!
Overall a truly phenomenal recipe, will definitely be making again!
Hi Katie – this cake does do best at room temperature although if the frosting needs to be refrigerated, then my advice is to frost the entire cake and refrigerate it (covered by a cake dome or something of the sort) but be sure to take it out of the refrigerator several hours before serving. If you can wait to frost it, simply cover the cake rounds well in plastic wrap and keep at room temperature until you frost. Glad you liked it!
I just wanted to say “Thank You!!!”! I have also made about 16 different yellow cakes in my quest to find one that I and my family likes. My son’s birthday is coming up and he has decided on a vanilla cake (aka yellow) for his party so the pressure is on to find a good recipe. I tried two others this week already and both had issues. I’ve been disappointed so many times by the promises of “the best yellow cake”, but this one delivered!! The only adjustment I made was to up the vanilla extract to 1T and I also put in 1T of vanilla bean paste as he really wanted a good vanilla flavor and it turned out amazing! The flavor is great, it is super moist and tender and it has the perfect crumb. Thank you, thank you!!
So happy to hear this, thanks Leah!
How many cupcakes would this recipe yield, and it would work for cupcakes?
Others in the comment thread have made cupcakes with this recipe (I haven’t) so feel free to scroll through and read their advice.
Hi, Can i bake this in a 9×13 pan? What should be the temperature? Thanks a lot 🙂
There are several people in the comment thread who baked this in a 9X13 so it might help to scroll through the comments. I’d keep the baking temperature the same – just keep an eye on the time.
I’m a food blog lurker. I never ever comment ever. It’s how I maintain an air of mystery. 🙂 I have made many-a yellow cake from Smitten Kitchen to Magnolia to recipes from old and new cookbooks. I always felt like they were off somehow until this cake. I baked it today and, I kid you not, I tasted it with my mom and it was so utterly perfect that l whispered “I found my recipe”. There might have been a happy tear, but then I do have some flair for drama. In a long winded way I want to thank you from the bottom of my cake loving heart for this paragon of ultimate recipes. This made me SO happy!
Thank you!!
This recipe is perfection. Growing up in a Greek household, I had no point of reference as to what a good yellow cake should taste like. We had fancy torte birthday cakes but, I was just a bit envious of a good American cake. Now the I am a parent making birthday cake for my toddlers, I was in search of that illusive yellow cake. I tried Cook’s Illistrated, Smitten Kitchen and coutless others. There are so many claims of the “perfect” cake on the internet but, this really delivers.
I followed the recipe exactly as written. It is meticulous but, not complicated and it turned out exactly as the picture. I filled it with a barely sweetened raspberry whipped cream and topped with a chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. When I make it again I will decrease the amount of sugar (personal preference as I find most cake too sweet). I hope that doesn’t throw anything off.
Thanks so much for sharing this gem of a recipe!
I tried this cake out today… must say it really boosted my morale! polished it off by dinner time! Mel, this is one outstanding recipe…Thank you so much…
This is the best yellow cake recipe. Your instructions were easy to follow and spot-on. Thank you.
Hi Mel! Thank you for this awesome recipe. It is beautiful. I see in your notes that you mention several people have had the infamous sinking cake after baking it completely. Your suggestion to increase the baking soda was good, but I also wanted to pass on a tip that I recently learned. When mixing ingredients in, every step beyond softening the butter and creaming the sugar should be at the lowest speed possible. Yes it will take a little longer, but it will also avoid too much air being incorporated into the batter. That air may be harmless at first but it expands in the heat of the oven and then deflates as it cools, like a delicious balloon. Someone may have already mentioned this (I confess I did not sift through all 300+ comments!) Thank you for all of your hard work- I trust and use your blog for lots of my baking and will continue to do so. xo
Thanks, Claire!
I made this cake as cupcakes and used full-fat greek yogurt instead of the sour cream, and it was so delicious in texture and taste! I think I’ll reduce the sugar next time for personal preference, but thank you for trying 16 times to find the perfect recipe!
Made the cake and it was good! I just might make it again for my daughter’s birthday.
I made this cake and it was perfect! Except I had one minor issue: it didn’t have that yellow cake flavor. I made chocolate frosting and you could barely taste the cake! I mean I tell you tho the texture was PERFECTION, it was so light and fluffy and moist. But do you have any suggestions for the flavor ?
Abbey, perhaps an extra splash of vanilla would accomplish what you want, in terms of flavor
ooops, I cant even spell my own name 🙂
I agree that probably a little more vanilla will give you the flavor you want. Did you use pure vanilla extract? Good quality extract will help amp up the vanilla flavor.
Try to find an extract called Vanilla Butter Nut. To my nose and palate, it’s yellow butter cake in a bottle. I’ve used it off and on depending on the final cake. I too have been searching for that perfect yellow cake recipe! I finally found a perfect pound cake recipe that was good for layers, but sometimes you don’t want that dense of a cake. I look forward to trying this recipe for a strawberry whipped cream cake (the main reason I’ve been experimenting with different yellow cakes).
Would like to try baking this cake for a wedding cake. Will it be compatable with fondant? Thanks
I haven’t tried it with fondant but it seems like it would be sturdy enough.
Mel, I’m making this cake next week and I’ve never actually made yellow cake before. I like to add mayonnaise to my white cakes. I was wondering what ratio would I decrease the sour cream, (if I decrease at all) to add the mayonnaise…or would this not be a good idea?
Since I haven’t tried it with mayonnaise so I’d probably not recommend it for this recipe.
Last night, my husband and I got a craving for something sweet. Since I recently received a silicone baking dish that has pockets for individual slices to bake, I decided to try it out. didn’t want to make a whole cake so there wouldn’t be a temptation to eat too much cake (yay portion control!) So I made 4 slices by reducing the recipe to 1/4 of the original. While it was baking, I was so worried that the batter would go over the top (it looked almost like muffins while baking), and I was thinking that maybe I put too much batter in the forms. Thankfully it all stayed in place and even steeled down during the cooling process to give me perfectly flat tops! I filled the cake slices with a blueberry and blackberry compote I made while the cake was baking and topped it with a merengue frosting and sprinkles. Came out delicious! It all went from craving to eating it let that and hour and a half.
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Made this cake for superball Sunday. It’s a bit fussy- but I love fussy. If I want easy I’ll buy a box. Anyway- loved the process did everything to direction then left it in the oven a bit to long. Didn’t hear the timer bc I watch watching the game. Anyway- I thought it was a touch dry but my husband loved it! (I’m very critical). Overall is was still light and yummy. Going to make it again for my moms birthday.
A question: how long to bake for cupcakes?
Hey Gina – several people have commented that they’ve made cupcakes with this – I’m not sure of the exact time but I’d start checking around 15 minutes.
Thanks!
I’ll be sure to hang in the kitchen this time so I don’t leave it in to long. I’m sure thats why it seem a bit dry the fist time. Otherwise delish!
Hello, Is there any way I could make a marble cake with this recipe without compromising flavor and texture?
Thanks,
I’ve never tried it that way so you’d have to experiment. Good luck!
So first and foremost, thank you for testing out so many different recipes. Time and resources I’m sure it wasn’t cheap to come to the final product. I followed the recipe but I had to sub out due to food allergies (sorry). I used earth balance butter and for milk and sour cream I used 2 tbsp of vinegar to 1 cup of Soymilk. The cake was light and airy. It sunk but I can’t complain because the cake in itself was incredibly moist and just perfect. The batter looked a little runny but it came out really tasty and I made cupcakes so I baked for 21 minutes.
Thank you!!!
I am a cake nerd, too, and have tried 10 different yellow cake recipes. I am so excited to have found this and can’t wait to try it out!!
I made your last night and it turned out good . Now I need a recipe for the chocolate frosting asap
I was looking for a frosting to fit what I had on hand and I came across this one…I liked it! Not sure if you found one yet, but hopefully this is a winner for you too. http://www.dishinwithdi.com/chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
This cake was FABULOUS! I made it for my birthday yesterday, along with the Whipped Chocolate Buttercream Frosting!! I will say it was so great it didn’t need the frosting, except to make them prettier! This was my first cake from scratch and it will be my “go-to” yellow cake! Thank you so much for your hard work critiquing the recipe. I followed the recipe to a T (which I have a very hard time doing, haha!) I did use AP flour plus the corn starch to substitute for cake flour, I also weighed it. After weighing I measured (before sifting) just to see how many cups/tablespoons it ended up using. My measurements were approx. 1 1/2 cups very lightly packed AP flour and approx. 4.5 tablespoons of very lightly packed cornstarch. I sifted these together twice, then added other dry ingredients and sifted one more time. I used whole milk and regular sour cream. I generously buttered the two 9″ rounds then lined the bottoms with a parchment rounds (I cut myself) and generously buttered the top of the parchment paper. I had a little bit of a hard time with the sides of my cake sticking to the side of the pans, so I think next time I will test with cooking spray. Although I will say, the buttery cake that I got to eat from the sides was amazing! One cake was ready at 25 minutes, the other needed 28 minutes, maybe I got more batter in one pan than the other. Both of my cakes sunk a little where I stuck a toothpick in, but not tremendously. I just filled them in with more frosting in those spots ;). Thank you so much once again!
This cake was AMAZING!!!!! Best yellow cake from scratch I have ever had. Way better than the boxed junk. I have tried many yellow cake recipes without success, and the last one I had been making was temperamental, and seemed to shrink and sink in the middle. Not this cake! Awesome perfect crumb, not too crumbly,spongy and fluffy, and very moist. I did use regular flour with cornstarch, and weighed ingredients. I did have to increase baking time, since I used a bigger pan and increased the recipe by a half. The best part about this cake, is that it is a no fuss cake! No making egg whites to fold in at the end. Thank you so much Mel. My search is FINALLY over!!!
I meant buttermilk, not sour cream.
I made this cake this morning following your recipe almost exactly. The one thing I changed was I use 1 cup whole milk instead of half sour cream. I also used a 13X9 oblong pan, and baked for 40 minutes. It came out perfect. And it didn’t sink in the middle. I frosted it with butercream frosting (my husbands favorite). It was the best tasting yellow cake I have ever had. My husband loved it!! You can eat this cake with nothing on it because the taste is great, fluffy, tender and moist. Thank You So Much
SO glad i found someone who made it in a 9×13. I am making this for my mom and my uncle (they share a birthday) for sunday and there will be 15-20 people there. want to make sure i have enough cake!
Hi Mel,
Came across your site while looking for yellow cake recipe.
Would love to reproduce my Tennessee grandmother’s yellow cake which was always super moist and fluffy. She did not use cake flour as she didn’t usually have any. I’m talking back in the 40’s & 50’s. She had those giant yellowware bowls, and whipped all by hand without a mixer. I was enthralled as she hummed along as she worked. Or told me stories or riddles.
No one ever had her recipe as she never wrote things down. It was all in her head. She did have a scale and a multitude of gadgets as she also put up her whole garden and orchard in jars for the winter. Her cake batter was altered slightly to make her own style of “Madeliene’s” which we called “Granny Cookies”….they were just little round “tea cakes”. Delicious. But they weren’t really as eggy or creamy as real Madeleines. She changed them up with coconut or lemon from time to time. The cake she made was altered depending on who it was for or the holiday season. But there was a yellow cake every Sunday after church! For dinner dessert. I think your recipe must be something like hers.
Often there was more then one cake as she had 24 grandchildren. (I was the eldest girl and got to hang out in the kitchen a lot) I have the Granny Cookie recipe which one of my aunts wrote down while watching Granny whip it up. But it’s not quite right, of course. I have another whole story about her pumpkin pie. (very dark, and shiny like custard)
Anyway, she just had a knack. Which I do not. Which you do!!
Thank you for explaining the variables in the flours and the adjustments which must be made with the other ingredients. I’m going to have my granddaughters read this recipe as it will give them a great understanding of and respect for the chemistry of baking. Especially cakes. I don’t think they have a clue as to how it works. For them it’s sort of magical. Well, truthfully, for me, too.
Thank you for this recipe, and though I’m a bit intimidated by it, I surely will try it. Best regards to you, Kathryn
PS. To make it go around better for a crowd, Granny served by cutting cake in half and then slicing 1″ slices from the center cut out on both sides. So all the slices were parallel. Yes, out to the curve, the slices got smaller, but those got more frosting, or icing as Granny called it. I never saw anybody else do it that way. Thanks again! KH
I love your detailed comment, Kathryn! So much of cooking and baking is emotional when tied to memories like you have with your grandmother. I love that! It sounds like such a treasured time when you were able to spend time with your grandma in the kitchen.
I too, have been searching for the perfect yellow cake recipe. I googled “best yellow cake recipe” and I came across your blog. I’m so glad I found you! My search for the perfect yellow cake is now over. This cake is so delicious and the texture is beautiful! I just made it for my Dad’s birthday and my family raved about it. Thank you, Mel!!!
PS. I found you just before the holidays and the timing was perfect. My family also enjoyed your Chocolate Pretzel Pie, Yellow Cupcakes and Favorite Sugar Cookies!
So happy, thanks Marguerite!
I used your recipe to make a slow cooker cake; I did vary an ingredient .. .. .. instead of the sour cream called for, I used a full cup of hm applesauce
Just put it in the oven (fingers crossed)!! I added an extra tsp of almond extract to the vanilla, the batter was deeeelish. Hoping this birthday cake to myself is as yummy on the first try as yours was on the 14th. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe! I made this cake with cream cheese frosting and stored it in the fridge the night before my party. The flavor was very good, but the cake was slightly dry after I left it in room temperature before serving. Some cakes seem to taste better the next day, but is it better to make this cake on the day you’re serving it so I don’t need to refrigerate it, worrying that the cake will turn hard? Can you tell me the best way of dong it? Thank you!
Hi Mimi – I don’t refrigerate this cake and I think that might be the reason it dried out a bit. I usually store it well-covered in a cake dome or cake carrier at room temperature.
Thank you for the wonderful recipes. 🙂 I made (or am in the process of making this cake). I ran into a dilemma. When I weighed out the flour/cornstarch it made almost 4 cups of flour after sifting. I wasn’t sure what to do. So, I measured out the 2 1/2 cups of sifted flour rather than using the measured (grams) amount. Now, I’m not anywhere near an expert and may have made a mistake somewhere, but I doubled checked my weight (grams) twice. I didn’t know if you might have an answer for this.
The cake came out very dense. I am re-reading your recipe and wondering if I didn’t cream the butter and sugar enough? Any other hints or help would be greatly appreciated. I love the flavor just need to lighten the cake.
Hi Sue – Sifted flour will always measure more (using cups) than unsifted because it’s essentially just been fluffed up while sifting so that’s probably why it seemed like a lot of flour. The safest method is to use the weight measures given in the recipe since they are foolproof (as opposed to cup measures which can vary widely depending on how people scoop the flour and also, as you saw, if they measure before or after sifting). I think the reason your cake may not have turned out is because of the flour issue. If you make it again, weigh the dry ingredients and use that amount even after sifting. Hope that helps!
I made this cake for my daughter’s 13th birthday New Year’s Eve. It was amazing. This will now be a tradition. I used 3 4″x2″ pans (filled with batter about 3/4 of the way) and still had enough for a nice 8″ layer. We ate it with fresh strawberries and whipped cream. Yum. The next day we had it slightly warmed in the microwave with a scoop of ice cream. Another winner. Thanks for the great recipe. How about tackling Madeleines next? I’ve tried a couple of recipes but I found them too dense and eggy. Seems a slight variation on this recipe might work. Thanks for the memorable cake!
More high altitude tips here!! I just took the second trial out of the oven – and they look AMAZING! Perfectly golden and rounded – can’t wait to try it!
Here are the changes I made (I live at 6500 ft.):
Increased milk by 1 T
Increased flour by 2 1/2 T
Decreased baking soda to 1/8 tsp
Decreased baking powder to 1 tsp
Decreased SUGAR by 2 T (I measured 1 3/4 cup and then scooped out 2 T).
My first cake was totally flat in the middle, and crusty/sugary around the outside. I have had success with decreasing sugar in other recipes, and thought it might work here.
Also, my son really wanted marble cake, so I went for it. I used about a cup of the finished batter, and mixed it with an ounce of semi-sweet chocolate chips, then just dropped in on top and swirled with a knife.
I guess the taste is yet to be determined…hoping the missing sugar won’t have a huge effect, or that the chocolate makes up for it. I will post again after we eat it!
Thanks for the tips, Emily!
Thanks for posting this! I would love it if you could post the whole revised recipe… 🙂
Just took this cake out of the oven as a trial run for my son’s b-day on Saturday. Glad I did a trial because doesn’t look good. Totally sunk in the middle before I even took them out of the oven. I live at about 6500 ft. altitude, and made the adjustments recommended in the recipe…but didn’t read all the comments until it was already in the oven (silly). High altitude baking isn’t a universal thing- each 500 – 1000 ft has it’s own tricks, I guess! I will look for the “pie in the sky” chart that was recommended and try again – he needs a birthday cake after all. I have to say, it smells delicious, so I’m sure we will have no trouble eating my trial, even if it isn’t pretty. Also, he requested marble cake but i thought I’d figure out the yellow first – has anyone tried marbling this successfully yet?
Hey there I have made a variation of this cake several times using vanilla extract & almond extract and just vanilla. I switched to 2 1/4 tsp just baking powder using no soda and I use 2 tbsp vanilla. I experimented with preheating at 350 and once cake was in turning down to 325. It did produce a little moister crumb but both ways are ok. For me, these as cupcakes turn a little flatter than my other cupcake recipe but the flavor is better in Mel’s recipe but I think adding for extract makes it taste way better.
The flavor was actually perfect, I am just having altitude issues Trying it again today!
How come you know longer have a “save recipe” button for your recipes
Marlynn – Ziplist (along with the ability to save recipes is no longer available). I am exploring other options to replace Ziplist, but want to make sure it’s the best one before implementing on my site. In the meantime from what I understand you can create an account at epicurious.com to access your currently saved recipes and I’ve heard paprika is a good app to use for individuals wanting to save recipes online. I hope that helps!
Cannot wait to try making this cake! My boyfriend absolutely loves yellowcake with chocolate frosting and my biggest pet peeve is a dry cake. Hopefully, I can make this one successfully!
Could you provide the link for the recipe of the chocolate frosting you used?
Thanks!
http://www.melskitchencafe.com/whipped-chocolate-buttercream-frosting/
I made this cake for christmas and it was amazing. Easily the best yellow cake recipe I have run across so far. I did use 1/2 teaspoon baking soda as another commenter suggested and a tablespoon of vanilla but those were the only changes I made.
Made this cake for the first time on Christmas Day… Best cake I ever made in my life!!! I really enjoyed making it and eating it. I love yellow cake so this will be a sure regular for me. Thanks!!!
Thank you so much for posting this detailed recipe. I just made the most beautiful yellow cake of my life!
Hi. You used to have an amazing GF flour recepie (with the pink icing recepie. Where can I find it? Thanks!
I think you might be thinking of a different blog, Anna. I don’t remember having a recipe like that. Sorry!
About 65 years ago I started cooking cakes at home using an old cookbook and the recipe for a two egg cake. (There was also a variation for spice cake which we always iced with homemade caramel icing -my Dads favorite) Always dumped everything into the bowl and beat the daylights out of it by hand. Cake pans were greased and floured. Made very good cake that was not as dry tasting if it was not cooled too long. Fond memories using cows milk and chicken eggs with Crisco. I milked the cow and gathered the eggs. YUM!
I just made this cake for my daughter’s 2nd birthday! I followed it exactly, using the APflour/cornstarch mix. Looks just like your picture, I was so happy with it. Very moist with a light mouthfeel. One thing that did differ greatly is mine took 37 minutes to cook. I have an old uncalibrated oven but have an oven thermometer that read 350. Oh well, just glad I didn’t under or over cook and that there is lots leftover 🙂
This cake looks absolutely gorgeous! Trying it soon!
I think it’s hilarious that when people make it and it doesn’t work out that they have to mention they are an expert baker or have a culinary degree or whatever. I’m not saying they don’t but it’s almost like they have to say that to make themselves feel better or something cause heaven forbid the recipe really is right and they might have made a mistake. It’s kind of funny. I’m not a professional bake or caterer or whatever, but I just made this cake again this weekend (probably the 4th time or something) and it’s really the best.
Lari did you “make” the cake flour or use purchased cake flour? I am trying to figure out where I went wrong on the recipe. My cake came out very, very dense. Any help would be appreciated.
Sue
The rule of thumb on changing all-purpose flour to cake flour is: 1 cup cake flour = 1 cup all-purpose minus 2 table spoons.
I have been baking all my life, I had a little bit of culinary experience from a class that I once took. I have read her does and don’ts to this recipe and everything looks fabulously in order. I will make one adjustment to the recipe and use buttermilk instead of sour cream to add acidity to the cake. The only reason is that I am not a big fan of adding sour cream into this recipe ( I could be wrong ). I will post my results. It looks like to me that she didn’t try using buttermilk and as butter milk will add a tender richness to the cake. Yellow cake is a very difficult cake to perfect and all of her steps should be taken and wouldn’t skip one of them.
Rodney, I like buttermilk too in a cake and although I have made this recipe several times it always come out perfect ( I am NOT a professional baker). I wanted to try it with buttermilk. I’m curious, how did your cake turn out and taste?
Myra, did your cake taste tangy with the sour cream? Coming out perfect is real moist also????
Rodney, did you ever try the buttermilk instead of the sour cream. Just wondering. I am inclined to do the same!
Glad to know you found a good recipe because I recently made one similar and the reviews were great but the cake was dry and not sweet at all. I decided more eggs and sugar plus sour cream should be incorporated. This one might just work.
I will try the cake again, but my first attempt didn’t turn out so well. My son thought it was dry (and he has a culinary degree), my husband thought it was good. Mine did something weird though, after baking the required time and testing it with cake tester, I removed from the oven and all around the edges looked kind of wet, not wet as in not done. I couldn’t not figure it out. I catered over 20 years and still did not know what the problem was. I followed the directions exactly and even using baking strips around the pan to keep cake from crowning in the center. I will try again sometime and post results.
Its because the ratio of flour (100%) to sugar (about 150%) is too high causing a caramelization on top of the cake. Sugar also adds some moisture to the cake making the top possibly seem more soggy then your typical cake out of the oven. All in all a good recipe if you just reduce the sugar to the same almost as the flour (9oz) its golden not to sweet but just perfect in balance. The most sugar i would ever add to a butter cake is about 125% of total flour weight.
4 stars other than that! good job!
Could use of regular granulated sugar also contribute to this caramelization? Perhaps caster/superfine sugar would be better as it would dissolve better and not caramelize on the top.
You could definitely try it with superfine sugar.
I was suspicious from the get go and I should have relied on my intuition. Basic facts you learn from experience apply universally and are much more valuable than the romantic ideas dreamt up by fancy headline bloggers. When you mix flour with wet ingredients, you need to mix it as little as possible to avoid a tough and dry end result. Cold eggs….I didn’t use cold eggs….I don’t know about the science behind cold eggs….but I’ll go out on a limb and say that sifting everything before you combine it makes all of the particles settle more closely together, kind of like sand as opposed to gravel. This made the cake dry, more akin to fluffy bread rather than a moist confection. As far as the butter being too “greasy”, room temperature is pretty standard. It wasn’t melted and it wasn’t cold. You may want to say that I did something wrong along the way but I followed the directions word for word and this isn’t my first cake. Sorry for being brash. My motivation isn’t to spread negativity but rather to offer balance to the strictly positive reviews I’ve seen and maybe to save one cake from the fate of mediocrity with a touch of desert wasteland. #MIX BY HAND!!
I just want to say, in response to the couple of negative reviews that I’ve seen on here, particularly the one above, that I completely disagree. I searched for an entire year for a moist and fluffy scratch yellow cake recipe. I tried over 30 DIFFERENT recipes without success. This is the ONLY one that turned out well. I have made this recipe dozens of times since, and it turns out perfect every time. It is SUPER moist but still fluffy and tastes great. It is not dry in any way. I do follow the instructions exactly, except that instead of sifting the dry ingredients, I whisk them together in a bowl with a wire whisk. I bake and sell cupcakes and I am very picky about the moisture level and texture of my cakes. This is the absolute only yellow cake recipe that is acceptable to me. I don’t mean to pile on, but I’m just telling you that if this is turning out dry for you you’re either over baking it, or your butter is too warm. Butter should be at a cool room temperature so that you can barely make an indentation with your finger. If you can easily slide your finger into it, it’s too warm. I know nothing about this blogger, I just happened to find her recipe in my massive and endless search for a good yellow cake recipe. I have no horse in this race, but it really is a good recipe.
Hi Sarah – I’m sorry this didn’t work out for you and the others who have commented on this thread. I don’t consider myself a “fancy headline blogger” and actually don’t know what you mean by that; my only motivation for blogging is to provide tried-and-true recipes, and for me, this yellow cake is just that. I think it’s helpful for people intent on trying this recipe to read all the reviews, including the ones that aren’t raving about the recipe and your review and others will add value. Although I do agree with Lisa that if the cake is turning out dry, it’s not recipe error but perhaps simple variations in how people are making it (baking it even slightly too long or overmixing the batter at the end or a variety of other factors outlined in the post). This cake will be moist and tender if made exactly like the recipe states as I and the other hundreds of positive reviews can attest. Good luck on your search for the perfect yellow cake! Sorry this didn’t happen to be the one.
I am a home baker and cookbook author. I made this cake today and it was awesome-moist, tender and so delicious. It will be my go to recipe for a yellow cake. Not sure why some have issues, but for me it is perfect. Essential Oil Talk and author of Ancient Grains
I am a home baker and cookbook author. I made this cake today and it was awesome-moist, tender and so delicious. It will be my go to recipe for a yellow cake. Not sure why some have issues, but for me it is perfect. Author of Ancient Grains
This was so good! You have definitely perfected the yellow cake. Thank!
I just made the cake, and love the texture. I am not advanced enough to scale this up to 3 layers, but that would make it even more perfect!
I made the cake today with your chocolate buttercream frosting and they were both absolutely amazing! The cake was a huge hit with my family- THANK YOU for another wonderful recipe, Mel!
I have been in search of a moist yellow cake recipe forever! Thank you for sharing. I tried your recipe today and it turned out great. Thank you for the tips that you gave. I have been so reluctant to used cake flour. i have ALWAYS been a White Lilly girl, to which I will continue to use. But I am sold on your basic yellow cake recipe. Thanks again for sharing.
Dear Mel,
I am so happy to come across your blog. The moment I read this, I know that I have found the perfect yellow cake recipe finally. I haven’t had much luck with yellow cakes; the ones I tried usually end up flat or too oily. In fact, my default cake for celebration cakes is enriched sponge. Isn’t yellow cake supposed to be basic? 🙂 To thank you for sharing your recipe, I would like to report back that I have successfully baked your recipe in a 9″x13″ pan. One recipe yields 1-1/4″ to 1-1/2″ in height, and it takes 35 minutes to bake. I made the recipe twice, since I needed two sheets, with repeatable results. I did make a few small adjustments to the recipe: I used 1/2 tsp baking soda, just because I worry about cake sinking in the middle, but that might not have been necessary; reduced sugar to 11oz because I like a less sweet cake; used buttermilk instead of a mixture of sour cream and milk, which should have the exact same effect. The cake baked very evenly. Thank you for perfecting the yellow cake!
This is indeed the best yellow cake recipe ever!! So good in fact that while I was focused so hard on perfecting all of the steps I forgot to add the vanilla extract, and it was still the best yellow cake ever! Thanks for all of the hard work and testing.
I will try your recipe. I compare every yellow cake to my grandmother’s recipe she use to call butter cake. I may try your technique of having everything room temperature though on her recipe. http://rosemaryandthegoat.com/2011/09/22/mamas-butter-cake/
I made this cake yesterday for my dad’s birthday and it was very delicious. The cake was moist, fluffy, and had just the right amount of sweetness. I followed the recipe exactly as it is written. However, I added 1/2 tsp of baking soda because I was afraid the cake would have a sunken centre. I also didn’t have cake flour but I made a substitute for it using a recipe online. Thank you very much for this recipe – I will definitely keep it in my books!
Yes, your right! I’ve been looking for a moist yellow cake recipe for a long time, found it, 🙂
I baked at 350 and I checked the cake in the center with a toothpick at 25 min and it still had batter then I checked at 27 min and it was good. The only thing I can think of is maybe I had to much flour since I didn’t weigh it. I just scooped it out of the box with a measuring cup. Is that a possibility?
Yes, measuring the flour differently can affect the results. I usually fluff up the flour really good, scoop it into the cup and level off the cup. Weighing will give the most precise results, though.
So I made this perfect yellow cake exactly by the recipie and it turned out a little dry. What could be wrong?
It’s really hard for me to know without being right there while making/baking and without details. Could it have been baked too long?
Me too. Very dry. Even worse than those store bought doughnuts covered in chocolate wax that I still eat because they look yummy. My honest opinion, we are going to have to keep looking for a great yellow cake recipe. This wasn’t what I had in my imagination beforehand. Not moist, not tender and not going into my first generation, family heirloom, only awesome recipe box. Good luck fellow bakers.
So I decided to try this cake recipe for several reasons. One being I have no cell cupcake recipe for vanilla and chocolate and white but every time I used it to make a cake it just didn’t come out the way I want it.I read all the reviews read the ingredient list and read all Mel’s great advice. I have tried all the tricks even separating the yolks from the whites and beating the whites last separately and folding them in at the end to try to create a fluffier Texture. However I find this is phenomenal for chocolate cakes but a little too much folding and mixing for the Vanilla and white cakes. The only saying that I felt I had to change to accommodate my preference is more the Vanilla extract because I use organic and I also feel that a lot of times homemade cakes don’t have enough vanilla flavor. In saying this I increased the vanilla 2 tablespoons.because of this I knew I had to add more cake flour for evening out the liquid ratio. I also did not use baking soda as I do not like to use this in white or vanilla cakes because of flattening affects. I ended up using 2 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder and no baking soda for cake flour I ended up using the 2 1/4 cups plus an additional 2 3/4 teaspoonsto make up for the difference of the extra vanilla extract (liquid vs. dry ratio).The batter came out just like in your picture and The cake tastes awesome. Perfect fluff no flattening affect.
Just baked this (aka my first real, legit, not-in-a-box cake) today for my moms birthday and topped it off with you chocolate buttercream and I could cry it’s so good. THANK YOU SO MUCH for working so hard and for creating a recipe for literally, the worlds best yellowcake. SO happy right now!
Wow. Definitely the best yellow cake from scratch. I used all purpose flour and cornstarch instead of cake flour which I do not like. I used 11/2 the recipe of the chocolate frosting in the back of ghiradelli Cocoa powder and it was perfect (9 tbsp butter + 4 cups confec sugar + 3/4 cup cocoa + 1/2 cup milk). Thanks for sharing.
Okay, I commented earlier, was concerned about trying this for a customer order. Well I had to come back and let you know, I baked it in a 12×16 sheet, made two separate batches and combined in the sheet pan. It came out great! or at least from what I can see after I cut the small dome off the top. I tasted the scraps of course and it seems perfect! Thank so much for sharing this recipe! I used both batches and filled the pan. It was just the right amount to make the cake full to the top with a small dome that I leveled off. Perfection! I now have a much better “go to” recipe for yellow cakes.
I am not using fondant other than for small decorations on this cake so I can’t tell if it would be sturdy enough to use fondant on, but since that wasn’t part of the order, that’s okay by me! Thanks so much for your hard work!
I am so glad it worked out for you! I have never used that size pan for this cake, so I am glad you experimented and reported back.
Mel, I can’t wait to try your cake. Since I too like to experiment with cakes, I would like to share with you something that always works with me. I particulary dislike the metallic taste I seem to find in cake flour, so I always replace it, and always successfully, using this formula. 1 cup cake flour = 3/4 cup all purpose flour + 2 tbsp cornstarch. I know you have a similar substitution but in grams (210 grams of all-purpose flour and 45 grams of cornstarch). I would love it, if you have the time, if you could try my formula and compare it to the original recipe which asks for cake flour. Who knows. You may, like me, prefer the taste with the all purpose flour and cornstarch. I see you recipe asks for 2 1/4 cup cake flour, so based on my formula, I would replace it with 1 3/4 cup minus 1 tbsp all purpose flour PLUS 4 1/2 tbsp cornstarch (equivalent to 4 tbsp + 1 1/2 tsp).
So…. if you are a dumb bunny and forget to buy the sour cream on your grocery list, I would recommend trying a full cup of milk, soured with the juice of a lemon. I did this for my daughter’s birthday cake and it was a hit! That said, I can’t wait to try this with sour cream, per the recipe.
Hi Mel, I baked your yellow cake two weeks ago, it was a big hit. Thanks so much for the recipe. I do a lot of baking and like some of the other reviewers I had been searching a while for a yellow light fluffy cake–almost like a box cake but I don’t like box cakes. I am making two this weekend for a cookout. I made two layers, but I will try the three layer cake in 9″ round pans, thanks again.
Hi Mel! I figured it out on my third try. I was following the recipe incorrectly. I had doubled the milk and sour cream. I Just pulled the cakes out of the oven and they are beautiful! Thank you for such a great recipe! My hunt for the perfect yellow cake is over 😉
Hi Mel,
This cake was wonderful! It is the third yellow cake recipe that I made this weekend :). However, after I took the cakes out of the oven and they cooled, there was a thin gummy layer at the bottom of both of my cakes. The top half of the cakes were beautiful and had a fantastic crumb. Do you have any guidance regarding the bottom gummy layer and what I could be doing wrong? I appreciate all of the leg work you put into making this cake. It really is great. Thanks!
Hi LG – I think I may have included a picture in the post about this but I think I experienced something similar when I used cold eggs from the fridge (instead of room temperature). Were your eggs cold?
Hi Mel,
I am still at it. Baking this cake and I just love the flavor. However, I have noticed that after I frost it and leave it out at room temperature to serve the next day, it is dry. How can I get it to stay moist. It is perfect out of the oven but dry when we finally get ready to eat it.
Thank you!