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.
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.
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.
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!
The Butter
- 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.
The Eggs
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, in my testing, I ended up scaling down the whole eggs from four to three and adding 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.
- However, when I used all egg yolks and no whites, the cake was slightly gummy and not as fluffer-fluffy as I wanted.
The Milk + Sour Cream
- 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.
- 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.
The Flour
- 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.
- 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).
Sifting
- 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.
- 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).
The Batter
- Ah, the gorgeous batter. It may look just slightly curdled and that’s ok.
- Spread it evenly in the pan, 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).
One Year Ago: Six Recipes the World Forgot {Part 3}
Two Years Ago: Paprika Chicken Stroganoff
Three Years Ago: Naan – Indian Flatbread
Perfected Yellow Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup (227 g) butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups (371 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 large egg yolks, room temperature
- 2 ¼ cups (255 g) cake flour, lightly measured, see note for high altitude adjustments
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda, see note
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup milk, 1% or above, room temperature
- ½ cup sour cream, light or regular, room temperature
Instructions
- To prep, whisk together the milk and sour cream together in a liquid measure and let come to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and make sure an oven rack is placed in the middle of the oven.
- In a large bowl of an electric stand mixer or with a handheld electric mixer, whip the butter on medium speed for 1-2 minutes. Add the granulated sugar and beat for 4-5 minutes on medium speed. Mix in the vanilla.
- One at a time, add the eggs and egg yolks, mixing just until combined in between additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Combine the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sift them together through a fine mesh strainer.
- Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix just until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add 1/2 of the milk/sour cream mixture and mix. Add another 1/3 of the dry ingredients, mixing just until combined. Add the last 1/2 of the milk/sour cream mixture and beat until just combined. Add the final 1/3 of the dry ingredients and mix just until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl if necessary. Give the batter one good, final stir with the rubber spatula.
- Grease the cake pans and line the bottoms with a parchment round. Grease the parchment and sides of the pan again very well. I use regular cooking spray but you can also use butter or cooking spray with flour. If your cake pans tend to cause sticking, consider also flouring the pans.
- Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. Drop each pan from about 3-inches onto the counter to minimize air bubbles while baking.
- Bake for 25-28 minutes (high altitude: 28-30 minutes) until lightly golden around the edges and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs. Resist the urge to open and close the oven to check on the cake – this can cause the center of the cake to fall and never recover. And as with all cakes, don’t overbake or the cake will be dry.
- Let the cakes rest in the pans for 5-10 minutes before gently turning them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Recipe Source: Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Special Thanks To…
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!
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.
Kristen, you should do your own recipe. I’m sure you could make one up with all the resources on the internet. I hope you post it to share with inexperienced bakers so they can share their dislike like you have done here. With all the positive reviews I’m most certain it was use error. Meaning you did something wrong and or used low quality ingredients.
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.