My very best Vanilla Cake – stays moist 4 days!
This is my best vanilla cake recipe. A classic butter cake but with Japanese techniques applied for the most plush, soft and moist yellow cake like you’ve never had before. This professional bakery style cake stays fresh and moist for 4 days — that’s unheard of! Use the same batter for perfect Vanilla Cupcakes. This is a reader favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”. My best Vanilla Cake recipe is….. Plush, moist, fluffy crumb without being freakishly unnaturally so (as some store bought can be). No more dense cakes! Keeps near perfectly for 4 whole days. 100% fresh on Day 1, still 96% perfect on Day 4. That’s unheard of! Lovely vanilla and butter flavour without a greasy mouthfeel; Even, elegant crumb – no large tunnels or irregular, crumbly holes; Bakes perfectly flat – no levelling required! Makes perfect cupcakes; Not overly sweet; and As tender as it can be but still be stable enough to make a large layered cake smothered with frosting or piles of cream and berries. In contrast, Chiffon Cakes and Japanese Sponges which, while lighter still, cannot actually hold up to much extra weight – the bottom layer gets quite squished. So if all that appeals to you too, then I dare say this might become YOUR favourite vanilla cake recipe too! And here’s a little preview to show you how soft and fluffy it still is after 4 days: Freshness preview – this cake is 4 days old! Origins of this vanilla cake This vanilla cake is the result of bringing together the best of Japanese sponge cakes and Western butter based cakes. It has the world renowned very soft, fluffy crumb of Japanese cakes and uses the Japanese baking method, combined with the buttery goodness and sweetness of Western cakes. But it’s more sturdy than Japanese cakes which are so delicate, they can really only be decorated with cream. Anything heavier and the bottom layer gets squished! Also, importantly, this cake incorporates my cake shelf-life requirement to stay perfectly fresh for at least 2 days after it’s made. (This lasts perfectly for 4 days.) Because who bakes cakes on the day they are intended to be served?? Interestingly, baking experts will recognise the method and ingredients in this cake to be very similar to what is called a Hot Milk Cake in America – albeit strangely it’s often described as a “dense” cake, presumably because they don’t preserve the egg aeration to the extent I insist we do and also because sometimes it’s baked in bundt pans which takes far longer to bake (= dense cake). The words “best served on the day” on a cake recipe is never a good sign – it means it drastically degrades overnight. But THIS cake recipe is near perfect for 4 days – even 5 days! I don’t want to get too cake nerdy with you… but one sign of a well made cake is an even crumb. No large tunnels or lots of irregular size holes. It looks and tastes velvety – a similar plush texture to Red Velvet Cake. There’s a widely held misconception that cake flour is the secret to a better cake. That’s only true for certain cakes. For this one, plain / all purpose flour yields better results. Ingredients in my Best Vanilla Cake recipe Here’s what you need to make this plush, soft vanilla cake. No cake flour, no buttermilk, no sour cream. Tried them all – this cake is better with plain / all purpose flour and just milk. Plain / all purpose flour – compared to cake flour, the flavour of the butter and vanilla comes through better, the crumb is slightly more velvety AND it keeps slightly more moist too. Bonus: no need to hunt down / pay a premium for cake flour! Do not substitute with self raising flour or gluten free flour. Eggs – whipped to aerate, these are key to make the cake extraordinarily light and fluffy. You don’t get an eggy flavour; Baking powder – not baking soda (bi-carb), it doesn’t rise as well. This is our safety net, extra helping hand to make the cake rise. Milk, full fat – just plain cow milk. Low fat works as well but rises marginally less. Do not substitute with non dairy milk or buttermilk; Sugar – best to use caster / superfine sugar if you can because it dissolves better in the eggs. But regular / granulated sugar works just fine too – you may just end up with some little brown spots on the base; Oil – just 1 tablespoon adds a noticeable hint of extra moistness, especially on Day 4, without weighing down the cake in the slightest. Don’t be tempted to add more – I tried an extra tablespoon and it didn’t rise as well; Vanilla extract – the best you can afford. Imitation will work just fine, but the flavour isn’t as pure or real. I use Queen Vanilla Extract. Don’t waste your money on vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste – it’s not worth it for cakes. Why this cake is safer than typical “cream butter and sugar” cakes Making a really good cake that starts with “cream butter and sugar until fluffy….” is actually harder than you think. The butter has to be at the perfect temperature, and you can’t have chilly mixing bowls. If the butter is too soft, the cake will be greasy and dense – sound familiar? If it’s too hard, you’ll never manage to cream it and you’ll end up with grease pockets. If you beat butter too long, you break the air pockets. There’s more room for error with cookies and some other types of baked goods. But the butter temperature needs to be near perfect for cakes and cupcakes. (17°C/63°F is the perfect temperature for “softened butter”). And even if you nail it, the cake rapidly loses freshness. Even the next day it’s noticeably drier. I’ve tried dozens and dozens over the years, to compare to this Vanilla Cake. This recipe puts all to shame in terms of fresh shelf life. Heads up – this is a long step by step explanation post, to ensure those who are new to baking are
