You need a basic go-to vanilla cake recipe in your repertoire and for me, this has been IT from the day I started baking. It’s a simple recipe with the usual ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, eggs, milk, vanilla) and it also has yoghurt which adds an amazing softness to the crumb. You’ve to see the texture to believe it, it’s super moist and tender 🙂

I started this recipe as a marble cake (one of my earliest blog posts) and over the last few years, I’ve adapted the recipe to make flavours such as pineapple, lemon, strawberry, butterscotch etc (check the end of the recipe for variations). I’ve also added some nuts or tutti-fruiti and baked it into a loaf.

I bake this recipe in a 6″ pan. The recipe can be easily doubled to make a 9″ cake too.

Ingredients –

85g unsalted butter at room temperature
150g all-purpose flour
125g caster sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 regular eggs
60ml milk at room temperature
40ml yoghurt at room temperature

Procedure –

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 6″ round pan with parchment paper at bottom and butter the sides.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and keep aside.
3. In a stand mixer or a large bowl with electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together for 4-5 minutes until smooth and creamy.
4. Add the egg one at a time and mix until combined.
5. Add vanilla and yoghurt and mix. (The mixture might look split but don’t worry it will all come together at the end)
6. Add flour and milk in an alternate order, starting and ending with flour. Mix after each addition until just combined.(add 1/3 flour, 1/2 milk, 1/3 flour, 1/2 milk and remaining 1/3 flour). Do not overmix.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake it at 180C for 35-40 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and let it cool in the pan over a rack for about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let it cool completely over a wire rack.

Variations –

1. Pineapple cake – replace vanilla extract with pineapple essence and add chopped up pineapples (about 60g or 1 slice) in the batter at the end.
2. Lemon & Blueberry cake – replace vanilla extract with lemon extract. Add about 1/2 cup of blueberries in 1 tbsp flour and mix them till they are coated in flour. Add to the batter in end.
3. Butterscotch cake – Put some dollops of caramel sauce over the batter and swirl it in with a skewer. Add butterscotch kernels if you want.

 

I used this recipe to make this tall 2-tiered pineapple cake for a client and decorated it with pineapple flavoured Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

 

 

 

 

 

I also used this recipe to make this tall 4-layered butterscotch cake for my brother’s birthday and decorated it with caramel flavoured Swiss Meringue Buttercream and drizzled with caramel sauce.