This is my basic yellow cake recipe. I use it for different types of cake as well, including strawberry, lemon, spice, tres leches, etc. I’ll include those variations below.
Buttermilk yellow cake
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar until light. Add egg yolks, one at a time until well incorporated. Sift dry ingredients. Add alternately with buttermilk/vanilla, starting and ending with dry. Mix only until smooth. Don’t over mix. Whip up the whites separately to firm peaks and fold into the batter. Bake in a 9×13 pan at 350′ for approximately 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
- Variations:
- I like to add buttermilk powder to the dry ingredients when substituting other liquids so I don’t lose the benefits of the buttermilk.
- For tres leches cake:
- Make cake as above. mix together one can evaporated milk, one can sweetened-condensed milk and 1 cup whole milk or goat milk and pour slowly over cake to soak in. *This recipe will only take 1/2 the milk. Either reserve the other half of the milk or make a double recipe
- Strawberry cake:
- In place of the buttermilk (1 cup), use 1 1/2 cups (12 oz) blended strawberries.
- banana cake:
- In place of the buttermilk (1 cup), use 1 1/2 cups (12 oz) blended bananas.
- Lemon cake:
- In place of the vanilla (1.5 tsp), use 2 tsp lemon extract.
- Spice cake:
- In place of buttermilk, use 1 1/2 cups apple sauce. In place of half the sugar, use 1/2 brown sugar. To dry ingredients, add 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp cloves and 1/4 tsp ginger.
Have you tried this recipe for cupcakes? Sounds dee-lish and I always think buttermilk makes moister cakes. Any suggestions?
My batter came out very thick, so I actually added 1 1/2 C of raspberries, pureed and pushed through a sieve. I also added a little red food coloring because the color looked a little weird then.
Used cream cheese buttercream frosting.
Tasted fantastic!
Thanks for all the variations!
Is there a reason you specified a 9 x 13 pan? Wouldn't this recipe work in 9-inch round pans?
This will work for any size cake pans, but I said 9x13 so you know how long that size would take and how much one recipe makes and then adjust from there according to which pans you use.
This recipe does come out thicker than what you might be used to with mixes or even some other scratch recipes, but it will rise well in the oven.
I always recommend using the freshest eggs possible. The fresher the eggs, the better they'll whip up.
I've made cupcakes before with this and yes, they turn out well :)
When you are making the other variations you said you put powdered buttermilk into the dry indgredients...how much do you add?
I was wondering the same thing about your recipe when substituting liquids, how much powdered buttermilk do you add? What exactly are the benefits of using buttermilk vs regular milk? Is it the added moistness? Thank You!
Will this cake hold up to a covering of fondant? If I was to make a variation and make it a marble cake, would I add the cocoa to a 1/3 of the batter after the eggs or before? Thanks
ok, for the powdered buttermilk, it depends on the brand. It should say on the label how much you need for equivalence. Yes, this cake holds up very well to fondant. It's a really durable cake, actually. I'd say if you were adding cocoa to part of it, I'd do it before adding the whites because you'd deflate the whites if you mixed any more after adding them...
buttermilk is part of the leavening in this cake. It acts with the baking soda and water just like those volcano experiments you may have done in science class (soda/vinegar). If you use regular milk, you won't have the alkaline to counter the acid. If you want to use regular milk, though, you can add a Tbs of vinegar to the wet ingredients...
what is the benefit of cream of tartar? And do you add this to all the variations of recipes here?
the cream of tartar is acidic, like the buttermilk and reacts to the baking soda to make the cake rise. Yes, it should be included in all the variations. :)
I want to ask, can I remove the cream of tartar? if no, how could I substiute it? second, do you have a recipie for chocolete buttermilk cake? if yes, the link please!! thanks :)
CAn you tell me if doubling the recipe yield a 12x18 sheet cake and a 6/8 inch round cake. TIA
well, here's my chocolate cake recipe. It has buttermilk in it, but is a heavier cake: http://cakecentral.com/recipes/dark-chocolate-cake-grandmas-recipe/ I don't think you can take out the cream of tartar, but if you did want to experiment with that, you could replace with something else acidic like vinegar or lemon juice...
@arrira, you could probably get that much cake out of doubling this recipe. It's a pretty large recipe.
Is the cream of tarter added to the egg whites or in with the dry ingredients?
just with the dry. I'm sure you could put it with the egg whites if you wanted, though, to help with whipping... It's for levening in this recipe, though.
What kind of butter? Salted or unsalted?
thanks LaSombra, i tried this recipe and it was simply delicious, thanks again for sharing
Would this cake work for carving?
andertoncakes: I always use salted butter.
didiz_99: Thank you!
cologirl5: It's a very sturdy cake. It should work for carving.