AI always use a Betty Crocker or a Duncan Hines cake mix. I love how moist they are and my customers do also. I have a. Request for a vanilla cake so I went and bought some French vanilla cake mix and decided to look online for a recipe for a Vanilla cake. I found a recipe and will share the recipe below. I don't know what I did wrong or if it is supposed to look like it turned out. I didn't take any pictures before I put it in the oven or after. The cake mix ended up very very runny. When I watched the lady on YouTube hers is stiff and she had to push it around. I've made this recipe several times and don't know what to change. I live in south MS and don't know if humidity has something to do with it. I have a KitchenAid stand mixer with the paddle attachment that scrapes the sides also. After my cake is baked if is decently different than Betty Crocker and Duncan Hines. Not moist and just a bread like feeling and not a soft pound cake taste.

Here is the recipe: A simple vanilla cake

Add in mixing bowl 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 1 1/3 cup sugar 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix all together.

Beat in 1/2 cup butter a little at a time until it looks grainy.

Mix in 1 teaspoon vanilla

Put 1 cup milk in at a consistent speed until you have put all in the bowl. (Of course this is where it is a soupy substance for me) Beat for 1 minutes.

Right before the minute is up add 2 eggs one at a time to the mixture.

Oven at 350 for 30 minutes.

Don't know what I am doing wrong or if I just need to find another recipe.

Please help me. I want to perfect this so I can use.

Thank you so much in advance

I think the order of your recipe looks odd. Usually, this is how I make my cakes:

- Cream your softened butter, vanilla and sugar together until light and fluffy

- add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition

- add flours/baking powder/salt - mix well

- add milk (I would add a quarter of a cup to start with your recipe if it's too runny and then you can add more if you need). 

I like adding the milk last in a recipe so I can judge how much liquid I need. Sometimes my mixture seems to need more and sometimes less. Weather may have something to do with it, perhaps the flours have more moisture in them. 

Hope that helps!

ASounds very much like a reverse creaming method. The amounts look OK at a glance. Was your butter too soft/melted? Did you accidentally add too much milk?

AI use a similar recipe when I make vanilla cupcakes. This is a reverse creaming method as I am Pam cakes said. My recipe has pretty similar quantities of ingredients too. It is quite a wet mixture compared to a regular creamed butter cake batter, but I find it bakes up quite soft and light, and my husband (who horrifies me with his desire for packet mix cakes) loves the texture of this reverse-creamed recipe. It seems unlikely you can overmix this type of batter, as the reverse creaming coats the flour in butter and prevents the development of gluten. I'm not sure why your cake is turning out bread-like, I'm sorry!

AThank you for your comments.

Nadia- I will try your method next time to see if it works better for me. As for the milk, when I get to maybe 2/3 cups left in measuring cup it starts getting runny. If I stop there with the milk will the batter be good to taste still with the milk missing from batter?

Iampamscakes- I use margarine for my cakes and buttercream. I have gotten it out of frig put in mix, put it out for about 30 minutes and put in microwave for about 5 seconds. Still same results

Winnie,oh- I could never use this batter as a cupcake batter. It is so runny.

Actually, in my experience, the runnier cake batters seem to bake up in to the softest, most tender cakes. My regular butter cake, which is a thick mixture, has a much more open, coarser texture, than the runnier reverse-creamed batter.

Good luck, but maybe you could try it out. You never know until you try! 

AI've never had a runny reversed creamed batter. Margarine could be your issue. If the recipe calls for butter & you use margarine, that could be the problem. Margarine has a lot of water in it, compared to the fats in butter. But if the cake baked up OK, don't worry about the consistency on the video compared to yours. If it didn't bake like it should've, try following EXACTLY the original recipe. No substitutions.

 Soooo very late.....but others will see this so here goes....

To the OP - You didn't mix it long enough.

I saw a blogger with this recipe (which happens to be a very popular Betty Crocker Recipe) and she writes for one minute of mixing time after liquid and eggs are added. I tried it that way and my cake came out like cornbread. I was not a happy baker, lol.  The newer recipes in the book call for 3 minutes.

I found the originally published method of mixing which called for 4 minutes of mixing time.

The recipe as written adds the fat and half or all of the milk (half if using cake flour, all if using AP flour). Mix for 2 minutes. Add eggs and flavor and mix for two more minutes. 

Four minutes is my magic mixing time. Works like a charm.