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This White Velvet Cake is soft, tender, and full of gentle vanilla flavor, with a fluffy vanilla-almond frosting that’s silky instead of overly sweet. It takes a little patience to chill the layers and cool the frosting, but you’re going to love the fine, plush crumb and classic celebration-worthy finish. Vanilla and buttermilk, butter and sugar. Nothing trying too hard.
Why You’ll Love It
- Soft velvet crumb — cake flour and buttermilk create a fine, plush texture without feeling wet or squishy.
- Silky cooked frosting — the flour-and-milk base makes it smooth, creamy, and less cloying than standard buttercream.
- Simple celebration look — two layers and creamy white frosting make an elegant cake without complicated decorating.
- Easy to customize — finish with sprinkles, white chocolate shavings, or berries.
Ingredient Notes
Cake flour matters here. It gives the layers that soft, delicate texture. All-purpose flour will make a cake, certainly, but it won’t be quite the same cake. I buy cake flour only when I have a specific plan for it, then it sits in the pantry behind the cereal for six months. That is not an endorsement of my organizational skills.
Use room-temperature egg whites and buttermilk. Cold ingredients have a way of making batter sulk, especially when softened butter is involved. For the oil, plain vegetable oil is exactly what you want. Don’t use olive oil unless you enjoy surprises—and not the good kind.
For the frosting, whole milk gives the cooked base its proper richness. And please use real unsalted butter, three full sticks. This is not a recipe for margarine or any tub labeled “spread.” I’m not judging. Well. A little.
The almond extract is subtle but important. It doesn’t make the cake taste like marzipan; it just makes the vanilla taste more like itself somehow. Baking is funny that way.
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk, at room temperature, divided
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil, divided
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
For the frosting:
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- Sprinkles, white chocolate shavings, or berries, if you’d like a little something on top
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 335°F. Grease and line two 8-inch cake pans. I use parchment circles on the bottoms because I once tried skipping that step at a birthday dinner—and half the cake stayed in the pan. I smiled through it, but I was mad enough to spit nails.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cake flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg whites, 3/4 cup of the buttermilk, 1/4 cup of the vegetable oil, and the vanilla extract.
Add the softened butter to the dry ingredients and mix until you have a crumbly mixture. It will look odd if you’re used to the usual “cream butter and sugar” routine. Don’t panic. This is where the cake begins doing its own thing.
Combine the remaining 1/2 cup buttermilk with the remaining 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Add that mixture to the flour mixture and beat for a full 2 minutes. Really set a timer if you’re like me and tend to wander off to answer a text or check whether the dog has dragged another shoe into the yard. Normally I am the person warning everyone not to overmix cake batter. Here, though, you need those two minutes.
Add the egg white mixture in three additions, mixing well after each one. Scrape down the bowl as needed. The batter should be smooth and pale, and you may find yourself thinking it doesn’t look like much. It bakes up beautifully. Trust it more than you trust your own impatience.
Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. As soon as the pans come out of the oven, tap them on a cutting board to help level the layers. Let them cool in the pans for 10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges and turn them out. Refrigerate the layers for at least 30 minutes before frosting.
While the cakes cool, make the frosting. Put the sugar and flour in a small saucepan and whisk them together. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, whisking so the flour cooks and nothing scorches. I have scorched this once. The kitchen smelled like burnt toast and regret.
Add the milk and raise the heat to medium-high. Cook for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture thickens like Pudding. Remove it from the heat and let it cool completely. Completely means completely. Not “it feels sort of lukewarm and I’m tired of waiting.” If it’s warm, it will melt your butter and the frosting will look sad.
Using a clean electric mixer, cream the room-temperature butter for 1 minute. Add the cooled milk mixture one spoonful at a time, beating between additions. Add the vanilla, almond extract, and salt, then whip until the frosting is smooth and creamy.
If your cake layers have domed tops, trim them level. Place one layer on a serving plate and spread frosting over the top. Add the second layer. Spread a thin coating of frosting over the entire cake first to trap the crumbs, then frost the top and sides with the rest. Decorate with sprinkles, white chocolate shavings, or berries if you want. Or leave it snow-white and plain—it has a nice quiet elegance that way.
Variations
This is lovely with fresh raspberries piled in the center between the layers. Lemon curd tastes good, though the layers can slide around like they’re trying to escape the plate. So I would keep any filling fairly modest.
You can use sprinkles for a classic birthday look, especially those little rainbow jimmies that somehow wind up under the refrigerator for years. White chocolate shavings make it feel fancier, though I’ve already confessed my limitations there. A few berries on top are lovely and don’t require any special skill, which is always welcome.
Storage & Reheating
Keep the frosted cake covered in the refrigerator because of that buttery cooked frosting. It will hold well for several days, though the cake is at its softest and nicest in the first two. Let slices sit out for 20 or 30 minutes before serving so the frosting can soften a bit.
There’s no reheating needed, obviously. Cake is not leftover lasagna. But I have been known to eat a cold slice straight from the fridge at night while looking for something “small.” That is between me and the kitchen light.
Final Notes
Make the cake when you have a little time. Let it cool properly. Put on some old music while you frost it, even if you’re not especially good at frosting cakes. Neither am I, despite what people seem to assume after I bring dessert somewhere. A soft white cake, a thick layer of vanilla-almond frosting, a few crooked sprinkles… that’s plenty.
White Velvet Cake
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 egg whites at room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk at room temperature, divided
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil divided
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter 1 1/2 sticks, softened
- 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 3 sticks unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- sprinkles, white chocolate shavings, or berries optional, for decorating
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 335°F, then grease and line two 8-inch cake pans with parchment circles on the bottoms.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the cake flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; in a separate bowl, stir together the egg whites, 3/4 cup of the buttermilk, 1/4 cup of the vegetable oil, and the vanilla extract.
- Add the softened butter to the dry ingredients and mix until the mixture looks crumbly.
- Combine the remaining 1/2 cup buttermilk with the remaining 1/4 cup vegetable oil, add it to the flour mixture, and beat for a full 2 minutes.
- Add the egg white mixture in three additions, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the bowl as needed, until the batter is smooth and pale.
- Divide the batter between the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
- As soon as the pans come out of the oven, tap them on a cutting board to help level the layers, cool in the pans for 10 minutes, run a knife around the edges, turn them out, and refrigerate the layers for at least 30 minutes before frosting.
- While the cakes cool, whisk the frosting sugar and flour together in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, whisking so the flour cooks and nothing scorches.
- Add the milk, raise the heat to medium-high, and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the mixture thickens like pudding, then remove it from the heat and let it cool completely.
- Using a clean electric mixer, cream the room-temperature butter for 1 minute, then add the cooled milk mixture one spoonful at a time, beating between additions; add the vanilla, almond extract, and salt, and whip until smooth and creamy.
- Trim domed cake layers level if needed, place one layer on a serving plate, spread frosting over the top, add the second layer, apply a thin crumb coat over the entire cake, then frost the top and sides with the remaining frosting and decorate with sprinkles, white chocolate shavings, or berries if desired.