Homemade dense and super moist yellow cake from scratch (vanilla flavored) is simple and easy to make and you can frost it with chocolate frosting (chocolate icing) or vanilla icing as you like. Make it a simple one layered cake following this recipe or double the recipe to make two layers of yellow cakes and add the chocolate frosting to make it perfect for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year desserts etc or for birthday party, Valentine's Day, wedding anniversary etc! This is a dense yellow butter cake recipe which yields a delicious yellow butter cake which is extra moist in texture and which can be easily made at home and it is perfect for a delicious dinner dessert even without frosting!
You can also make delicious eggnog yellow cake at home if you have leftover eggnog from holidays! Also, try moist chocolate cake & evaporated milk cake which are also super easy to make and taste delicious! Super moist, delicious simple yellow butter cake recipe for beginners can be easily followed with using just basic ingredients (this recipe is updated recently for even better results). The result is a dense but soft, moist and delicious yellow butter cake which can be served to guests even with out any extra cream or toppings. However adding the chocolate frosting is perfect and classic for yellow cakes! You may also make easy moist yellow butter cakes from the best moist yellow butter cake mix available online. This recipe for super moist yellow cake yields is a small yellow butter cake which can be served for 6 to 8 people.
ingredients used to make moist yellow cake
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour (plus a little extra flour for dusting the pan)
- 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup butter softened
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 drops yellow food color (optional) or use according to package instructions
how to make super moist yellow cake from scratch?
step by step instructions to make moist dense yellow cake
To make the yellow cake batter
Step 1 - Mix the flour and baking powder in a large bowl.
Step 2 - In another bowl, beat the eggs very well.
Step 3 - In a third bowl, add the softened butter and sugar and beat well until they are well combined.
Step 4 - Combine the beaten eggs and butter sugar mixture and mix all ingredients well.
Step 5 - Also add the milk and vanilla extract to the egg butter sugar mixture, and mix well to combine. If you are using yellow food color, you may add the food color also to the milk.
Step 6 - Pour this wet ingredients mixture to the dry flour mixture, and mix well to make the cake batter.
Step 7 - Do not overly mix the batter, but make sure there are no lumps formed in the batter and also make sure there is no dry flour left at the bottom of the bowl. The texture of the cake batter is slightly thick since this is a dense yellow cake. However, it is not supposed to be super thick, so if you think the batter turned too thick (it also depends on the flour and other ingredients that you use), you may add a little more milk to the batter and mix well to combine. Do not add a lot of milk, but just add about one tablespoon of milk at a time, mix with the batter and only add one spoon of milk if necessary. The batter is supposed to be thick but you should be able to pour the batter to the pan easily, which is the right consistency of batter for this cake recipe.
To bake the yellow cake
Step 8 - Preheat the oven to 300 degree Fahrenheit.
Step 9 - Grease the cake pan with butter and dust with little flour (may also use parchment paper and cake strips for the pan if you can to make it even better).
Step 10 - Now transfer the prepared cake batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 45 to 50 minutes in the oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. My cake was done in 50 minutes of time. Sometimes oven temperatures and baking times can vary depending on the oven, so it is a good idea to check the cake after about 35 to 40 minutes of time, since overbaking can cause the cake to dry out.
Step 11 - Once the cake is done, transfer it from the hot oven and allow the cake to cool down completely before you transfer it for frosting (its delicious even without any frosting) or slicing!
You can see the texture of the yellow butter cake below!
This homemade yellow butter cake has got a wonderful texture and it is really dense, moist, soft and delicious!
Dense Homemade Super Moist Yellow Cake From Scratch
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups all purpose flour (plus a little extra flour for dusting the pan)
- 1.5 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup butter softened
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- ¾ cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 drops yellow food color (optional) or use according to package instructions
Instructions
To make the yellow cake batter
- In a bowl, mix flour and baking powder together.
- Beat the eggs and keep aside.
- In another bowl, add the softened butter and sugar, beat well until well combined.
- Add the beaten eggs to the butter sugar mixture and whisk together to mix all ingredients well.
- Now add the milk and vanilla extract to the bowl, and mix well (add the food color also to the milk if you are using it).
- Slowly add this wet mixture to the dry flour mixture, stirring in between so that no lumps are formed. Combine everything together to form the batter.The texture of the cake batter is slightly thick since this is a dense yellow cake. However, it is not supposed to be super thick, so if you think the batter turned too thick (it also depends on the flour and other ingredients that you use), you may add a little more milk to the batter and mix well to combine. Do not add a lot of milk, but just add about one tablespoon of milk at a time, mix with the batter and only add one spoon of milk if necessary. The batter is supposed to be thick but you should be able to pour the batter to the pan easily, which is the right consistency of batter for this cake recipe.
To bake the yellow cake
- Preheat oven to 300 degree Fahrenheit.
- Prepare the cake pan (9 inch round cake pan will be perfect) by greasing with butter and dusting with little flour. You can also line the bottom of the baking pan with parchment paper which will help you to transfer the cake easily once it is baked. Also put the cake strips around the pan for even baking if you want a perfect flat level cake- make sure you follow the directions mentioned in the strips you are using.
- Pour the cake batter into the pan and bake this for about 45 to 50 minutes in the oven or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine was done in 50 minutes of time. Sometimes oven temperatures and baking times can vary depending on the oven, so it is a good idea to check the cake after about 35 to 40 minutes of time, since overbaking can cause the cake to dry out.
- As soon as the cake is done, transfer it from the hot oven, allow the cake to cool down completely before you try to take it out of the pan or slice it.
Notes
Nutrition
frosting ideas for homemade yellow cake
As I mentioned earlier, this simple homemade yellow cake is so delicious and moist, you can just enjoy it even without any frosting. That's what we mostly do in our family and my kids love it! However, sometimes I do frosting as well and though its a single layered cake, its easy to frosting or icing for this cake. If I want to frost this yellow cake, what I do is I slice the cake into two layers (this is easy for me because its a dense cake) and apply any frosting that I like. To add the frosting, I simply add the filling filling first by adding the frosting on the first layer, then place the second layer of cake on top and add more frosting on top of the second cake layer.
To make it even more fancy and decorated, we can add any easy toppings like fresh fruits, chocolate swirls, rainbow sprinkles etc or you can also add decorative designs as you like. Though different kinds of frosting go great with yellow cake, cream cheese frosting is my favorite and chocolate cream frosting will be the ideal one! You can find homemade frosting recipes here for the cake and you can choose whichever you like the best.
frosting recipes for the cake:
- Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
- Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe
- Vanilla Whipped Cream Frosting
tips to make the best moist yellow butter cake
The cake is naturally dense and moist in texture and delicious in taste. This cake tends to rise in the middle where it is very soft, dense and moist. The natural light yellow color of the cake is from the fresh butter and yolks of the fresh eggs used in the yellow butter cake recipe. Yellow cakes can be made using butter or oil. And butter cakes are always made using butter as you guess. So a yellow butter cake is a yellow cake made using butter (no oil is used here). As I already mentioned, the natural color of this yellow cake comes from the yolk of the whole fresh eggs used and also the butter. But you may also use few drops of yellow food coloring if you want to add more color. There are different kinds of yellow food colors available online, most popular ones include egg shade yellow color and lemon yellow color. For this yellow butter cake recipe, I suggest using egg shade yellow color or this regular yellow food color, if you want to use food color. Make sure you use all the ingredients at room temperature, or it may affect the results.
can you double the yellow cake recipe?
This is a single layer yellow cake and as I mentioned above, if I want two layers of cake, I usually slice the cake in half and then frost as usual. It is so easy to slice the cake in half since the cake is dense in texture and usually there is enough cake even when you slice this in half. However if you want more of this, I recommend making the batter in two different batches instead of doubling the ingredients and making the batter.
This is because, this is a dense cake and when you double the ingredients there is a chance that the batter may become even more thicker and little difficult to handle. To avoid this, you can always make the batter in two different bowls as two batches for making two different yellow cakes. However, in case you want to try doubling the recipe and if its too thick, you may add a little more milk to adjust the consistency of the batter if its too thick.
One user from Pinterest has mentioned that she used Greek yogurt as an extra ingredient when she doubled the recipe to loosen up the batter and it turned out so delicious! So I guess it is possible to double the recipe but you may want to work around a little in case the batter is too thick.
Cindy Gath says
What size pan?
Recipe Garden says
Hi Cindy, a 9 inch round cake pan is what I recommend. I will update this in the blog post as well. Thanks for asking!
Tara Nuncio says
Can i use this recipe to make cupcakes? If so, what would the cook time be and do you still do 300 for temp??
Recipe Garden says
Yes, I think you can make cupcakes using the same batter though I haven't tried myself. If you are fine with testing it out, I would recommend using a temperature of 350 degree Fahrenheit and bake for about 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Keep in mind that this is what I think will work and I haven't tried it out myself. If I make cupcakes with this batter, I will update it in the post. If you do try making cupcakes, please let me know how it turned out! Thank you.
Meg says
I make cupcakes with this recipe often. I still put the oven at 300, and about 30-35 min is usually perfect (about 25 min if I'm doing mini-cupcakes. Makes a perfect dozen standard size cupcakes, but is too much for 24 minis (I end up making 4 standard size alongside the minis, so if I did all minis, it would probably be 34-36)
Recipe Garden says
Hi Meg, Thank you so much for sharing this, it will be much helpful for the readers 🙂 Thanks again, I very much appreciate the feedback and tips!
Maxi says
9 or 10 inch
Bobbi says
Is this cake just one layer?
Also, what did you frost it with?
Recipe Garden says
Hi Bobbi, Yes the cake is one layer. I didn't frost it. But you can use any frosting you like. I have easy frosting recipes in the blog which you can use if you like. I recommend cream cheese frosting (https://recipe-garden.com/vanilla-cream-cheese-frosting-recipe/). Thank you.
Zoe says
Hi. Is the butter for this recipe unsalted or just regular butter?
Recipe Garden says
Hi Zoe, its unsalted butter. Thank you
Lauren says
Hi can you use cake flour instead of all purpose flour? If you can how much?
Recipe Garden says
Hi Lauren, yes you may use cake flour instead of all purpose flour. It should be fine. The texture of the cake maybe more lighter when you use cake flour. If you try it, please let me know 🙂
Jasmine says
How much sugar? I don’t see the amount on the ingredients
Recipe Garden says
I used 1 cup sugar for this recipe. It is there in the ingredients list. Thank you.
W T Ballard says
Cake was a little bit dry . Otherwise tastes great. How do I fix dry, oily deal?and had a slight oily outside feel . I did leave in oven 5 minutes past dry toothpick
Recipe Garden says
The texture of this cake is moist, it is not supposed to be dry. I guess the slightly dry/oily texture could be because the cake was left in the oven for few more minutes after its done, as you have mentioned. Overbaking can result in dry cakes. For the best results, please make sure to transfer the cake immediately from the hot oven once its baked. I am glad to hear it still tasted great! Thank you so much for your feedback 🙂
Lee M. says
I followed this recipe exactly and it came out very dry. Very disappointed.
Recipe Garden says
Hi Lee, I am very sorry to hear that. I wonder if the cake got overbaked which could lead to a dry texture. Oven temperatures may vary and so can affect the baking times. I have updated the notes on this in the post. This is the cake recipe I usually use to make moist cakes and so I am kind of surprised, but I guess this could happen if the cake was baked before the expected time. This may happen depending on the oven, since the temperatures can vary in different ovens and so I think it is a good idea to check the cake early. Thank you for letting me know.
AnnM says
Hi
Wondering if this recipe would work in a sheet pan and if yes how large of a sheet pan ?
Thank you !
AM
Recipe Garden says
Hi, I am sorry I haven't tried this recipe with sheet pan. I would recommend looking into sheet pan cake recipes or you may experiment with the recipe if you wish. I guess the baking time and oven temperature might vary if you use a different cake pan. Thank you.
Bdabride says
Just 2 questions, 300 is a bit low for baking cakes. I usually see 350. Is there a reason for a lower temp? Also I don’t see any salt in the ingredients and the butter is unsalted. Is there some other ingredient to add salt? I did add 1/2 tsp of salt. I’m baking it now and can’t wait til it’s done. Thank you!
Recipe Garden says
I didn't feel like I miss salt in this recipe as the taste and texture is fine without using salt but you may try and see how it works for you 🙂 I tried baking this cake at 350 degree before and while it rises fast initially at this temperature it tends to sink in the middle eventually. To avoid that from happening, I bake this at 300 degree Fahrenheit and it works perfectly every time! Hope I answered your questions. Thank you!!
Karen Peltier says
After I added just a small amount of the milk the batter broke severely. I ended up not putting all of the milk in and the batter is not at all more dense or stiff than any other cake batter. I know I measured all of the ingredients properly so I'm wondering what went wrong?
Recipe Garden says
Hi Karen, can you please let me know how much milk did you add? what was the liquids you used in the cake batter? This is supposed to be a thick cake batter and if necessary we might need to add a little more milk if the batter turns too sticky or dense to handle. So I really wonder what caused the batter to be runny (if that's what you mean) even without using milk? Please let me know what flour you used and what all liquids you used, but I really can't see how the batter can turn runny with these ingredients in the measured amounts. Also please let me know what flour you used here? I usually use unbleached all purpose flour. Hope it worked for you.
Karen Peltier says
Hello again! I came back to say that I went ahead and baked the cake and in spite of my concern it was very delicious and I enjoyed the texture even though it did not come out dense, it was very, very soft and fluffy.
I used probably about half a cup of whole milk and the flour I used was Great Value all purpose flour.
I hadn't meant that the batter was runny, I meant that it broke as soon as I added a little of the milk. By broke I mean that curdled texture that happens when too much liquid is added too fast. I did manage to get it more smooth by whipping it some more.
But as I said, the cake is absolutely the best tasting yellow cake I have made yet and I will be making it again!
Recipe Garden says
Hi Karen, I am so happy to hear that the cake turned out delicious!! Thank you so much for your feedback, i'm excited to hear this is the best tasting yello cake you made and you will be making it again! This is my go to yellow cake basic recipe as well which I am using for years now! Thaks again 🙂