Vanilla Cake Without Buttermilk

A classic beauty: vanilla cake. 

Spread some vanilla buttercream on there and you’re ready for any celebration and can please just about anyone. It’s the perfect base for endless varieties in flavor or decoration. 

There are a few key ingredients I always look for in a cake recipe. One of those is buttermilk, which adds lightness and tenderness to the crumb.

Sometimes you don’t have buttermilk and you still want cake, and sometimes you are in the middle of a global pandemic and you don’t want to go to the store. Or perhaps, you’ve started mixing everything together before realizing you needed buttermilk. 

I’m going to offer two simple solutions to baking a cake without buttermilk: 

1. Mix together regular milk and vinegar, about 1 tbsp to 1 cup ratio, and let it sit for about 5 minutes. This will curdle the milk and you have homemade buttermilk. 
2. This recipe. 

This recipe yields a scrumptious, tender, moist, sweet, simply lovely cake. No buttermilk needed. 

I whipped this up for a friend’s birthday but doubled it so I could take photos of the slices and show off the crumb. So below you can see photos of it decorated and plain. 

Now let’s begin baking! 

Making Vanilla Cake Without Buttermilk

First, choose your pan size and grease them well. I cover the inside in butter and then cut a round of parchment paper for the bottom. You could opt for a non-stick spray instead. 

I am using three, 6-inch pans here. This makes a tall, striking cake perfect for a party or gathering. You can also use two 9 inch pans, you will just need to adjust the cooking time to 35 minutes. 

Gather your ingredients. Separating the dry ingredients and the wet. 

In a large bowl, add the flour. Stir in the baking powder and the salt. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter, canola oil and sugar. Beat the ingredients well until combined.

The mixture will be light, fluffy and white in color.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the vanilla and mix again. 

In three additions, add the flour and the milk to the whipped egg mixture. Flour, stir, milk, stir. And repeat. Gently mixing each time as not to over work the batter. 

Pour the batter into the prepared pans, distributing evenly. 

Bake the cakes in a 350-degree oven for 40 minutes or until the top bounces up with a gentle press or a toothpick can be inserted in the center without any batter sticking to it. 

Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, until it’s cool enough to touch. Loosen the cake and put it on a wire cooling rack for 5 or so more minutes.

Next, you can either wrap the cake in saran wrap, while still slightly warm, and put in the freezer to cool or let it continue to cool on the counter completely. 

A very cold cake is easiest to work with so I usually opt to let it spend some time in the freezer.  The cake can stay in the freezer for basically as long as you need, 24 hours up to a week or so for optimum taste and texture. 

When the cake, is ready it’s time to make the buttercream. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the butter, salt, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Whip until combined, it will turn into a grainy texture before it fully combines to buttercream.

If needed, add a tablespoon of milk one at a time until the desired consistency is achieved. 

Stack the cake using frosting in between the layers and cover the outside in a thick layer of frosting. Scraping the sides with a scraper until the look you are going for has been achieved.

You can add more frosting and scrape again as many times as you need. I like to do a more natural look, leaving plenty of texture in the frosting. 

My go-to cake decorating tools simply include a scraper, a smoother, and a rotating cake stand.

You can successfully decorate a cake without these things but if you are looking to have a couple of things on hand to elevate your cake decorating, I recommend starting with these. 

Next, add whatever decorative items you like! Here I used flowers, some whole and some petals placed separately, along the sides. 

There are endless ways to decorate a cake, even when it is vanilla. You can color the frosting with food dye, use colorful or shiny sprinkles, or different flower varieties.

You can use decorating tips and make designs like dots, stars, and frosting flowers. Making cake is a fun way to use the artistic expression in food form! There is a reason cake makes an appearance on so many special occasions. 

How To Make Vanilla Cake Without Buttermilk

Step 1

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare your desired cake pans. This works well for two 9-inch or three 6-inch cakes. 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, canola oil and sugar until creamy.

Step 2

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.

Step 3

Gently mix in one-third of the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and then one-third of the milk.

Repeat this process until all ingredients are evenly incorporated. 

Step 4

Evenly divide batter into your prepared cake pans, and bake for about 40 minutes, checking with your finger or a toothpick to be sure it is done.  

Allow cakes to cool in their pans for 10 minutes before inverting onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Saran wrap and freeze/refrigerate your cakes while you make the frosting.

Step 5

Gather your ingredients for the buttercream frosting.

Cream together the butter and powdered sugar in a high powered mixer, when almost combined add the vanilla and salt. 

If it is too dry, add a tablespoon of milk and mix. Continue adding milk 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached. 

If it is too soft add more powdered sugar until desired consistency is reached. 

Step 6

Frost the cake with the vanilla buttercream or flavor of your choice. 

Step 7

Serve and enjoy!

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