Best Vanilla Birthday Cake with Vanilla Buttercream
Make an elegant and beautiful vanilla birthday cake from scratch for your loved one with this simple and easy recipe. This is a simple and easy cake using light and airy vanilla sponge layers with a melt in your mouth buttercream frosting. Perfect to celebrate your next birthday or anniversary.

Do you need to birthday cake for your loved one? Or perhaps an anniversary cake for your spouse or friend. Here is a simple, easy and fool-proof recipe you will enjoy making. This cake makes a small 8-inch cake with two layers.
This recipe can be easily adjusted to make more servings. Just change the number of servings below and the recipe card will automatically calculate the recipe for you.
Useful Tips and Tools
- If you bake often, it would be a good idea to invest in a cake mixer. Because often we try to mix by hand and then we are too tired to give it enough creaming or mixing. So, if you are making this cake go ahead and remove that K-Mix or Kitchen Aid from your kitchen cabinet. You don’t have to buy an expensive stand mixer, a simple hand mixer works great too.
- Personally, I believe in measuring ingredients by weight, which makes my kitchen scale one of the most valuable items when baking.
- And the same goes for my measuring cups and measuring spoons. It’s always a good idea to have these handy and use them when baking rather than trying to guess measurements.
- Also, I think one set of baking pans is a must for anyone a home baker. I often use 3 x 6-inch round cakes which I often split into 4 layers for a tall display. Some times, I use 3 x 8-inch round pans or 3 x 7-inch cakes
- Once baked, always invert your cakes on a cooling rack. This enables air circulation and prevents the steam from pooling at the bottom of the pan.
- Lastly, every oven works differently. So the baking times are just guidelines. In the case of cakes, a skewer inserted in the center is a great indication. If the cake bakes too fast or too slow compared to the time given, it might be a good idea to check if your oven needs calibration. An oven thermometer is a great little gadget to help keep the oven temperature in check. All you need to do then is adjust the temperature accordingly.
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Description
Ingredients
For the cake
- 250 grams (1.1 cups) Butter unsalted
- 2 tsp (2 tsp) Baking Powder
- 250 grams (2 cups) All-purpose Flour
- 4 (4 ) Eggs large
- 250 grams (1.25 cups) Sugar white
- 2 tsp (2 tsp ) Vanilla Extract
- 120 ml (0.49 cups) Milk
For the Buttercream
- 228 grams (1 cups) Butter Unsalted
- 500 grams (4.17 cups) Powdered Sugar
- 2 tsp (2 tsp ) Vanilla
- 4 tbsp (4 tbsp) Fresh Cream
- ½ tsp (0.5 tsp ) Salt
Simple Syrup
- 100 grams (0.5 cups) Sugar white
- 250 ml (1 cups) water
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat the oven at 170C/340 F
- Grease and line two 8-inch cake pans
- Sift together flour, salt and baking powder – set aside
- Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
- Add eggs one at a time
- Followed by the vanilla
- Lastly add the flour and milk in three batches – flour/milk, flour/milk, flour. This will give you a smooth batter.
- Divide mixture between the two baking pans.
- Bake in a preheated oven for about 35 to 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center some clean
- Cool in the pan for 10 minutes then invert on a cooling rack for another 10 minutes
- Make sure to cool the cake completely before frosting.
Prepare simple syrup
- Boil the water and sugar until all sugar is dissolved.
- Once sugar is dissolved boil a minute longer then set aside to cool completely.
Prepare buttercream
- Cream butter, vanilla, and fresh cream until light and fluffy
- Add the powder sugar in two batches until well combined
- Lastly, whip the buttercream for two more minutes so you have a light and fluffy buttercream.
Assemble the cake
- Once cooled – divide each cake layer into two horizontally.
- Brush each layer with the cooled sugar syrup
- Frost the cake layers over a cake pedestal or cake board.
- Add a dab of buttercream and place the first layer on the cake board.
- Place a dollop of buttercream and spread evenly. (alternatively, place the buttercream in a piping bag and pipe over the cake layer)
- Then, place the second layer of cake on top of the first frosting and add another dollop of buttercream – spread evenly.
- Layer and frost all four layers – place the cake in the fridge for 10 minutes. This will prevent the layers from moving around.
- Using a spatula frost the outside of the cake with more buttercream
- Use a bench scraper to smooth the top and sides well.
- Place any remaining buttercream in a piping bag with Frill or Swag piping nozzle.
- You can use edible gel food colors to color the buttercream as well
- Finish the cake based on your ability – pipe a border at the bottom, frill or swags on the sides and flowers for the top.
- Enjoy!
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Nutrition Information
The nutrition information and metric conversion are calculated automatically. I cannot guarantee its accuracy. If this data is important to you please verify with your trusted nutrition calculator. Thank you
My other vanilla cake recipes
- Vanilla Cake Recipe – Perfect for Tiered Cakes
- Vanilla Sponge Cake
- Vanilla Angel Food Cake
- Vanilla Kahlua Cake with Kahlua Chocolate Buttercream
- Espresso Cake with Whipped Espresso Ganache
- Brown Butter Cake with Whipped Cream Buttercream
- Vanilla Cafe Latte Cake with Coffee Buttercream
- One Bowl Vanilla Cake – Naked Cake
- Classic White Wedding Cake with Italian meringue buttercream IMBC
- Light and fluffy Vanilla Cake
- Vanilla Cream Cake Recipe made with Fresh Cream
- Vanilla Cafe Latte Cake with Coffee Buttercream
- Vanilla Chai Latte Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- Eggless Vanilla Cake Recipe
- Classic Vanilla Pound Cake
- Vanilla Cake Recipe for Carving
- Basic Chocolate and Vanilla Cake from scratch
- Tips for Baking a Cake from Scratch
- Vanilla Birthday Cake with Vanilla Buttercream – 1
- Sprinkle Moist Vanilla Birthday Cake – 2



I made this for my daughter’s birthday last week, and it was a huge hit. I only make some buttercream swirls but it was so good.
Thank you, Mavis. Happy you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you, for coming back to write this feedback.
Such an easy recipe made it last week and now I am planning to make this again for my daughter’s graduation party. Love your recipes and detialed instructions Veena. Thank you.
Thank you, Mavis. Happy you enjoyed this and my other recipe. Thank you, for coming back to write this feedback.