Easy Vanilla Velvet Cake Recipe

Vanilla Velvet Cake

If you need a base cake for your celebratory occasions such as birthdays or weddings, you would want to try this vanilla velvet cake.

The cake has a fine sponge texture with a buttery moistness and sweetness. It’s simply delicious. And if you pair it with traditional vanilla buttercream, you will get a divine crumb of the cake. 

Here, I colored my cake turquoise and purple, but you don’t have to put the coloring gel in your cake batter if you don’t want to. 

I colored my cake because I made it for one of my nieces, who wanted to have a Frozen-themed birthday party.

What is Velvet Cake?

If you ask me, a velvet cake is a moist cake with a slightly dense but moist texture. It has fine, delicate crumbs that feel like velvet in your mouth. 

But really, that’s what a velvet cake should taste like, shouldn’t it?

Like velvet, it’s dense in texture but smooth, fine, and delicate on the surface, so when you touch it, your fingers will run through it nicely and smoothly.

I understand that the idea of a velvety cake originated from the famous red velvet cake. So, any moist cake with texture and fine crumbs, like red velvet, should be considered a velvet cake.

If you need to decorate the cake with edible decorations that you can make yourself, check out these Geode Candy Cupcake Toppers. 

What Makes the Cake Velvet?

The proportion of every ingredient plays a major role in creating your end results, and so does the method you use for your baking. 

To achieve the proper texture of a velvet cake, I have to use a fermented dairy product such as buttermilk, yogurt, or sour cream. 

I personally tried using buttermilk and sour cream in my cakes, but I find that yogurt gives the best results. The cake tastes richer but somehow feels light. It’s dense but fluffy at the same time. Overall, I’m just happy using yogurt for my vanilla velvet cake. It’s more practical for me, as I almost always have yogurt in the fridge.

A Simple Way To Make Vanilla Velvet Cake

This vanilla velvet cake is simple and very easy to make.

You can combine all the dry ingredients in one bowl and all the wet ingredients in another bowl or jar. 

Then, make a hole in the center of your dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in. Mix carefully using a hand-held or stand mixer until you get a nice, thick, and smooth batter.

Divide the batter equally into two 7-inch round cake pans lined with parchment paper. 

Bake the cake for about 45 minutes in a preheated oven at gas 3.5 or 170° Celsius/ 338° Fahrenheit.

Your cake is ready when it is springy to the touch, or a skewer comes out clean.

That’s how easy it is. No fluff. Just simple.

This recipe makes enough to make 2 x 7-inch round cake tins with an approximate height of 1 – 1.5 inches. You‘ll have a nice 3.5-inch/7-cm high cake when you sandwich the cakes.

How To Store Your Cake

This vanilla velvet cake keeps well at cool room temperature for more than one week. You can also refrigerate it, and it stays good for about two weeks.

If you need the cake for a celebration and want to freeze it before you are ready to decorate it, you can freeze it for up to two months. 

Before you keep the cake in the freezer, make sure you leave it at room temperature and fully wrap it with saran wrap, about 2-3 layers. 

Take the cake out of the freezer the night before you need it. Ideally, you let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight. 

Once your cake has thawed, you must not refreeze it and must ensure to consume it within a few days.

More Dessert Recipes

Don’t forget to check out other cake recipes you may like. 

• An easy sponge cake recipe with plain flour and oil.
• Dairy-free chocolate brownies traybake.
• Apple crumble cake: the comfort pudding.
• Coffee and walnut cake traybake.
• Apple cake.