I’ve mentioned a few times that I’m still on the hunt for “the” white cake recipe. I’m still searching for the perfect from-scratch one, but in the mean time this one is pretty darn good. My sister sent me the recipe, and while it’s similar to other doctored cake mix recipes you’ve seen here on Our Best Bites, it stands out because you’re actually adding more bulk and flavor like flour, sugar, salt and extracts to the mix as well. This significantly cuts the “from a box” flavor and makes them taste more home made. This recipe makes plenty for two 8″ round pans. I’m making cupcakes with my batch today, and the nice thing about this recipe is that it increases the standard box yield of 24 up to 36. I often need more than the 24 cupcakes a box will make, but less than the 48 from 2 boxes so this works perfectly. The cake overall is more dense than a boxed mix so it holds up nicely if you’re using it for the base of a decorated cake.
The prep is about as easy as it comes. With a standard from-scratch cake it’s important to do things like alternate wet and dry ingredients, but not with our half-home-made cake. Just whisk all of the dry ingredients together (I just use the whisk attachment on my kitchenaid and give it a whirl) and then add in all of the wet stuff. Beat it all up and you’re set!
Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and then pop them in the oven.
Use a toothpick to test for doneness
One thing I really like is that you get really uniform raised tops on them. Perfectly smooth and round.
And then you can do what you please with them! Try our favorite White Vanilla Frosting or this amazing Chocolate one. Next week I’ll show you what I did with this batch…
Easy White Cake
1 box white cake mix (Duncan Hines super moist is best, and yes that’s not what’s in my photo)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp salt
4 egg whites
1 1/3 cups water
2 Tbs vegetable oil
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract (use clear vanilla if you want a pure white cake)
1 tsp almond extract
Mix all dry ingredients with a whisk, then add wet ingredients. Beat for two minutes until fluffy.
For Cake: Pour into greased, floured pans (fills two 8 or 9″ rounds) and bake according to cake package directions.
Tip: When cakes come out, cool for 5 minutes on wire rack, then cover with two sheets of plastic wrap (in a “+” sign), turn them out and wrap the plastic around them. Allow to cool all wrapped up (keeps the moisture from evaporating out) then pop in freezer on a cutting board to keep them flat. Once they are frozen, they are super easy to frost and defrost in about a half an hour.
For cupcakes: fill paper liners 3/4 full and bake according to box directions. Makes 36 cupcakes.
Thanks Sis!
Questions & Reviews
I’m using this recipe for a 3 tiered birthday cake next week, it’s my first big cake. Does anyone know how much batter this recipe gives or would I need to double it for a larger pan? Thanks for any and all suggestions!:)
I am making cupcakes! how long can i freeze these for? will they taste home made if i freeze for a week then frost???
Yep, they can freeze for a few months.
I just used a red velvet mix, and made a half batch…which made a perfect dozen. (just right for my little family for valentines.) Am gonna freeze them & ice them that day.
easy breezy. LOVE this recipe.
Wow! Used this recipe for my daughter’s Barbie doll cake today, even dyed it and made rainbow layers! Most amazing white cake EVER! Soooo moist! The almond flavoring gave it such a good flavor! Was a huge hit with th in-laws who are DIY mavens and hard to please. Glad there is some left to share with my fam for party number two, as I planned to make a chocolate cake for them. Thanks for sharing this!!!
This recipes looks like what I’ looking for. But I am wondering if it will be strong enough to cover with fondant?
Yep, it should be 🙂
this is my first time trying a cake this way. i like it already.
I just want to let you know that I don’t go to any websites anymore for cake and cupcake recipes except yours. I have proven many times that you have the best recipes I have ever tasted. We were eating the leftover 5 days old chocolate cake yesterday. It got so moist and chocolate frosting got so rich that it just melts in your mouth. I’m actually planning to start a small cake business with your brillant buttercream and the to die for chocolate frostings. I just got 4 different orders and I wanted to use your white cake/cupcake based recipe. I can’t wait to try it and let you know the end result.
Thank you again for sharing your wonderful recipes!
how much chocolate or coco powder do i add for chocolate cupcakes?
Thanks
I just made this cake last night and it is the BEST cake EVER! I really wanted to try this recipe before I made it for a work party. I used a 10 in pan (3 in high) and this was the perfect amount of batter for one cake. After I made it I realized we had only 1/3 of a can of chocolate store bought frosting so I melted the frosting in the microwave, layered the cake and drizzled the frosting between the layers, then poured the rest over the top like a ganache and it was the perfect amount of sweet for the cake as the cake is amazing all on it’s own! Thank you!
My cupcakes just came out of the oven and they are so yummy, even without frosting! But, I am at high altitude and filling the liners 3/4 full turned out a cupcake that is 3″ tall! Don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, but I don’t know what I did wrong?!? The ones in the picture are so cute and mine are just so humongous, I don’t know how I am going to frost them?
Super weird! I’ve never had that happen before. Maybe try adding an extra 1-2 tablespoons of flour next time?
Love this recipe! I melted 8 oz of chocolate chips with a couple tablespoons of butter, then added one cup of the white cake mix and swirled that into the entire batter for a marble cake. It was amazing!
If you make cupcakes, do you still put them in the freezer?
You may still freeze cupcakes.
Do you like this recipe better than the one you used in the candy corn cupcake tutorial?
They’re different, so I use them for different purposes. I probably like this one for cakes and the other for cupcakes.
I used this recipe for my niece’s wedding cake and everyone loved it! I made a three tier cake and this recipe was perfect in texture and flavor and was fantastic for carving and stacking. I forgot to bring the almond flavoring with me, so I doubled the vanilla. I have been hired to do another wedding cake in May and the bride wants the exact same cake flavor so I will be using your recipe again. Thank you for a great white cake!
ps Try letting your cakes cool for five or ten minutes in the pan, then turn them out, wrap in wax paper, and let cool overnight. This holds in all the moisture as the cake cools. The cake will be super moist. YUM!
ok, I just noticed that my tip is in your recipe! please ignore my ps.
I’ve got a question about the tip for freezing the cakes. I’m so excited to use this recipe for a bday cake this weekend. I plan on making 2 9-inch rounds. I’m a newbie cake decorator and had planned to decorate the cakes the night before or of the party. So would I then freeze them, decorate once frozen then allow the decorate cake to defrost/refrigerate until used? Does this change when using a fruit filling?
I made this using a chocolate cake recipe for my son’s birthday cake yesterday, and wrapped in plastic wrap after only five minutes of cooling, just like you said. I was totally afraid the plastic wrap would melt, and that after I froze it that the plastic wrap wouldn’t come off, or that it would tear the cake. WELL, I never should have doubted an Our Best Bites recipe, because the results were BEAUTIFUL! Wrapping up the hot cake truly kept the moisture in, and then today when I unwrapped the frozen cakes, the plastic wrap came right off, not tearing any cake, and I got my first taste of delicious, moist, not-boxy tasting cake! Thanks for another fabulous, go-to recipe! I LOVE LOVE LOVE your recipes!!!
Hi there, I discovered your site by way of Google at the same time as searching for a similar topic, your web site came up, it seems to be good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
I want to make chocolate cupcakes for my son’s Birthday party on Saturday. Should I follow this recipe exactly, except use chocolate cake mix instead of white? Should I still add the almond extract? Thanks for your help!
Angela, I made the recipe with chocolate cake instead. You use 2 whole eggs instead of 4 egg whites. This is only because, when you make the white cake version, you’re trying to preserve the pure white color of the cake (hence no egg yolks). With chocolate, it doesn’t matter!
The first time I made the chocolate version, I used almond extract. It still tasted delicious, but almond isn’t my preference. I used vanilla instead the second go-around, and I loved it even more. But depending on your tastes, either almond or vanilla is fine!
These are by far the most DELICIOUS white cupcakes I have ever made! We are making them as part of a dessert bar for our parent’s 50th wedding anniversary in Lake Tahoe this coming weekend. I am wondering if you would suggest adding anything to this recipe due to making these in the altitude….it is about 8,000 elevation. Should we add extra flour?? Thanks for your help!
These were delicious! I made mini cupcakes for a baby shower and my son’s birthday and everyone loved them, even those who don’t like cake. Thanks for sharing.
I just made these as cupcakes using lemon extract. The best non chocolate cupcake ever!! I can’t wait to make these again. And thank you so much for your great tips for filling them, super easy and everyone was so impressed!
Do you think this will bake up ‘nice-sized’ 9″ cake layers?
Yep 🙂
This is now my go to white cake recipe! It’s so good and I have gotten great reviews with it.I did a lemon filling using 2C heavy whipping cream and folded in 1 can of lemon pie filing. So good!
It’s a little late, but his recipe is fantastic! I used it in a 12 week cupcake experiment. I substituted the almond for mint extract and added mini chocolate chips. A thin layer of mint cream and a thick piping of Andes Mint frosting on top and they were in the top three of everyone’s favorites! I’m making them again tonight!
So, I was just looking in the book that came with my Kitchen aid mixer and noticed there’s a White Cake recipe in there…. have you ever tried that one?? Just wondering….
Umm, what was the recipe?
I learned a handy cake trick from the teacher of my cake decorating class at Michaels. I happen to love cake mixes because they’re just so easy, but they often are really crumbly and kind of flat on taste. So her trick to, of course use Duncan Hines, then add an extra egg and a quarter cup of the powdered, dry coffee creamer. The egg makes is more dense and the coffee creamer just gives an extra punch of flavor. You can play around and try mixing up the cake mixes and the creamers. Such as doing a chocolate cake with hazelnut coffee creamer. My favorite though is just a plain vanilla cake mix with french vanilla creamer. Yum!
Then for cupcakes, I learned a trick from the cook books, “Hello Cupcake” and “What’s New Cupcake?”. I use buttermilk instead of the water so the ingredients are cake mix, 1 cup buttermilk, 4 eggs, the amount of oil on the box, and then I usually add in the quarter cup of coffee creamer. It’s easy and tastes good, I think. If you try it, let me know what you think!
Does this work for high altitude? I am in Utah at about 5000 ft above sea level.
I’ve never tried so I’m not sure- sorry!
So dumbest question of the year! You always say to cool things on a wire rack, does that mean in the pan still or do you need to take it out to cool?
Love this recipe!! Thank you soo much!!! Now I am the one asked to make the cakes:) LOVE you SITE!!!
Delina
No other alterations needed Emily (or so my sister tells me!) Go ahead and do the two eggs and it should work out great.
This looks great, but I am curious: Are there any alterations needed for yellow cake? Other than using two eggs instead of four egg whites?