Celebrated my 25th birthday earlier this month, and thought what’s more representative of the year than a Vanilla Birthday Cake! Additionally, this Vanilla Birthday Cake recipe comes in time seeing that many of you requested for a Birthday Cake recipe!

Usually, I skip ahead to the details of the recipe. However, for this occasion, spare me a paragraph to share why this cake!

This kiddish-themed Vanilla Birthday Cake represents my final year as a student. Furthermore, as I will be starting full-time work later this year, the pureness of Vanilla represents me as a blank canvas! I am really looking forward to see what the working world holds for me beyond eye bags.

Now, let’s dissect the recipe proper! Firstly, this Vanilla Birthday Cake is three-layered and sandwiched with whipped cream. Thanks to the richness of the moist vanilla cake, this cake is not overwhelmingly sweet. Also, you have various options to go about frosting the cake.

Possible customisations include using fresh fruits (the likes of mangoes and berries) and flavourings. For this particular Vanilla Birthday Cake, I added real vanilla bean pods to amp up the vanilla flavour profile.

An aspect of this cake I had a lot of fun with was decorating it. The most challenging aspect of decorating cakes is possibly achieving even layers and outlook. While the video I attached might not be as helpful as a physical tutorial, I hope it gives a good idea nonetheless.

For a start, you will need to ensure the same amount of frosting is used for each layer. Then, always give an extra check to minimize air bubbles between your frostings (air bubbles contribute to a weak structure). Finally, make sure you have the appropriate tools to even out the exterior of the cake!

With that, your cake is complete and you can go big with the final touches!

Some final notes before the recipe sharing proper. If you’re looking for a good chocolate birthday cake, you can find the recipe by clicking here!

Additionally, don’t be surprised if you see thinner cake layers. When baking cakes, too tall cake layers can cause the overall cake to be enormous and they might squash the whipped cream out. If you prefer taller cake layers, double the recipe!

Vanilla Birthday Cake Recipe
by Javier Tan March-26-2022

This three-layered Vanilla Birthday Cake might look simple, but it’s full of flavour, happiness and fun! Served with whipped cream.

Ingredients

For Cake:

  • 1/3 Cup + 1 Tbspn or 90g of Unsalted Butter, Softened at Room Temp
  • 1/2 Cup + 2 Tbspn or 130g of Granulated White Sugar
  • 3/4 Cup or 180ml of Milk, Room Tempearture
  • 2 Eggs, large, 55g each
  • 1 Tbspn or 15ml flavourless Vegetable Oil
  • 2 Tsps or 8g of Baking Powder
  • 1 and 3/4 Cups or 200g of All-Purpose Flour, Sifted
  • 1 Teaspoon or 5ml of Vanilla Essence
  • Pinch of salt

For Frosting:

  • 300ml Whipping Cream, Cold
  • Vanilla Bean / Vanilla Extract (a pinch / a small spoonful)

Instructions

For the Cake:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C and line your 6 or 7 inches round baking tins with parchment paper. If you’re making an 8 inch round, or thinking to make something thicker, consider 1.5x or doubling the recipe!
  2. Firstly, cream together the butter and sugar for 2 mins until light and fluffy.
  3. Then, whisk in the eggs, salt and vanilla until combined.
  4. Subsequently, whisk in the oil first. Then, whisk in the milk in two portions, the batter will be watery at this stage.
  5. In a separate, bigger bowl, combine the baking powder and flour.
  6. Then, sift in the dry ingredients into the wet and fold the dry ingredients in. Alternatively, you can mix at low speed for 2 minutes to combine the dry and the wet.
  7. Then, transfer the batter to 3 baking tins (1/3 batter each) and bake for about 24 – 27 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out almost clean with just a couple of crumbs at most (Mine took 24 minutes, however, watch closely after 20 minutes). If you’re going for really even layers, one tip would be to weigh the overall batter and divide by 3. If you are reusing your tin, remove the cake each time it’s out and have rested for 5 minutes.
  8. Next, set aside the cake to cool for approx an hour before frosting.

For Whipped Cream Frosting:

  1. Using a stand mixer, beat together the whipped cream until you achieve soft peaks.
  2. Then, add in the vanilla bean pods (I used just a pinch), and whipped till you obtained stiff peaks!

Details

  • Prep time: 3 hours 20 mins
  • Cook time: 40 mins
  • Total time: 4 hours
  • Yield: 1 x 3-Layered Vanilla Birthday Cake

Notes:

  1. If you would like to be updated with more recipes which I strive to create to perfection for sharing and for free, do check out my Instagram, Facebook Page, or YouTube 🙂 Thank you so much for all of your support! Feel free to tag me or link back here!
  2. Serve fresh at room temperature (on the day itself) or in a fridge (up to a week)
  3. If storing the cake with no frosting in the freezer (up to a week), seal it in plastic wrap or an airtight container. Leave at room temperature for 40 minutes before serving!
  4. Do note that the whipped cream, will “sweat” when its left out of the fridge and form water droplets.
  5. Please do not copy and paste the recipe without my permission, but feel free to link back here!

Enjoy!
– Bakeomaniac, Javier Tan