Old Fashioned Butter Cake

This Old Fashioned Butter Cake is a classic for a reason: rich, buttery, tender, and endlessly versatile. Enjoy it simply with powdered sugar, layer it with jam and fresh berries, turn it into strawberry shortcake, or finish it with your favorite frosting. It’s the perfect homemade cake for birthdays, holidays, and any celebration worth baking for.

Easy Old Fashioned Butter Cake Recipe

This Old Fashioned Butter Cake recipe is a classic, versatile cake that’s perfect for birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions. With its tender crumb and rich buttery flavor, this homemade butter cake is the perfect base for countless desserts. Once the layers are baked, fill them with your favorite jam and top with whipped cream and fresh berries, transform them into strawberry shortcake, or frost the cake with your favorite buttercream for a beautiful birthday cake. Along with chocolate cake, classic butter cake is one of the most popular cake flavors to make when you’re celebrating a special occasion.

Yellow cake goes by many names, old-fashioned butter cake, plain cake, vanilla cake, yellow cake, and 1-2-3-4 cake, but they’re all slight variations of the same classic. This is the one cake recipe everyone needs in their dessert collection: simple, buttery, versatile, and ready for any occasion. Frost it with your favorite icing, and let the celebration begin!

Key ingredients to make Old Fashioned Butter Cake: (Scroll down for full printable recipe card and quantities.)

• Flour – A combination of all purpose flour and cake flour gives the cake a tender crumb.
• Butter – Unsalted butter for richness.
• Liquid – Buttermilk adds moisture and thins the batter.
• Sugar – Granulated sugar (white sugar) for sweetness.
• Leavening – Baking powder and baking soda give rise to the cake layers while baking.
• Salt – Salt balances the flavor.
• Flavorings – Vanilla, extract, butter extract and almond extract amp up the flavor.
• Whole Eggs – Large eggs stabilize the cake batter.

How to Make Old Fashioned Butter Cake Recipe

• Heat Oven and Prepare Pans – Preheat the oven to 350 degrees f. Butter and flour three 9-inch round cake pans or spray with baking spray.
• Sift Dry Ingredients – Use a whisk to sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside. 
• Creamed Ingredients – Cream together the softened butter, granulated sugar, vanilla, butter and almond extracts. Beat with a mixer for around 3-4 minutes.
• Add Eggs – Add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition.
• Combine – Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk. Beat on medium speed until all has been incorporated, then increase the speed of the mixer and beat for 1-2 minutes.
• Transfer Cake Batter to Pans – Divide the cake batter evenly between the prepared pans.
• Oven – Bake per the baking time in the recipe until a toothpick inserted into the center comes back clean.
• Cool and Frost – Cool in the pan on a cooling rack then frost as desired.

Kitchen Equipment to Make Butter Layer Cake Recipe

• Electric mixer. You can use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer.
• Large bowl, medium bowl.
• Measuring cups and measuring spoons
• Three 8-inch cake pans or 9-inch cake pans.
• Balloon whisk.
• Wire rack.

Recipe Variations, Tips and Substitutions

• Two Types of Flour Make a Difference in the Texture – My personal favorite butter cake as demonstrated in this recipe, uses a combination of all-purpose flour and cake flour for just the right texture. It’s not too crumbly and not too dense. You could use one or the other for this recipe.
• Room Temperature Butter and Eggs – If time allows, while the butter is softening and coming to room temperature allow the eggs to come to room temperature, too. If you forget, the recipe will still work but it does seem to add more volume to the cake batter when the eggs aren’t cold.
• Buttermilk – You could use half and half or heavy cream in place of buttermilk.
• Homemade Buttermilk – Add one tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice to each one cup of whole milk. Let stand for 5-10 minutes then stir and proceed with the recipe.
• Never Crack Eggs Directly into the Mixing Bowl – When adding eggs to a cake recipe, crack them into a smaller separate bowl or measuring cup first. This will prevent any egg shell from going directly into the mixing bowl and ruining the batter.
• Sift with a Whisk – I’m an avid baker and I’ve used a whisk for sifting dry ingredients for many years. It works like a charm. You can also use a fine mesh sieve if you don’t have an old fashioned sifter.
• Frosting Option – This cake can be frosted with any flavor icing that you like. Checkout my recipes for Whipped Chocolate Frosting, fluffy 7 Minute Frosting, easy Vanilla Buttercream Icing, citrus filled Pink Lemonade Frosting or classic Cream Cheese Icing.

Storage and Leftovers

• Make-Ahead Tip – You can also make this cake up to 2 days in advance and store the layers separately chilled in the refrigerator tightly wrapped in plastic wrap prior to frosting.
• Leftovers – Store butter layer cakes in an airtight container or covered with foil and plastic wrap chilled in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
• Freezer – Freeze butter cake layers for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge and frost between layers, top and sides of the cake with your favorite icing.

More Easy Cake Recipes to Make

• Hummingbird Cake was made famous by Southern Living was created by a special lady right here in my neck of the woods in North Carolina.
• Best ever Chocolate Cake Recipe features both chocolate layers and frosting.
• Coconut Layer Cake is a holiday must make.
• German Chocolate Cake features my own twist on the classic frosting that makes it rich and delicious.
• Strawberry Shortcake Layer Cake is impressive to serve.
• Make your own homemade Chocolate Buttermilk Cake for your next special occasion.
• Peanut Butter Cake from My Incredible Recipes.

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Helpful Kitchen Items: 

• Stand Mixer
• Cooling Racks
• Measuring Set
• Cake Pans