Vanilla 10 Inch Cake
A simple vanilla 10 inch cake with three soft and fluffy layers that are frosted with American buttercream and is easily customizable!
Guess what?! I made a perfect three layer, vanilla 10 inch cake to add to my list of base recipes! So far we have a 4 Inch Cake, 6 Inch Cake and 8 Inch Cake and now a 10 inch cake.
If you didn’t already know, I’m on a mission to make multiple sizes because one size does not fit all. Doubling and halving recipes doesn’t always work so I’m here to take the guess work out for you!
How to make 10 Inch Vanilla Cake
For my vanilla 10 inch cake I used pretty much the same ingredients as my Vanilla 6 Inch Cake. I look for 3 main things when I develop my cake recipes- the perfect texture, great flavor, and a simple recipe.
Each ingredient is an important component to achieving all three, so sticking to these ingredients will give you the perfect 10 inch cake.
Ingredients:
- Flour: I like using all-purpose flour in my cakes because most people already have it at home. If you don’t use a digital scale to measure your flour I highly recommend purchasing one. Over measuring is one of the most common baking mistakes.
- Fat: I use both oil and butter in this 10 inch cake. I love the flavor the butter gives and the spongy texture oil creates.
- Whole Egg: I use whole eggs because I love the richer flavor it gives. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature to make sure the batter doesn’t curdle. If you forget to take your eggs out of the fridge ahead of time, you can put them under hot water.
- Sugar: You can’t have cake without sugar. It provides moisture, flavor and structure so don’t skimping! I used just granulated sugar in this recipe but it’s made to be adaptable so you can make a brown sugar cake by just swapping the granulated sugar for brown sugar.
- Liquid: I like the texture and flavor from using milk and sour cream so I used both in this 10 inch cake. If you don’t have sour cream you can substitute it for equal amounts of Greek yogurt.
Vanilla Buttercream
I made vanilla American Buttercream to go with the cake but you can make whatever frosting your heart desires.
You’ll need two batches of frosting, meaning a frosting that uses at least 2 cups of butter. So like two batches of my Swiss Meringue Buttercream or French Buttercream recipes.
If you want the decorate the cake more than I did, I recommend doing either 1.5x or 2x the amount of frosting.
If you don’t already have a copy of my book Frosted, I recommend checking that out. You will find 60 different variations taken from 13 base recipes.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Vanilla 10 inch cake will make approximately 40 cupcakes. However, it was developed for cakes, so the cupcakes might sink/sag a little instead of having a nice beautiful dome.
If you want to make vanilla cupcakes I recommend making my vanilla cupcake recipe.
You certainly can!
To make it chocolate, remove 1 cup (120g) of flour and add 1 1/2 cups (120g) cocoa power.
To make it wedding cake, in addition to the vanilla extract, add 2 tsp of almond extract
To make a spice cake, add at least 2 Tbsp of spices – I would do 1 Tbsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp ginger and 1 tsp allspice or cloves; I would also swap the sugar for brown sugar.
I have not tested adding fruit flavors to this cake but you can certainly use a fruit flavored frosting or fruit flavored extracts without any problems.
I use baking spray with flour to grease my pans and my cakes rarely stick to the pan. You can also line the bottom of your pan with parchment paper. I don’t use butter or flour but know plenty of people who use those methods with success too.
How to store a 10 Inch Cake
Unfrosted cake layers
You can make the cake layers ahead of time. For best results, allow the cake layers to cool almost to room temperature. When they’re still just slightly warm, wrap them in plastic wrap and leave them on the counter overnight.
If you’re making them more than one day in advance, you’ll want to freeze them. Place the plastic wrapped layers in a freezer bag, removing the excess air, and freeze on a flat surface.
You can remove the cakes from the freezer and frost right away or you can remove them a few hours earlier and bring them back to room temperature. If you’re frosting them frozen, make sure to let the cake rest so it thaws before serving.
How to store the finished cake
If the cake is fully frosted and unsliced, you can leave it on the counter overnight (unless it feels soft and unstable, then refrigerate it).
If the cake is partially sliced, cover any cut sections with plastic wrap or a cake dome. Place all the slices in an airtight container. It can stay at room temperature for a day or refrigerated for up to a week.
How to freeze the cake
If the cake is sliced, place the slices in an airtight container. You can also individually wrap each slice in plastic wrap if you want to remove one at a time. Place the container in a freezer bag and squeeze out all the excess air. You can store them in the freezer for up to 2 months.
You can also freeze the cake whole. To do this, refrigerate the cake until the frosting is firm, a couple of hours. Then wrap the whole cake in plastic wrap, twice and freeze for up to two months.
Let the cake thaw in the fridge over night. Then remove the plastic wrap and let it thaw on the counter until serving.
Keep in mind, the cake is never as good as fresh.
Thanks so much for reading today’s post! If you have any questions just comment down below, I’m happy to answer! If you make this 10 inch cake I would love to see the results. Make sure to tag me @baranbakery on instagram and order my cookbook, Frosted.
As always, have a blessed day and happy baking!
Love, B
Thanks so much for this recipe. I’m a very occasional baker making my parent’s golden anniversary cake for 20 people. I followed this to the letter and it’s worked perfectly for me. I used a hexagonal tin, and only had one so had to bake the cakes one after another and they came out perfectly. I’ve never made such a big cake before and this really helped. So thank you! (on to the decorating now – gulp!)
Hi Ellie, I’m so glad it worked out! Decorating can definitely be intimidating but if you take your time and keep it simple, it’ll work out! Best of luck 🙂
The sour cream is it necessary? Does it require the sour cream to work as a cake?
Thank you
It’s definitely not the same without the sour cream. You could substitute it for unsweetened yogurt or greek yogurt though, preferably full fat.
Hi! I made this cake over the weekend and it turned out so great!! Very moist and fluffy cake! I had a question about the buttercream. So I didn’t have enough frosting to cover the whole cake, what do you think happened? Do I need to make two batches of the buttercream? How many cups of buttercream frosting are in the recipe? Thanks!
Hi Allie, it really just depends how much you put between the layers and how thick you frost it on the outside. Another factor could be temperature and/or whipping time. If it’s warmer in the room it’s more difficult to incorporate air into the butter so the volume could be slightly lower.
I used the amount written just to light frost the cake, like in the photos. I didn’t have enough for decoration.
If you need more, you can scale it up to use either 3 cups (6 sticks) or 4 cups (8 sticks) of butter.
Hi there,
Hope you are well. I was looking at the receipe for the biscof cake and was wondering if i could use this recipe and add biscuit crumbs to make the biscoff cake? Would you think it will work?
I had made the oreo cake for my daughters birthday and it turned out so well. thank you!
yes!
thank you appreciate your help.
I’m planning to bake this cake in 2×10 inch , 3 inch pans. Do I bake in on the lowest rack & the 3rd rack from bottom ? Do u recommend swap the cake half way into baking?
Thank you for sharing your beautiful recipe.
I usually bake in the middle rack. if i have two that don’t fit i do the middle and bottom but I put the oven on convection. If you don’t have convection, maybe just bake one at a time or switch them halfway through like you said.
Can I use cake flour instead of all purpose?
Should work fine 🙂
Can I use this recipe for 2 10 inches round pan?My pans are 3 inches tall.I want to use this recipe for a 3 tier cake,10,8 and 6 inches. Could you please suggest?I will definitely send you a pic and share with you my experience.
Thanks in advance
If the pans are three inches tall, it should work fine in two pans. I haven’t tested it so idk how long baking time would be but I would add add a 10-15 minutes
Hi,
Can I use margarine instead of butter in this recipe?
Hi I haven’t tested it with margarine but it does work with vegan butter so I would think it would work with margarine as well.
I am making a two tier baby shower cake and I am using this for the bottom layer. I will be covering it with fondant but the thing is I’m decorating it 2 days in advance, the thing about fondant is I will have to leave it at room temperature to avoid it from getting hard. Would this cake be able to hold, and still be taste at the time of serving?
Hi Kathy, I don’t work with fondant but the cake is very sturdy so it should be fine to be covered in fondant and it’s definitely fine to leave the cake at room temperature for two days.
I am making a two tier baby shower cake and I am using this for the bottom layer. I will be covering it with fondant but the thing is I’m decorating it 2 days in advance, the thing about fondant is I will have to leave it at room temperature to avoid it from getting hard. Would this cake be able to hold, and still be taste at the time of serving?
I’m making a 3 layer 10 inch birthday cake. Will 3 inch pans make a difference? And I can only cook 2 at a time, will the batter be safe sitting till I make the 3rd. TIA
Hello,
Just a question can you make the cake 2 days before serving?
Hi, yes you can. I would just wrap it in plastic wrap and leave at room temperature or you can freeze it and frost it frozen.
I used a 10×3 cake pans. When baked they only came out an inch think. What did I do wrong?
Hi Dena, I don’t think mine are much thicker, maybe 1.5 inches? If you feel they didn’t rise, it’s hard to tell what went wrong if I’m not there lol. Usually it’s expired baking powder, cold ingredients or the butter/sugar/eggs were not beaten enough or over-mixing after adding flour. Hope that helps <3
I just had to leave you a comment! Used this recipe as the base for a birthday cake… filled it with an almond pastry cream and replaced the buttercream with a brown butter amaretto flavored one and it was absolutely perfect! Beautifully level cakes with the perfect flavor… I’ve bookmarked these to come back to again 🙂
Hi Nikita, that sounds absolutely amazing!! I might have to give that a try one day, thank you for sharing. So glad you liked the cake 🙂
Looks delicious! Can this be made in 9 inch pans? Or will there be spillover?
Hi Tina, if the height of your 9 inch pans are three inches then you can, but with a 2 inch height there might be spillover.
Thanks! That helps! 🙂
Sounds delicious! Could I use three 9 inch pans? Or would it spill over?
I need to make a vanilla cake that would serve 30 people, would this recipe work?
Hi Rosemary, yes this recipe would definitely serve 30 people 🙂 I suggest cutting rectangles instead of slices, it will be easier to get the 30 slices that way
I accidentally left this question in the reviews.
Thanks for this 10 inch vanilla recipe. Just what I needed and I will try it. Just wondering if it was OK to add sprinkles to the batter? Thanks!
Hi! yes of course, I would double the amount from my funfetti cake 🙂 so about 1 cup of sprinkles.
Thank you for the quick response!
Hi, thank you so much for sharing this recipe. Can I please check it is 3 x 10 inch cake tins? I have 2 and wondering if that would be sufficient? This is for the base of a 3 tier wedding cake I’m making (10inch/8inch/6 inch). Thank you, Michelle
Hi Michelle, I used three 10×2 inch cake pans. You can always just bake the first to and wait to bake the last one, it works for me all the time!
Hi,
Would this cake recipe for 3 x 10inch tins be okay to use for a 3 tier wedding cake or is the sponge too soft? Also, can mixture be out inn2 x 10inch tins of so what depth of the tins need to be ?
Thanks
hi, yes i used this recipe for a tiered cake and it was very sturdy! My pans are 2 inches tall 🙂
HI i wanted to know can this cake be turned into a marble cake?
I am to make a 10in Marble cake.
Hi! Yes you can turn it into a marble cake if you follow the same process as my marble cake 🙂
https://baranbakery.com/marble-cake-with-buttercream-frosting/
The cake tasted nice. I followed the instructions to a “T”. However, I felt that there was just far too much oil in the cake, it would’ve have just worked better using the butter and removing the oil from the recipe, or just add a bit of oil. Plus, adding the sour cream was nice…but theres just too many ingredients – making it it pricy. Sometimes simplicity is nice…I guess I’m one of those folks.