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Best Ever Homemade Yellow Cake

You’ll never need another from-scratch yellow cake recipe as long as you’ve got this one at-the-ready! It really is the best! It’s moist and decadent and perfectly paired with a rich chocolate buttercream frosting!

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I’ve said many times that when it comes to desserts, I’m mostly a cookie person.  And cheesecake. Don’t forget the cheesecake.  But I do love a good brownie and I’ll never say no to big slice of cake, as long as it’s worth the calories.

I just got back from a wonderful holiday break visiting family in Utah.  It was a wonderful, much-needed reprieve from the everyday demands. We got some amazing skiing in (it seemed to snow and snow) and I got to spend lots of time with my mom and sisters in the kitchen.  I’d call that a perfect vacation!

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My mom has this incredible yellow cake recipe that she got back in the day when she was taking Home Ec in junior high school. I gave it a whirl back in July when we visited and since it was SO good, it was all I wanted to make when I returned.  I’ll share in the coming summer how I decorated it all festively for Independence Day.  This time, however, I made it into a tall and beautiful three-layered beauty and smothered it in the creamiest, finger-licking-good chocolate frosting.

Yellow cake was meant to be paired with chocolate frosting, don’t you think?

best-ever-homemade-yellow-cake2 Oh how I wish I had another slice in front of me right now! The entire cake was devoured in a hurry.  It has the perfect density and texture.

It’s definitely best the first day when fresh, but it’s not the worst thing ever if you have to eat it the next morning for breakfast.  Fine, twist my arm. I may or may not be speaking from personal experience. 🙂

Giving me a slice of this homemade yellow cake in one hand and a soft chocolate chip cookie in the other would pose the ultimate dessert dilemma.  I seriously don’t know which one I’d choose! I think I’d happily take both. 🙂

Best Ever Homemade Yellow Cake

Christine
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 3 c. flour
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1 1/2 c. sugar
  • 4 egg yolks keep the whites
  • 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 c. shortening
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 c. plus 2 Tbsp. milk
  • Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
  • 1/2 c. butter softened
  • 3 1/2 c. powdered sugar
  • 2 heaping spoonfuls baking cocoa
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • Milk for thinning

Instructions
 

  • Stir together flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat shortening on high until softened. Gradually add sugar and vanilla, mixing on a low speed for a short period in between. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating shortly after each addition on a low speed. Add alternately by fourths, flour mixture then milk, beating shortly on a low speed after each addition. This is a lot of mixing, and you don't want to over-mix the batter, or the texture won't be right, so you don't need to completely mix in the ingredients (just mostly) in between each mix session. In the end you will want things to be completely incorporated, but don't worry about it as much in between.
  • Beat egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks form. Fold into batter, no more than 30 strokes (you don't want to over-mix or it could turn out too heavy and dense). Do just enough strokes to mostly incorporate the egg whites, but it's ok if a little is still showing through in the batter. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit in three greased and floured 9 inch layer pans or two 9 inch square pans. If doing three layers, bake for approximately 20 minutes, or just until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
  • Let cool in pans for about 5 minutes, then carefully remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
  • For the frosting, cream together all ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer until very creamy and easily spreadable, but not too thin. I like to add a tablespoon of milk at a time and mix in between, until desired consistency is reached.
  • Frost cooled cakes.

Notes

This makes a lot of batter, so be sure to use three layered pans or one 9"x13" cake pan and a few smaller pans.
**Cake is best the first day.
**Double the chocolate frosting recipe for three layered cake.

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Next time you have a hankering for cake, ditch the box mix and make this instead! It will definitely become your go-to, made-from-scratch yellow cake recipe! I can’t get enough of it! I hope you love it too!

If you’re looking for another to-die-for layered cake recipe, give this Chocolate Mint Cake a try! You won’t be sorry!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. That looks wonderful. I've been looking for a very good homemade yellow cake made with butter. Have you ever tried this with butter?

    • Thanks, Deb! I have never made it with butter, but I would love to hear if it would still work out! I typically prefer butter to shortening in my goodies.

    • So glad you made it and liked it! I typically have to trim my layers on top to make them level before icing and stacking them. Let me know if you have specific questions about how to make it look better the next time!

  3. Made this tonight. Don't know what, if anything, I did wrong, but it came out extremely heavy and dense. Flavor is good tho.

    • Hmmmm...I'm sorry about that! It shouldn't be either overly heavy or dense. Did you over-mix it when you folded in the egg whites? Over mixing can do that. The recipe says less than 60 strokes, but really 15-20 strokes should be all it takes. It's ok if you can still see some egg whites showing through in the batter.

  5. Hello. Thanks for sharing this recipe. Would this recipe produce good cupcakes? Would any adjustments need to be made?
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