Vanilla is boring. But, it’s also undeniably delicious! Today, I’m on the hunt for the perfect white cake.
Like chocolate cake, there’s no shortage of claims that they have the best recipe.
I decided to put my two favorite dessert bloggers in a head-to-head bake-off to see whose white cake comes out on top.
Let’s put them to the test!
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Background
Because I will be selling these for my home bakery in Maryland, I am scaling them to fit mini loaf pans, which are one of the best purchases I have made for my small business.
Aside from adjusting the pan size with the Cake Pan Converter Spreadsheet, I didn’t make any other changes to the recipes themselves.
As always, I highly recommend you invest in a food scale. They’re inexpensive and your baking will be precise. These are the two I use:
The Contestants
The first recipe is by Adriana of Sugarologie, a PhD biochemist/molecular biologist who uses her hard science research background (like she’s actually reading and interpreting research papers correctly) to develop unique and delicious recipes.
She’s best known for her Cakeulator (a.k.a. Cake Calculator), which lets you scale her cake recipes to virtually any pan size.
FUN FACT: The Cakeulator inspired me to create the Cake Pan Converter Spreadsheet where I can scale any dessert recipe into over 25 different pan sizes!
The second recipe is by Christina Marsigliese of Scientifically Sweet, who is a food scientist and uses her industry expertise to develop (in my mind) not-too-sweet recipes that are easy for beginners.
I recently made mini chocolate chip muffin loaves and couldn’t believe how easy the steps were.
Sugarologie Vanilla Almond White Cake Recipe
This recipe makes 8 mini loaves.
Ingredients
- 63.72g Egg Whites (room temp)
- 26.34g Milk (room temp)
- 4.25g Vanilla Extract
- 152.93g Cake Flour
- 7.65g Potato Starch
- 127.44g White Sugar
- 6.12g Baking Powder
- 2.89g Salt
- 48.43g Butter (room temp)
- 28.89g Vegetable Oil
- 71.37g Milk (room temp)
Method
- Follow the original mixing instructions from Sugarologie.
- Pour 60g batter into each cavity of a silicone mini loaf pan.
- Bake for 27-31 minutes
Scientifically Sweet The Best White Cake Recipe
This recipe makes 8 mini loaves.
Ingredients
- 113.13g White Sugar
- 48.24g Butter (room temp)
- 19.20g Oil
- 6.41g Vanilla Extract
- 51.23g Egg Whites (room temp)
- 51.23g Sour Cream (room temp)
- 169.62g AP Flour
- 3.07g Baking Powder
- 1.02g Baking Soda
- 76.85g Milk (room temp)
Method
- Follow the original mixing instructions from Scientifically Sweet.
- Pour 60g batter into each cavity of a silicone mini loaf pan.
- NOTE: I tested these with 50g of batter per cavity. If I were to make this recipe again, I’d try 60g instead.
- Bake for 20-24 minutes
White Cake-Off Conclusion
How did Sugarologie’s White Cake turn out?
This recipe was super easy to put together and extra fun because Adriana uses the reverse creaming method. Instead of creaming butter and sugar first, you coat the flour with butter, oil, and sugar right from the start.
This helps limit gluten development, which gives the cake a tender, fine crumb while still holding its structure.
The loaves had fantastic lift, filled out the cavities beautifully, and looked very impressive.
How did Scientifically Sweet’s White Cake turn out?
This one had really nice flavor and browning, but it didn’t rise as much. The loaves didn’t look as fluffy or spectacular compared to Sugarologie’s either.
To be fair, I may have under-mixed it as Christina’s recipes are historically very reliable. But, flavor-wise, it wasn’t good enough for me to want to give it another try.
The Winner
Sugarologie takes the crown for the best white cake recipe in this bake-off!
Bonus Cake Recipe
You’d think that would be the end of the story, but while snooping around Sugarologie’s site, I stumbled on her Eggless Vanilla Butter Cake recipe.
One of my gripes with these white cake recipes is the leftover yolks!
Since I run a home bakery, I don’t like having waste — even though my dog enjoyed a little yolk sauce added to her dinner this time.
Whole egg recipes are much more practical for me. And an eggless version could be even better!
UPDATE (9/23/2025): Read the Egg-Free Vanilla Cake Recipe blog post!
WANT MORE CONVERTED RECIPES?
Check out the Recipe Library to see what other bakes you can make in over 25 baking pan sizes!
