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. Instead of sifting through endless SEO-optimized posts on Google, 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.
First up is Sugarologie by Adriana, a PhD biochemist/molecular biologist who uses her science-y scientist knowledge (i.e. actually reading and interpreting research papers correctly lol) 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 actually inspired me to create the Cake Pan Converter Spreadsheet where I can scale any dessert recipe into over 25 different pan sizes!
Then there’s Scientifically Sweet by Christina Marsigliese, who is a food scientist and uses her industry expertise to develop (in my mind) not-too-sweet recipes that are easy for beginners. Seriously — I recently made mini chocolate chip muffins and couldn’t believe how easy the steps were. I thought I’d skipped a step, but they turned out perfectly!
Let’s put them to the test!
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Background & Method
I sell chunky cookies at my local Maryland farmers market every other Saturday, and I recently started offering gift with purchases to boost my average sales, launching this promotion with mini lemon loaves.
For this week’s gift with purchase, I wanted to offer homemade zebra cakes. Both white cake recipes were written for two 8-inch round cake layers. For my purposes, I scaled each recipe to make 8 mini loaves. Because a set of silicone mini loaf pans come in a set of two — it worked out perfectly for me!
Aside from adjusting the pan size, I didn’t make any other changes to the recipes themselves.
As always, I bake using food scales. You don’t have to be exact down to the hundredth of a gram — I’m sure as hell not, lol — but I try to get as close as possible.
These are the two I use:
Sugarologie’s Vanilla Almond White Cake Recipe
- 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)
- 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’s The Best White Cake Recipe
- 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)
- 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
Which White Cake Recipe Wins?
Sugarologie
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 (the classic way), 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.
Scientifically Sweet
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, which is why I recommend To be fair, I may have undermined it a little — Christina’s recipes are always reliable — but for me, if a recipe requires that much precision to succeed, it’s just not the right fit for me.
I need foolproof recipes for I am sometimes a fool.
The Winner
Sugarologie takes the crown for the best white cake recipe in this bake-off!
A Bonus Find
You’d think that would be the end of the story, but while snooping around Sugarologie’s site, I stumbled on an Eggless Vanilla Butter Cake 🍰
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.
I will definitely try it and share a mini loaf pan Eggless Vanilla Butter Cake recipe!
This Round’s Drops
I release content in bundles — this round comes with:
📬 Substack Essay — I Don’t Need to Scream To Be Heard
