Vanilla Cake Lab126 recipes

Vanilla Cake Lab

Vanilla Cake: what 126 recipes agree on

Yellow, white and vanilla layer cakes: sugar, fat, egg and liquid per 100 g of flour.

126 recipes from 60 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical cake, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.

Recipes

126

from 60 sites

Typical flour

300 g

about 2 1/3 cups

Oven

350°F

175°C · median of 114

Bake time

28 min

most 24 to 33 min

The typical cake of vanilla cake

The median of all 126 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 300 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Typical vanilla cake recipe in grams, with the range most recipes use
IngredientGrams
FlourThe scale for everything else300 gabout 2 1/3 cups
SugarMost recipes use 285 to 360 g325 gabout 1 2/3 cups
FatMost recipes use 170 to 220 g200 gabout 1 cup
EggMost recipes use 145 to 195 g170 gabout 3 1/2 large eggs
LiquidMost recipes use 210 to 295 g245 gabout 1 cup
LeaveningMost recipes use 10 to 14 g12 g
SaltMost recipes use 2.5 to 4 g3 g

Bake350°F (175°C) for about 28 minutes.

Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 g, milk and other liquids 240 g, a large egg 50 g.

Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient

Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.

  1. Sugar

    median 108% · most 96 to 120%

    Most layer cakes use about as much sugar as flour or more, which keeps them moist and tender.

    0%50%100%150%200%
    Each dot is up to 3 recipes.

    range 60 to 167%

  2. Fat

    median 66% · most 57 to 73%

    Butter for flavor, oil for a moister cake that stays soft cold; many recipes use both.

    0%50%100%150%
    Each dot is up to 3 recipes.

    range 30 to 125%

  3. Egg

    median 56% · most 48 to 64%

    Whole eggs make a yellow cake; whites only make a white cake with a paler, finer crumb.

    0%25%50%75%100%
    Each dot is up to 2 recipes.

    range 20 to 95%

  4. Liquid

    median 82% · most 70 to 98%

    Milk, buttermilk or sour cream; acidic dairy gives a more tender crumb.

    0%50%100%150%
    Each dot is up to 2 recipes.

    range 34 to 150%

  5. Leavening

    median 3.9% · most 3.2 to 4.5%

    Baking powder, with soda when the dairy is acidic.

    0%2%4%6%8%
    Each dot is up to 2 recipes.

    range 1.2 to 6.1%

  6. Salt

    median 1% · most 0.8 to 1.4%

    Salt keeps a vanilla cake from tasting flat.

    0%1%2%3%
    Each dot is up to 2 recipes.

    range 0 to 2.6% · 5% use none

Where recipes disagree

Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.

  • Salt. The middle half of recipes use 0.8 to 1.4% of the flour weight in salt, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.7 times as much as one at the 25th.
  • Liquid. The middle half of recipes use 70 to 98% of the flour weight in liquid, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 1.4 times as much as one at the 25th.

Recipes agree most on sugar and fat: sugar 96 to 120%, fat 57 to 73% for the middle half.

What the words in titles mean

English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.

Recipes called “best” (10) use about the same amounts as the rest on every ingredient measured here.

The most-reviewed recipes

37 vanilla cake recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 89, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:

On no ingredient do the most-reviewed recipes differ from the rest by more than chance would explain.

50+ ratings (37)the rest (89)middle half of all

  • Sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 102% vs the rest 110%

  • Fatthe most-reviewed recipes 66% vs the rest 66%

  • Eggthe most-reviewed recipes 56% vs the rest 58%

  • Liquidthe most-reviewed recipes 84% vs the rest 81%

  • Leaveningthe most-reviewed recipes 3.7% vs the rest 4%

  • Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 1.1% vs the rest 0.9%

Most reviewed

  1. Vanilla Cake Recipe · sugarspunrun.com4.9 from 1,752 ratings
  2. Vanilla Birthday Cake Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.com4.5 from 1,688 ratings
  3. Basic Vanilla Cake Recipe · bakedbyanintrovert.com4.6 from 1,117 ratings
  4. Perfected Yellow Cake · melskitchencafe.com4.6 from 982 ratings
  5. The Best White Cake Recipe · sugarspunrun.com4.9 from 813 ratings

Oven temperature and time

114 of 126 recipes state an oven temperature, and 91% of those bake at 350°F (175°C). The other 12 do not say.

  • 350°F104 recipes
  • 325°F8 recipes
  • 375°F1 recipe
  • 400°F1 recipe

123 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 28 minutes and the middle half bake 24 to 33 minutes.

Temperature and time together

The single most common pairing is 350°F for 30 to 35 minutes, with 30 of the 114 recipes that state both.

Rows: oven °F (°C in gray), every 25°F. Columns: minutes, 5 a column, from the start of each; the middle of a stated range counts. Darker: more recipes, up to 30 in one cell. Outlined: the median, 350°F for 28 minutes. 114 recipes state both. The edge rows and columns also hold the few recipes beyond them.

Recipes to start with

Closest to the typical cake

Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.

Most sugar

Least sugar

All 126 vanilla cake recipes →

Go deeper

Top sources

  • 6beyondfrosting.com
  • 6kingarthurbaking.com
  • 6lifeloveandsugar.com
  • 5bakedbyanintrovert.com
  • 5biggerbolderbaking.com
  • 5foodnetwork.com
  • 412tomatoes.com
  • 4bakerbynature.com
  • 4livewellbakeoften.com
  • 4sallysbakingaddiction.com
  • 4shugarysweets.com
  • 4sugarspunrun.com

In 3 languages: English 119, French 4, Portuguese 3. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 60 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.

How the numbers are made

Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.

99% of the 1,241 ingredient lines got a weight. 25% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.

A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 219 were left out: 121 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (sugar 38, fat 30, liquid 24, egg 17, leavening 7, salt 5), 43 with a title that names a different dish, 26 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 25 made from a boxed mix, 2 too many lines without an amount, 1 with an ingredient in amounts that could not be weighed, and 1 duplicate of another page.

Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.