Vanilla Cake Lab126 recipes

Vanilla Cake Lab · Calculator

Design your own vanilla cake

The sliders start at the typical cake: the median of 126 recipes for each ingredient, in grams per 100 g of flour. Move any of them within the range that 90% of recipes use (the 5th to the 95th percentile) and the grams update, with where your choice sits among the recipes and what that ingredient does.

This scales ratios; it is not a tested recipe. Each ingredient moves on its own against the flour, and a combination no recipe uses may not bake the way you expect. For the method, pan and oven, follow the real recipes nearest your numbers.

Flour

300 g, about 2 1/3 cups, makes one typical cake.

Start from a recipe

Grams per 100 g of flour

  1. 325 g · 108%about 1 2/3 cups

    In the middle: 50% of recipes use more, 50% less.

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

  2. 200 g · 66%about 1 cup

    In the middle: 48% of recipes use more, 50% less.

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

  3. 170 g · 57%about 3 1/2 large eggs

    In the middle: 50% of recipes use more, 50% less.

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

  4. 245 g · 82%about 1 cup

    In the middle: 50% of recipes use more, 50% less.

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

  5. 12 g · 3.9%

    In the middle: 47% of recipes use more, 48% less.

    Baking powder, with soda when the dairy is acidic.

  6. 3 g · 1%

    In the middle: 48% of recipes use more, 44% less.

    Salt keeps a vanilla cake from tasting flat.

Your vanilla cake

Your vanilla cake in grams, with approximate volumes
IngredientGrams
Flour300 gabout 2 1/3 cups
Sugarwhite sugar, brown sugar, honey and syrups325 gabout 1 2/3 cups
Fatbutter, oil and shortening200 gabout 1 cup
Eggwhole eggs, yolks and whites170 gabout 3 1/2 large eggs
Liquidmilk, buttermilk, yogurt, cream and water245 gabout 1 cup
Leaveningbaking soda and baking powder12 g
Salt3 g
Total1,255 g

1,255 g in all from 300 g of flour, counting only the groups above.

Closest real recipe: White Cake (lifeloveandsugar.com).

BakeThe median of 114 recipes is 350°F (175°C), most for 24 to 33 minutes at their own size. A bigger or smaller batch, or a different pan, changes the time.

The 3 real recipes nearest your numbers

Measured on sugar, fat, egg, liquid, leavening and salt at once. These are published, tested recipes: follow one for its method, pan and timing, or load its percentages and adjust from there.

  1. 1

    White Cake · lifeloveandsugar.com

    sugar 111% · fat 60% · egg 61% · liquid 85% · leavening 4.2% · salt 0.9%

  2. 2

    Best-Ever Yellow Cake With Whipped Ganache Frosting · biggerbolderbaking.com

    sugar 116% · fat 66% · egg 59% · liquid 72% · leavening 3.6% · salt 0.9%

  3. 3

    Vanilla Sheet Cake Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.com

    sugar 116% · fat 66% · egg 59% · liquid 72% · leavening 4.1% · salt 1.3%

How the calculator works

Every recipe is reduced to baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient group per 100 g of flour. The starting point is the median of all 126 recipes for each group separately, so no single recipe is exactly the starting cake. Grams are your flour weight times each percentage, rounded to the nearest 5 g above 50 g and the nearest gram or half gram below.

“More than 80% of recipes” counts the recipes with strictly less of that ingredient per gram of flour. The nearest recipes are measured on every ingredient at once, each scaled by how much recipes vary on it, so a wide-ranging ingredient does not outweigh a narrow one.

Only the groups listed are counted. Vanilla, spices, mix-ins and toppings are left out unless they have their own slider. 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.