Vanilla Sponge Cake Recipe - Easy Cake Recipes (2024)

Best Vanilla Cake Recipe With Oil

If you have been looking for a vanilla sponge cake recipe with oil, then you have come to the right place. This Vanilla Sponge Cake recipe is even easier than baking those boxed cake mixes. And way cheaper as well. Why waste money when you can master this basic vanilla cake recipe and modify it into million ways for a different cake every time you bake?

Here, I will tell you why you should stick this easy homemade plain vanilla cake recipe to your fridge because you can make so many different types of desserts using this basic cake recipe. Add some sprinkles to make a Birthday Cake or chopped dried fruits and nuts to make , or bake it in a bundt pan and play around with a variety of frostings and glaze.

As Julia Child said, “A party without cake is just a meeting”, I would extend that by saying that a life without cake isn’t worth living.

Right from birthdays to weekend celebrations, one thing that sets the celebratory menu apart from any other is the presence of a decadent cake which adds to the glory of the dinner table.

Baking scares many and I am quite aware of that fact. This is further emboldened by the fact that many people buy an oven with the intent of baking but end up using it as a food warmer!

Often it takes them a single failed attempt or maybe two to turn away from baking. However, this is very important to recognize the fact that it takes more than two trials to just understand the working of your oven, leave alone the science behind baking.

Science Behind Cake Baking: Basic Science

Baking involves basic science which means you have to understand certain elements of the recipe in order to get the desired result.

A cake recipe basically comprises flour, fat which comes as butter or oil, a leavening agent that gives the cake its lift which is either eggs or artificial leavening agents like baking powder and sugar.

Apart from this, there can be a flavouring agent like vanilla extract, cocoa powder, or almond extract.

It is the eggs which when whisked, traps air between its protein matrix which later upon baking gives the height (lift) to the cake.

This is further helped by the baking powder which upon reacting with the acid releases carbon dioxide. This tries to escape upon heating and creates uniform air pockets throughout the cake, thus giving it a soft, fluffy and sponge-like texture.

Well, not going any further into the concept, lest it scares you any further, let me get down to one simple fact that it is relatively very easy to bake cakes at home. All you need is just a handful of ingredients and you are all set to bake.

How to make Vanilla Sponge Cake – Ingredients List

• 1cupAll-Purpose Flourwith 2 tbsp of it replaced with an equal amount of Cornflour
• 1/3cupRefined Oil – any refined neutral oil such as Sunflower Oil, Canola Oil, etc.
• 1/3cupGranulated Sugar – you can go as high as 1/2 cup if you prefer sweeter cakes
• 1tspBaking Powder – or 1/2 tsp Baking Powder + 1/4 tsp Baking Soda
• ¼cupWhole Milk
• 1tspVanilla Extract
• 2Eggs

Step-by-step Instructions on how to bake a plain Vanilla Sponge Cake at home

• To Prepare the cake tin for baking. In case you are using non-stick tins then there is no need to do anything extra to it. For greater ease in unmoulding the cake, you can line it with parchment paper. In case you are using regular baking tins, then you can either line it with parchment paper. Or, brush it with some oil and then sprinkle some flour on it to coat it uniformly. Keep it aside for the time you prepare the cake batter
• Pre-heat the oven at 170C
• Take a mixing bowl and mix all the dry ingredients together. Sieve them through and keep this aside
• Now, in another mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with a pinch of salt till light and almost twice in its volume
• Add oil and vanilla extract to the eggs and whisk them vigorously till light and airy
• Now we are going to incorporate the wet ingredients into dry ingredient mix. For that we are going to add the dry ingredients in three parts, alternating with milk and mix gently. Once you see that the dry ingredients have incorporated nicely, stop mixing. Some time over-mixing leads to hardened cakes.
• Now, pour the batter in the prepared cake tin and bake it for 30-35 minutes. Since every oven is different, keep an eye on it once it crosses the mark of 30 minutes. Once you see that the cake has baked and the sides are pulling back from the edges, you know that it is done.
• Take it out and allow it to cool in the cake tin for 10 minutes before turning it upside down on wire rack to cool down completely.
• Serve this cake as it is or drizzle it with a glaze. Or, if you are feeling fancy then you can frost it with whipped cream or cream-cheese frosting.

Super-easy Fluffy Vanilla Cake Recipe Variations

The best part of this cake recipe is that you can start baking in any sort of mould, whether you have baking tins of a particular shape or glass/borosilicate baking dishes or silicone baking moulds.

• You can also divide this Vanilla Cake batter into cupcake moulds and bake smaller version of this it. This recipe can easily yield you 6-8 cupcakes of medium size. You can check out the detailed Vanilla Cupcake Recipe by following this link.

• You can use this plain cake recipe as a base for glazed cakes. For instance, I have used this vanilla cake recipe for Thyme infused Lemon Glazed Cake.
• You can make a cheat version of Tiramisu at home using this sponge as the base. Check out the recipe by following the link.

• Apart from this, I have replaced 50% of the All-Purpose Flour with Whole Wheat Flour for .
• I have also adapted this recipe into Classic Vanilla Mug Cakes for just the two of you for my Bite-Size Baking Project.
• For my Lemon Blueberry Cake Recipe I added some of my homemade Blueberry Compote into mildly lemon flavoured cake batter and baked it into a delicious citrusy cake
• If you are a fan of hazelnut flavour or Nutella, then you should definitely give a try to my Nutella Swirl Loaf Cake Recipe

How to Make a Vanilla Cake recipe for Microwave?

The answer is simple. Simply make the cake batter as listed below and use a microwave-friendly cake tin to pour the batter in. Now, bake it for 4 minutes on High Power, i.e. 900W or the maximum wattage your Oven offers. Once the cake is baked, you should see the edges of the cake pulling away from the sides. Test the centre with a knife if it’s done, otherwise bake for another minute till it’s done.

How to make an Eggless Plain Vanilla Cake with Oil?

Simply follow this formula where I replace 1 Egg with 5 tbsp Milk + 1 tsp Oil + 1/2 tsp Baking Powder. So, for this vanilla sponge cake recipe just double the quantity of milk, oil and baking powder and you will get the perfectly baked sponge eggless vanilla cake

Have you tried this recipe?I would love to hear about it.
Tag me on Instagram@priyankabhattacharya.saor Facebook@hashdiariesand I will share it further.