Fluffy White Cake + Cherry Buttercream Icing

This fluffy white cake recipe will please all cake lovers! Add some freshly made cherry buttercream icing on top for a delightful finish. It’s really the cherry on top!

As you probably know, our friends over at Dixie Crystals sent us 40 pounds of sugar. So, we obviously used some of their suburb product for this super fluffy white cake. I use Sally’s Baking Addiction for inspiration for a ton of our recipes and this was no exception. I tweaked her recipe for vanilla bean cupcakes that you can find in one of her awesome cookbooks! 

I use sour cream in my white cake but you could also use greek yogurt too! I like the extra creaminess and slight tang in flavor. You’ll also notice that I didn’t use my handy dandy stand mixer for this recipe! 

I just picked up an extra large Pyrex bowl at HomeGoods and it’s actually the perfect size to hand mix with a whisk. Much to my husbands approval, it also easily stacks with all my other Pyrex goodies. Once you add the dry ingredients, you might need to move to a rubber spatula because it gets a little thick. 

We used yet another product from one of the awesome sponsors of #SummerDessertWeek for this yummy white cake mix. We used Adams Extract cherry extract for the buttercream icing! I will give you a warning that this is some potent stuff. I used it with their vanilla extract too so it added a little extra balance out the cherry flavor.

We used their strawberry extract in our cake donuts this week too!  

I love making homemade icing. When I first tested this recipe, I made a whipped cream instead of buttercream icing which was of course delicious but just didn’t work with this cake. When I first started making buttercream icing, I didn’t whip it enough and it was like blended butter. Yuck. 

If you have patience, just keep whisking it in your stand mixer and it will eventually (after like 4 minutes) turn into fluffy magical goodness of buttercream icing. This recipe is super basic so you can add all sorts of other flavors! Since this classic white cake is pretty simple, it would be so yummy to have a lemon buttercream or even a strawberry! 

I cannot stress this enough. Make sure your cake is TOTALLY cool before icing it. If it is warm at all, your icing will melt and you will be very sad. I have this handy dandy icing spatula that I love to use for cakes. You can get one here for like $5. 

I also use it to get the cake out of the pan! Just be careful not to scratch your pan if you are using a metal cake pan vs. a glass one. This buttercream recipe makes a pretty decent amount of icing so I like to make a nice thick layer on the white cake. I’m usually not a big icing person but homemade buttercream is everything! 

There you have it folks, a super easy homemade white cake! I know it’s obviously so tempting to just grab some cake mix and whip up a dessert but a homemade version is just a few more steps and is SO good. You’ll be so proud of yourself too! 

Fluffy White Cake

This fluffy white cake is perfectly moist and delicious! The cherry buttercream gives it a little extra oomph of yumminess.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: buttercream, fluffy cake, white cake

Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 12 servings

Ingredients

White Cake

• 3 1/4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup 2 sticks butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• maraschino cherries optional

Cherry Buttercream Icing

• 2 sticks of butter softened (1 cup)
• 4 cups of powdered sugar sifted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cherry extract
• salt to taste

Instructions

White Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Prepare 9×13 pan by coating with butter or baking spray. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until fully combined. Set aside.
• In a separate bowl, add melted butter. Then, using a metal whisk, add sugar, eggs, sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract until fully combined.
• Slowly add the dry ingredients and fold together until fully combined, careful not to overmix. There should be a few lumps.
• Using a rubber spatula, add batter to pan in one nice layer. Bake for 40-45 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Then, gently remove from pan and finish cooling on a cooling rack for at least 45 minutes before icing.
• Once completely cool, ice with cherry buttercream, cut into pieces, top with optional cherry and enjoy!

Cherry Buttercream Icing

• Using stand mixer and paddle attachment, beat the butter for about 2 minutes until creamy.
• Add in four cups of powdered sugar and vanilla + cherry extract with the mixer running on the lowest speed. Scrape sides of the mixer, as needed.
• Then, increase the speed to high and beat for about 3-5 minutes until fluffy and creamy.

Made our recipe?Mention @Thebeardandthebaker or tag #beardandbaker!