This is the most Ridiculous Vanilla Cake. Seriously, it’s the softest, most moist cake EVER – it literally melts in your mouth! A vanilla cake recipe topped with sweet icing and garnished with white chocolate chips… you’ve got to get in on this goodness.
A Super Moist Vanilla Cake
A few years ago I made a chocolate cake. It was insanely fudgy and soft, and I decided to call it ridiculous chocolate cake because… well… it was. And then I started getting requests for a Ridiculous Vanilla Cake, which leads us to today!
So, I present you with this soft, moist vanilla cake recipe with sweet vanilla icing. It’s made with boxed vanilla cake mix, vanilla pudding mix, tangy sour cream, and white chocolate chips. It’s truly the most tender cake out there, and it couldn’t be easier to make!
It’s topped with a simple 3-ingredient vanilla icing that you can whip together in no time, and more white chocolate chips, if you feel so inclined (I always do!). While this vanilla cake may not look like the most exciting dessert you’ve ever made, the flavor and the texture more than compensate for that – do NOT miss out on this incredible vanilla cake!
(For future reference, though, if you’d prefer to make a vanilla cake from scratch, use this homemade cake mix!)
Why You’ll Love This Moist Vanilla Cake Recipe
I never thought I’d be this eager to share a simple vanilla cake recipe, but here we are! This is why I’m such a big fan of this dessert:
- Incredibly moist. Made with sour cream, pudding mix, vegetable oil, and eggs, this vanilla cake is ultra-tender and moist.
- Quick and easy. It takes just 10 minutes to prep this cake for the oven – that’s all. After that comes the hardest part: waiting for the cake to be done so you can dig in!
- Perfect for any occasion. This vanilla cake is low-key enough to satisfy your everyday sugar cravings, but elegant enough to be the dessert offering for your next dinner party. It’s really up to you!
Recipe Ingredients
Let’s talk about what you’ll need to make this super moist vanilla cake recipe! Note that you can find the exact amount for each ingredient in the recipe card below.
For the Cake
- Vanilla Cake Mix: Use your favorite boxed vanilla cake mix.
- Instant Vanilla Pudding: Adds moisture and extra sweet vanilla flavor.
- Sour Cream: For every 1 cup of sour cream, keep in mind that you can substitute with 1 cup of plain yogurt, or 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (or vinegar) and enough cream to make 1 cup.
- Eggs: Bring these to room temperature before you add them to the batter.
- Vegetable Oil & Water: Both provide extra moisture so that the cake does not dry out while it bakes.
- White Chocolate Chips: If you really just aren’t a white chocolate fan, you can absolutely omit them from this recipe.
For the Icing
- Powdered Sugar: Sift your powdered sugar before starting on the icing to get rid of the clumps.
- Milk: For a thicker, richer icing, you could try substituting with heavy cream.
- Vanilla: Pure vanilla extract provides the best flavor!
- White Chocolate Chips: These are optional, for garnish, but I love adding them!
What Cake Pan Should I Use?
I have had my fair share of cake disasters while flipping a cake out of a bundt pan. It’s enough to make you cry! Along with greasing the pan heavily I use THIS PAN and literally have never looked back. I recommend this to SO many people and truly feel like it’s the best. I can’t say that I have had any issue with sticking since using this one.
That said, you can try baking this cake with an assortment of different pans. Please note, however, this is a denser-style cake, which I prefer in a bundt or tube pan style. But it will work in other pans too:
- 9×13 pan: Decrease your bake time to an estimated 30-35 minutes.
- 2 round 9-inch cake pans: Decrease your bake time to 25-30 minutes.
- For cupcakes: Decrease the bake time to 20-25 minutes.
How To Make a Moist Vanilla Cake
Here, you’ll find the basic step-by-step guide to making this easy vanilla cake. For the full set of directions, scroll on down to the recipe card below.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Liberally grease a 10-inch bundt pan with butter or shortening and lightly dust it with flour. Set aside.
- Mix the ingredients. In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine all the cake ingredients. Mix on low for 30 seconds until everything is combined, and then on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Stir in the white chocolate chips and pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan.
- Bake the cake. Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the cake is set. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert the pan onto a cake plate.
- Make the icing. In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Then, pour it over the cake.
- Garnish the cake. Sprinkle the cake with white chocolate chips if desired. Note – if you sprinkle white chips on the cake when it’s warm they will melt slightly.
Tips for Success
Even though this moist vanilla cake recipe follows a very simple process, I still have a few tips and tricks to share with you:
- Use the cake mix as an ingredient! Don’t follow the instructions on the box at all. Just use the dry cake mix as you would your flour, sugar, etc.
- Grease the bundt pan. Make sure you grease the pan HEAVILY especially if you use the white chocolate chips, as they might melt to the side of the pan and stick if it is not greased properly. You can use a baking spray, or grease the pan with butter or shortening and then lightly dust with flour or powdered sugar.
- Let the cake cool. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before inverting the pan onto a cake plate or platter. The cake is pretty soft, so it may fall apart if you try to invert it too quickly.
- Don’t worry if the cake crumbles a little when you remove it from the pan. If this happens, depending on how much sticks, know that you will be icing this cake and garnishing it with white chocolate chips. That will cover up a whole lot of imperfection!
Frequently Asked Questions
Anything that contains fat contributes to how moist the cake gets. In this recipe, that would be the sour cream and the vegetable oil.
The most likely reason that your vanilla cake turned out dry is that it was over-baked. To avoid this, try using the toothpick test. If you insert a toothpick into the cake and it comes out with moist crumbs (but not wet batter), it’s time to pull the pan out.
How to Store
You can store this vanilla cake in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature. If you want it to last for a few more days, try refrigerating it.
Can I Freeze This Vanilla Cake?
Sure. I would recommend freezing it without the icing, and then whipping the icing together quickly when you’re ready to eat it. The cake can be frozen in an airtight container (or wrapped tightly) for 1-2 months.
More Vanilla Cake Recipes
Want to try out some more easy vanilla cakes? Check out these ones!
- Perfect Vanilla Cake (great for layer cakes!)
- Vanilla Cupcakes (perfectly domed cupcakes using the reverse creaming method)
- Tres Leches Cake
- Yellow Sour Cream Cake With Chocolate Frosting
Ridiculous Vanilla Cake
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 50 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
This ridiculous vanilla cake is so moist and tender. Made with sour cream and white chocolate chips, and topped with a sweet vanilla icing, it’s truly irresistible!
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 (15.25 ounce) box vanilla cake mix
- 1 (4 serving sized) box instant vanilla pudding
- 1 (8- ounce) container sour cream
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 cups white chocolate chips
For the Icing
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- white chocolate chips to garnish
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Liberally grease a 10- inch bundt pan with butter or shortening and lightly dust with flour. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine all the cake ingredients. Mix on low for 30 seconds until combined and then on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour the batter into the prepared pan.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes, until the cake is set. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert the pan onto a cake plate.
For the Icing
- In a medium bowl whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Pour over the cake.
- You can ice the cake when it’s warm or cooled.
- Sprinkle with white chocolate chips if desired. Note – if you sprinkle white chips on the cake when it’s warm they will melt slightly.
Notes
- This cake was originally posted in 2016 using 16- ounces of sour cream. I received a fair amount of comments letting me know you thought that produced too dense and wet a cake. I updated the recipe in 2021 using 8- ounces of sour cream. Wanted to include this note for those of you who enjoyed the original recipe!
- To store. Store this cake in an airtight container for up to 3 days at room temperature.
- To freeze. I would recommend freezing this cake without the icing, and then whipping the icing together quickly when you’re ready to eat it. The cake can be frozen in an airtight container (or wrapped tightly) for 1-2 months.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 613
- Sugar: 64.3 g
- Sodium: 523.4 mg
- Fat: 28 g
- Carbohydrates: 83.4 g
- Protein: 8.8 g
- Cholesterol: 77.3 mg
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Oh, boy, this has been an adventure. I also made this cake twice with disastrous results both times. First time I had a cake mix with pudding in it so thought that was the problem when it separated coming out of the pan and was gummy. Had to run out and buy a birthday cake quickly. But I really wanted it to work, so hunted down a cake mix without the pudding (would you believe Ralphs had only one box on the shelf of it?!) Made it again thinking for sure that was the problem. NOPE, just took it out of the pan – or at least part of it came out of the pan and no way could I serve this gummy cake. I’ve got it back in the oven to see if it can be baked long enough to make it edible. Great flavor so I’m so sorry it’s a disaster. Mystery – tested temperature, wondered if I needed a new bundt pan although my pan has never let me down before. Any ideas?
Sorry, I meant 3.4 oz box instant pudding mix.
I just made this cake, and literally just ate my first piece. I used a Betty Crocker French Vanilla cake mix, 1 41/2 ounce box vanilla instant pudding, 8 ounce sour cream ( because that’s all I had on hand ), and only about 3/4 cup vanilla chips ( again, because that’s all I had ). I spayed Pam in the bundt pan and floured the heck out of it because I too have trouble getting cakes out ! I followed the rest of the recipe and baked it for 55 mins in a 350 oven. I waited about a 1/2 hour to cool the pan on a wire rack and then flipped it out on a plate. The cake came out great and looked good. I then made the glaze . It was sort of thick so I added a little fresh lemon juice, maybe a teaspoon ( I wanted to cut the sweetness ). I then spread to on top of the cake. My oven was still a little warm so I put the plate in the oven for a couple minutes to get the glaze to run down the sides of the cake. Bottom line the cake is pretty good with the changes I had to make due to lack of ingredients . My son just had a slice and said ” Man, that’s good, and moist too !” Would definitely make again with the changes. I don’t love white chocolate chips to munch on, so I would make curls or grate it on top for looks.
I had to use 1/2 cup of milk instead of 2 tablespoons to make the glaze moist enough to use. I have made this cake 5 times and it turned out perfect every time.
Just made this cake this morning. I followed the ingredients to a T. But unfortunately this cake was not good at all. Way to sweet..way to mushy. A disaster to get out the pan. Next time i will half the white chocolate chips and half the sour cream.. maybe that will be better. Not five stars but i cant change the star rating on my phone.
Hi, this cake sound good but it’s entirely to sweet . If you are not a diabetic you will be after eating this cake it was a waste of my ingredient and time making it and it also stuck to the pan very disappointed .
Many of us have never encountered anything that’s ‘entirely too sweet’. Just not in our vocabulary. This is a slice of goodness!
LADIES, I’m not trying to make excuses, but our ovens, the weather, movement, and a recipe that is just not followed or incorporated properly. There are a number of reasons a cake can fall, and yes more then once I have tried a new recipe and have it to fall more then once. 🙂 My Father was a baker and I learned most of my no no words in his Bakery. 🙂
I made your cake today and it is delicious!! BUT, I made a discovery about the pudding mix. In my pantry I had some off-brand pudding mix, which was only 1.5 oz. So I used 2. Then I discovered that the name-brand mix is 3.4 oz. Both boxes say they make 4 half-cup servings, so I’m not sure how they can be so different in dry weight, but they are. The bottom line is that my cake has the mushier texture, because it has twice as much pudding mix as it should have, but it is still quite edible and delicious, though a little harder to get out of the pan! 😉 I also discovered that the chocolate pudding mix is 3.9 oz., and the vanilla is 3.4 oz. Perhaps your recipe could say “1 small box (4 serving size) of (chocolate/vanilla) pudding mix”, to avoid confusion.
AND, I had a brainstorm while looking through my pudding mix stash. I have some pumpkin, and thought this recipe would be so good with a spice cake mix, pumpkin pudding mix, and cinnamon chips (or white chocolate, or seasonally they sometimes have pumpkin chips.) YUM!
Thanks for a great recipe we’ll use again & again!
great tips! Thank you!
I attempted this recipe not once but TWICE and followed the directions exactly and this cake turned out terrible. It was extremely mushy and had the consistency of jello. I’m not sure what I could have done differently or if this is just the consistency that it’s supposed to be but it doesn’t taste good at all. The texture is just plain weird.
did the cake mix you used already have pudding in the mix? If so that might be the problem, as you add pudding in this recipe separately…and it would definitely lead to mushy-ness.
My family has been making this basic cake for years — with several variations — and we have often had to use a cake mix that includes pudding in the mix, as it is nearly impossible to find one without pudding in the mix (sometimes I have luck at Target). And I’ve never had a problem with the finished product — delicious every time.
Same here I made it TWICE same results! Very mushy (baked pudding anyone??) as if it was not cooked fully! I left cake in oven full 55 minutes, took it out and it immediately started to fall! I was so disappointed my cakes usually turn out very very well! Box of instant pudding and 16 ounces of Sour cream correct??
Tried this recipe this week and mine collapsed as well. Had to throw it out.
Don’t have a bundt pan. What other pans work? Cupcakes?
I just made this today using an angel food cake pan and it turned out great! I would think cupcakes would work too…
I’m so happy you made this since the ridiculous chocolate cake looked so amazing! Can’t wait to try it!
What is instant vanilla pudding and what can you use instead