Easy 2 Layer White Cake, the only cake recipe you’ll ever need!
Sometimes, the simplest things are just what we need. This 2-layer white cake the only cake recipe you’ll ever need. It’s easy to make and delivers a tender crumb you’ll love, bite after bite.
One bite and you won’t believe this started with a box mix! This might be the ultimate cake mix hack—no strange ingredients.
No artificial aftertaste, and none of that dense, gummy texture. Just a light, tender, truly delicious white cake!
Starting with a box cake mix gives this easy white cake an incredibly delicate crumb—soft but not overly fluffy. It has the texture of a perfect homemade bakery-style cake.
With a few simple pantry additions, you’ll have the best white cake recipe made with cake mix in the oven faster than you could prep a fully homemade cake from scratch.
Whether you’re baking for a birthday, wedding shower, or just craving a classic vanilla cake, this moist and tender white layer cake is sure to impress.
This cake recipe is simple and delicious and is sure to become your favorite two-tier white cake that you’ll make again and again.
I’ve made many white cake recipes, and this takes the stress away…
It all starts with a Duncan Hines White Cake Mix, then you add a few times in, and wow… You get a really great cake.
Now the flavor…
Keep it simple with vanilla or add in some almond, or lemon, or do what they call Princess Flavor and add all three, vanilla, almond, and lemon.
You might recognize that flavor when you’ve had bakery cakes and can’t quite put your finger on the flavor, it’s a combination that has plenty of great taste, but not one is more overwhelming than another.
Gather the ingredients
- white cake mix (Duncan Hines)
- all-purpose flour
- granulated sugar
- pinch salt
- water
- egg whites
- butter
- sour cream
- oil
- almond extract
- vanilla extract
- optional: lemon extract/baking emulsion
I always use baking strips on my 8-inch round cake pans.
Let’s get into why…
Why use baking strips?
Because it ensures the cake will bake evenly, nice a flat, no need to trim cakes. No dome, cakes won’t overbake since the edges won’t overbake quickly, and the center won’t rise above them.
The cakes are nice and flat and will look great, taste great, and be easier to frost when stacking cakes. Baking strips can be found here.
Prepare your pans for even baked layers with no dome, use baking strips, and spray pans with a baking spray, a mix of oil and flour.
Don’t forget to have enough cake pans. And if you want a bigger cake… more layers, check this cake out!
Now let’s make the batter
Mix up the batter and pour it into your prepared pans for baking.
Be sure your oven is at the proper temperature so that cakes bake evenly and won’t be too dark.
Allow the cakes to cool for 5-10 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack to completely cool.
If you like a more dense cake, wrap them in plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze them overnight; the moisture in the cakes will be absorbed into the cake, and the cake will then have a tighter crumb.
The cake without freezing does have a great texture. I refrigerate the cake as I layer it with the frosting so the cake doesn’t slide.
It helps to firm up the cake nicely without a super dense crumb.
Slice and eat-
A nice serrated knife and server will help you serve up this cake in style!
How do you make a box cake taste like a bakery cake?
The addition of sour cream with the box mix gives the perfect texture of the cake to replicate a deliciously fresh baked cake from a nice bakery.
How can I make white cake mix taste better?
The additions in this recipe somehow remove the processed flavor that can come with a box mix, it’s simple, everyday ingredients, and it’s so great to have a simple recipe to use anytime you want an easy white cake.
How can I make a box cake taste homemade?
The addition of sugar, flour, sour cream, and melted butter gives this cake the perfect homemade texture and taste.
The frosting I used is Sour Cream Frosting- recipe added in recipe card under cake recipe card
- This cake will also taste great with just about any of my frosting recipes,
- How about cream cheese frosting?
- chocolate Swiss meringue frosting,
- strawberry buttercream,
- Or how about chocolate malt frosting!
I decorated this cake with fresh camomile flowers.
You can choose to add 1-2 teaspoons of lemon extract for a fresh lemon flavor, but I’d omit the almond extract in that case, but still add vanilla.
Use this lemon baking emulsion, which is my favorite to the cake and the frosting recipe for a really fresh lemon flavor.
You can opt to keep it all almond flavor… then add toasted sliced almonds on top or just along the sides of the cake while the frosting is soft so they will stick. Then place it in the fridge to firm up nicely.
Or go with a classic vanilla. Use a delicious vanilla extract for the best flavor. I like THIS vanilla extract best, and their vanilla bean paste is wonderful too. All vanilla extracts are not created equal, they can actually taste very different, some taste like alcohol more than vanilla. they should smell amazing, it’ll really make a huge difference in your baked items.
2 Layer White Almond Sour Cream Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box white cake mix Duncan Hines 15.25oz do not follow the directions on the package
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- pinch salt
- 1 1/4 cups water
- 4 egg whites from large eggs
- 4 oz butter, melted which is 1/2 cup
- 1 cup sour cream which is 8 oz
- 2 tablespoons oil I use avocado oil, vegetable or canola would work as well
- 1 teaspoon almond extract or almond baking emulsion
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
optional
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract or lemon baking emulsion
Instructions
- Prepare two 8″ round cake pans. Use a baking spray or use a thin coating of shortening and flour, then wrap the pans with wet baking strips to ensure evenly baked cakes.
- In a large bowl with a mixer add all the ingredients in the order they are listed. Cake mix, flour, sugar, salt, water, egg whites, butter, sour cream, oil, almond, and vanilla flavors. For a more intense flavor cake you can use more vanilla or lemon, but with almond more is often too much.
- Mix on low speed until the mix starts blending, then turn onto medium speed and mix for 2 minutes, scraping the bowl and under the beater after the first minute to be sure they combine fully, then continue mixing until well blended.
- Pour the cake batter evenly amongst the two pans and tap the pans gently on the counter so the batter is level in the pans.
- Bake at 335° (not 325° and not 350° for a well-risen cake that isn’t dark in color). I have the oven rack set just above the center and it bakes evenly.
- I start timing the cakes at 30 minutes, then I test them about every 5 minutes until they are just set and a toothpick comes out clean when tested in the center of the bake.
- Remove the cakes from the oven, and allow them to cool for 10 minutes.
- Then turn the cakes out onto a cooling rack to cool them completely.
- Then refrigerate or freeze the cakes so they will stack well and not slide. They don’t need to be completely cold or frozen thru, you just want them to be firm so they hold up well when stacked and won’t slide.
- Prepare the frosting, I used a batch of my sour cream frosting, added a thin layer of frosting in the middle, and top, and gave it a thin rough coating around the sides.
Sour Cream Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar add more for thicker frosting
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- In the bowl of a mixer cream butter until smooth and add in the sour cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla, and whip until fully combined and smooth.
- Use more powdered sugar for a thicker frosting or add a little milk to make it thinner.
Looking for a chocolate cake…
Give this one a try… chocolate cake mix hack, check it out here.
Hi Dianne,
I made this recipe today. One of my layers cracked, if I freeze and wait to ice at last min, do you think it will be ok. Instead of two layers I made 3 smaller ones it’s a wedding cake for two! Should I remake! It was very easy, i didn’t hv the tool to wrap outside of pan but they baked even and very nice. Thank you very much.
Yes, push the “cracked” layer together as best you can. Then wrap and freeze. Alternatively you can add some frosting to “glue” it together if needed.
Hello
I am making my grandsons birthday cake and I am using two 14 inch in diameter round cake pans can you tell me how many boxes of cake mix I will need. Thank you
Hi, I think you’ll have plenty of batter using the portions in this post https://www.createdby-diane.com/white-sour-cream-cake/. it makes a 5 layer cake and with all the additional ingredientes should give you 2-14″ cakes.
Happy Baking!~Diane
but have an extra cake mix and ingredients on hand if you feel the cake pans need to be fuller.
My daughter wanted sheet cakes for her wedding, and I tried multiple recipes in my search for a moist cake with excellent sponge texture. You recipe was BY FAR the winner! To make it as a sheet cake, I used a jelly roll pan and baked it for 26-30 minutes. I made 5 different flavors, and they all had rave reviews, so THANK-YOU for sharing this!
I followed the recipe to the T. It’s flat, and the 2 layers will barely make a normal height of a single layer. I’m tempted to pitch the whole thing.
I’m not sure what could have gone wrong, there is really so much better for 2 pans. It rises high when baked and fills the pans. Without more info I’m not able to help trouble shoot, I’m happy to help. Over mixing will have cakes bake high, then sink considerably is the only thing that comes to mind, but even so, this cakes are really thick, to me it sounds like something was missing when it was mixed.
Hi Diane,
Can’t wait to make this!!! Thank you…
Do you serve this cake chilled from the refrigerator or at room temp?
I prefer my cake at room temperature, and the frosting tastes better when it’s not ice cold as well.
The exception would be whipped cream frosting it’s best cold, cheesecake is best cold, and I like my pie cold, but feel free to serve it how you like it.
Cold cake tends to taste dryer, and butter based frosting tends to taste heavy and solid instead of light and delicious.
I am making a strawberry cake for my grandson but I wanted to make the main cake white with a layer of strawberry mousse between one layer and strawberry sauce between another layer. I will bake these in 2, 9 inch pans. Will this recipe hold up to these layers?
This cake is nice and will hold up fillings well. Be sure to refrigerate or freeze cake layers to they are firm when adding the fillings.
9″ cakes will use more batter. You could use a double batch (I’ll link to it for you) and fill the pans to desired height leaving room for expansion when baked, and either bake some cupcakes with the extra or freeze the batter and bake cake later. It sounds like you want a three layer cake with filling in between each layer, if that is correct, here is the link to the double batch.
https://www.createdby-diane.com/white-sour-cream-cake/
I am going to try this recipe for my son’s birthday cake. I have 9in rounds. Will this still work okay? Or should I double the recipe and make some cupcakes too?
If you bake this recipe in 2- 9″ pans, they won’t be as full, so the cakes will be thinner (if that is what you’d like) here is the doubled recipe it will give you MORE than enough batter for 2 cakes, you can make cupcakes, or freeze it and bake another cake at a later time as well.
https://www.createdby-diane.com/white-sour-cream-cake/
I’ve never made a sour cream frosting before. How is the taste compared to a traditional buttercream frosting.
Thank you
I find it less sweet which I prefer and smooth, everyone who tries it says they love it too for those reasons.
I will be baking this in my 13×17 in. sheet / jelly roll cake pan
Thanks so much for the recipe
Instead of making into layer cake or into cupcakes, I made a jelly roll cake.
Turned out fantastic
I am such a huge fan of this cake. Do you think it would be possible to make it into a pineapple upside down cake?? Any thoughts or tips?
I’m sure it’s possible, make a brown sugar syrup, add the pineapple to the pans, then pour on the cake batter and bake 😉 you can use this cake recipe as you would any other, to fit your needs.
Happy Baking!
This recipe is delicious. I’ve made it three times since Christmas!
Thank you for confirming. Made the cake and it was delicious.
Just realizing my mistake. I think I was thinking tbsp when I said 8. Just to confirm, you are saying 4 oz equals 1/2 cup, so one 4 oz stick of butter (8 TBSP).
sorry for any confusion (we added a new recipe plug in to the website and I can now see some catagories are not as clear)
1 stick of butter is 4 oz.
4 oz of butter is 1/2 cup.
1 stick of butter is 8 tablespoons, which is 4oz, which is 1/2 cup. Do not double the butter.
In the cake recipe, you’ll only use 4 oz of butter, melted.
Can you please confirm the amount of melted butter used in the cake recipe? Is it 4 oz equals 1/2 c of butter or total of 8 oz butter? Apologies if I missed some instruction around this. Thx.
4 oz ½ cup butter, melted
Since the box cake mix is already supposed to fill two round cake pans, doesn’t adding all the extra ingredients make too much batter to fill the two pans? Won’t you have extra batter leftover?
The pans will be “fuller” than how they are with just the cake mix from the box with regular ingredients added. They may bake and puff up over the rim, when they cool, they will be at the rim of 2- 8″ round cake pans that are 2 inches high, the cakes will look a bit higher, the texture of the cakes will be more dense (not heavy) instead of cake mix/fluffy cake how they bake with regular instructions. I have made this recipe many times and it might be surprising but the cake don’t over-flow… good news there.
I hope that helps 🙂
I would love to make this into a strawberry cake could I just add some fresh puréed strawberries to this would that work and do everything else the same what do you Diane
Hi, I haven’t made this into “strawberry cake” adding puree or fruit will change the structure of the cake and make is soggy without testing it, more than one item would have to be changed.
Here’s my suggestion. Use the white cake recipe and fill the cake with strawberry curd (I’ll give the link at the end, and top it with fresh strawberries.
2nd option buy freeze dried strawberries and grind them into a powder to flavor the cake. This will give the best flavor without making the cake soggy.
Here is a recipe I found using strawberry cake mix if that is of interest to you https://sugargeekshow.com/news/strawberry-cake-mix-recipe/
Here is my recipe for strawberry curd if you need it https://www.createdby-diane.com/strawberry-curd/
Hope that helps, I’m happy to answer any questions if you have more.
Hello….I made this cake following the recipe and it was amazing. Love the texture and the flavor. I am going to making an 11” x 15” double layer for my husbands club and wonder if I can double the recipe for each layer? I will use a 4” cake jest core as well as baking strips to ensure even cooking.
Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
Thank
You
Hi Jenny, I have “doubled” this recipe here is the post with the measurements https://www.createdby-diane.com/2022/04/white-sour-cream-cake.html. I think the 4″ core will help along with the baking strips!
Hi, I haven’t made this yet because I have a question. I see cartons of egg whites in the grocery, can these be used in cake recipes?
I haven’t used carton egg whites, if you do you’ll have to let me know what you think.
Would the extracts be the same as in the original white cake recipe?
I would use all vanilla.
Hello Diane, I’m a huge fan of this cake recipe but wondering if you have a version for carrot cake or even any suggestions. Thank you
I haven’t made this recipe into carrot cake, but you can add 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon,
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon dry ginger and 1 1/2 cups grated carrots should work well. If the carrots seem really wet, squeeze them in paper towels so the aek isn’t too heavy and wet. The baking time should be similar.
Happy Baking!
This cake is very moist and delicious. I made this for my daughters birthday and it was a bid hit! Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Lynn, I’m so glad you like it!
Happy Baking!
~Diane
I was intrigued by your recipe. Each, chocolate and white, sound simply delicious. I plan to make the white/vanilla first. I would’ve signed up for your newsletter in a heartbeat, but I can’t take all the advertising. Jumping and rolling all the time make it somewhat difficult to read. But thank you in advance for what I think is going to be a keeper of a recipe. K
Hi, hope you enjoy the recipe. As far as ads go… keep in mind that is how the recipes are offered to you for free/no charge. This is a business and ads are how I am compensated. Working without compensation is not a business, it’s more like a hobby. Which this is certainly not! I’ve been creating recipes and sharing them for more than 14 years on my website, so there will be ads. And while you may feel jumping and rolling all the time makes it difficult to read, so be it. Lots of people don’t prefer advertisement, but without it you’d be paying directly (like cable, streaming services or resort to watching ads) I have no intension to charge people to visit my website to view and print my recipes. Each blog post has a recipe that can be found at the end of each post. In the middle there is information and photos, all you have to do is scroll past any information you don’t need. Welcome to the internet 😉 Happy Baking!
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
My mom made wedding/special occasion cakes when I was growing up. She always used DH mixes and embellished them. So my sister and I have done the same.
I made this cake for my daughter’s baby shower in October. It was received with rave reviews. I’m making cupcakes for the second shower this weekend. I’m so looking forward to it.
Thank you again!!!
I love hearing all the food memory stories, and I’m so glad everyone like it 🙂
Happy Baking!