Looking for the BEST Vanilla Cake recipe? This vanilla layer cake is moist with a tender crumb and lots of vanilla flavor. Just add your favorite frosting and serve!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a bowl, combine cake flour with salt and baking powder. Use a whisk to blend everything together. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar for 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add in eggs and egg whites, and vanilla extract. Beat for 2 minutes.
Alternating additions of the dry ingredients with the buttermilk, slowly add each (about 3 additions of each. After final addition of buttermilk, beat 1-2 minutes until fluffy.
Pour evenly into prepared cake pans. Bake for 25-28 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Cool in pans 5 minutes, then remove from pan and cool on wire rack completely.
Bake the cake layers the night before. Wrap cooled cake in plastic wrap. Assemble and frost the day of serving.
Level the cakes. Use a serrated knife and carefully slice off the domed tops of the cake layers. This provides a sturdy layer cake and the layers won't slide with frosting between them!
Spread about 1 1/2 - 2 cups of frosting between the layers, which leaves plenty for the outside!