Simple Cake Recipe (Easy & Delicious Vanilla Cake)
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When searching for a simple cake recipe, it doesn’t get easier than this deliciously moist vanilla cake recipe. All it needs is a few simple ingredients like cooking oil, instant pudding mix, egg, water and vanilla cake mix and you are on your way to the best simple cake recipe around.
When I think of simple things in life, I think of moments that may not amount to much from a monetary standpoint but are worth more than anything else you could own. That’s the way I feel about this simple cake recipe. It brings back memories of a time gone by. Sunday mornings sitting with my Granddaddy and watching him as he tried to teach me how to wiggle my ears! We would be laughing and eating this simple sponge cake Mama made. Life truly did seem much simpler then.
Speaking of simple things, let’s jump into making this simple cake. This easy cake recipe uses a cake mix to keep things simple. Then we add eggs, water, oil, and vanilla pudding mix to ensure it’s perfectly soft and moist, and bursting with vanilla flavor. Once you mix the ingredients together, pop the cake batter into a bundt cake pan and patiently wait for it to bake.
Then you can serve it however you like. You might want to keep things plain, whip up a simple glaze to go with the simple sponge cake, or add fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. I’ll leave that choice up to you!
Recipe Ingredients
- Cooking oil
- Egg
- Vanilla instant pudding
- Water
- Yellow cake mix
How to Make a Simple Vanilla Cake
Toss all dry and wet ingredients in a bowl.
Whistle or dance a bit because this recipe isn’t complicated so you can occupy your mind with more lighthearted pursuits.
Mix it all up for about two or three minutes, until well blended.
Now you can grease and flour your cake tin but I prefer to just spray the living mess out of it with cooking spray.
I’m a role model for laziness, I know, but doing it my way gives you at least another 45 seconds with your family :). See? I’m actually just promoting family togetherness!
Pour the cake batter into your bundt cake tin and bake it at 350 for about an hour. Check it at about the 45-minute mark.
Fortunately for me, I have little oven guards.
Let it sit in your pan for 10 minutes before turning it out.
How long should I let the cake cool?
10 minutes is the magic number in cakes.
You should always let cakes cool for that amount of time and they turn out so much nicer!
At this point, you can eat the cake plain, apply a glaze, or serve it this way, with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries.
I love strawberry shortcake and a slice of this is the perfect foundation!
To learn how to make homemade whipped cream, see this post.
Storage
- Store the cake, covered, at room temperature for up to 2 days. It will also last in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Alternatively, freeze the cake for up to 3 months.
Recipe Notes
- As mentioned, use this vanilla cake recipe as a base and you can top it or serve it however you like. Here are some serving suggestions:
- Ice the cooled cake with my 7-minute frosting or creamy chocolate frosting.
- Apply a vanilla glaze (find a simple recipe on my orange cake recipe post).
- Serve with whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream and fresh berries, chocolate sauce, or caramel sauce.
- Simply dust the cake with powdered sugar.
- For a , add some frosting and pop some sprinkles on top.
- To make a , split the between two pans.
- You can totally use this to make a batch too. You’ll want to reduce the time to about 20 minutes though.
Recipe FAQs
Can I make this cake in a 9×13 pan?
Yes, you can make this homemade cake in any size pan you like. I just chose a bundt cake pan because I hadn’t made one in a while. But do whatever cranks your tractor. I am partial to a Texas sheet cake, as is evident here and here.
You may also like these other easy cake recipes:
Chocolate Pound Cake with Fudge Glaze
Chocolate Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Super Moist)
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 1 box instant vanilla pudding mix 3.4 oz
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup water
- 1/3 cup oil
Instructions
- Mix all of the ingredients together with an electric mixer until well blended.1 box yellow cake mix, 1 box instant vanilla pudding mix, 4 eggs, 1 cup water, 1/3 cup oil
- Pour the cake batter into the greased bundt pan. Bake at 350 for 50 minutes to an hour.
- Let the bundt cake sit in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out.
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
— Charles Mingus
Submitted by Emily. To submit your quote, please click here! Thank you!
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Charlotte – flour or SR flour will not sub for Biscuit mix. I don’t know the correct additions to make to it, although Christy may have that info here on the website somewhere. If you can get it, I strongly recommend using the product described in the recipe. V/R……….donna
Can I sub Allpurpose flour or SR flour if a recipe calls forBiscuit mix??? Please answer. Thanks, Charlotte
When my dad got older, he let me go through his tool chest and take the things I wanted/needed. We had such a wonderful time looking at all his tresures/tools. I always liked to get under the car with him when he fixed it. Needless to say I can do the easy stuff to most cars. My mom helped me with cooking and baking, but I was really mechanically inclined. I still have all the tools and use them all the time.
I remember as a child growing up in the early 50’s till 1962, when my grandmother passed away, she had a large pin cushion hanging on the wall where she kept her hat pins. She aways wore hats when she went out and used pins to hold her hat on. When my grandfather passed away in 1982 I ask for the pin cushion but someone else got all the pins. I can still see that pin cushion hanging on her wall behind where she alway sat.
i remember my mom’s feed store calender on the back door she had five of us in 8 years while my dad was in the navy she wrote down weather conditions what fields we worked (after the navy my dad farmed everything in south white county, arkansas that would stand still) how much cotton we picked that day or soybeans, it was a history of our life my dad died two years ago and my mom has cancer and wants to go see my dad and brothers and her mama so she is dividing up her wealth my sister’s call it stuff well i told her i better get the calendars so i can share with my sons and their families and let the weather bureau look at what the weather was like back in 1950 have a great father’s day love you joy a ross
What a beautiful story! For me, it’s Mom’s treadle (did I spell that right??) Singer sewing machine cabinet and her old crockery bowl that she made bread in. The bowl was that cream color with the blue band around the top. When we moved her out of Houston, it was such a rush that we couldn’t get many of her things. I know I’ll find one of those bread bowls one day!
Denise in Dallas
Love this cake! But my bunch just loves chocolate,so substituted chocolate cake mix and pudding mix, Microwaved canned vanilla frosting an drizzled it over the cake. WOW,what a cake.