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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You write the most amazing and touching stories. You truly have a gift. Keep it up!
I love your writing (and your cooking). You do both beautifully.
One of my favorite memory items is an old ceramic milk bottle with a matching crock. Both of them are cream colored and have a country style light blue cow painted on the side and a light blue speckled trim top. My mom purchased them when she and my dad were building our family cabin up north. I always admired how simply beautiful they were.
Years later when my parents were selling the cabin, my mom was getting everything together in boxes to sell at a garage sale. When I saw those 2 items in a box, I asked my mom if I could have them. Of course she said yes, and I now have them both sitting next to my stove. The large crock keeps a bunch of cooking utensils at the ready. I don’t know what it is about those 2 things, but they make me feel peaceful. Perhaps that’s how I felt the day I first saw them.
Thank you Christy.
I guess we just take for granted all the wonderful things our supermarkets stock!
I have many favorite serving dishes from my late Grandmom who lived to be 101, and also from my mother-in-law. One in my hutch is my husband’s great-grandmother’s favorite depression cake serving dish. I use it for special occasions.
We use tap water, but I use a Brita Filter.
Lovely article.
Same. I have a Brita filter jug. It doesn’t filter out the fluoride and I prefer the taste of filtered water. Sometimes water straight from the tap can have a funny taste to it.
But in my new house I am having an undersink filter installed, that only requires a filter change every 6 months.
The item I have that brings back memories is one of my great grandmother’s apron. She always wore an apron – everyday and everywhere. When she passed away, I asked my Mom to get me one her aprons and not one of the new ones (she had so many of them given to her because she wore them so often – she’d put them under the bed saving them for when her old ones wore out!) but I wanted a worn homemade apron one that she used often. She was a tough cookie! She chopped firewood, worked gardens, cleaned floors on her hands and knees, cooked on a wood burning stove, washed clothes in a tub and hung them on a line all while raising a huge family. No electricty or inside water until she was already elderly – a great grandmother. Miss Carrie was one of a kind! I’m blessed by being born into a line of strong women – my grandmother and mom fell close to the tree! Kathy
Nice! I love strawberries.
http://www.ahcook.com
I have a few items that I still hold dear because of the memories – I still have my “Domino Cinnamon/Sugar” glass bear-shaped container, complete with plastic top with tiny holes so you can mix up your cinnamon and sugar to sprinkle on your toast (toasted in the regular oven, not in a toaster, of course) – and I have a metal tray that my grandmother used, I remember her tea cakes and molasses cookies (made with Brer Rabbit Molasses, I think) – oh, to be able to go back in time and sit on the porch with her “helping” her string beans, silk corn, or shell peas!
Hi – I think it’s nice when something from our past triggers a good memory. Whether its a dish, a quilt, a piece of jewelry — I would love to have something like that. Most of my memories are in my heart. Unfortunately, too much family strife. Keepsakes aren’t always worth a lot of money, just a lot of memories. I do have a dresser set that belonged to one grandma and a kraut cutter that belonged to my other. The best part is I’ve used the kraut cutter to make homemade kraut—just like me and Grandma did.