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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When my Alabama grandmother died years ago, my being the oldest grandchild, I got to choose whatever keepsake I wanted first after her children’s choices. Without pondering for a second, it had to be the red ruby tumblers she’d had as long as I could remember. Thank goodness none of her children had claimed them first. I’ll never forget Mama Ward serving me Canada Dry gingerale in a red ruby tumbler whenever we’d travel from home in Eufaula to Geneva to visit. It was the only time I ever got gingerale as a child, and I’ve noticed over the years that gingerale just doesn’t taste as good as it did then. Wonder why? Anyway, I proudly use those tumblers every day–about 12 of them they are. Soon after I got them, I noticed ones exactly like them in an antique store with a high price tag! Little did I know they are collector’s items! To me, they’re a symbol of my childhood–Mama Ward’s ruby red glass tumblers.
When we moved I put our metal cannister set in the garage sale, and when my daughter found out that it was gone, she threw a fit. My best friend had a sale not too much after that and when I saw that she was selling hers that was just like mine, I had to go and buy it just for my little girl! ( little, as in 23 or so! )…who know her childhood memories were stuffed in that ugly cannister set. The next time we moved, she watched me like a hawk to make sure I didn’t get rid of anything “important”!
Hmm… Well, I guess it would probably have to be cookware, like the big Pyrex and Fire King mixing bowls my mother used to use for mixing up cakes and cookies. I bought a couple of Fire King bowls on eBay a few months back. They were nothing fancy, just a bright orange and a pale green mixing bowl, but they reminded me of home cooking!
When my maternal grandmother died, my aunt wanted me to take her old aluminum salt and pepper shakers. I’m not sure why, but I do keep them in the kitchen and use them when I’m cooking. I also took a slightly chipped enamel pan and I think about my grandmother sometimes when I heat up something on it. My mother has her old “rolling pin.” It’s a long, skinny glass bottle that medicine might have come in decades ago. My mother remembers her putting ice water in it and using it to roll out biscuits and pie crusts. I’m amazed it survived all these years, especially in a house with six kids! When my husband’s grandmother died, she didn’t have anything especially valuable either, but we all went through her house for little odds and ends to take. I found an avocado green hand mixer from the ’70s which was just like the one my mother used growing up (with those big bowls) so I had to take that!
Dang, that cake looks good! I can almost taste the moist vanilla flavor and the ripe strawberries! *sigh*
This is about one of our son’s memories. We cleaned out our garage and since he was about 8 yrs old, my husband took his bouncing horse and piled it on top of the heap for the trash man to pick up. Well, we saw him go to the pile and stare at it for awhile. Then he comes marching over to where we are working, his face red and his eyes glistening with tears and says as he points to the horsey “Does anybody know how long that horse has been in my life???” and bangs on his chest when he says ‘my’. My husband said ‘well, go get it!’ He stomped off and climbed to the top, dragged it down and jumped on it and bounced and said ‘see, it still works!’
We have laughed at that so many times and the bouncy horse hangs in our garage to this day–he’ll be 20 next month.
Hi Christy!
I love nothing more than remembering my childhood and also hearing about others memories and traditions with their families, so thank you for asking this. I’ll be looking forward to reading all the comments.
I think one of the most favorite objects from my childhood, was an old picnic basket, that sat (most of the year) on the landing going to our basement. It was there for a quick place for my mom to grab it and put the fried chicken and baked beans in for our weekend picnic. We were “fried chicken” picninc people, even tho we were from the north–LOL. I don’t know that anyone up here (northwest) “makes” their own chicken to take anymore…picking it up from KFC, sure, but frying their own? I don’t know.
Anyway…that old picnic basket was there, kind of in our way, everytime we went to the basement. It’s a wonder someone didn’t trip over it. It was not all that pretty, just your commen wicker basket, but I always just loved it, sitting there, reminding me that there was always a family picnic just around the corner.
My kitchen radio -the sound of Mama always singing to WSB radio…..we ALWAYS had music on in our home and I loved how it added a dimension of “home” to my senses and hearing old songs takes me back…..Ray Stevens, Johnny Cash (A Boy named Sue) Perry Como, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, Andy Williams and BRAVES baseball games. The whole family watched Walt Disney on Sunday nights on our Black/White TV w/3 whole channels. Our old stereo……old records from West Side Story, Hiawatha and On Top of Spaghetti/Puff the Magic Dragon are treasures too.
I love our old decorations for every holiday that was a wreath on the front & back door w/a fun centerpiece on the table. Holidays were SUCH a big deal…Halloween was craaazy. Laughter, hugs, and encouraging words filled in the non-holiDAYS. Kitchen memories of a big pot of Chicken & Dumplins, a cast iron skillet of cornbread, wooden rolling pins, cookie cutters and boxed Chef Boyardee pizza on a cookie sheet.
Keepsakes are a Smokey the Bear clock we always had in above our dinner table (Daddy was a Ga. Forester), a bottle of Chanel #5 perfume, Mama’s frosted Avon lipsticks/matching nail polish in soft pink.
Thank you, Christy, for sharing your childhood memory and prompting the SP folks to go down “Memory Lane”. WEEEEEEEE! Love ya!
My favorite chilhood treasure is a rag doll made just for me by my great gradmother before I was born. She knew she wouldn’t live long enough to meet all her great-grandchildren. Before her passing she she made a bunch of dolls to make sure there would be enough for each of us as to have one as we came along. She was right, she passed on before I was born, but becuase of that doll, she has always been one of my cherished relatives.
When I was about three my mom gave me my doll. I fell in love! I carried her everywhere! She had a soft, plain cotton body, a long dress made of colorful quilted squares, and perfect white legs stiffed with cotton batting, and she wore stark white petticoats. She had a simple, pretty, smile on her face, big brown eyes, and long yarn hair that she tied back in a pnonytail with a white silk ribbon. Perfection!
My mother is more “clean the house” motivated than sentimental so one day when I came home from school she told me that now that I was eleven I was too old for dolls and she had donoted her to goodwill. I cried, and cried, and cried. I lost a friend that day. I still wonder where she ended up and if the next little girl loved her like I did.
One day, if I ever find one close, I’ll purchase her in remebereance of my, “Sally.” I’ll make sure to pass her along to my future grandchildren with the simple request that she never be given away.
Odd, I hadn’t thought of her in a long time until reading your post Christy. It’s true, of course, that things can’t love you back. But sometimes that’s OK. Just loving is it’s own special joy!
Have a fantatic Wednesday! Love reading everyone’s comments. Thank you for allowing us this great opportunity!
Blessings,
Maralee
AWWW!!!! I have a hand made ragdoll from my grandmother as well!!
Lord I love that doll so much-. Granma made her for me when I was 6 years old. I named her Rhonda(a couple of years later I found my BFF, ironically her name is also Rhonda, and we have been BFFs for over 40 years now) and that doll went thru all my various childhood diseases, boyfriend breakups, divorces, and deaths in my arms feeling my tears fall.
When my kids came along, I could always tell when they were about to get sick, because they would go drag my Rhonda off the bed and drag her around with them before curling up in a chair with her to nap.
I’m 49 years old now- and she is in a chest now, her skin thin and fragile, retired except for the days when I remember my Dad and Son who have passed away. Those days, she still comes out and comforts me and drys my tears on her soft shoulder.
My kids have actually had mock (I think)arguments over who will inherit Rhonda when I pass away-I may have to give them each a years custody and alternate years……or I may be buried with her- who knows.
Every five years or so- I go out to Babies-R-Us and buy her a new little dress. Odd, I know- but it’s the least I can do for someone who has given us all so much comfort.
As in the story of the Velveteen Rabbit- if LOVE could bring an inanimate object to life, she would be the odd looking little child running around my house giving everyone hugs in their hour of need.