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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My favorite object from the “old” days was a little plastic Santa in his plastic sleight with 8 tiny plastic reindeer. I LOVED that thing and sure wish I had it now! Weren’t the sixties wonderfully plastic! LeAnn
Love that Oven Guard!! By the way, that pretty lidded tulip bowl on top of your stove wouldn’t be concealing your stash of bacon grease, would it? Happy new home to you and your family! Thanks for all the great recipes. Have a great day!
hehe, isn’t she a cute one? Kinda like a garden gnome for my kitchen!
I keep my bacon grease in a mason jar. I’d love to keep it in this pretty little grease jar but I’m scared to because I paid too much for it! lol
I hope you’re having a fabulous day, too!!!
Well, this really strikes a nerve. At the risk (forgive me, Christy) of injecting a sour note among all the recollections of lovely childhoods, let me tell you about the time I garage-saled a ragged t-shirt that both my children had worn (so long as it fit). I had bought it in a garage sale to begin with because my household allowance wasn’t big enough to buy from regular stores and my intention in selling it was NOT to cause them trauma but to supplement that household allowance. It WAS a cute shirt – there was a picture of Scooby Do on the front and a flap of fabric represented his tongue. The “tongue” could be tucked into a small pocket (mouth) or allowed to flap. I no sooner pocketed the few coins I got for the little shirt than BOTH my kids screamed, “YOU DID NOT SELL SCOOBY!!!” and burst into bitter tears.
You would think I had rolled their now grown up (and mysteriously missing) purple Easter chick in corn flakes and fried it up for their birthday dinner – oh, wait…that was MY chick and MY birthday (I was 8). Even so, I never wailed at my mother for that the way I caught it for the t-shirt. I don’t think either one of them has ever truly forgiven me for having no idea that the stupid shirt embodied everything that was precious in their childhoods. They were similarly horrified (but no longer as surprised after the Scooby incident) when they learned that I had not saved each and every one of their baby teeth that the “Tooth Fairy” paid for. By then I guess they realized that I must be just lacking in motherly genes. But to this day half my garage is dedicated to storage of hundreds of boxes filled with their broken and worn out toys – many from Happy Meals, worn out clothes, old school papers, unfavorite children’s books, partially used pencils, games with pieces missing, etc., lest I – yet again – get rid of something VITAL.
You are just lucky that they stopped you when they did, Christy.
In my opinion…as fun as it may be to think back to things that remind us of good times or people passed on, those things should not take the place of the real relationships. Even memories themselves can get in the way of real, ongoing, imperfect relationships. Especially if one party in the relationship doesn’t really GET that the other party is a human with all the difficulties, problems, shortcomings, and blind spots that they themselves are prone to. At some point, it seems to me, children should begin to grow up and realize that parents are NOT just there to maintain the sacred environment and legacy of children. Somewhere along the line children need to step out of the spotlight where they expect everyone (parents especially) to make any sacrifice, bear any burden, carry any load so that the little darlin’s can have anything and everything just the way they want it. And somewhere on that road parents should be freed from the guilt that any little thing (like a t-shirt sale) is going to put the child on the therapist’s couch for the entire future.
Many, many things in my house were handed down from parents and grandparents and most of the time I’m glad I have them. But to our family’s shame there have been bitter arguments about who got what particular thing (in one case it was a rock!) and, somehow, the family just isn’t what it once was because of the resulting hard feelings. That was a really bad trade, in my opinion.
I am certainly not claiming to be above and beyond this or even innocent. Consider that my grandparents stayed in a remote farm house without indoor plumbing years after their advancing age had changed its quirks to real hindrances…all because their grandchildren (including me, I am very sorry to say) didn’t want them to sell the farm where we had all spent so many carefree summer afternoons and wonderful Christmas Eves. Not only did we not consider that Gramma and Grampa were living (24/7/365) in a drafty old house that was difficult to get to, impossible to heat, very far from medical services, and seriously uncomfortable, we had also apparently forgotten that it was their hard work and sacrifice that made those visits we remembered so magical. They could ill afford guests and the extra work involved must have been a real burden at times. The inconvenience of that old house didn’t help a bit.
It’s not really the THINGS, is it? Surely it’s the people and experiences they remind us of.
~hugs~
Bless your heart. I know the family bitterness over objects had to be rough. I’m sorry to hear about it.
I’m also sorry to hear about the boxes of happy meal toys! Goodness, my children love those but I have a tendency to sneak them out of the house once they are forgotten.
Hope you’re having a good day regardless!!!
Gratefully,
Christy
Of course it’s the people! I agree that it is sad to see people value things so much that arguments ensue, and I’ve seen it happen in many families. One of my most cherished moments is the Christmas Day that my brother wrapped his present to me, a family chest handed down from my great grandfather that he had inherited and knew that I wanted very much. He and I were the only ones who understood why I started crying, but we were the only ones who needed to know. I’ve been able to give him special things that came to me at other Christmases and birthdays. We have such fun doing it that I hope we never run out of family-memory gifts.
And I also hear your angst over children who seem unable to realize what their parents may need. A college friend taught me a valuable lesson the day she said “When we were young, our parents took care of us, and now that we’re older we need to take care of them.” I wish I could pass that wisdom on to your children, but maybe it’s a good start just to post it here.
There are so many things that make me think of “home”. My parents had to move out of their house a couple of years ago and into a small trailer, with a majority of their stuff in storage. This past year they finally got to buy a house and get all of their stuff put back where it belongs. I am looking forward to rediscovering all of the goodies from childhood when I go home to visit tomorrow. Colorado just isn’t home like Alabama! I guess we will be passing through your neck of the woods Friday on our way there! I am most excited about all of the yummy food of home. You just can’t get that here!
My all time favorite keepsake (at the moment) is a white and red Bleeding Heart plant that my Daddy gave to me a couple of years ago. I had lusted after it for about 5 years before he finally gave in and let me bring it to my home in Florida. It didn’t bloom for me for the first 2 years, and to be honest, I had decided it would be making the trip back to Mobile this spring. But, all of a sudden I started seeing what I remembered from years ago…the first signs of those gorgeous blooms. Today it is covered with beautiful white flowers with the red heart. It’s not in a fancy pot. My Daddy isn’t a fancy man. The last time he repotted it he used a green plastic hanging basket pot and that is what it is still in. The only thing I’ve added was a tomato cage that my husband cut off on the bottom to fit. For the last two years I have twisted the plant all through the cage. Even my Daddy is proud of the way it looks this year. By his estimates the plant in now about 16 years old. Christy, you have inspired me to name her….because yes, it’s definitely a her. Only a female could be this beautiful!
Christy,
I’m still new to your website but absolutely love it! I live in Southeast Texas and most of my memories from childhood revolve somehow around food and the kitchen. I cherish the pots, pans and casserole dishes I have from both of my Grandmothers who are now both in Heaven! I miss them dearly. One of my favorites is the large pot my Mammaw cooked new potatoes from. My grandfather grew them and she made them with a white sauce with the best homemade cornbread ever. I love that pot!!
Debbie In Humble, TX
Wow what beautiful memories all of them… I am fortunate to have lots of my mamas and my grandmas things.. so its really hard to pick. But like you Christy, there was an old picture that hung in our kitchen.. it was dark, like a rainy day of a maid, like a milkmaid going in a wooden kitchen door of an old rock house.. and it was small maybe `11×14.. I don’t know why my mother liked it, but when she passed away it was the one thing I wanted for sure, although I got most all of her things as I am an only child.. And my grandmothers things, I have so many of her kitchen things.. her big crockery bowl to make home made bread in, and that big tin can to hold 25 pounds of flour, like the other lady spoke us.. I have tried to teach my children and grand children the value of having these things and passing them on down…becuase so many things can just disapear over the years.. I am 62 so its been a while since my granny made bread in that bowl, but I always think about her when I look at it…
hugs
jo in Sapulpa Oklahoma