Moist White Almond Cake with Silky Buttercream Frosting
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If you’re looking for a cake that’s soft, moist, and guaranteed to impress, this White Almond Cake is it. Made with simple pantry ingredients and plenty of almond flavor, this classic layer cake bakes up tender and fluffy every single time, then gets finished with a silky, cloud-like buttercream frosting that’s smooth, rich, and not overly sweet. This almond cake is perfect for birthdays, weddings, showers, or anytime you want a bakery-style dessert at home. Best of all, it comes together in about 45 minutes, making it just as practical as it is beautiful.
I love this cake so much that I served it at my wedding. I had it made of course. I like to bake, but left that one up to Glorious Desserts in Des Moines. Her almond cake is bad ass. My mom will order one for family celebrations and haul it 5 hours from Des Moines to Chicago for us…she’s the best.
But because I love almond cake so much, I had to have a recipe that I could make at home that I equally loved as much as Glorious Desserts.
This is it! I have made this cake plenty of times and no matter what, it’s everyone’s favorite. They actually say I don’t make it enough! My mother-in-law’s best friend made this cake for her wedding! She said it was outstanding. See! This is why I love to blog – sharing recipes and my love for almond cake inspired someone to make it for her wedding! That makes me smile. 🙂
This cake could not be any easier to make. It’s very straightforward and starts out with a cake mix that’s doctored up quite a bit. What you’re left with is a runny batter that turns into the lightest, fluffiest and moist cake that there is. The flavor is WONDERFUL. No egg yolks in this one so the cake is totally white and beautiful.
I topped it off with my favorite frosting recipe…a silky buttercream that’s made with flour. It can be slightly tricky to make, but follow the directions and you should be fine. I’ve never had an issue making it!
To give you a visual of the frosting – the flour mixture is to the left – it looks like cake batter actually and is sticky, the middle is what it looks like after it’s whipped – so fluffy! and the last is the final the product!
You can’t go wrong with this one my friends. If you need a cake, this is your recipe. You can switch it up if you don’t like almond…add lemon extract, just vanilla extract, orange extract, etc. etc. The best part of this cake is that it’s full proof and tastes amazing every time!
Wish I had a piece now!
White Almond Cake with Whipped Buttercream Frosting
This white almond cake with whipped buttercream frosting is outstanding. It's moist, has wonderful almond flavor and the frosting is so light and fluffy. The perfect cake for any celebration!
Ingredients
White Almond Cake
- 1, 15.25 ounce package white cake mix
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/3 cups room temperature water
- 1 cup sour cream, room temperature
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (or refined coconut oil)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 egg whites, room temperature
Whipped Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
- 5 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon pure almond extract
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour 3, 8 inch or 9 inch round cake pans; set aside. You can also use 2 cake pans, the layers will just be thicker.
- In a stand-alone mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (Hand-held mixer would work, too), mix together the white cake mix, flour, sugar, and salt.
- Pour in the water, sour cream, vegetable oil, almond extract, vanilla extract and egg whites. Mix on low until all the ingredients are mixed and moistened but some lumps still remain, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans, and bake for 25-30 minutes. The tops should be lightly golden. Remove and let cool before frosting.
- To make the frosting, whisk 1 cup of milk with 5 tablespoons of flour in a medium sauce pan and place over medium heat until the mixture begins to sputter, whisking constantly. Continue to stir as the mixture thickens. You will know it’s done when it reaches the consistency of thick cake batter (This took only a couple of minutes for me, but it can take longer). Remove from heat and whisk in 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon almond extract, and a pinch of salt, and set aside to cool completely - you can place in the refrigerator to speed up the cooling process.
- In a stand-alone mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (hand-held mixer would work, too), beat 2 sticks of softened room temperature butter (1 cup) with 1 1/4 cups of granulated sugar until light, fluffy, and white in color, about 3 solid minutes of beating on medium-high speed. You want the sugar to be totally incorporated and dissolved into the butter. If it’s a little gritty, don’t worry. The sugar will dissolve at the frosting sets.
- Next, add the cooled milk/flour paste to the butter/sugar mixture. Beat all ingredients for 1 minute on high-speed, scraping down the bowl halfway through. The frosting should be as light and fluffy as whipped cream. Frost the cooled cake and enjoy!
Notes
Cake will last up to 3 days in a container, or up to 5 days in the refrigerator. Unfrosted cake can be frozen for up to 3 months.
This recipe can be made into cupcakes. Bake for 15 minutes then check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center. It it comes out clean, they're done. If not, add a few additional minutes and try again. Frosting makes just enough for the cake. If you want a lot of frosting, I suggest doubling the recipe. Refrigerate cake if not eating right away then bring to room temperature before eating. It's delicious cold, but room temperature is ideal.
Cake Recipe: allrecipes.com Frosting: Can you stay for dinner?
Hi there! ☺️ I’m going to try this recipe for sure! 💕 But I have a quick question? On the icing do I use food coloring to make it pink? It wasn’t on the ingredients so don’t want to mess this up. 😊
Yes! You can use whatever color you want or just keep it white!
Hi. Can you suggest alternative to a white cake mix? I dont have this and there are so many variations of it.
Any flavor cake mix would work if that’s what you’re asking!
I made this cake and took it to work and everyone loved it. Although I couldn’t follow it exactly, it came out really nice. I didn’t have white cake mix so I used butter cake mix and instead of just putting the egg whites in in the beginning I created a mirengue and beat the whites until they had stiff peaks. My cake came out a little more dense but very moist. I made it as a trial for my boyfriend’s birthday tomorrow and used my coworkers as guinnea pigs. They loved it. I’m making another tonight but I realized a little too late that I put the milk for the icing in the cake batter and completely forgot the egg whites. So far they look good but only time will tell. I am also making a blackberry filling to put between the layers. I really love this icing. It threw me for a loop when it said to heat milk and flour almost like I was making a roux. This icing recipe is amazing. It’s buttery but light and rich. Fingers crossed the cakes taste as good as they look. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
wow! This sounds amazing! Hope it turns out!
I made this yesterday and followed it exactly. It was good felt it didn’t have enough almond flavoring but my sister said she could taste it. This morning I could smell it and taste it better. The frosting was great and I had plenty for all layers. I used 3- 9 inch cake pans and with my ice scoop was able to do 4 scoops on each pan they came out great .
wonderful! Yes, the flavor develops as it sets, but almond flavoring is all about what you like…so if you want more almond flavor feel free to add more extract!
Good Morning! We made this cake yesterday and it is delish! What size rounds do you use and do you
double the frosting to get it to look as high and full as the photo? We used 9″ and ended up making a naked cake because there was not enough frosting and the layers were wider than high. Tips? Excellent recipe though!!!
good morning! So glad you liked it! I use 3, 9 inch pans. I didn’t double the frosting actually but I know it just barely frosts the cake so go ahead and double it if you’d like more frosting!
Hi Jessica, I live in Indonesia, a lil bit remote area. I wonder if I can replace the “cake mix package” with regular ingredients? What is in the package? And how’s the measurements?
Hello! Unfortunately I haven’t tested this recipe without the cake mix so I can’t tell you exactly how to make it without it. If I had to guess I would start with 3 1/2 cups cake flour and 1 tablespoon baking powder in it’s place. Good luck!
I am not an experienced baker so forgive the novice question. In the recipe for the frosting , it calles for pure vanilla and pure almond extract. In the cake it doesn’t specify pure….what is the extract if it isn’t “pure” I only use pure vanilla any recipe I follow because I was told how much difference it makes.
Hi Emily – I always use pure extracts as well instead of artificial. I just didn’t clarify in the recipe section. I’ll update! Thanks for clarifying for me!
Hello. You almost lost me at “cake mix”, I really don’t like using prepared cake mixes except for cakepops but I’ll give it a try since the reviews are so positive 🙃, could you tell me which one you use? I always use Duncan Hines white for my cakepops and it tastes really good and the cake has a great consistency but maybe the one you use is the perfect one for this recipe. Also I’d like to know if the consistency of the cake is strong enough for stacking and to be covered with fondant. The frosting looks delicious and I like the idea of granulated sugar, I will for sure try that one too. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Hello! I understand that some don’t like using cake mixes but I can promise you this cake is wonderful!! I typically use Pillsbury white cake mix and as far as the cake being strong enough for fondant, I’m not sure because I’ve never tried it. It’s not a super dense cake so the fondant may be a little too heavy for it. A regular buttercream or the frosting that I suggested would probably be best!
I tried it last year with Duncan Hines because they were on sale. Awful. I like Betty Crocker and Pillsbury better. And I just weighed out the mix to get the right amount. I think it was a little more than the box. I’m making it again for another wedding. Just as the recipe says. Everyone loves it!!!!
good to know!
How many cups of batter dies this recipe make?
I am not sure how many cups it makes. Maybe 4? sorry!
Hi Jessica, I am going to make this for a coworker tomorrow. I live at a high altitude. (5,000 ft) Will I need to change anything up? 😊
Hi Aimee – I haven’t made it in high altitude before so I am not sure. Hope it turned out!
This looks fantastic! My husband requested “espresso almond cake” for his birthday cake, so I am wondering if I could incorporate the espresso flavoring into the frosting recipe you have here. Think I could add a bit of espresso to the frosting without ruining the other flavors or consistency?
HI Lauren! You can totally try it! However much espresso you use, just reduce the amount of milk then. Let me know how it turns out!