PERFECT PLAIN CAKE
Published Dec 12, 2016
Updated Jun 12, 2020
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Here is the perfect Plain Cake for serving as breakfast, brunch, a snack or dessert. So many people have made this plain cake recipe with great success. It is fool-proof!
This is how my food and nutrition teacher aka home economics madame taught me how to make cake many years ago.
I have made cake like this umpteen times before I started corrupting my batter with all kinds of flavours and ingredients like coconut, carrot, apple and even pumpkin.
Today, I am going back to basics. Back to where the cake craze began. Back to the perfect plain cake I have baked with or without an oven.
Back in the day, I will pour sand into a large pot and heat it up on a three-stone fireside which is the traditional cooking place in Cameroon. That heated sand in a pot was my DIY oven.
I will then mix my batter and bake my way into stardom. Everyone in our home and including our neighbours will be “campaigning” to eat some.
After feeding them I will wrap the leftovers and hide far away somewhere to serve my dad after his evening meal, to serve guests or to just enjoy!
Oh memories!
I love this plain cake, as simple and unadorned as it is. It is what my taste buds knew as cake right from. It is slightly airy, sweet but not overwhelmingly sweet. It is perfect!
This cake pairs well with tea or coffee! It is a great thing to have in your fridge.
Also, my plain cake needs no frosting. But if you are looking for a good cake base recipe for frosting, check out this Vanilla Sponge Cake!
Friends, this post and video were supposed to be published last Saturday but I had a crazy busy week and couldn’t get them in on time. So sorry about the delay.
Watch How To Make A Plain Cake
Plain Cake Ingredients
The ingredients you need for a plain cake are:
- Margarine or Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Vanilla Extract
- Flour
- Nutmeg
- Baking Powder
- Milk
How To Make A Plain Cake
There are just 5 simple steps incolved in a makeing a Plain Cake:
1. Cream together margarine or butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add beaten eggs and vanilla extract to the sugar and butter mixture.
3. Add in flour, baking powder and grated nutmeg and mix until all incorporated.
4. Finally add in milk and mix until fully incorporated.
5. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake.
Perfect Plain Cake
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose sifted flour (320 grams)
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar (300 grams)
- 6 eggs
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 10 tablespoons margarine or butter (141 grams)
- 1 cup liquid milk (250 ml) whole, skim or evaporated
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (176 degrees C). Oil a baking pan (8 by 2 inch) and set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix together the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Beat all eggs in another bowl then add to the sugar and margarine mixture, add in vanilla and beat well.
- Add in half of the flour, the nutmeg and baking powder and mix until well incorporated. Add in the remaining flour and mix well.
- Finally, add in the milk and mix until evenly distributed in the batter.
- Pour the batter into prepared cake pan and bake for about 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Pin this recipe:
It turned out beautifully. The taste was fantastic, though the cake fell, that was more on me than the recipe. I was looking for something to make with a bit of cannabis added, and that necessitated a lower cooking temperature, so it just took so long before it was structurally sound in the middle that it fell. Still, even then, it had a very pineapple upside down cake sort of thick cake texture, and I was so pleasantly surprised at how sweet it was! It seems like so many cakes call for so much sugar, and that is the last thing I’m looking for is more sugar as you know, the whole reason for making it an edible is so it can act as a vehicle for medicine (I have copd, and am trying to avoid smoke). Now, I can’t say how the texture would have been without the half and half subbed in for the milk, but with it in there…. it definitely was tasty. I would imagine that cooking it at a proper temperature (or my tired behind using 2-3 of the same pan but with thinner batter across the bottom for ‘layers’ so that the dough wasn’t so deep to cook through) would have been about all that would have been needed to take the cake from good to great. Thank you for putting out a wonderful and relatively low sugar cake recipe. It was the exact perfect amount of sweet, even the parts with no strawberries. Serious props.
Wat is nutmeg
Nutmeg is a seed that is fragrant. It adds great flavor to baked goods.
Hello mama, Can I reduce the amount of eggs and is there something else I can increase? 6 feels a bit too much for me as I only like eggs hidden in things; like cake. Let me know and thanks for sharing the recipe.
Hi Lucy, there should be a way to use less eggs but unfortunately I haven’t tested the recipe that way. Maybe you could experiment with less eggs on your own and see how it goes.
Good day.
I usually have the issue when it comes to cake because I have powdered milk. I think it makes the cake dry and I don’t like it. Can I put the milk in water before adding?
Hi Ziva yes definitely mix the milk with water before adding. Hope this helps.
Tastes like my mother used to make.
So glad to hear that, Judy! Thank you for the great feedback.
It’s my first time baking but I notice I don’t know how to measure and I can’t tell when the flour is ready for baking
Hi Jane, the cups I use are standard American measuring cups. They are widely available. Ask for them in the market or in shops that sell kitchen items. Hope this helps.
Pls can u use any other kind of butter apart from jadida to make butter icing
Hi Jane, yes you could use other brands of butter.