This vanilla tray bake is super easy-to-make, moist, and fluffy, and is topped with creamy vanilla buttercream frosting! Decorate it with sprinkles for a perfect finishing touch! You can bake this delicious and tender cake for a birthday cake, a family dessert, or anytime you need a classic vanilla cake that can feed a crowd!
Vanilla Tray Bake Recipe
This delicious vanilla traybake is an easy-to-make dessert for any occasion! It's made using a simple one-bowl method, baked in a single layer in your 9x13 baking pan, and makes enough to serve a crowd!
Top your vanilla cake with some creamy vanilla buttercream frosting and sprinkles, and your cake is ready for a birthday party and feeding a group of kids! The directions in the recipe card below include both the sheet cake and frosting for a great crowd-pleasing dessert that can even be made on short notice!
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This super moist and soft classic white cake is full of vanilla flavor and the frosting can be colored to suit your needs. Sprinkles are completely optional, but they add such a fun touch to pretty much any cake that I just love using them!
🤔 What Is A Tray Bake
A traybake is a variety of desserts, typically made in quarter-sheet cake size that a standard 9x13 baking dish will yield. Your traybake can be brownies, blondies, pie bars, cookie bars, or single-layer cakes including frosting or icing. Simple desserts that can be cut into smaller servings to accommodate a large crowd if needed!
🥘 Vanilla Tray Bake Ingredients
If you enjoy baking, you probably have most of these ingredients at home in your pantry! If not, they are all easy to find at any standard grocery store.
Vanilla Tray Bake
- Cake Flour - 2¼ cups of cake flour. Make sure to measure it out using a spoon to scoop it into your measuring cup and then level it off.
- Sugar - 1¾ cups of white granulated sugar.
- Baking Powder - 3 teaspoons of baking powder.
- Salt - ½ teaspoon of salt to balance out all of the sweetness and emphasize the flavors.
- Butter - 1 cup of butter, cubed, and at room temperature.
- Eggs - 3 large room-temperature eggs.
- Vanilla Extract - 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. For this recipe, I'm using Wilton clear vanilla extract.
- Milk - 1 cup of milk that is room temperature. Divide this into two equal half-cup portions.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- Butter - 1 cup of butter that is softened at room temperature. Using room-temperature butter is incredibly important for ensuring it whips up nice and smooth!
- Confectioners Sugar - 4-5 cups of powdered sugar. Begin with 4 cups and then add more as needed. (start with 4 cups, add more as needed)
- Heavy Cream - ¼ cup of heavy cream, half & half, or whole milk at room temperature.
- Vanilla Extract - 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract. For white frosting, use a clear extract.
- Salt - Add salt to taste.
- Gel Food Coloring (if desired)
- Sprinkles (if desired)
*Be sure to see the free printable recipe card below for ingredients, exact amounts & instructions with tips!*
🔪 How To Make A Vanilla Tray Bake
This incredibly tender buttery vanilla cake is made using a reverse creaming method. It's an easy method but has some pointers that should be noted carefully before beginning your cake. To get started, you'll need a stand mixer (or hand mixer), a 9x13 baking dish, and a wire cooling rack!
When finished, you will have one 9x13 cake that can be cut into 24 squares.
Prepare the Cake
- Bring ingredients to room temperature. Prior to starting your cake, set out your two portions of milk and cube the butter for the cake while it's cold. Allow the milk and butter for the cake to warm to room temperature, as well as the cream and butter for the frosting.
- Preheat. Preheat your oven to 350ºF (175ºC) and grease and flour your baking pan, or use non-stick baking spray. My preferred method is to line my pan lengthwise with parchment paper, then grease the paper as well. This enables super easy removal of the cake without flipping the cake out and risking it breaking.
- Combine dry ingredients. Sift the dry ingredients including the cake flour or the substitute in the recipe notes, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. Whisk the sifted ingredients together, then cut the cubed butter into the flour mixture.
- Finish the batter. Add the eggs and butter and mix until the dry ingredients are incorporated. Then add the first portion of milk and mix until smooth. Repeat with the second portion of milk until you have a smooth batter.
- Bake. Transfer the vanilla traybake batter to your prepared baking dish and bake at 350ºF (175ºC) for 25 - 30 minutes.
- Cool. Remove the baked cake and allow it to cool in the pan on a wire cooling rack.
Make the Buttercream Frosting
- Beat. Mix frosting using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat the butter on medium speed until light and airy. Add the confectioner's sugar, cream, and vanilla extract and mix until smooth, about 2 minutes on medium-high speed.
- Adjust. Adjust the frosting consistency as needed, depending on whether it will be spread or piped. Taste and adjust the salt, add a pinch to offset the frosting sweetness.
- Frost the cake. Spread onto the single-layer cake using an offset spatula or piping nozzle. Decorate with sprinkles if desired.
This cake is delicious exactly how it is! However, you can always mix it up by using a different flavor of frosting like chocolate, peanut butter, or cream cheese!
💭 Tips & Notes
- If you don't have cake flour, you can measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour and either 1) remove 2 tablespoons of the flour or 2) remove 2 tablespoons of the all-purpose flour and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch (or arrowroot powder). Sift to combine the cornstarch and flour.
- Take a look at my guide to frosting cakes for an in-depth walkthrough of how to perfectly frost any cake!
- If you are going to spread your frosting with a knife, the consistency can be slightly thinner. However, if you are piping decorations onto your cake, you'll need the consistency to be thicker in order to hold the shape.
🥡 Storing
Store your frosted vanilla traybake with a fitted lid for your baking dish (if it has one) or cover tightly with plastic cling film wrap. Keep your cake stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
😋 More Easy 9 x 13 Desserts
- Chocolate Pecan Pie Bars - These bars are packed with rich chocolate and crunchy pecans for a delicious dessert!
- Old Fashioned Irish Oatmeal Cake - Oatmeal cake is topped with homemade caramel pecan frosting!
- Preacher Cake - This Southern cake has a ton of different tasty mix-ins for a completely customizable dessert!
- Banana Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting - Banana cake tastes just like banana bread but in tasty cake form!
- Maraschino Cherry Coffee Cake - Cherries, cinnamon sugar, and an irresistible streusel topping are the star of this cake!
- Old Fashioned Raisin Cake - This classic dessert is packed with warm spices and boiled raisins before being topped with a brown sugar frosting!
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📖 Recipe Card
Vanilla Tray Bake
Ingredients
Vanilla Tray Bake
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour (spoon and leveled)
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 3 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter (cubed - unsalted is recommended)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (I'm using Wilton clear vanilla extract)
- 1 cup milk (room temperature - divided, 2 half cup portions)
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- 1 cup butter (softened, room temperature)
- 4-5 cups confectioners sugar (start with 4 cups, add more as needed)
- ¼ cup heavy cream (half & half or whole milk - at room temperature)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract (clear extract for white frosting)
- salt (to taste)
- gel food coloring (if desired)
- sprinkles (if desired)
Instructions
Vanilla Tray Bake
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and grease and flour your 9 x 13 baking pan or spray with non-stick baking spray. *Parchment paper sheets can also be used for ease of lifting the tray bake out of the pan in one piece.
- In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, sift the dry ingredients including the cake flour (or substitute in the notes below), sugar, baking powder, and salt. Whisk the dry ingredients together.
- Cut the cubed butter into the flour mixture at medium speed, or using a pastry cutter, or a pair of knives cut in a crisscrossed motion, until the butter is small pieces that are about pea-size.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract, then continue mixing at medium speed until the dry ingredients are just incorporated. Add the milk in two half-cup portions, slowly adding the first portion. Mix until the batter is smooth, then add the second half-cup portion of milk and mix until smooth.
- Transfer your batter to the prepared 9 x 13 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25-30 minutes, checking at the 25 minute point of baking. The top of the cake should spring back from the touch, and an inserted knife or toothpick should come out clean when done.
- Remove the baked cake from the oven and allow to cool completely in the pan, placed on a wire cooling rack. The cake needs to cool for at least 30 minutes before frosting.
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
- In a large mixing bowl (with a hand mixer), or the bowl of your stand mixer (with the paddle attachment), start beating the slightly softened butter at a medium speed.
- Add 4 ½ cups confectioner sugar, ¼ cup heavy cream, and a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Beat on low speed for about a minute (or until the confectioner's sugar won't blow out of the bowl) before increasing the speed to medium-high. Beat until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes.
- Depending on your desired frosting consistency (smooth for spreading, or firmer for piping) adjust the frosting thickness as needed. Add the additional confectioner's sugar if the frosting is too thin, or add a drizzle more of heavy cream to thin the frosting out. Taste and add a pinch of salt to balance the sweetness as needed.
- Once the vanilla cake is cooled, spread the frosting using an offset spatula to cover the cake. Or use a piping nozzle to decorate the cake and top with sprinkles if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Angela is an at home chef that developed a passion for all things cooking and baking at a young age in her Grandma's kitchen. After many years in the food service industry, she now enjoys sharing all of her family favorite recipes and creating tasty dinner and amazing dessert recipes here at Bake It With Love!
Wally says
I love these simple tray bake cakes, thanks so much.
Angela @ BakeItWithLove.com says
Thanks Wally! I love easy cakes too! Hope you enjoy it!