This soft and fluffy white cake recipe is just 4 ingredients and so easy to make. It doesn’t require any eggs, butter or milk. This cake is perfect for brunches, celebratory events, or any occasion where you need a quick and easy cake recipe.
This is such an easy cake to make. Unlike most white cakes, this cake doesn’t need any egg whites, milk or butter. It’s a simple cake made from scratch that can work for so many occasions: brunch, birthdays, holidays, and more. I baked this cake in a regular cake pan, but it can also be used for cupcakes, a layered cake or a sheet cake.
Ingredients
- Self-Rising Flour
- Sugar
- Water
- Vegetable Oil
Self-Rising Flour: This cake uses self-rising flour, which is all-purpose flour that already has baking powder and salt added to it. If you don’t have self-rising flour on hand, you can make your own with all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. I share the exact amounts in the recipe card notes.
Sugar: This cake is sweetened with granular white sugar.
Vegetable Oil: Oil is used in place of butter to add the necessary fat for the cake. I used vegetable oil because it has a neutral flavor.
Tips for Making this Recipe
You can use an electric mix to make the batter. For the best results, after you mix the dry ingredients, alternately add the oil and water. This makes it easier to make a smooth cake batter without overmixing it.
It also helps to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure all of the ingredients are combined.
This recipe makes enough batter for a 9×13-inch cake. Or, you can make two 9-inch round cakes or approximately 24 cupcakes if you are using a standard-sized cupcake pan. If you use a different pan, the baking time will need to be adjusted.
When you bake the cake, the top of the cake will not brown, but the edges of the cake will turn a light golden. Use a toothpick or cake tester to check for doneness. Once it comes out clean, the cake is done.
Like traditional white cakes, if you serve this cake without frosting or toppings, the flavor will be plain. You can use your favorite frosting – I love whipped cream frosting and have included the recipe for it in the recipe card notes section. Or, you can serve the cake slices drizzled with some chocolate sauce or caramel sauce.
If you would like to add a flavor to the cake, you can. Add some vanilla extract or other extract flavor when you mix the batter. This is a great way to change it up.
You can also add sprinkles to the batter if you’d like to make a funfetti cake.
White Cake Texture
This came comes out soft and fluffy and tastes like regular white cake even though it is made with fewer ingredients. The crumb is slightly looser because of the lack of eggs, but it’s barely noticeable. I don’t miss the eggs at all when eating this cake.
This cake is sturdy enough that it can also be made into cupcakes or used to make a layered cake.
More 4 Ingredient Cake Recipes
4 Ingredient White Cake
Ingredients
- 3 ½ cups (430 g) self-rising flour
- 1 ½ cups (296 g) granulated white sugar
- 2/3 cup (5.3 oz/144 g) vegetable oil
- 2 cups (16 oz) water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with parchment paper.
- Add flour and sugar to a large mixing bowl. Mix on low speed with a hand mixer or stand mixer with wire whisk attachment until evenly combined. Add in half of the oil (1/3 cup) and half of the water (1 cup). Turn the speed up on your mixer and beat until all the flour is incorporated and forms a thick batter. Add in the remaining oil (1/3 cup) and beat until oil is incorporated and no flour chunks remain. All flour chunks need to be eliminated before adding in the rest of the water because your batter will become very thin once you add in the rest of the water and you won't be able to break up the flour.
- Finally, add in the remaining 1 cup water and mix until water is fully incorporated. If you are using a stand mixer, you will need to make sure to scrape the batter from bottom of the mixing bowl with a spatula, otherwise the heavier batter will sink to the bottom and remain unmixed. If you using a hand mixer, make sure to move your beaters around your bowl so that it touches all parts of the bowl.
- Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Bake for about 35-38 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean and edges of cake are lightly browned. The top of the cake will stay light in color and should not brown except around the edges Let cake cool completely in pan before cutting or frosting.
Notes
- Because this cake has so few ingredients, it is a little plain to eat it on its own without any frosting. This is why white cake is usually served as a layered cake or cupcakes with frosting to give it more flavor. If you want to add more flavor, you can turn this into a vanilla cake by adding 1 tbsp of vanilla extract. I also recommend serving it with your favorite frosting.
- To make your own self-rising flour, add 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 5 1/4 tsp baking powder and 7/8 tsp salt to a bowl. Whisk until evenly combined.
- I used Lily's self-rising flour* to make this recipe.
- I frosted the cake with a whipped cream frosting. To make whipped cream frosting, add 2 cups of cold heavy cream and 6 tbsp of granular sugar into a mixing bowl. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. If you need a dairy-free version, you can also make a coconut whipped cream using coconut cream.
- You make also mix the batter by hand with a whisk and spatula but it does take a little more effort and is slightly harder to eliminate all the flour lumps. If you are doing so, first whisk together flour and sugar. Then sift your batter by running your whisk through it rapidly in a back and forth motion until it looks light and powdery. Then add in half of the oil and water. Whisk until thick batter forms. Add in remaining oil and whisk until no flour lumps remain. Add in remaining water and whisk until water is fully incorporated and batter is evenly mixed. Make sure to use a spatula to incorporate batter that might be stuck to the bottom or sides of bowl.
- *This product link is an affiliate link. This means I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.
- Estimated nutrition does not include frosting.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
I have a pancake, not a cake – measured the ingredients precisely and oven temp correct.
It definitely shouldn’t be like a pancake – you say you used the correct ingredients and oven temperature, but it sounds like something was off with your self-rising flour. Did you mix your own or use prepared self-rising flour?
It calls for only a few ingredients and is easy to whip up. I did add some lemon ? flavor to mine. It was delicious
We’re glad you enjoyed it!
I thank you for sharing your recipe. You gave me a basic ingredient to make my daughter a cake. She’s allergic to soy, eggs, and nuts. I went to a health bakery and it was too expensive and the make it vegan. My daughter is not vegan and I already know what she’s allergic to, so I tweaked with your recipe. I added vanilla and butter flavor, I used milk and 1/2 butter and 1/2 vegetable oil. My daughter is having a Spanish heritage month and they want her to bring something she can eat. We are making “Thres Leche Cake”. I wish I can send you a picture, it looks great and taste delicious. Thank you so much.
We’re so glad you loved this recipe – thanks for sharing your adjustments!
I tried this recipe for making a birthday cake for a friend. I wanted to start with a nice white batter because I was making the layers pink. I used beet juice, but I forgot I probably should have substituted the juice for the water, so the batter was a little soupy. I made my own self-rising flour according to your instructions, so what I did was mix in 1/3 more of the flour and sugar mix and just a tad more oil. I used coconut oil. I baked it a little longer than 38 minutes and the cake was perfect! And I liked being able to lick the batter bowl, like we used to do as kids, without worrying about salmonella from raw eggs! Thank you for posting!
We love the adjustments you made! So glad you loved the cake.
I made this yesterday. It is not good. As with all my baking, I bought new ingredients. To test timing, I put some batter into cupcake cases and checked after 30 minutes. It was cooked, but all I could taste was vegetable oil. That taste is horrid. No worries, I can adapt. I added ½ cup fresh lemon juice, zest of the same lemon and ¼ cup of lemon simple syrup. I could only smell lemon, so I poured the rest of the batter into my cake tin, baked for 30 minutes, turning half way and… all I can taste from this cake is vegetable oil. I even added honey to my lemon simple syrup and soaked the cupcakes in the warm mixture. No joy. They got sticky, but still only taste of vegetable oil. The batter is more suited to deep frying or Yorkshire puddings. I’ll give it one more chance – using a much lighter oil than vegetable oil – one which won’t taint the flavour. If I’d used peanut oil originally (as with nearly every other vegan cake recipe I’ve ever seen), I could have at least made a peanut butter icing to compliment it.
There’s just no hiding or diminishing the vegetable oil taste.
As you can see from the comments, many made this without an issue of a vegetable oil flavor. It sounds like either your vegetable oil has an unusually strong flavor or you didn’t bake long enough. You mentioned you only baked 30 minutes. My recommendation is 35-38 minutes. 30 minutes might be enough time for the batter to be cooked through but not long enough for the flavors to develop and for the oil flavor to dissipate. You want the cake to be lightly browned around the edges before removing from oven. I bake mine at least 35 minutes and sometimes longer. Those extra few minutes can make the difference.
Made it again yesterday. New flour, new sugar, bottled spring water, new vegetable oil. Split the batter in 3 with one baking for 35 minutes, one for 40 minutes and one for 45 minutes. Oven at 180°C. Still only tastes of vegetable oil.
Not only me, but I had mother and 3 sisters-in-law all follow your exact recipe at the same time. All of us had the same flavour problem, and 2 reported that the results were heavy. “Too heavy to eat, might work as a paperweight” and “heavier, denser than cement blocks”. We all live in different states, so we aren’t sharing ingredients. Of the 5 of us, there are 2 current professional kitchen staff, 1 retired chef, a professional taster, and a stay at home wonder-mother.
Perhaps our expectations are too high for internet recipes.
We’re sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you and your family. It’s one of our most popular recipes, and many have shared how much they enjoy it.
Why haven’t you adjust the recipe, if you are an experience chef? I can tell the recipe won’t have much flavor because of the few ingredients. I have a child that is allergic to soy, nuts, and eggs. I adjusted the recipe and it work great. I added vanilla and butter flavor. Then I add 1/2 vegetable oil and 1/2 melted butter. I also added milk instead of water. I used this cake to make “Tres Leche Cake”. It was delicious. I bought a cake from a health bakery and it was costly and not tasty. Maybe you need to adjust for your liking, like I did.
The Oreo cake looks delicious. How much Oreo and water do i need.
And bake for how long in micro oven?
Sorry, but we haven’t tried adding Oreos and this cake needs to bake in the oven – are you asking this about another recipe?
I love your recipes, easy made
Thanks so much!
Could you add sprinkles to the batter to make a funfetti type of cake?
Yes, you can do that – we have a birthday cake with sprinkles that is a variation of this recipe.
My family has several dietary restrictions – vegan vegetarian, etc. So decided to try this recipe with slight modifications for Father’s Day and everyone LOVED it! The changes I did were (1) added vanilla, (2) poured half the batter in 9×13 pan, (3) added 1/2 cup of cocoa powder to second half, (4) poured the second half batter into same 9×13 pan, and (5) slightly folded two batters to form marble effect. I gave leftovers to my parents and the next day, my Mom told me that she had cake for breakfast and dessert after dinner! HUGE THANK YOU!
This makes our day! Love the adjustments you made – sounds amazing!
Can you make this into a layered cake, is it strong enough to hold up?
It should work fine!
Could I use milk for a slightly richer cake?
Adding milk instead of water actually will make the cake less fluffy and more gummy
If you mix half milk and half soda water, that won’t be gluey – will be more mudcake consistency.
I haven’t tried the recipe try but was wondering if we could add a fruit reduction and flavor emulsion to the batter
Sorry, but we haven’t tried adding those things and can’t say how the cake will turn out.
Nice ?
Thank you!
I have not made this recipe yet but I have a few questions. First of all I will make it with vanilla to add a little flavor. One of my questions is how long will baking be if I separate into 8 in round pans? I also want to use this recipe to make a rainbow cake which calls for adding food coloring or coloring gel. How much coloring or gel would you recommend adding so it doesn’t affect the vanilla flavor but still gives us good coloring. FYI I will probably use the gel instead of the liquid food coloring. I am going to make all of the colors of the rainbow except indigo. I’m hoping I can find Orange coloring gel, I’m pretty sure they make it. I already have purple. I want to make this during the summer. Because of making six of the seven colors I don’t want this to be as high as 6 full round cakes would be so I’m going to make half cakes. So keep this in mind when you’re figuring out how much gel I should put in each individual cake. Thank you for making such easy recipes for people like me. I’m disabled and the easier things are the better. Once I’ve made it I will try and remember to come back and let everyone know how it turned out. And I will be making a whipped frosting because my son doesn’t like traditional frosting. So probably more like a whipped cream frosting.
Sorry, but it’s hard to say what the baking time should be if you use different pans because we’ve only tested the recipe in a 9×13″ pan. As far as the food coloring, we haven’t made this cake as a rainbow cake and can’t say how much you will need to add.
That’s nice
I used this with bobs red mill 1 to 1 gluten free baking flour. Adding baking powder then I followed along with your recipe, My family did not like it at all they said it tasted like nothing it was really gummy. I do not recommend for us gluten free celiac people I think this recipe only working with real flour. I sprinkled some sugar on it and popped it back into the oven to see if it will firm up I spent 13 dollars on a bag of gluten free flour and I hate for it to go to waste,
Thank you for sharing your experience trying this recipe with GF flour.
I am a DIABETIC and I am ADDICTED to Sweet’s! Hope you
Will find some CAKES that are
Good with artificial sweeteners
SPLENDA, EQUAL .
THANK YOU SO MUCH!
BLESSINGS,
Cherry ???
Try using the Splenda 50/50 blend. I make a lot of cakes for people and I use this for the ones who need a substitute, it works great in baked goods.
I also use Splenda 50/50 or I halve the amount of sugar called for and replace with whichever sweetener I have. Hope this works out for you!
I was sceptical and decided to try half of the recipe. Added a bit of vanilla and it actually came out great! And it was a good size cake. I have some other vegan cake recipes but they all involve egg substitutes or things like vinegar to give them lift. Nice to have another vegan option to take to vegan friendly get togethers or when eggs are not available. I also like that it’s very plain so can be good served with fresh fruit or a homemade fruit sauce….my mind is racing with ideas
We’re happy you loved it!
How about some great recipes with low, no or healthy sugar substitutes?
We do create many recipes that are either low in sugar or don’t contain any refined sugar. Look for “no added sugar” or “no refined sugar” in the recipe titles.
Can I add egg white, and powder milk
Sorry, we haven’t tried those subs.
Can this white cake be made gluten free for a wedding cake? Thanks linda
We have not tried making a gluten free version.
Please can I some lovely recipes
You can sign up to get our recipes emailed to you!
Very lovely and would like to try it
We hope you enjoy it!
I will try it.
We hope you like it!
This sounds like it would be a perfect cake recipe that you could maybe add lowfat or nonfat cool whip and fresh strawberries raspberries blueberries etc to either dolloped on top or more eye pleasing and elegantly as a layer cake cutting the cake in half once completely cooled adding a layer of cool whip and then arrange fresh fruits of your choice and then another thin layer of cool whip to other half of the cake and then placing it back on top of the other half cake that is now topped by cool whip and fruit repeat on top if desired with cool whip and whatever fresh fruit is in the middle layer! Yum!!!
Love those ideas!
Yummy!
Great recipes!
Thank you!
Will try this next time I need a cake. Thank-you for sharing.
You’re welcome!
Can this cake be made with almond flour and applesauce to make it plant based and oil free?
Sorry but we haven’t tried those subs.
Can you use rice flour with these recipes? I have a grandson that is allergic to dairy, eggs, wheat, oats
Sorry, but we don’t know how rice flour would work in this recipe.
Easy and delicious.
Thanks for the recipe, I am so happy about the recipe because there’s no eggs in this recipe I would love to try this sometime Thanks again and keep up the good work.
We hope you try it soon!
Verry interesting can’t wait to do this easiest way for cakes thnk you.
This is great I’m been looking for easy homemade items to teach the kids I am learning to cook.i start the kids at age 4 and up but this year I went a year younger two girls had a sister at age 3 and also wanted to see how. So it was a great time we .by the end of the first week they learn how to cook a full meal even desert.in the microwave of course stove is too hot till 12 yr .si this is perfect for my classes. Thank you so very much. I needed these receipts easy to do,remember and homemade to top it all off
If I don’t put any parchment paper will the cake be sticky to the baking pan
If you don’t use parchment, be sure to grease the pan really well and it should be okay.
Happy to see this recipe! Will try this weekend. Texture looked so lovely my mouth watered! Heavy buttered cakes are not my thing & i love using canola/veg oil for cakes, moist. Will let you know how it went. Is it ok to ice with fondant? Little niece bday next week. Thanks
We haven’t used fondant to decorate the cake – let us know if you do and how it worked!
I want the white cake recipe and the lemon brownie recipe in printable format.
The recipe card at the post has a print option. Just click the ‘Print’ button and a new window will open so you can see the recipe and print it out.
Looks good will try it .
These are good recipe
Really easy to make I love baking
So glad you loved it!
What a sweet simple thing to do! Thx!
You’re welcome!
Love to get new recipes and ideas. It’s so exciting to find out what it’s going to taste like.
We hope you love it!
I try this @ home…thank u for sharing ???
Enjoy!
Love eggpless receipes
Kirbiecravings,
Will this work as a gluten free recipe with gluten free all purpose flour? You mentioned it being crumbly so I’m skeptical.
Also, what about cholesterol in recipe? Last, you have a typo you might want to fix on make is used and you meant may.
Line: You make also mix the batter by hand with a whisk and spatula but it does take a little more effort and is slightly harder to eliminate all the flour lumps.
Thanks for the recipe.
Enjoy your day!
Jeff Syblik
We haven’t tried it with GF flour.
Awesome ?
Good
I enjoyed your video
Thank you!
Would a sugar substitute work? Like stevia or truvia?
Sorry but we haven’t tried a sugar sub.
Hello! I was wondering about the 161kcal, and how big would you say as serving size is.
If you use the same pan as listed in the recipe, you can cut the cake into 24 slices. 1 slice is a serving.
Ecexelent
An awesome recipe… a must try for a quick desert.
I’m glad you liked it!
I n would like to make this white cake
We hope you do!
I hoped that a suggestion for a frosting recipe would be posted at the end of the recipe.
the frosting is in the recipe card notes at the end of the recipe
Can I substitute the SR flour for a gluten free version to make it GF friendly? Thank you!
Sorry, we haven’t tried it with GF flour.
can you use butter instead of oil?
We’ve only tested the recipe with oil because we wanted this to be a cake without butter. Usually you can use the same amount of melted butter in place of oil – we just haven’t tested this recipe with it.
I think this white cake recipe is awesome. I will definitely try it in the next few days
Sounds nice recipe
5
Awesome Cake ? use heavy whipped cream whip it up and add REDDI WHIP big can extra creamy yummy
I’m glad you enjoyed!
Chomping at the bit to try my first attempt at baking
We hope you love it!
I meant Food Goals in the first post sorry auto correct lol!
Yummy thanks very helpful during times where items are scarce and very high priced, this is definitely useful ideas to still be able to enjoy the food we all enjoy and want, plus it’s handy just in case you forgot to grab certain items needed for similiar good goals very happy with this website and subscription to it ps also handy with teaching smaller children basic understanding of recipes and how to follow instructions and accomplish the goal not so lengthy where it becomes boring or to hard to succeed. Thanks again looking forward to seeing more recipes. Reminds me of the “Easy Bake Oven” sort of short attainable recipes from childhood fun favorites!
We’re glad you’re enjoying the recipes!
Could I use canola oil?
I tried it with canola oil and felt like I could taste the oil flavor after it was done. I think it works better with vegetable oil
Perfect for a vegetarian/vegan.
Will definitely try this cake.
We hope you love it!
Great
My husband is vegan and this cake will be a nice treat for him thank you I am always looking for eggless recipes
We hope he loves it!
Thank you so much for these delicious and simple recipes, I love easy because I don’t have a lot of time and I love simple. God bless you love.
You’re welcome!
Love this
Fantabulous! Simple and easy! Great recipe for teens to try!
Thanks so much!
Hi. Can I use milk instead of water to add more flavour?
I actually did try a version with milk and found that it made the texture more gummy. The cake is much fluffier with water instead of milk
Your white cake, 4 ingredients is good.
And simple enough for a man to do.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
All your cakes, and cookies are good to make.
Good and simple for a man to do
We’re glad you’re enjoying the recipes!
Can sugar be replaced with sugar replacement for diabetics?
I have not tried with a sugar replacement but I think that should be okay
The recipes seem interesting and easy.
Can I use almond flour I. Can’t eat white flour. Gluten is bad for me if you can get back to my e-mail Thank you
I don’t think it will work with almond flour
This sounds delicious because I’m allergic to milk products.
Beautiful white soft cake so inexpensive and versatile.
Thanks!
Have to admit…very surprised!!! I did add vanilla. It is light, not too sweet and what a blessing to have a go to when eggs and/ot milk is scarce. Will definitely keep this one handy. Thank you!!
I’m glad it worked out for you!
Can this be made gluten free?
I can make self rising flour, but I’m not sure if it would come out as fluffy
I have not tried making a gluten free version
Yes it said add coconut cream then you can also add vanialla extract to it.