one bowl 6 inch vanilla birthday cake

It's cake season around here! Most of our family birthdays and our wedding anniversary are between May and June.  Add in Mother's Day, Father's Day and a First Communion and it's sort of a lot of cake. I'm good with that!

I love 6 inch layered cakes.  I find that they're the perfect size for most of our celebrations so that everyone gets a piece and there's a modest amount of leftovers.  I like modest leftovers....too much cake sitting in my fridge is dangerous.

I've tested this recipe using a stand mixer and mixing by hand.  Both methods came out beautifully.  Frost and fill the cakes with your favorite frosting, whip cream and/or toppings and you're done.  You can get my vanilla buttercream recipe here (you will need a separate bowl for frosting and a hand or stand mixer). Buttercream is my favorite!

Here we go!

Ingredients
 -1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
-2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt
-3/4 cup vegetable oil
-2 eggs
-1 cup sugar
-1 TBS vanilla extract
-1/2 cup whole milk
-sprinkles (optional)

Directions
Prepare two 6 inch baking pans with parchment paper and/or non-stick cooking spray and pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the vegetable oil and sugar in a large bowl.  Mix together.  Add your eggs and combine.  Add the vanilla extract and stir together.  Place all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt) on top of the wet ingredients.  Use a fork to lightly combine the dry ingredients together.  Then slowly begin to stir the dry ingredients into the oil/egg/vanilla mixture.  Slowly add half of the milk.  Stir.  Add the remaining milk and stir all of the ingredients together until just combined.  Use a rubber spatula to run around the side of the bowl to make sure all of the dry ingredients are incorporated.  Don't over mix.  Optional: fold in a couple of handfuls of sprinkles!

Pour into your cake pans and give them a gentle tap on the counter to work out any air bubbles.  Bake for 27-30 minutes.  Check the cakes frequently at 25 minutes.  The cakes are done when a toothpick inserted to the middle comes out clean.  Remove from the oven.  Allow to cool in the pan for 20-30 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack to finish cooling.  

​Once fully cooled, frost, serve and enjoy!  Store in the fridge.