This berry compote vanilla cake has changed my opinion on vanilla cake forever. Think tender and moist vanilla bean cake, with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, and a blackberry raspberry compote. It’s absolute heaven! 

Plus, this cake is refined sugar-free and can easily be made dairy-free as well! 

Now executing a good vanilla cake is definitely a skill – there’s no flavor to hide behind like a chocolate or mocha cake. So quality ingredients matter! 

Most vanilla cake recipes use standard ingredients like flour, butter, oil, milk, eggs, etc. as well as similar ratios – the difference in each recipe is the technique.

Rather than using the standard technique of creaming together butter and sugar, I used a different technique called reverse creaming (a method pioneered by Rose Levy Beranbaum) that mixes together the fat (in this case, the butter) with the dry ingredients. This method coats the flour in a layer of fat, which prevents the formation of gluten when the rest of the liquid ingredients are whisked in. Creating a cake with a tight and uniform, but bouncy and tender crumb. This technique also helps the cake bake flatter (aka no doming)!!

Ingredients You’ll Need for the BEST Vanilla Cake

Vanilla Cake Ingredients

  • All-purpose flour: Bob’s Red Mill is my go-to for AP flour. King Arthur is also another great option.
  • Coconut sugar or cane sugar: Both coconut sugar and cane sugar work equally well in this recipe. Quick note that if you do use coconut sugar like I did, your cake will have a slightly darker color. More on this here. 
  • Eggs
  • Salted butter or vegan salted butter: Most recipes always specify unsalted butter; however, I love baking with salted butter because salt equals more flavor.
  • Greek-style yogurt or vegan greek-style yogurt: I love using Culina’s Greek-style coconut yogurt for this cake, but any dairy-free Greek-style yogurt or even regular Greek yogurt will work. Another good alt is sour cream.
  • Creamy milk: Used my house blend milk to keep this cake dairy-free.
  • Avocado oil
  • White vinegar
  • Vanilla paste or ground vanilla: For deep vanilla flavor, you NEED ground vanilla or vanilla paste. Both ground vanilla and vanilla paste work equally well – it’s just a matter of preference. I love the ground vanilla from Beyond Good, and Rodelle makes an amazing vanilla paste.
  • Baking powder
  • Baking soda
  • Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Blackberry Raspberry Compote Ingredients

  • Fresh blackberries
  • Fresh raspberries
  • Coconut sugar or cane sugar
  • Vanilla paste or ground vanilla

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Buttercream Ingredients

I’ve left two versions of this buttercream in the recipe card below – one version is a classic cream cheese buttercream and is sweetened with powdered sugar, the other version is refined sugar-free and uses honey as a sweetener. Both taste super similar, just make the one you prefer.

  • Salted butter or vegan salted butter: Most recipes always specify unsalted butter; however, I love baking with salted butter because salt equals more flavor.
  • Cream cheese or vegan cream cheese: For all my dairy-free gals, Kite Hill plain cream cheese is my go-to.
  • Powdered sugar or honey: Depending on whether you want to make this refined sugar-free or not, I’ve left two cream cheese frosting recipes below. Both taste equally great, just a matter of preference.
  • Vanilla paste or ground vanilla

Equipment/Kitchen Tools You’ll Need

  • Stand mixer: If you have a stand mixer, use it; if you don’t, any handheld mixer will work – it’ll just take a bit more time. Technically speaking, you can make this cake by hand; however, reverse creaming the butter into the flour mixture will definitely be a labor of love. If you have any questions about this, comment below and we’ll workshop together!!
  • 8” cake pan: This cake pan from USA Pans is my go-to. Light aluminized steel is the best material for baking with – it conducts heat so well. Really dark metal pans tend to create really dark edges, and glass is a hard no in my books (it doesn’t conduct heat well).
  • Parchment paper

My Strategy For This Cake

This vanilla bean cake is super easy to whip up – however I typically bake this over two days. Leaving an outline of what I do!

Day One

Bake off the cake and prep the compote. The crumb of this cake continues to develop as it cools overnight – it gets tighter and bouncier the longer you let it rest which is why I recommend cooling the cake overnight. Store the cake wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge, and store the compote in a jar.

Day Two

​The following morning, take the cake out of the fridge, along with the butter and cream cheese for the frosting. Depending on how cool your house is, you may need to let the butter soften overnight. Your butter should be soft, but not greasy looking, otherwise your frosting will look split/curdled.

Additionally, I like to thaw the cake for a couple hours – since it’s a butter cake, it firms up quite a bit in the fridge and needs time to soften and return back to its bouncy soft self! 

About 1 to 1 1/2 hours before you want to serve the cake, make the frosting, frost and assemble the cake, and chill the cake until you’re ready to serve. I like to give myself time to make the frosting (chill the frosting if necessary), and then chill the frosted and final cake so it’s stable and perfect for cutting without getting messy.

Coconut Sugar vs. Cane Sugar

I’ve tested this cake with both coconut sugar and cane sugar, and they both yield similar results.

Cane sugar obviously makes the cake lighter in color, which aesthetically is nice, and it also yields a more tight and bouncy crumb.

Coconut sugar makes the cake darker, but yields a more moist and tender crumb that I think is a tad better than the coconut sugar version. The coconut sugar also gives this cake caramel notes that pair so well with the berries and cream cheese buttercream. Also, the family consensus was that the coconut sugar version was a tad better. So do with that what you will!

Leaving photos below with the cane sugar version of the cake in the top two photos and the coconut sugar iteration in the bottom two photos for reference.

cane sugar iteration (top), coconut sugar (bottom)

Notes & Tips

  • For the cake, make sure the butter is fully room temperature before mixing the batter. It should be soft and spreadable, but not greasy. With reverse creaming, the butter needs to fully coat the flour particles, and cold butter just can’t do that.
  • Let the cake cool overnight if possible. The crumb of this cake continues to develop as it cools and chills overnight – it gets tighter and bouncier the longer you let it rest, which is why I recommend cooling the cake overnight.
  • Thaw the cake before frosting and serving. Because this cake has a high ratio of butter, it’ll feel fairly solid when you pull it from the fridge the following day, but once it comes to room temp, it’ll be just as soft and bouncy. Give the cake at least 3 hours to thaw.

Want more insight into the recipe development process of this cake? Check out my column here with all the deets!

Can’t wait for you to make this vanilla cake – it’s a family favorite! Don’t forget to leave a starred rating and review – love hearing your feedback!!

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Berry Compote Vanilla Cake

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 6 reviews
  • Author: Yasmeen Ali
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 1x 8″ layer 1x
  • Category: Dessert
Print Recipe

Description

This berry compote vanilla cake has changed my opinion on vanilla cake forever. Think tender and moist vanilla bean cake, with vanilla bean cream cheese frosting, and a blackberry raspberry compote. 

Ingredients

Scale

Vanilla Bean Cake

  • 120g (1/2 cup) greek-style yogurt or dairy-free greek-style yogurt
  • 60g (1/4 cup) milk or non-dairy milk (I used my house blend milk)
  • 2 large eggs (~108g)
  • 38g (3 1/2 tbsp) avocado oil
  • 1 tbsp vanilla paste or ground vanilla
  • 1/2 tsp white distilled vinegar
  • 168g (1 1/2  cups) all-purpose flour
  • 195g (1 cup) cane sugar or coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp kosher salt
  • 85g (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) salted butter or vegan salted butter, room temp and slice

Blackberry Raspberry Compote 

  • 130g (1 cup) blackberries 
  • 120g (1 cup) raspberries
  • 2 tbsp cane sugar or coconut sugar
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla paste or ground vanilla
  • 1/8 tsp or pinch of kosher salt

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Buttercream (w/ powdered sugar)

  • 4 oz or 115g salted butter or vegan salted butter, softened 
  • 8 oz or 227g cream cheese or vegan cream cheese
  • 125g (1 cup) sifted powdered sugar
  • 3–4 tbsp heavy cream or non-dairy milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste or ground vanilla 

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Buttercream  (w/ honey)

  • 4 oz or 115g salted butter or vegan butter, softened
  • 8 oz or 227g cream cheese or vegan cream cheese
  • 68g (3 tbsp) honey
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste or ground vanilla

Instructions

  1. Read the instructions before starting – highly recommend using metric measurements for best results. 

Bake the Cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease an 8″ cake pan with butter – feel free to line the bottom with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk together the wet ingredients. In a small bowl (with a spout) or a large measuring glass, whisk together the eggs, yogurt, milk, avocado oil, vanilla bean paste, and vinegar. Set aside. 
  3. Reverse cream the butter into the flour mixture. To the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, sugar, vanilla bean, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add in the butter, and using the stir setting on your mixer, cream the butter into the flour mixture until it looks like wet sand. 
  4. Whisk the batter together. While mixing, pour the wet egg and milk mixture into the stand mixer. Ramp the speed up to 4 and let the batter mix until it lightens in color. 
  5. Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan (you should have around 758g of batter) and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Depending on your oven the time will vary – if your oven runs hot, start checking the cake around the 25 minute mark. The cake is done when it’s golden brown on the top, and a toothpick inserted comes out with just a few moist crumbs. 
  6. Cool the cake. Let the cake cool on the counter until room temp, then turn out of the pan onto a plate. Let cool completely, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge overnight. NOTE: The crumb of this cake continues to develop as it cools and chills overnight – it gets tighter and bouncier the longer you let it rest which is why I recommend cooling the cake overnight. 

Make the Compote

  1. Add the berries to a large pan or pot, along with the sugar, vanilla bean, and salt. Cook down over medium heat for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cook the compote until most of the water has evaporated and the juices have thickened into a syrup. Take off the heat, pop into a container, and store in the fridge until you’re ready to use. NOTE: Resist the urge to smash the berries, they need to break down on their own. Additionally, instead of stirring the compote and accidentally smashing the berries, I like to jiggle the pan. 

Make the Buttercream

  1. To the bowl of a stand mixer, add the cream cheese and butter. Using the paddle attachment, whip together until fully incorporated, about 4-5 minutes. This incorporates air into the butter and cream cheese, essentially creating a whipped butter-cream cheese.
  2. Switch to a whisk attachment, add in the honey (or powdered sugar and cream), and vanilla bean. Whisk together until light and fluffy – about 3-4 minutes. Taste and adjust sweetener if needed. In total, you’ll whip the buttercream for about 8-10 minutes to create a fluffy, aerated buttercream! NOTE: If your frosting is loose, let it firm up in the fridge for 20-30 minutes before frosting the cake. 

Assemble 

  1. About 2 hours before you want to frost and serve the cake, remove it from the fridge. 
  2. Plop the frosting in the center of the cake, and using an offset spatula, smooth the frosting out so it’s in an even layer. Then, leaving about a 1” border, smooth the center so it’s completely flat. Spoon the compote in the flat center, spreading out to the border. 
  3. Chill the cake in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. 

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