What is the difference? Or is there a difference? I have a request for a vanilla birthday cake. I have been using "Sugarflowers" White cake recipe which is fantastic but I noticed that the title does not state vanilla.

I basically want the same type of vanilla cake you find in the grocery store bakeries. I do want to try autobuni's "Moist Vanilla Cake" recipe, but I was just curious if there was a difference in white and vanilla or do the two words mean the same thing?

Kind of confused right now.

Any help would be appreciated.

I am pretty sure white cake is Vanilla cake with no egg yolks. Yellow cake is also vanilla but it contains egg yolks.

I just made the very best yellow cake I've ever made: Sylvia Weinstock's Classic Yellow recipe. Holy spatula, that sucker is fantastic. I've even used variations with it to alter the flavor (flavored yogurts instead of sour cream). You could even use vanilla yogurt to give it an extra vanilla flavor.

iwantalicakes got it - that is the difference. You can use other flavorings in white as it doesn't have as a prononced vanilla flavor.

not to state the obvious, but the difference is that white is a color while vanilla is a flavor. You can have a green vanilla cake. White cake is white cake, and can be vanilla or almond or any number of flavors.

I would ask her what she means by vanilla cake. She may have a very specific idea of what she thinks it is. And it may not match yours...or ours

Ok I get requests for vanilla all the time. I just do a white cake recipe with Vanilla flavoring. That's what vanilla cake is, lol.

In my world white cake and vanilla cake are the same thing. Almond white is white cake + almond extract.

We used to differentiate it this way:

Wedding white-White batter/no egg yolks

Vanilla cake or French Vanilla-The batter is very similar to wedding white but contains the yolks-is a very light ivory color and distinct vanilla flavor.

Not to be confused with yellow cake-which we always called "Gold" cake, because of the distinct yellow color.

At the bakery we always used French Vanilla as our 'white cake' for weddings, but if someone REALLY wanted a pure white cake we did it...but also warned them that sometimes the texture is a bit different (no yolks) and could be on the drier side.

Oh, Food Guy, you missed Indy's story about her "Wedding White" cake.

So would you consider yellow cake (as in yellow cake mix) a vanilla cake?

I always wondered.... what exactly is yellow cake? Like a butter flavor cake?

Does anyone care to share their vanilla cake recipe? LOL

roland winbeckler's vanilla cake is absolutely fantastic and the recipe is on the ultimate cake-off web site. it uses egg yolks and has has a creamy off-white color (not white). moist and very tasty

I go with vanilla being a flavor and not a color.

I just made some vanilla cupcakes. I took a basic yellow cake recipe and added extra vanilla extract and some seed from a vanilla bean. They came out tasting very vanilla-ey which is what I wanted.

White cake is almond flavor(the almond keeps from tinting it) , while vanilla is well vanilla 

A white cake is simply a cake made with egg whites only.  White cake contains vanilla.

Vanilla is simply a flavoring.  You can add vanilla to any cake.  Since vanilla  complements other flavors, it's used with a host of other flavorings  

My basic cake I refer to as vanilla cake.  It's made with whole eggs because the flavor is richer and I don't have to waste time separating eggs or trying to find a use for all the yolks.  

The color of the cake is white....not snow white but not yellow either....and no one has ever said it wasn't "white" enough.

IF you have ever used a box ( OH NO !) mix, a WHITE cake is pure white and made with egg WHITES....... no yolks......... a VANILLA cake mix is a little sweeter ( more vanilla flavor) and made with whole eggs ... it will be a VERY PALE yellow........just slight tint.......... a YELLOW cake mix is YELLOW.......... just check the color on the boxes........ I use Duncan Heinz.......

at one bakery i worked at you could easily tell the white/yellow cake apart because of the yellow food coloring they put into the white to make it yellow