Vanilla Butter Cake
This cake is adapted from two of the vanilla cake recipes from “The Cake Bible” by Rose Levy Beranbaum (I highly recomment this book! It is invaluable to any avid baker). This cake is a good balance between a light white vanilla cake and a rich yellow cake.
The mixing method used here is called the “reverse creaming method.” This is a way of mixing cakes that avoids over developing the gluten in the flour, like can sometimes happen with the creaming method. The creaming method is the most common way of making cakes or cookies from scratch and involves creaming butter and sugar together, adding wet ingredients and then, finally, adding the flour. With reverse creaming, the dry ingredients are mixed with the butter and then the wet ingredients are added. The idea behind this method is that the butter coats the flour, protecting it from over-developing the gluten. Reverse creaming only works with so-called “high ratio” cakes, or cakes with a high ratio of sugar to flour. If the weight of the sugar equals or exceeds the weight of the flour in a recipe, you can use the reverse creaming method.
If you must subsitute all-purpose flour for cake in this recipe, make sure to use only 300 grams of flour, and not an equal volume of all-purpose flour, otherwise you will end up with too much flour in the cake.
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Vanilla Cake
Ingredients:
- 125 g whole eggs (from about 2 extra large eggs), room temperature
- 1 cup (252 g) whole milk, room temperature (divided into 1/4 cup and 3/4 cup)
- 2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups (300 g) sifted cake flour (measured after sifted)
- 1 1/2 c. (300 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp fine salt
- 3/4 cup (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line the bottoms of two 8x2 or 9x2 inch cake pans with parchment (or three 6-inch pans).
- In a medium/small bowl, whisk together the eggs, 1/4 cup of milk and the vanilla. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, or bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the soft butter, and remainign 3/4 cups of milk. Mix on low until ingredients are moistened and then beat on medium speed (or high with a hand mixer) for 1-2 minutes. Scrap down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the egg mixture in three parts, beating between additions until incoporated. Scrap down bowl. Beat on medium for another 30 seconds.
- Pour evenly into pans (use a scale for accuracy). Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the cake springs back when lightly pressed, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Remove BEFORE the cake begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around the edges to loosen the sides from the pan. Turn out onto a rack and let cool completely.
