Yes you can Bake your Cake and Eat it!

Nothing beats a delicious home made cake, or home made anything really.

I'm known for having a very sweet tooth, but honestly, it not just a sweet tooth it's a whole mouthful of the things! All craving sweet stuff (mostly cake and chocolate) the whole time. The concept of 'cake for breakfast' is not just a concept around here, it's more like a 'if there's cake, my breakfast is sorted' kind of situation.

Every time I try a recipe I get from the internet or Pinterest I make it exactly as it is, this recipe is no different but the ingredient ratio of the recipe just looked wrong and the batter looked wrong before I put it in the pans and it subsequently came out wrong after being baked! It was a waste of a lot of ingredients and time. I'm baffled why someone will knowingly give the incorrect recipe.

But I was determined to fix it and I did, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and here's the proof that is pretty is as tasty as she looks.

Vanilla Cake:

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy; this is what light and fluffy looks like.

Add the eggs one at a time and beat after each addition

After all the eggs and egg whites have been added the batter will look icky and split, don't worry.

Add flour mixture and buttermilk. DON'T OVER-MIX

Bake, turn out and leave to cool completely before serving

Make the buttercream and ice as desired. It's a good idea to 'dirty ice' the cake, it takes care of the crumb situation ie, it prevents crumbs from getting into your pretty frosting.

Here's the recipe:

makes 3 x 22cm cake layers and a shit load of cupcakes (in this case a shit load is about 20)

Delicious Vanilla Cake

Ingredients

3 and 2/3 cups (420g) Flour

5ml Salt

5ml Baking powder

3/4 teaspoon Baking soda

345g Butter/Baking Margarine, softened to room temperature

2 cups Sugar

3 large eggs + 2 egg whites, at room temperature

15ml vanilla

1 and 1/2 cups Buttermilk, at room temperature

Method

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease three 22cm cake pans, line with Baking paper, then grease and flour the rest of the pan and the paper.

Make the cake: Whisk the cake flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together. Set aside.

Using a handheld or stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar together on high speed until smooth, fluffy and creamy. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula a few times to ensure all the sugar gets some butter love.

Beat in the 3 eggs, 2 egg whites, one at a time into the butter mixture, beat everything together until well combined. Don’t worry, it does look curdled and ‘not right’ at this stage.

With the mixer on low speed, add one third of the dry ingredients just until combined.

Then half of the buttermilk, give a few turns of the mixer then add another third of the flour mixture. Mix a second or 10, add the rest of the buttermilk, mix for a few turns then add the last of the flour mixture.

Mix gently until just combined and no lumps are visible. This takes 30 seconds at the most.

Do not over-mix the batter.

The batter will be thick, even thicker than dropping consistency, don’t worry, your cake will be okay.

Divide the batter between the prepared cakes (yes I weigh the batter) this insures even baking and your cake looks even with you slice into it.

Bake the cakes for 25 – 30 minutes (start checking at about 23 minutes). A toothpick inserted into the middle of the cakes should come out clean.

Turn out onto a wire cooling rack and leave to cool completely before icing.

Vanilla Buttercream

350g Baking Margarine (I like stork bake) or butter, softened to room temperature

720g Icing sugar

80ml Milk or cream

20ml Vanilla

Pinch of salt

Make the frosting: Beat the Butter, icing sugar, salt and vanilla for at least 5 minutes.

Scrape the bowl and add the milk/cream and beat for 30 seconds until light and fluffy.

Ice your cake.

Note on the buttercream: Instead of adding the milk, I add the juice of 1 and ½ to 2 lemons (depending on how juicy they are). The tartness helps to dissipate the sweetness. I don't mind the sweetness but my grey beard isn't the biggest fan of it and it's tastes almost like cheesecake which isn't a bad thing.