Fool-Proof Vanilla Cake and Butter Cream Recipe

I love Sunday because this is the day of the week that I can practice baking.  I like baking cakes (although I have yet to practice on my cake decorating skills) and one of my favorite cake recipes is the simple vanilla cake with butter cream recipes. Biting into the fluffy vanilla cake brings me back to my childhood nostalgic moments when Nanay would buy cakes at Merco during special occasions. Two decades ago, Goldilocks and Red Ribbon are still non-existent and so you can imagine how happy I was to see Nanay holding a big box of cake from this local patisserie.

Those who like to bake cakes for the first time should need to learn the basics and baking vanilla cake couldn’t get any more basic. If you can master the art of baking vanilla cake, then baking other specialty cakes will follow suit. In fact, it’s from a simple vanilla cake where I learned how to make my very first chocolate, coffee and checkerboard cakes.

Vanilla Cake Recipe

2 ¼ cup sifted all purpose flour

3 tsp baking powder

1 1/3    cup sugar

½  tsp salt

½ cup softened butter

1 cup low fat milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 whole eggs

Mix all the dry ingredients like flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Gradually add butter and vanilla. Mix thoroughly using a pastry beater or a hand mixer. Add milk and beat in the eggs one at a time. Set aside.

Spray the inside of the baking pan with cooking oil and line its bottom with wax paper. Carefully pour the mixture inside the pan. Tap it gently to remove air bubbles and bake it inside the oven for 150⁰ Celsius for 30 to 35 minutes. You will know once it is done if you stick a toothpick on the cake and the batter does not stick to it. Once done, let it cool (refrigerate if needed) before you put butter cream all over.

Swiss Butter Cream Recipe

1 cup sugar

4 large egg whites

3 sticks butter

Using a hand mixer, whisk the egg whites and sugar together in a metal boil over a pot of simmering (not boiling) water.  Mix occasionally until the sugar granules have melted. This is your cue to remove the bowl from the pot.

Continue whipping until the butter mixture doubles in volume.  Add in the butter one stick at a time and mix it thoroughly until everything is incorporated. You can add in vanilla or any flavoring of your choice (coffee or chocolate).

Note: When putting in the butter cream on the cake, make sure that the cake is cool. It is easier to work with the butter cream if the surface of the cake has already cooled.  When decorating, you can use a piping tip and bag to make fancy designs. I have yet to master the art of cake decorating using different frosting so what I like to do is to just put a dollop of butter cream all over the cake. In any case, it will just be for home consumption so I guess it is okay if the cake looks horrid from the outside. It’s the taste that matters most… I think. ^_^