As you know I bake tons of cookies and bars but very few cakes. While I love to eat cake, I would much rather bake bars or cookies. The reason is simple: I like the versatility of bars/cookies and the ability to reduce/increase recipes easily without it negatively affecting the final baked good. Plus, I love to chill or freeze cookie dough for future use (something that you can not do with cake batter to my knowledge).
I was asked to bake cupcakes for a recent baby shower. Now, I know I could have taken the easy way out and use a boxed mix but I jumped at the chance to try a new recipe and not have to eat 24 cupcakes by myself!
I turned to the internet and found a great Classic White Cake Recipe from RecipeZaar. It was a snap to prepare, used ingredients I commonly have on hand and came out great. It was the perfect cake for those with little experience at baking cakes.
Using tips from my grandma, I used ingredients that were all room temperature. I sifted together the flour, baking soda and salt and I creamed the butter and sugar very very well until it was light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as needed. I had to change the original recipe a bit because I only had five eggs so I subbed one whole egg for two of the egg whites called for. What I ended up with was a cake with a subtle flavor and a light crumb. I did not think the cake was overly sweet so it was just perfect with frosting (I cheated and used canned, but next time I would make my own).
I will be using this recipe again. I think it would make a great layered cake (I will need to work on my decorating skills) I also would like to try this with flavored frosting or some lemon zest in the batter.
I would rate this recipe an 8.5
Classic White Cake
adapted from RecipeZaar
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 large egg whites (I used 4 egg whites and 1 whole egg)
3/4 cup milk (I used 2% milk)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used 2 1/2 teaspoons)
Preheat oven to 350.
Bring all ingredients to room temperature.
Butter two 9-inch diameter by 1 1/2-inch deep layer pans or 1 (13 by 9 by 2-inch) pan and line bottoms with parchment or waxed paper. (OR line muffin tin with cupcake liners)
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5-7 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
Set aside.
Combine egg whites, (and whole egg if using), milk and vanilla extract.
Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to butter mixture then add half the milk mixture.
Continue to alternate beginning and ending with flour mixture.
Scrape bowl and beater often.
Pour batter into prepared pan (s) and smooth top with a metal spatula.
Bake cake (s) about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean. Or bake cupcakes for 20-25 minutes, checking for doneness at 18 minutes.
Cool in pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack, remove paper and let cool completely before frosting.
*The frosting I used was Duncan Hines Classic HomeStyle Vanilla (with blue food coloring)
*Decorations are from Wilton that I found at the grocery store
You did a great job it seams! It looks absolutely cute the way you decorated it!
Those turned out great. The cupcake looks really light and airy. And very cutely decorate!
They look very cute. I’ve actually made that recipe. It’s Nick Malgieri’s recipe, which is published on the Food Network’s site.
I definitely like making cakes better when there’s a home for them to go to that’s not mine.
Looks great and I love the color of your frosting!
~ Ingrid
Cute decorating! I love making cupcakes but I don’t do it often because I end up eating most of them haha
The duck cupcake is very cute! I love the liner, too!
That is an adorable cupcake!
I love white cake almost as much as I like chocolate cake. The cupcake is very, very cute. 🙂
That cake looks sooooo moist and delicious. And the decoration is just TOO CUTE! I love it!
Those look great. I love the little duck decoration!
I’m sure these were the hit of the shower! The little duckie is so sweet!
What adorable cupcakes! They look so moist inside.
Those look gooood. I love cupcakes. Well… all cake. Heh. I like cupcakes in particular though because I’ve found they keep better than layer cakes. In theory anyway… 🙂
how cute 🙂 i love the little duck on top!
Ohhh how CUTE, gotta try it, I gotta see what frosting I have up in the pantry 😀 Carm
Cute! Now we just need a really great scratch vanilla frosting.
That cupcake has the perfect texture, the cake itself is very fluffy! I especially like the blue frosting, it adds to the image I have of it being like a fluffy cloud :).
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I think a good white cake is so much better than chocolate cake…it’s really hard to mess up chocolate, but a good white cake is really hard to come by…thanks…I will try this recipe!
Those are adorable! I would much rather a cookie or bar myself, but those cupcakes looks so moist that I’d totally make them.