At Anne's request, I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Now, I love cake, but I almost never make yellow cake; we're definitely a chocolate-cake household. In fact, truth be told, I'd never made a yellow cake from scratch. I mentioned a while ago - if not here, then elsewhere - that I didn't have a good recipe for yellow cake. My friend Charles suggested one from the Silver Palate New Basics Cookbook. However, I struck out on my own in my quest, because the recipe he recommended calls for white wine, and the birthday girl happens to be seven months pregnant. I know, I know, the alcohol cooks out, yadda yadda yadda. Doesn't matter - I knew I could find a good yellow cake that didn't call for white wine.
It will come as no surprise to regular readers that the first place I looked was the baking companion to my cooking Bible. It's called Baking Illustrated, and if the recipe I made today is any indication, this cookbook is going to become my baking Bible.
At the risk of sounding like a pig, I ate three pieces of cake. It was moist and buttery, and there was no odd chemically aftertaste that some (most?) yellow cake mixes seem to have. Frosted with creamy chocolate frosting, with a scoop of Edy's Swiss Orange on the side (orange sherbet with chocolate chips), it was just delicious. This is a yellow cake worth making and eating.
Here it is.
Yellow Layer Cake
from America's Test Kitchen's Baking Illustrated
Yellow Layer Cake
from America's Test Kitchen's Baking Illustrated
1 3/4 cups plain cake flour, sifted, plus more for dusting the pans
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup whole milk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into 16 pieces
frosting (see below)
1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350˚F. Generously grease two 9-inch round cake pans and cover the pan bottoms with rounds of parchment or waxed paper. Grease the parchment rounds and then dust the cake pans with flour, tapping out the excess.
2. Beat the eggs, milk and vanilla with a fork in a small bowl; measure out 1 cup of this mixture and set both aside.
3. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer. Beat the mixture at the lowest speed to blend, about 30 seconds. With the mixer still running at the lowest speed, add the butter 1 piece at a time; mix until the butter and flour begin to clump together and look sandy and pebbly, with pieces about the size of peas, 30 to 40 seconds, after all the butter is added.
4. Add the 1 full cup of egg mixture and mix at the lowest speed until incorporated, about 5 to 10 seconds. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the remaining egg mixture (about 1/2 cup) in a slow steady stream, taking about 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat at medium-high speed until thoroughly combined and the batter looks slightly curdled, about 15 seconds.
5. Divide the batter equally between the prepared cake pans; spread to the sides of the pans and smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake tops are light gold and a toothpick or thin skewer inserted in the centers comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. (Cakes may mound slightly but will level when cooled.) Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the pan perimeters to loosen. Invert one cake onto a large plate, peel off the parchment, and reinvert onto another wire rack. Repeat with the other cake. Cool completely before icing.
I just looked back, and it amazes me that I have yet to include my favorite chocolate cake recipe in this blog. It's a slight variation to the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate cake. I'll have to put it here sometime soon. I mention it only because I frosted this cake with the frosting I generally use on that cake: the Hershey's "Perfectly Chocolate" chocolate frosting. There were plenty of frosting recipes in my baking Bible, but why mess with perfection?
"Perfectly Chocolate" Chocolate Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to a creamy, spreading consistency; add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2/3 cup HERSHEY®'S Cocoa Powder
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to a creamy, spreading consistency; add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla.
6 spoons thrown:
Three slices. I know you are expecting, but I don't think adoptive mothers are required to eat for two.
*Hides behind chair, waiting for her to throw something, cake for instance.*
PS. Something that wil amuse you: The guy who hasn't got his oven fixed yet bought rhubarb today.
You're just HOPING I'll throw cake. I know you.
In my defense, they weren't big slices. The cake was cut into twelve pieces.
She MUST eat now because when that little one comes she will not have any time to eat at all! Plus, she must eat as much sugar as possible so she can store it up for the those nighttime feedings.....lots of stamina.
So much for my getting dessert tonight.
just dropped by while looking for a yellow cake recipe...your measurements in ounces for the flour and sugar are off...it should be 14 oz. flour and 12 oz. sugar.
That's very interesting. I didn't do the weighing myself, that's how the recipe is written in Baking Illustrated.
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