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liz bakes cakes

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Very Vanilla Cake

Posted on January 10, 2013 by lizbakescakes10

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My little brother hates chocolate.

Tears would ensue if you even attempted to offer him chocolate as a toddler. These days heisn’t quite as likely to throw a tantrum, but he still won’t be happy if a blob of brown ends upin his strawberry-vanilla portion of neapolitan icecream.

Personally, I – along with most people – can’t really imagine a world without chocolate. Aday rarely goes past where I don’t nibble at a block in the pantry, or indulge in someicecream or brownies. Although my favourite way to indulge is Lindt couverture, I’m not

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particularly fussy – I love the sweetness of Easter eggs and white chocolate!

I love cooking with chocolate almost as much as I love eating it. But to keep it fair, I figure Ishould bake something without chocolate every now and then for the little one. Although thisVery Vanilla Cake will no doubt be met with questions of “Is it white chocolate?” (tryexplaining to a six-year-old that white chocolate isn’t really chocolate), I’m sure it’ll be greatlyappreciated by the biggest vanilla fan in the house, as well as the rest of the family!

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I searched long and hard for a suitable vanilla cake recipe. I didn’t want something too dry orheavy, or worst of all, lacking in vanilla flavour. I had originally bookmarked Sweetapolita’srecipe for a Very Fluffy Vanilla Cake, but after reading the comments of various failures Ichickened out a little. I generally don’t like using American baking recipes as, even withconversions, they never seem to work perfectly for me. In any case, I ended up using thevanilla buttercream recipe from Sweetapolita (though without vanilla beans), but sandwichedwith a Peggy Porschen vanilla bean Victoria sponge soaked with a vanilla sugar syrup. Ifigured that would be vanilla-y enough!

The result? A lovely, moist layered vanilla cake, and probably the creamiest frosting I’ve ever

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The result? A lovely, moist layered vanilla cake, and probably the creamiest frosting I’ve everhad.

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Very Vanilla Cake

Sponge adapted from Peggy Porschen’s Cake Chic, buttercream frosting adapted fromSweetapolita (http://sweetapolita.com/2011/07/fluffy-vanilla-cake-with-whipped-vanilla-bean-frosting/)

Vanilla Victoria Sponge

Ingredients

100mL water75g sugar1 tsp good-quality vanilla extract (alternatively, the seeds of 1/2 a vanilla pod)200g butter, softened200g caster sugarSeeds of one vanilla bean (alternatively, 1tsp vanilla bean paste)4 eggs, at room temperature200g self raising flour, sifted

Method

1. Firstly, combine the water, sugar and extract in a small saucepan and bring to the boilover a medium heat. Set aside.

2. Grease and line the bottom and sides of two 8-inch sandwich tins, ensuring the bakingpaper rises 3cm above the edge of the tin. If you have them, place a Wilton flower nail(http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?sku=402-3007) in the centre of each pan(these help the cakes rise evenly rather than domed). Preheat the oven to 18o degreescelsius.

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3. Cream the butter, sugar and vanilla with an electic mixer fitted with a paddle attachmentuntil pale and creamy, approximately 5-8 minutes.

4. Beat the eggs lightly in a jug, and then add slowly to the butter mixture while beating onmedium speed. If the mixture starts to curdle, stop adding the egg and see if continuing tobeat will return the mixture back to normal (this usually occurs). If the mixture still lookscurdled, add a tablespoon of flour and continue mixing.

5. Once the egg mixture and butter mixture are combined, incorporate the flour at a lowspeed until just combined.

6. Spread the cake batter evenly between the two tins, and flatten the surface using a paletteknife. Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the cake comesout clean.

7. Allow the sponges to rest for around 15 minutes, and then prick the surface with atoothpick. Soak the sponge with the vanilla syrup using a pastry brush (note: I usedaround a quarter of the syrup but would recommend using more if you will be storing thecake for more than one day).

8. When the sponges are completely cool, invert to a wire rack.9. Make the Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream (recipe below).

10. Smear a small amount of buttercream onto your serving plate or cake board, and thenplace one of the sponges, top side down, onto the plate. Spread around a cup of icing ontothe bottom of the cake using a palette knife. If your cake has a lot of crumbs you mayfind it useful to do a crumb coat first.

11. Place the other sponge on top of the first one, top side down. Centre the cake and thencover the top and sides with buttercream, using a palette knife to smooth.

12. Use any remaining buttercream to decorate the cake with a piping bag if desired (I didsmall rosettes).

Fluffy Vanilla Buttercream

Ingredients

375g butter, softened3 cups/475g icing sugar, sifted2.25 tblsp/45mL milk1 tsp vanilla extractOptional: seeds of one vanilla bean (I didn’t do this)

Method

1. Beat the butter using a paddle attachment on an electric mixer for 8 minutes on mediumspeed (’4′ on a KitchenAid)

2. Add remaining ingredients and combine on a low speed; increase to medium speed andbeat for 6 minutes.

3. This icing is best used immediately. It will go hard if kept in the fridge, however it shouldreturn to its original consistency if brought back to room temperature. You may need tobeat the mixture again to make it smooth.

Notes

Try to avoid making this on a hot day (like I did). Heat and butter don’t really mix well! Ifyou do make it on a warm day, either assemble the cake as close as possible to serving

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and leave it out of the fridge in the coolest part of the house, or if you make it in advance,the cake can be stored in the fridge but is best brought back to room temperature beforeserving. Ensure you syrup the cake well if you are doing this – the cake may dry outregardless, though it will still be yummy!Also, on a hot day your icing may begin to soften as you are layering and icing the cake.If this happens you can put the cake and the icing in the fridge for short bursts to firm itup. You may need to beat the icing again when it comes out of the fridge for a smoothconsistency. Either way, you will probably get better results on a cool day (or if you havereally good air-conditioning), but it will still taste fine!Using the flower nails helps to avoid the ‘domed’ look on a cake, which makes it hard tolayer. If you don’t happen to have a flower nail at home (they’re around $4 in cakedecorating shops), you may need to level off the sponges using a serrated knife.Peggy recommends you use around half of this quantity of syrup for this size cake. I useda bit less and didn’t find the cake as moist as when I had previously used the same recipe.You can store the syrup in the fridge for up to one month, or you can make half of thequantity provided here.

POSTED IN CAKE, DESSERT, SWEET | TAGGED BAKING, CAKE, COOKING,DESSERT, FOOD, RECIPE, VANILLA, VANILLA CAKE RECIPE

10 thoughts on “Very Vanilla Cake”

1. AssiaJANUARY 10, 2013 AT 6:42 PMWow! This looks fantastically delicious! Love the pictures too!

ReplylizbakescakesJANUARY 10, 2013 AT 6:44 PM

Thank you!

Reply2. mydearbakes

JANUARY 11, 2013 AT 11:20 PMThis looks so gorgeous, well done! =)

ReplylizbakescakesJANUARY 12, 2013 AT 11:37 AM

Thank you!

Reply3. Barb Peterson

APRIL 9, 2013 AT 9:25 PM

200 g of flour to 200g of sugar? this dose not seem right. I am baking it right now in the

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200 g of flour to 200g of sugar? this dose not seem right. I am baking it right now in theoven in two 8″ pans. I have never seen such a skimpy layer of cake batter – is this becauseof the self rising flour?

ReplylizbakescakesAPRIL 9, 2013 AT 9:28 PMHi there,I know the quantities are slightly strange but it worked for me, and that is straightfrom the book! The layers look quite thin but they do rise a lot. That said, unless yousandwich the layers with icing, the cake will be quite flat. Hope this helps

Reply4. chocolatepeanutbutterohmy

JUNE 30, 2013 AT 11:44 AMThis looks beautiful xxx

ReplylizbakescakesJULY 2, 2013 AT 7:51 PM

Thank you!

Reply5. lambsearsandhoney

AUGUST 11, 2013 AT 1:18 PMOh my, what a stunning looking cake! I love the idea of soaking with a vanilla syrup –must try it.

ReplylizbakescakesAUGUST 12, 2013 AT 11:20 AM

Thank you! It’s super yummy

Reply

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