Eat | Simple and easy Vanilla Butter cake that you should know

Have you ever wondered when watching cooking shows on TV how the cooks can just pull a recipe for a cake out of thin air? Vanilla Butter cake is just one of those recipes that everyone should just know. It's a beautiful, simple, rich and versatile cake. From just one single basic recipe you can make simple cupcakes, layered cakes, birthday cakes, tea cakes, chocolate cakes, lemon cakes...you get the idea. You need to have a butter cake recipe up your sleeve.

Just recently, as I was sharing a pot of tea with a friend (who's a fabulous baker by the way), did I realise that you don't need to recall 100  cake recipes off the top of your head....she told me there was a simple trick to remembering a butter cake recipe and she shared it with me as she drank her cuppa. You probably already know this one....

Butter cake consists of several basic pantry ingredients- butter, sugar, eggs, self-raising flour, milk, vanilla, salt...7 ingredients...that's it. A good butter cake is based on ratios...A bit more about this in a minute. Firstly, you need to understand a bit about the ingredients you are using and the roles they play in making a great butter cake.

Butter: Butter, or shortening, should be unsalted,of the best quality and at room temperature. The higher the butterfat content the more air bubbles produced and the less curdling occurs. Butter provides your cake with flavour, moisture and volume.

Sugar: Sugar sweetens the batter, slows down the gluten development in the flour and acts as a tenderizer.

Eggs: Eggs are the protein ingredient of the cake. Together with the flour, they provide the structure of the cake. Eggs also need to be at room temperature. Eggs are a critical ingredient as they provide the necessary aeration to the batter, help bind the ingredients together and keep the cake moist.

HINT: Using cold eggs reduces the volume of your cake.

Flour: Flour (combined with a levening agent) provides structure to your cake and coats the air bubbles created when the sugar and butter are creamed together. Do not overbeat your batter after the flour has been added otherwise you'll end up with a cake that will be to tough.

Levening Agent (usually baking powder- which is mixed into the S.R flour): Baking powder enlarges the bubbles created from combining the butter and the sugar.

Ok, remember I mentioned the word "ratios" a little earlier? Well, I'm about to share with you the easy butter cake recipe trick that my friend shared with me. To make a great butter cake it all comes down to ratios!

What I'm about to share with you was first published by the legendary English Victorian figure of Home Economics- Mrs Beeton- who shared her classic recipe for the Butter cake in her 1861 Book Of Household Management.

Esstentially the classic butter cake recipe is all due to the weight of your eggs!

(Note: this recipe is based on weights e.g grams/ounces not cups)

In her recipe, and many recipes of the cooks you see on TV, a great butter cake is made of equal weights of eggs, butter, flour and sugar. Yup, you read that right...weigh out your eggs (in their shells) and you'll have the weight needed for the butter, sugar and flour. So, if your eggs (usually 2 eggs is enough for a simple cake) weigh 120g, then you also need 120g butter, flour and sugar. Easy!!

(Make sure your ingredients are all at room temperature. Flour should be sifted)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius and prepare your cake pan first.

1. Weigh out your eggs- with the shells on.

2. Weigh out equal amounts of butter, flour and sugar to the same weight as your eggs.

3. Cream your butter and sugar. Start on a low speed and slowly build up the speed of the mixer. This will give the air bubbles the opportunity to form and strengthen. If you start too high with your speed, the fragile bubbles will be damaged and break. Creaming can take between 5-10 mins, the butter will change colour to a light yellow colour and be will be fluffy.

4. Add a teaspoon of vanilla essence. Lightly mix.

5. Add your eggs slowly, one at a time. Make sure the egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one.

6. Turn your mixer to low speed and add the flour in batches. Don't overmix your batter! Add the next batch of flour as soon as the first batch has just been incorporated.Add a pinch of salt.

7. Once the four has just been incorporated you will need to check you batter. Scoop out a small amount, if it is smooth and falls easily off your spoon, it's ready. If it sticks to your spoon when tured upside down, you will need to add about 1-2 tablespoons of milk (at room temp.) Add the milk slowly and don't add too much.

8. Your vanilla cake batter is ready for baking! Spread your batter in the prepared cake tin and bake on the middle shelf of your oven. Your cake is ready when you insert a skewer in the middle of the cake and the skewer comes out clean.

Now how are you going to eat your cake? Are you someone who likes their butter cake plain and unadorned? Do you like to add  a layer of cream with lashings of jam? Will you ice yours with some delicious frosting....prehaps make a birthday cake and add some sprinkles?

You can make many changes to this basic recipe. Add some lemon zest to the batter, add 2 tablespoons of cocoa for a chocolate cake, add some food colouring to the batter...it's really up to you. For me, I made a delicious and rich buttercream. I then added a few tablespoons of strawberry jam to the buttercream mixture.

...and Voila! A Strawberry Buttercream vanilla cake!

Now you too can look like you are on an episode of Masterchef or the Great Australian Bake-off and whip up a butter cake in no time.

 

 

 

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Comments

[Karen]

Thanks for a Great recipe, will use it for sure. Did you use 2 cakes? The iced cake looks so tall to the uniced cake!

[Jules]

Thanks for the baking tips, I'm going to try this recipe today. It looks like it could become a favorite. I didn't realize the importance of things like room temperature could have to the finished product.

[Bronwyn...]

Thanks Ladies,
To get the cake in the photo, I used 4 eggs for the recipe with a weight of 60g each. I separated the mixture into 2 pans and did a layer of strawberry jam buttercream in between the 2 cakes when assembling.
It was delicious!

xx Bron

[Ale]

Thanks so much.

Ale
Costa Rica

[Mary]

Like, like, like . . .

[Le rat des fils]

Your recipe looks great, thank your for sharing.

[Karen]

Bronwyn, How long do you bake the cake for ? Sorry, couldn't find the baking time. Thanx Karen

[Bronwyn...]

Hi Karen-
Good question.
Approximately an hour to an hour and a quarter- depending on your oven and the size of cake tin you use to cook the cake in.
I'd start testing the cake for "doneness" at about an hour- then you can decide if it needs a little more time or not.

[Angela Brady]

I tried your cake because I too wanted to make a cake from scratch...
It was really delicious. I only made one layer to test it out and that was plenty for the two of us.
This reminded me of my daughter's Girl Scout cakes that they cooked on a camp out. 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup flour and 1 cup of butter. Now I know there was a little bit of science behind there cake.
Thanks for sharing. Would it be too difficult to make a PDF with your art and the Irish Proverb? It is easier to print and save and share.

[Eimear]

This is a great recipe, i tried it Gluten Free and it came out lovely. There is no oven temperature in your recipe that i can see, what temp do you put it at? i put it in a moderate oven, but think thats a bit high?

Thanks for the wonderful recipe!