Last Tuesday, for Zander’s actual birthday, I whipped together a quick, one-bowl yellow cake. While it satisfied our desire for a quick birthday cake, admittedly, it wasn’t very good. The texture was dull, the flavor was dull, it just wasn’t special- I might as well have used a mix. But for his actual birthday party yesterday, he requested another vanilla cake. I knew there was only one cake I wanted to make to give him his vanilla cake, and that was the Classic Yellow Cake from King Arthur Flour.
After the dismal one-bowl cake, it was obvious why cake batter is made with specific steps and instructions. The ingredients weren’t that different, but how they were combined made all the difference in the world. The Classic Yellow Cake had a fabulous texture- slightly dense as homemade cake tends to be, but with a velvety texture. Slight bit of moistness, and tons of flavor.
Zander’s cake this year.
I used a large 12-inch circle pan that held one batch of cake batter, so ended up making two so that I had layers. The outside design of the cake is a symbol from his favorite video game, Super Smash Bros, topped with a pair of new figures to go with his game. I just used a basic buttercream frosting that I tinted with paste food coloring to really get that vibrant color. On the inside of the cake I surprised Zander by making a key lime curd filling. Wow! Did that make the cake spectacular, and I’ll share the recipe for the curd tomorrow.
Today though, here is King Arthur Flour’s Classic Yellow Cake. This is my go-to scratch cake when we want that yellow/vanilla flavor. So good, and really very easy.
Classic Yellow Cake
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened 1 3/4 cups sugar 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 large eggs, plus 2 yolks 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 1/2 cups milk, buttermilk or yogurt (I use buttermilk)Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, salt, baking powder and vanilla until light and fluffy- 2 to 5 minutes or so, depending on your mixer.
Add the eggs and egg yolks to the batter one at a time- beating completely after each addition. Slowly, blend in one-third of the flour into the creamed mixture, then half of the milk, another third of the flour, the remaining milk, and then the remaining flour. Be sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl frequently during this process.
Pour the batter into a greased and floured or parchment-lined pans. Use two 8-inch or 9-inch pans or one 9 x 13 pan. Bake 23-26 minutes for 8-inch, 25-30 for 9-inch, or about 35 minutes for the 9 x 13 pan. Remove the cakes from the oven, cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely before frosting.