My favorite Vanilla cake recipe

This is my favorite vanilla cake recipe. It has a light, fluffy texture along with being ridiculously yummy. The method used in this recipe is called “reversed creaming” (this term will always make me giggle cuz I’m twisted) I add a lil almond extract to give it a festive nutty flavor. Nut’s in your mouth is a festival.

To make your cake baking experience go seamlessly, Mis En Place (a French culinary phrase which means “get your shit together” before you begin…loosely translated) Having all your ingredients measured out and ready to go will keep you organized and on the path to cake bliss.

A key factor in creating a cake that will make you the envy of everyone that has ever met you, is to make sure that the eggs, milk and butter are at room temperature. This will ensure that the ingredients blend together with the greatest of ease, which in turn, makes for a yummy cake.

I prefer to use buttermilk because thanks to its acidity, buttermilk helps break down the gluten and proteins which makes my cakes as tender as a baby’s ass. Don’t have any buttermilk in your fridge? Not a problem, just add 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice to the milk and just watch that curdle magic happen.

Vanilla Cake

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

Spray either 3, 6 inch round pans or 2, 8 inch round pans generously with Pam with flour. I love this stuff so much. It really is a time saver and the cakes release right out of the pans.

1 cup Buttermilk (at room temp)

4 large eggs (at room temp)

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon Almond extract

Add the above ingredients into a liquid measuring cup and blend well.

In the bowl of a standing mixer add the following ingredients;

2 1/4 cups cake flour

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Blend together slowly with the whisk attachment

12 Tablespoons butter at room temperature cut into pieces

Add butter, 1 piece at a time and mix until it resembles wet sand (hopefully you’ve seen wet sand. Just google it if you haven’t)

Once it looks like wet sand, slowly add the egg mixture

Once you’ve added all of the egg mixture, give it a good beating. Don’t worry, it wants you to beat it. But only for a minute, making sure there are no clumps of butter.

That is such a pretty batter

Make sure to scrape the bowl and pour into pans

Gently tap the pans on the counter to help release any air bubbles and bake until toothpick comes out with a few crumbs attached. 25-30 minutes depending on your oven.

Once the cakes have cooled to room temperature, turn out of pans and let cool on a cooling rack.

When the cakes have cooled completely, wrap in cling wrap and keep in fridge over night.

I found this cling wrap that is 100% compostable and it works great so we all win.

Cake is a lot like soup in that it actually tastes better the next day. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing like the taste of the top of the cake when it is still warm, it tastes of cherub. But once the cakes have been properly chilled, they are easier to work with and taste even more cheruby.

Happy Baking!