Rich Vanilla Cake Recipe

I spent years, seriously, years, looking for a good scratch vanilla cake recipe. Every one I tried turned out way to heavy. SO frustrating. Finally, about a year or so ago, I came across a recipe for "Fluffy Yellow Cake" in the March 2008 issue of Cook's Illustrated magazine.

The recipe below is my adapted version because theirs is a little more fussy than I like to be in the kitchen. But the basic idea, of whisking the egg whites separately is what makes this cake different from all of the others I tried. It is pretty rich, what with all of the butter and egg yolks, so I wouldn't call it light and fluffy, but it is definitely not a rock!

What You Need:
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn starch (optional, or just use 2 1/2 cups flour)
1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups sugar (divided)
12 T (1 1/2 sticks) melted butter
1 cup buttermilk (or soured milk)
1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
6 eggs (you will use all 6 yolks, but only 3 whites)




Combine the first five dry ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Add 1 1/2 cups of the sugar.

vanilla or strawberry or caramel icing?

Whisk the whites in the mixer bowl until frothy. Slowly add 1/4 cup sugar, and whisk until the whites hold a stiff peak.

Like this.

Remove the whipped whites from the bowl, and set aside.
*I love this picture, but it is a little bit of false advertising. I made a 1.5 batch when I took this particular photo. So, this is actually five whisked whites. But how cool is that?!

In the mixer bowl, combine 6 egg yolks, 3/4 cup melted butter, 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk with 1 Tbsp. white vinegar added), and 1 Tbsp. vanilla.

Slowly add the powdered mixture until just combined.

Remove the bowl from the mixer, and fold in about 1/3 of the whipped egg whites.

Fold in the remaining egg whites carefully so you don't deflate them.

Mix slowly and carefully until no white streaks remain.

This recipe yields about 5 cups of batter. That would allow you to bake it in an 8"x3" round pan for 55 minutes or so at 350-degrees. Or you can pour it into a 9"x13"x2" sheet pan, and it will bake for about 20-30 minutes at 350-degrees. Because I tend to bake my cakes in different pans for different occasions, I always default to the directions for the pan for baking times. I use this chart from Wilton because most of my pans are Wilton pans.

I have to apologize for the lack of finished cake photos in this post. I used this cake to make the Vanilla-Dark Chocolate Mini Cakes, and I neglected to take any plain cake photos. I will add some next time I use this recipe. Promise.

Click the Links Below to See:
Recipe Index with all of my recipes
Basic Cake Decorating Recipes & Ideas
Vanilla-Dark Chocolate Mini Cakes

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