Yellow Cake
Ingredients
Ingredients To Be Creamed and Mixed:
- 12 tablespoons, softened unsalted butter (1½ sticks)
- 1¼ cups sugar
Egg Yolk Mixture:
- 8 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Dry Ingredients:
- 2¼ cups flour (or 2½ cups cake flour)
- 2½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt (if using salted butter use ⅛ teaspoon salt)
Milk:
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 375°.
- Grease and flour three 8-inch round cake pans.
- Click here for instructions on how to prepare cake pans for baking.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy; about 1 minute.
- Gradually add sugar and beat on high speed until lightened in color and texture; about 2 to 4 minutes.
- Place egg yolks in a separate bowl.
- Add vanilla to the egg yolks.
- Mix egg yolks and vanilla on high speed until thick and pale yellow in color; approximately 2 minutes.
- Add the egg mixture to the butter mixture and beat in.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the milk in 2 parts to the butter and egg mixture. Beat on low speed until smooth, scraping down sides of bowl as necessary.
- Divide the batter between the cake pans and spread evenly.
- Bake 20 minutes.
- Cake is done when it springs back from a light touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool on a rack for exactly 10 minutes then remove from pans.
- Click here to see how to how to remove cakes from pans.
- Cool completely on a rack before frosting.
Recipe adapted from Joy of Cooking, by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker. New York: Scribner (1997).
Comments
Frost with chocolate buttercream frosting, chocolate ganache, or whipped chocolate ganache.Click here for instructions on frosting a layer cake.
Instead of discarding the 8 egg whites, consider using them to make a lemon layer cake.