As I mentioned in my last post, it is my goal to make a cake for each of my daughter’s birthday parties. So this past month I made it my mission to find the best vanilla cake out there. Quite a steep mission for only one month’s time but I think I did pretty good. The cake that I ended up using was the Cake Boss’s Cake, it is a very moist cake due to the custard that goes into it.
If you have never made a custard before it may take you a few tries to get the recipe right as it can be tricky to determine when the liquid has thickened…but have no fear…you can do it! And it will be worth the effort!!
The vanilla frosting I ended up using I actually created by accident and it was so delicious that I had to make it again (and again!).
Italian Custard Cream Recipe (to be used in the Vanilla Cake)
I made this the day before I made the cake to break up the baking steps. This custard cream is so tasty that it tastes good by itself or would go nicely served with fresh berries or in a fruit tart!
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup cake flour, sifted
5 extra-large egg yolks – note the extra-large eggs as most baking recipes use large eggs
2 teaspoons of salted butter- note the salted butter as a lot of baking recipes use unsalted butter
Directions:
1. Put the milk and vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat.
2. In a bowl, whip together the sugar, flour and egg yolks with a hand mixer. Ladle the cup of milk-vanilla mixture into the bowl and beat to temper the yolks.
3. Add the yolk mixture to the pot and beat over medium heat with the hand mixer until thick and creamy, about 3 minutes. As you are beating, move the pot on and off the flame so you don’t scramble the eggs.
4. Remove the pot from the heat, add the butter and whip for 2 minutes to thicken the cream.
5. Transfer to a bowl. Let cool, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Will keep for one week.
Barely adapted from The Cake Boss
Vanilla Cake Recipe
Ingredients:
2 1⁄2 cups cake flour, plus more for flouring the cake pans
2 cups sugar, plus more for unmolding cake
2 cups Italian Custard Cream
3⁄4 cup vegetable oil
2 1⁄4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1⁄2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon of salt
4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature – Note – EXTRA-LARGE eggs…most baking recipes use large eggs
1 cup whole milk
Unsalted butter, for greasing two cake pans (about 2 tablespoons)
Directions
1. Position a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Put the flour, sugar, custard cream, if using, vegetable oil, baking powder, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. (If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can put the ingredients in a bowl, and use a hand mixer with the blending attachments, but take extra care to not overmix.) Mix on slow just until the ingredients are blended together, a few seconds, then raise the speed to low-medium and continue to mix until smooth, approximately 1 additional minute.
3. With the motor running, add 1 egg at a time, adding the next one after the previous one has been absorbed into the mixture. Stop the motor periodically and scrape the bowl from the bottom with a rubber spatula to integrate the ingredients, and return the mixer to low-medium speed. After all the eggs are added, continue to mix for an additional minute to ensure the eggs have been thoroughly mixed in. This will help guarantee that the sugar is dissolved and that the flour has been thoroughly mixed in.
4. With the motor running, add the milk, 1⁄2 cup at a time, stopping the motor to scrape the sides and bottom between the two additions. Continue to mix for another minute or until the mixture appears smooth.
5. Grease two 9-inch cake pans (2 inches high) with the butter, and flour them.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the two cake pans, using a rubber spatula to scrape down the bowl and get as much batter as possible out. Bake until the cake begins to pull from the sides of the pan and is springy to the touch, 25 to 30 minutes.
7. Remove the cakes from the oven and let cool for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour. The cakes should be at room temperature before you remove them from the pan. Put a piece of parchment paper on a cookie sheet, top with sugar, and one at a time, turn the pans over and turn the cakes out onto parchment; the sugar will keep it from sticking. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to decorate.
Yield: Makes two 9-inch cakes or 24 cupcakes
Vanilla Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients:
1 lb unsalted butter at room temperature
8 oz hi-ratio shortening
3 tablespoons of vanilla extract
3 pounds of confectioners’ sugar
4 1/2 fl oz water – 1 1/2 tablespoons
3 tablespoons of meringue powder
1 teaspoon of salt
Directions:
1. Cream the shortening and butter with a paddle-whip in the stand mixer for 3 minutes on medium-high speed. Stop and scrap the bowl.
2. Add the vanilla extract and salt. Mix until combined.
3. Gradually add the sugar.
4. Add the meringue powder (the mixture will seem very dry at this point…that is okay!).
5. Add the water and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy – 5 to 8 minutes.
To create the ombre effect – I separated out the icing into 3 different bowls and tinted each bowl with a different amount of pink food coloring. To create the lightest shade I stuck a toothpick in the food coloring once. To create the medium pink shade, I stuck the toothpick in approximately 3 times and for the darkest pink shade approximately 4.5 times. Coloring will vary based upon how much icing is in each bowl.
I created the ridge like effect with a tapered offset spatula.
Yield: The frosting recipe will frost 1 two-layer 7-inch cake and 1 two-layer 9-inch cake.