Well hello, there! I made us a cake. Just because. If I could, I’d cut you a slice, and pour you a nice, hot cup of coffee to go with it. But since I can’t do that, I’ll do the next best thing, and share the recipe with you.
Everyone needs a good classic white cake in their repertoire, and this is mine. It’s my go-to white cake, easily adaptable for any season, holiday, or event. As you can see here, I made it for spring and decorated it with the apple blossoms that were blooming all around.
Apple blossoms on a spring day
Gathering apple blossoms for decorating
Classic white cake for a spring day
What makes this cake my go-to is that it’s…well, it’s good. For starters. And it’s easy, which is very important to me. You may already know this about me, but I'm not crazy about fussy recipes. I like to be able to dump a bunch of stuff in a bowl and turn out a respectable cake. Of course, I do appreciate a well-made cake using proper cake –making technique, but I don’t always (which is to say, rarely) feel like being all that particular about proper technique, especially if I’m just baking for fun. Which is usually why I'm baking.
Classic white cake with buttercream and apple blossoms
Frosting a classic white cake with buttercream
This cake has a delicate vanilla flavor, which makes it an excellent vehicle for almost any kind of frosting you want to put on it. I’m a sucker for a vanilla American buttercream, and that’s what I used here, but you could use anything like. You can also change up the flavor of the cake by adding a little bit of almond extract or just about any other flavor that floats your boat.
Unlike many of the white cake recipes out there, I use one whole egg in addition to two egg whites. It gives the cake a bit more richness than if you use all egg whites. I also use part butter and part shortening, but this recipe is forgiving, so you can easily switch out the shortening and butter as you please. I will say I’m not crazy about it made with all shortening – I find it to be too dry. But using half or all butter yields a good flavor and a nice texture.
Classic white cake decorated with apple blossoms
A note about baking time – keep a close eye on your cake when it’s in the oven. Ovens vary and cakes can overbake quickly. They will go from nearly batter to dry crumbs in 3 minutes flat. It’s worth sticking close to the oven for those last few minutes of baking so that you catch it at just the right stage.
Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ c. sugar
- ¼ c. unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- ¼ c. shortening (you can use butter instead, if you prefer)
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- ¼ tsp. almond extract (entirely optional)
- 2 egg whites
- 1 whole egg
- 2 ¼ c. cake flour
- 3 ½ tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1 c. whole milk (if you don’t have whole milk, add a tablespoon or two of cream or melted butter to low-fat milk - you want a little fat in the milk for this)
Method
Preheat the oven to 350® and prepare your baking pans. I used two 8” round pans but you can also use 9” or a 9”x13”. I prefer to use softened butter to grease the pan and then dust lightly with flour, but you can also use a baking spray that contains flour. I don’t bother with lining my cake pan with parchment paper for this, but you can do that if you’d like some extra insurance that your cake won’t stick to the pan.
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the sugar, butter, and shortening until pale and fluffy. Add the vanilla, almond extract (if using), egg whites, and whole egg, and mix on medium speed until well-combined.
For the next step, you can either measure your dry ingredients into a separate bowl and alternate adding them to the butter/sugar/egg mixture with the milk, or you can add them all at once. Your choice. If you measure the dry ingredients into a separate bowl, add 1/3 of that mixture to the butter mixture, give it a quick mix, add a third of the milk, give that a quick mix, and so on, until you have all the ingredients added. Then mix the whole thing on medium speed for about a minute. This method will result in a more uniform crumb for your cake. If you don’t care too much about that and don’t want to fuss with additional bowls, you can measure everything directly into the bowl and mix, slowly at first, until it all comes together.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans, doing your best to even it out if you’re using 2 round pans. Pop the pans into the oven for 25 min. and then keep a careful eye on them. Check them every 2 min. at this point. If they are still batter in the center, you’re safe to go 3-4 min between checks. But if the cake is starting to look firm, use a toothpick or cake tester to check the center. If it comes out wet, go for 2 more min and check again. If it comes out with a few crumbs, pull the cakes out.
Turn them out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely. Then you can frost and decorate as you choose. I used my basic buttercream, which I’ll share with you here too.
Buttercream Frosting
- ¾ c. shortening (you can use butter if you prefer)
- ¼ c. unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 2 tsp. vanilla
- 3 ¼ c. confectioners’ sugar
- 2-3 Tbsp. cream
Using the paddle attachment on a stand mixer, mix the shortening and butter until fully combined. Add the vanilla and mix. Add the confectioner’s sugar, 1 c. at a time, mixing thoroughly in between. When the frosting begins to look dry, add a tablespoon of cream. Once all the sugar is mixed in, add more cream as needed to get to the spreading consistency you like. I find it usually takes me 2 ½ Tbsp. of cream and I aim for a soft consistency that spreads easily, but can hold its shape. If you’ve gone too far, and your frosting is too soft and will slide off the cake or look droopy, add a little bit more confectioners’ sugar to pump it up. Decorate the cake as you please, and enjoy!
Classic white cake, decorated with apple blossoms
Enjoy!
- KB
Apple blossoms and coffee
Classic white cake decorated with apple blossoms
Classic white cake decorated with apple blossoms
