FINALLY!!!!!! That perfect homemade yellow cake - Page 4  

that cake looks awesome 

your cake looks very good . definiatly try it. i don't know if i like yellow cake more than sponge cake since i never try them before and i like more airy light cake. but i excited to try them. i hope they turn out good since i'm have been looking for good yellow cake made from start.

Thank you, Betty!  I, too, have been searching for the perfect yellow cake and thanks to you I have found it!  I've probably tried about 30 yellow cake variations with no luck.  Yesterday I had to make 60 yellow cupcakes for a baby shower.  After much frustration (and almost resorting to using a boxed cake) I found your recipe.  The cupcakes not only smelled and tasted wonderful, but they were finally moist - which is no small achievement when it comes to yellow cakes.  Thanks for sharing your efforts! 

I really love those cakes. I will try to make that all one by one. :D

Thanks for the great recipes.

Oh my goodness, this is the best cake I've ever made.  I just made this cake today for my husband's birthday, and we all went crazy over it!

I substituted 1/2 stick of softened butter and 2 tablespoons lemon juice for the oil and used lemon extract instead of vanilla and frosted with lemon cream cheese icing.  It was out of this world!  So fluffy!  So wonderful!

Thank you!  I will be baking this cake and variations of it for many birthdays to come!

Oh my goodness, this is the best cake I've ever made.  I just made this cake today for my husband's birthday, and we all went crazy over it!

I substituted 1/2 stick of softened butter and 2 tablespoons lemon juice for the oil and used lemon extract instead of vanilla and frosted with lemon cream cheese icing.  It was out of this world!  So fluffy!  So wonderful!

Thank you!  I will be baking this cake and variations of it for many birthdays to come!

• BettyR

• Just wanted to thank you for posting this Yellow Cake Recipe. I found it shortly after you posted it but never thanked you for it. It's the best Yellow Cake I've ever made. All the others are so dry. After making this one for the first time I tossed the others.

• The first time I made it was for some of my Swiss neighbors. Gotta tell ya they loved it! Now, whenever we're getting together, I'm asked if there will be "gâteau jaune" . . ". They don't want me to make anything else! A couple of them even went out in search of U.S. Customary measuring cups so they could make it just as it was written.

• Anyway, Christmas evening some of my elderly neighbors who are alone in Christmas are coming over for a little Christmas party. Manon is one of the people coming. She's 91. Guess what the first question out of her was concerning what we'd be having for dessert?  

• (I have no idea what that stuff is at the end of my post!)

the fiJustJustB 

How did you make your lemon cream cheese icing?

I am constantly trying for that perfect cake.  I have your recipe and am in the middle of making it.  In the past I have used a recipe which was handed down in my family for a few generations.  It is tricky, but simple to remember - a 1-2-3-4 cake.  One cup of butter (organic - two sticks from a four stick pack), two cups of organic turbinado sugar (it used to have another name, but it is the sugar processed only once and not bleached), three cups of organic whole wheat flour (my grandmother used regular flour, I use organic whole wheat pastry flour, but every once in a while I go back to the old ways because I like the rougher texture - it tastes real), four organic eggs from a farm you know lets their chickens run around in the sun and feeds only organic food as a supplement to their picking from their running space.  I also add one teaspoon of baking power- although that isn't always used.  When I feel really great I beat the butter, sugar and eggs until they are like whipped cream and the baking powder is redundant.  A pinch of salt and if the texture is too 'tight' I add whatever we have in the kitchen - heavy cream, mashed bananas, etc. which can make the batter a bit more liquid.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, if regular flour and 30 minutes if pastry flour.  

This has always been our cake recipe.  In about an hour I will know if your cake recipe will supersede what we have been doing.  

I love to find new ways to do old things so I am really looking forward to the results of your yellow cake recipe - thank you for sharing it.

This recipe sounds just great!

I just made the fantastic yellow cake.  My altitude is almost 4000 feet here and the cake had a bit of a greasy feel to it and a bit of tunneling.  I am just starting to bake here and find that I need to alter a lot of the sea level baking recipes.  Any suggestions on higher altitude changes?? 

Another enthusiastic vote for this cake. The frosting is also excellent, reminded me of chocolate pudding. Next I may try adding some Dutch cocoa to make a chocolate cake, or adding it to half the batter and making a marble.

I am looking for a yellow cake recipe to make for a diabetic friend. Do you think it would work to make this delicious looking recipe with Splenda or Splenda Sugar mix? Has anyone tried it? I don't know what happens to a cake when Splenda is substituted for sugar (the package says it can be substituted one for one but is that really true?)

Finally! I've made the first recipe, it was a success. It was really moist and delicious, I want to try the second one which is the fudge. Thanks again!

I have been searching for the perfect white cake recipe and found it a few months ago.  Sometimes white cakes can be dry but this cake has a little extra butter than most recipes I found and I think that is why it is so moist. 

After baking and cooling, I split the cake layers in two and brushed the bottom layer with melted raspberry preserves, barely covering the layer and not letting any of the preserves pool.  I then applied a layer Swiss buttercream (lightly lemon flavor) over the raspberry preserves being careful to not let any of the preserves color the buttercream.  Replace layer top.  Repeat with remaining layers leaving the top layer plain. 

I frosted the entire cake with the buttercream and decorated with fresh raspberries and a few sprigs of fresh mint. This cake is so easy to work with and tastes moist and light and has a fine crumb.  I found it to be the perfect white cake.  I like the fact that the egg whites are not beaten separately like some white cakes.

I always bake my cake layers, cool and then wrap individually and freeze for one or two days.  Then I partially defrost the cake (to the point where the cake is cold but not frozen) and then I frost.  This method really does make cakes moister.

Classic White Layer Cake       Serves 12

Nonstick cooking spray
2¼ cups cake flour (9 ounces), plus more for dusting the pans
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites (¾ cup), at room temperature
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1¾ cups granulated sugar (12¼ ounces)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1½ sticks), softened but still cool

1. For the Cake: Set oven rack in middle position. (If oven is too small to cook both layers on a single rack, set racks in upper-middle and lower-middle positions.) Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray the paper rounds, dust the pans with flour, and invert pans and rap sharply to remove excess flour.

2. Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended.

3. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining.

4. Add all but ½ cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1½ minutes. Add remaining ½ cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.

5. Divide batter evenly between two prepared cake pans; using rubber spatula, spread batter to pan walls and smooth tops. Arrange pans at least 3 inches from the oven walls and 3 inches apart. (If oven is small, place pans on separate racks in staggered fashion to allow for air circulation.) Bake until thin skewer or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 23 to 25 minutes.

6. Let cakes rest in pans for 3 minutes. Loosen from sides of pans with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto wire racks. Reinvert onto additional wire racks. Let cool completely, about 1½ hours. 

I look forward to trying this tonight. Thank you for posting this

That looks really, really good. Just reading over the ingredients though, it doesn't look like I can fit it into my current diet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BreadMaker Man 

That looks really, really good. Just reading over the ingredients though, it doesn't look like I can fit it into my current diet.

At least for me, a luscious cake is for special occasions only - birthday parties, etc., certainly not every day or even every month.  I had a small piece of the white cake at my husband's birthday party and I still am fitting into my jeans

Betty - Thank you so much for sharing your yellow cake recipe. It is delicious!! I will never make a boxed cake again.  I have made many homemade yellow cake recipes that I had found on the internet with no luck until I found your recipe.  I made two 15x10 cakes for my sons birthday. I made them the week before and froze them. They turned out great!  One with homemade whip cream frosting and the other with your recipe for chocolate frosting. Your recipe for chocolate frosting is also the best we have ever had. The first time I made the frosting in the microwave and it came out perfect and the second time I did it on the stove. When I did it on the stove it ended up having  little chunks of cornstarch in it that did not mix. I do not know what I did wrong, but it still tasted great! Thank you!!

DELICIOUS!!! Great texture and "crust" if you will. I always loved the outside of a pound cake just as much as the inside, and this cake keeps that character of a pound cake but with a lighter, less dense cake overall. I actually didnt have vanilla (how does one run out of vanilla?! a tragedy) so I actually combined a little almond, butter, rum, lemon and coconut extracts together (all together totaling the 1 Tbsp) and it turned out as I hoped- tasting like my Nannie's 5 flavor pound cake. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!! It is wonderful!!!

Thank you, Betty, for sharing your recipe.  I have baked for years and am always eager to try someone's "best" recipe.  I can see from your photos that it is a rich, tender cake.

Just for the sake of comparison, I may also try the Cook's Illustrated yellow cake, just because they claim their recipes are the "best" - which only challenges me to prove it myself against a tried-and-true home baker's recipe such as yours, LOL.

I would like to replace the oil with melted butter -- can I use the same amount of butter as oil or do I need to add/delete some liquid?

Jen

can I get some help with the amount of oil please.

I'd like to try this using a couple of measuring cups because I don't know how to get the oil mixed on top of the milk to equal the 1 1/3 cup at the end.

so, I think I'll measure the milk in a cup measurer, then I'll measure more milk in a 1/4 cup  measurer, then I put the 1/4 cup of milk into a 1/3 cup measurer and fill that up with oil.  would that work?

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimnjen 

Thank you, Betty, for sharing your recipe.  I have baked for years and am always eager to try someone's "best" recipe.  I can see from your photos that it is a rich, tender cake.

 

Just for the sake of comparison, I may also try the Cook's Illustrated yellow cake, just because they claim their recipes are the "best" - which only challenges me to prove it myself against a tried-and-true home baker's recipe such as yours, LOL.

 

I would like to replace the oil with melted butter -- can I use the same amount of butter as oil or do I need to add/delete some liquid?

 

Jen

 

That's what I suggested back a while in post#38 and so far no takers
 

Reply to #114, and by inference #38

FWIW, butter is approximately 15% water, so, if a recipe calls for 1 ounce of oil, I'd try about 1.2 ounces of butter (7 teaspoons= 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon) and reduce the liquid by a teaspoon, if you think the liquid is critical. Do I think the liquid adjustment is necessary, maybe for a large batch but not for one cake, IMHO.

Now, will the substitution work? Probably.

Will it taste the same? Maybe, maybe not?

Will it taste better? Well, maybe more "buttery", if that is better, then yes, otherwise, no.

I made the cake today and posted it on my blog: http://toffeebitsandchocolatechips.blogspot.com/2011/02/basic-yellow-cake.html#more

It turned out beautiful and was gone almost instantly! Thanks for the great recipe!

This cake was wonderful and my family loved it!

I was making a cake from food and wine mag. it turned out horrible so I looked online and substituted your cake and kept the coconut buttercream frosting and rum float (to drizzle on top of each layer)from the mag. It was AMAZING! thank you sooo much:)!

This cake looks gorgeous...I can't wait to try it!

It must be a real hit if readers on this forum have been commenting on this thread for years! :) Kudos!