Vanilla cake.
Is there anything more satisfying and pure in the caking world? Perfectly and gently flavored, beautifully tender, and deeply satisfying. Seems easy, right? NOPE. Sorry to destroy that foodie goodness up there, but it’s really not that easy to make from scratch, unless you practice, practice, practice and test a whole bunch. Which is precisely what I did.
And now, I share it with you!
This is just the beginning. Below you will also find all of the components to this Vanilla Cake with Raspberry Reduction, and Passion Fruit Buttercream that Avalon Yarnes of Avalon Cakes and I presented on our recent appearance of Duff Till Dawn on Food Network.
Of course, if you watched, this was only one of three tasting cakes we sent up for judgement, and what you may not have seen on tv is that EVERYONE WAS DROOLING. Obviously that’s not pretty for the cameras, but trust us. There were crumb covered shirts and drooly chins. It was the grossest compliment we’ve ever received. Let’s begin…
Kara’s Perfect Vanilla Cake
Yield: 2 – 8” round cakes (use 3 inch deep pans, or line them higher than the edge with parchment)
Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour 16 oz. (3.25 cups)
Baking powder 2.5 tsp.
Granulated sugar 22 oz. (3 cups)
Salt .75 tsp.
Unsalted butter, room temp 8 oz. (1 cup; 2 sticks)
Vanilla Bean Paste* 1.5 TBSP
Egg Whites, large, room temp 7 each (about 1 cup)
Milk, whole, room temp 12 oz. (1.5 cups)
Vegetable oil 1 oz. (1/8 cup)
What to do:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease sides and bottom of 2 – 8” round pans. You can line with parchment on bottom and sides if you wish for easy removal.
- Add all dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt) to a stand mixer bowl and mix with a paddle to combine well. This replaces sifting.
- In a separate bowl, combine all wet ingredients (vanilla bean paste, egg whites, milk, and vegetable oil) and whisk to combine. Set aside.
- Turn mixer to low and add chunks of butter slowly to the dry mix. Continue to beat on slow until there are no chunks of butter remaining and the mixture becomes crumbly.
- On low speed, add 1/3 of the liquid ingredients to the dry/butter ingredients and then turn to medium. Mix until a light paste forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add half of the remaining wet ingredients and beat on medium high speed for 4 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Add the remaining wet ingredients and beat on medium speed for 5 minutes.
- Divide evenly between the two prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean and sides have begun to pull away from the side of the pan.
- Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan. Place on a rack to finish cooling.
*Vanilla extract can be substituted for vanilla bean paste.
**To make this perfectly textured and delicious cake chocolate, simply replace 3 oz. (weighed) of AP flour with 3 oz. (weighed) Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa (a dutched cocoa powder, not natural or light unsweetend) and add it to the dry ingredient mix.
Raspberry Reduction
Yield: 1/2 cup
Ingredients:
Raspberries, fresh (in season) or frozen 12 oz.
Sugar, granulated ¼ c
Lemon Juice 1 TBSP
Vanilla bean paste ¼ tsp
What to do:
- Place raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a medium saucepot over medium heat,
- Stir and heat until softened and bubbling and sugar is dissolved
- Reduce heat to low and allow to simmer until thickened (like molasses)
- Pass through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds
- Refrigerate is not using immediately
Swiss Style Buttercream
Yield : 1,000 grams
Ingredients:
Sugar 10 oz. (284 grams)
Meringue powder 12.6 grams
Egg whites 6.5 oz. (184 grams)
Shortening 3.5 oz. (100 grams)
Butter, unsalted, room temp 16 oz. (2 cups, 4 sticks, 454 grams)
Vanilla bean paste 1 TBSP
Passion Fruit paste 60-70 grams (to taste)
(Link to the passion fruit paste and our other flavors at the end of this post!)
What to do:
- Scale all ingredients
- Whisk sugar and meringue powder together in the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment
- Combine egg whites and sugar mixture in the bowl
- Heat over boiling water to 135˚F (all sugar should be dissolved)
- Whip on high speed for 20 minutes in stand mixer or until room temp
- Change to paddle attachment, set to medium speed and slowly add the shortening, then butter and the flavor pastes (vanilla and passionfruit).
- Beat till fully incorporated and light in color
This may seem to “break” at some point, where the butter may look curdled. No worries, keep beating and it comes back together.
Time to assemble…
I torte my cakes by hand. I’m simply very practiced at it and I just have a knack visually for seeing what I’m doing. I can perfectly line up and hang photos without a measuring tape too. <— Random facts about Kara, right there.
My vanilla cake recipe will bake to just over 1.5 inches high in each 8″ round by 3″ deep pan when split evenly. Pressing the tops down with a slightly smaller pan and paper towel between them after 10 minutes, just before removing from the pan, will give you much more level cakes with less doming and less trimming required to level them. Then you just have to eyeball them in half.
I torte to 3/4 inch per cake layer and spread a thin layer of raspberry reduction on the cake (1/3 of the total quantity of raspberry you have made).
Then I use 1/2 inch of passion fruit butter cream in between layers.
You can refrigerate between adding new layers of filling, especially if you are going to cover this cake in fondant. Since I was serving it nakey to show off it’s beautiful color and layers, I didn’t. I wanted just a bit of that passion fruit buttercream to peek out from between the layers. I was smoothing it over anyways.
The next time someone asks for the all-too-typical but undying traditional raspberry lemon cake, suggest this instead. It’s a nice contemporary update to the classic. The remaining two recipes will be released a bit later this week, each in it’s own post, ’cause MAN there is tons to include!
For a 5 pack of our flavors that we used to created these cakes, click HERE >>>http://bit.ly/1MoX9WA
You’ll hop on over to Pastry Portal and be able to get the packs with free shipping 🙂 Free is always good!
Thank you so much for sharing! I cannot wait to try this recipe out!!
Hi kara,
love all your shares.thank you!
I’m just wondering about the whipping on high for 20… 20 what? Minutes seconds? I’m guessing minutes?
Thanks
Ha! Good catch, and thank you! I edited for minutes. So yes, you were correct 🙂
Would love to try this Kara. But when are we going to add the dry ingredients? Is it alternaiting the liquids? Thanks
The dry ingredients are mixed in the mixer first, then the butter is added and then the wet. It’s all listed above 🙂
Hi Kara,
Thank you for the recipie.
My question is, the traditional way is to cream butter and sugar and then add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients until combined to get light texture. In you recipie you beat the flour for 10 minutes. Doesn’t this cause the gluten in the flour to activate hence a denser cake?
I am be totally wrong here. Can you shed some light?
Thank you so much in advance.
You are totally correct in that creaming butter and sugar is the standard method. But this method, the “High Ratio” mixing method (which is used by professionals in the industry for a long time actually coats the granules of flour in fat, not allowing much water to penetrate the starch molecules and create gluten during mixing. The high Ration method addresses over development of gluten (which can toughen cakes) within the method. Just trust me 🙂 Yes, it’s a bit foreign to most bakers and cakers, but this is a sound and better method.
With this method, are the wet ingredients room temp? (eggs, milk, butter?) I’ve been really trying to become a better scratch baker and I don’t want to mess this up on my first try. Thanks!
The fact that you made that assumption is proof that you are well on your way! YES! They should be room temp 🙂
I know I already told you but I’m leaving this comment here so others can see… This vanilla cake is amazing!!! It has the most perfect crumb and is fluffy yet feels sturdy and tastes better than any cake I’ve ever made or had anywhere else! I didn’t have vanilla bean paste but I’m ordering some! I used my own homemade vanilla extract. I had this cake for breakfast!
This recipe seems a lot like the one on craftsy except their recipe calls for cake flower and room temperature eggs and milk. What’s the difference between cake flower and all purpose flour? And how will it effect my cake? Thanks I love you cakes!
Cake flour results in a more tender crumb because it has a significantly lower protein content than AP. However, because of the processing that is used to get that, some people can taste it in the final product. And Cake flour is illegal in most countries other than the United States because of the processing. Personally, I love cake flour for cake baking. But I formulated this recipe to give you a beautiful cake without needing it. Many people over seas will not be able to source it, and often times people in the US have AP on hand and don’t want to have to go get cake flour. I get it. So I helped 🙂
Hi Kara! Thank you for this great post; I’ve come over here from Cake Newbs on Facebook. I’m curious about the 7 egg whites and wondering what the benefits of using only whites would be. Is it to help the cakes structure? I enjoy the richness that yolks create in a cake usually so I’m just wondering if it would be possible to use 3 whole eggs + 1 egg white.
On another note, I want to say thank you for all that you do for us hobby bakers seeking help online! Baking cakes and cupcakes has become such a passion for me in the last year thanks to the great community of cakers online willing to share. You do amazing work!
First of all, my dear, you are most welcome! I truly enjoy teaching and helping. It’s just part of my personal fabric 🙂
As for the whites, I like the whiteness of the cake. And yolks will add a bit more richness, but if you’ve tried the recipe as written you may find you don’t necessarily have that “wanting” with the results. Try it. And tell me what you think!
I might just be missing it but for the Passion Fruit Buttercream, do I just add the Passion fruit to the Swiss Style Buttercream at the end of the beating?
Good catch, and thank you! I updated the recipe above 🙂
I can hardly wait to try this cake — thank you so much for sharing! Have you ever made it using whole eggs?
Nope. I do have vanilla cake recipes that I use whole eggs with, but I wanted this one nice and tender, so no yolks 🙂 It does keep it whiter, but that’s just an extra bonus if you like that.
Hi Kara! If the reason of using egg whites is to make it white, can we use whole eggs if we will go for the chocolate version?
Thank you for sharing this. I love you and your works. :*
Hi Roxanne! Short answer, no. The whites are for tenderness and crumb structure, not color. In fact, because I use natural bourbon vanilla bean paste in this it isn’t bright white at all. 🙂 The yolks added would make it tougher and less tender, which is the cornerstone of this recipe. Wonderfully tender without falling apart at all.
When making the butterceeam. When do you add the passion fruit paste? I don’t see it in the instructions
Good catch, and thank you! I updated the recipe above 🙂
Is it okay to use cake flour instead of all purpose? How much cake flour is needed to substitute the AP? Thanks a lot for sharing!
Cake flour is distinctly different than AP, and I haven’t reformulated the recipe to use cake flour. If you give it a try, send me a message and let me know what you think!
Hi Kara! 🙂 I just tried this recipe last night and it came out really good! The crumb is truly divine, I don’t know how the cake can be fluffy and dense at the same time <3. What I found really helpful in your recipe is that you mentioned how long to mix the batter in each stage. Thanks a lot for sharing your recipes with us, no wonder why Duff was so impressed by these cakes 😉
I’m so glad you liked it Mirna!!! 🙂
Hi Kara! Thank you for this recipe…is it ok to half it ?
Half it? Less cake??? 😉 Yes. It’s fine. LOL
Hello. This looks divine! Can this recipe be doubled or tripled?
Yes, however, the recipe as written is larger than most typical cake recipes and will take up a greater portion at one batch than most others. I would advise doing a single batch first, seeing how much it fills your mixer, then adjust accordingly. If it fills it too much, you may not be able to get the mixing stages done properly which would result in a poor bake and separation of ingredients during baking.
Hello Kara, Thanks for sharing the recipe! Trying it out this weekend. Is it okay to double this recipe for a large cake?
Yes, however, the batch as written is larger than most recipes and will fill your mixer higher. Doubling it may prevent the mixer from completing the mixing stages as needed. The high ratio mixing is truly the magic in this method and recipe.
Hello Kara, Thanks a million for sharing the recipe. Will be trying it this weekend and cant wait! Is it okay to double this recipe for a large size cake?
Yes, however, the recipe as written is larger than most typical cake recipes and will take up a greater portion at one batch than most others. I would advise doing a single batch first, seeing how much it fills your mixer, then adjust accordingly. If it fills it too much, you may not be able to get the mixing stages done properly which would result in a poor bake and separation of ingredients during baking.
Hi Kara, this looks amazing! Just wondering where I might get my hands on some passion fruit paste?
You can all of our pastes including the passion fruit here: http://pastryportal.com/friends-we-love-c-98/karas-couture-cakes-c-98_100/flavor-paste-5pack-p-779.html?zenid=046b491662b6410938482abf6827cfee#.VRlrVGYyFGY
Hello Kara, is it okay to use the real passion fruit fruit instead of a paste? And how should I go about it with the seeds?
Certainly! Making a puree would work, but you’d need to be cautious about using too much. And if you work the passion fruit through a mesh strainer like when seeding strawberry puree or raspberry puree, (see how I did my raspberry in this post) you’ll get rid of the seeds 🙂
I am so excited to get the flavor pastes! For some strange reason I have been waiting to try your recipes (until I received the pastes silly), something I plan to rectify over the next few days 😉
I was wondering if there would be enough paste to try the flavors? I guess the only one I was concerned about was the passion fruit, since it requires the most, and I’m sure you girls considered that when developing the idea. I apologize in advance for this question, I understand that the pastes are highly concentrated so a little goes a long way but looking at the recipe it seems like a lot. I’m sure instructions will come with them also, but basically the percentage of flavoring added will be based off the weight of the batter, is that correct? Or buttercream in this case. The only experience I’ve had with highly concentrated flavoring was labeled with a percentage, and I think those are still unopened in my spice cabinet. Thank you for already having these already weighed out, I just want to understand for myself & I’m sure I’m making it more complicated then need be!
Thank you for sharing your infinite wisdom with us! Recipe development is a lot more difficult then people realize! I’m still learning how different ingredients interact with each other and who causes what…
And thank you for taking the time to answer all of our questions!
Hi Kara
Can the vanilla cake recipe be halved if for instance, I’m looking for a batch and a half to fill a sheet cake pan?
Absolutely!
Hi Kara I love the combination of flavors and cannot wait to try this recipe out. I was wondering though if I can make it into cupcakes instead of a cake? I have a cousins birthday to bake for and they want those instead. Please let me know thank you!
I’ve quite a number of people make this into cuppies with great results! I personally have not as I have a favorite vanilla recipe for cuppies already. This is my go-to tiered vanilla.
This is going to be the next cake I made since I love passion fruit. I am curious about the buttercream. I have never seen a recipe with both egg whites and meringue powder. Does the meringue powder make it more stable?
You nailed it! You don’t need the meringue powder, especially if you are just making a single tier. But if you wanted to stack a bunch of cakes, do a particularly large round (like 14″ and above), or carve one, the meringue powder is a good addition.
Hi Kara thanks for sharing your recipe I was wondering if there was a typo in the cake ingredients. 16 oz of flour (3.25 cups) shouldn’t it be 2 cups?? Thank you
Hi Enza! Clever eye, but no. There is no error. And here’s why… 16 oz. refers to the weight of the flour whereas 3.25 cups refers to the volume of the flour. weight to volume for flour is not equal. However, I know you are likely thinking of water which IS equal weight to volume: 8 oz (weight) equals 8 fl oz/1 cup (volume). I always chant a saying I first heard form Alton Brown: a pint’s a pound, the world around. But only referring so some ingredients. That conversion works with most liquids, but not dry ingredients.
I have tried high ratio cakes with this method of mixing before and have to say the taste has been like raw dough/strange unmixed - not something that I value and sadly with no egg yolk I fear this will be tasteless. However I may give it a go just as one layer and see how I get on.
Yolk will give you a different crumb structure and add a bit of richness with fat, but does not contribute to flavor. The flavor comes from your flavoring additions along with sugar. If you follow the method exactly and bake long enough (yet not over baked) you should get a beautiful cake. If the method isn’t followed, you’ll get that layer along the bottom of the cake that is doughy and undercooked.
Hello Kara,
Thank you for all you do, you are simply amazing !!!
I have a question and hoping you are able to answer, is it ok to use pasteurized carton egg whites instead of fresh eggs for the cake recipe?
Do you think that will change the texture of the cake ?
Thank you .
Judy chaoui.
I use them all the time and have wonderful results 🙂
I made the cake and I cannot Thank you enough for this wonderful recipe, everyone loved it!!!
I had said that this was going to be the next cake I made and I meant it. Made it this weekend for my great-nephew’s graduation. It was a big hit. Not sure if I will use the meringue powder in the SMBC again. Might be in my head or the brand I used but I felt that I could taste something different. This flavor combination is really awesome. I knew I would love it because I love raspberries and I’m wild about passion fruit. Thank you soooo much in sharing this wonderful recipe. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any more. New I really want to try the Honeyed apricot with Tonka bean buttercream with pignoli crunch.
This looks amazing and am even more excited to try it after reading all the comments. Where do you purchase meringue powder and passion fruit paste? Thanks Gerri
Hi Gerri! You can get the meringue powder in the baking aisle at the grocery store or from Wilton in the cake section of craft stores. Our flavor pastes are available here: http://bit.ly/1MoX9WA
Hi, I would like to know is there another type of passion fruit addition that I can use besides the paste. Thank you.
You could always reduce down some fresh passion fruit and add it to your butter cream 🙂 But if you’re interested, this is the link to all of our flavor pastes: http://bit.ly/1MoX9WA
Wow Yummy Cake,Cakes are always a part of any occasion.Thanks for sharing the post.Loved it
For anyone concerned with the egg whites and yolk wastage- I made a lime curd to put instead of the raspberries which used the yolks. Was a lovely alternative.
And I will be over the next time you make a cake and have left over yolks… 🙂
Hi Kara! Thank you for your recipe! I just tried it and the flavor is excellent! However, the crumb of my cake came out a lot like corn bread! What could I have done wrong? Or is the cake supposed to have a crumb similar to that of a very tender corn bread?
I’m not sure what you mean by a crumb of a tender corn bread. Can you elaborate a bit about what you have versus what you were expecting? It’ll help me figure out what’s going on if anything. Just a thought, my cake doesn’t crumble when cut. There are very few crumbs, it slices very cleanly and is thick but tender. That is the desired outcome with this recipe. I know that’s different to many cake recipes, but it make for great fancy cakes as well as carving. Is that what you mean? And I haven’t come across a cornbread like this. But if there is a super sweet and moist corn bread recipe out there, I would love to know about it. 🙂 I love cornbread.
Can i make it in half batch?if yes then instead of 7 egg whites how many egg whites?And rasberry and passion fruit is not available here so tell me substitute of these??
Just scramble up one white and eyeball half of it for the 3.5, or you can weight them. As for Raspberry and Passion fruit, it’s really up to you as to what flavors you want. There are no rules. These were just my cravings at the moment 🙂
Thanks Kara ☺1 more question can i use this recipe as rainbow cake recipe or gel paste colour will effect it???
Gel color won’t affect it. Have fun 🙂