Basic Butter Cake

Would you believe me if I told you that I've never baked a plain old basic butter cake before? Well it's true! So when my girlfriend asked me to bake two small cakes for her this coming weekend, I knew I had to hunt for a recipe that would give me a moist buttery cake. I tried two different recipes over the week which were from published cook books. I even bought french butter specifically for this particular cake. Unfortunately both recipes did not give me an end result which I had eagerly anticipated.

I decided to try again and when I came across this recipe I decided to give it a try. I adapted the recipe slightly and also halved the ingredients to bake a 6" cake. And guess what, I struck gold this time round and they do say that third time is lucky! The cake was moist and soft, just like what a good tasting butter cake should be.



Basic Butter Cake
Makes one round 20cm cake

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter
100g Sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs (separate the egg yolks and egg whites in 2 clean, dry bowls)
1 1/2 Tbsp milk
1 tsp grated orange zest
200g cake flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
80g sugar (to be added to the egg white)

Method:

1) Beat the butter and 100g sugar until light and creamy.

2) Add in the egg yolks one at a time and beat until creamy. Then add in the vanilla extract, orange zest and milk and beat until incorporated.

3) Fold in seived cake flour, baking powder and salt. Leave aside.

4) Whisk egg white until foamy. Then add in all the 80g sugar and beat until soft peaks.

5) Add the egg white in 2 separate additions into the cake batter. Gently fold in the egg whites. Do not overbeat the egg whites as it will result in a dry cake.

6) Pour into a 20 cm round tin which has been buttered and lined with parchment paper. Bake in pre-heated oven at 175C for about 45 mins or until cake skewer comes out clean. Do not overbake as it will dry out the cake.