Try pairing this with gingerbread cake to enhance that spicy, rich flavor.  Or, pair it with a light white or vanilla cake to let the buttercream shine. Try spreading this on some tender shortbread cookies or adding some cream cheese and turning into a holiday dip for cookies or pita chips.  So many delicious options!

Gingerbread Swiss Meringue Buttercream

download the printable recipe

For more detailed instructions on making Swiss Meringue Buttercream, click here

Note:  I like my gingerbread flavors pretty spicy, but I know not everyone shares my enthusiasm.  The recipe above provides low to moderate spice, just enough to taste the gingerbread flavors but not enough to kick you in your rear.  If you like it less or more spicy, start with less and build up the flavors as needed.  Most people find the combination above to be perfect, so if you’re not sure, start there.  If you want to get really daring you could even experiment with adding cardamom and/or freshly ground fine black pepper. Just be careful not to go overboard as spices can intensify just a bit as the frosting sits, and too much can lead to a slightly bitter aftertaste.

1. Measure out the egg whites, brown sugar and molasses in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the pinch of salt.  Whisk together to combine
2. Heat, whisking constantly, with mixing bowl over simmering water until mixture reaches 160 degrees or until all of the brown sugar has dissolved completely
3. Place bowl on mixer and beat on high for 10 min with the whisk attachment (between 8 and 10 on a KitchenAid mixer depending on the model)
4. After 10 full minutes, stop the mixer and switch to the paddle attachment
5. Add all of the butter and mix on low speed until thick
6. Add the vanilla and spices on low speed until combined
7. Taste for level of spices, add more if necessary to taste
8. Smile.  Sing a Christmas tune
9. Repeat step 8 as often as needed until desired holiday cheer has been achieved

Ganache Recipe

For dark or semi-sweet chocolate ganache:

2 parts chocolate to 1 part cream.  Measure out your chocolate (by weight in grams) divide that number in half and that’s the amount of cream you will need (in milliliters)

For example:  900 g of chocolate  and 450 ml of cream

For milk or white chocolate ganache:

3 parts chocolate to 1 part cream.  Measure out your chocolate (by weight in grams) divide that number by 3 and that’s the amount of cream you will need (in milliliters)

For example: (2) 675 g of chocolate and 450 ml of cream

If you’d like to use my Swiss Meringue Buttercream recipe, you can find it here.

What You Will Need

We all know how expensive ganache can be.  Fine chocolate and high quality cream?  Cha-ching! Now if you add on top of that having to buy expensive cake boards just for one cake…you may never feel inclined to ganache a cake again.  If you can get your hands on the double thick silver cake boards used in the UK and demonstrated by the amazingly talented Torta Couture Cakes by all means use those if they work for you.  I tried to find them here in the U.S. but that proved to be difficult and the ones I did get ended up sticking to my cake so bad it ripped off huge chunks!  The ones I found overseas were very expensive and took forever to ship to me.  So, I just use cardboard cake rounds…the same ones you can find at Michaels or any other cake decorating or craft store and the same ones you use for a regular old buttercream cake (Wilton has lots of sizes and are pretty affordable). They are true to size and allow you to create a layer of ganache all around the cake just thick enough to be supportive but not so thick that the cake tastes heavy and unappetizing with thick chunks of chocolate.  You want a good balance of cake, filling and ganache to harmonize on the palette.

Here are some other things you will need:

• Chocolate ganache (dark, semi-sweet, milk, or white chocolate)
• Cake layers trimmed and leveled
• Filling (buttercream, mousse, curd, etc.)
• Piping bag
• Medium round tip (I use Ateco #806)
• Offset spatula (s)
• Bench scraper
• Large serrated knife
• Turntable
• mdf or other sturdy board (10 inches or larger but not too large that it wont fit in your refrigerator)
• Wax paper
• Double-sided (or double-sticky) tape
• Satin ribbon
• Small fondant blossoms (to complete the look)

Any Nice Little Questions?

It’s amazing how tricky it can be to articulate what you want to say, while trying to demonstrate something at the same time.  You end up repeating words without having any inclination that you are even saying them (over and over again).  For example, a special prize goes to the person who can count how many times I say the word “nice” in this video.  Ugh!  Actually, I’m kidding, please don’t count…I’d rather stay in my nice fuzzy state of denial.  DOH!  I did it again.  I guess I’ll just go fix myself a nice cup of hot coffee and maybe read a nice long book.  Leave me a nice little comment or question below if you want to.  Have a nice day!

COMMENTING HAS BEEN CLOSED DUE TO SPAM

Did I mention it was SO SOOOOOO GOOD!?

Okay, anyhoo….

This recipe doesn’t use any chemical leavening and instead uses soda to make the cake rise.  For these flavors, I chose a raspberry hard cider (the alcohol burns off), but you could also use a flavored san pellegrino, or a natural citrus soda.

Organic Honey Blackberry Pound Cake

(makes 1 bundt pound cake)

Note: This recipe uses all organic ingredients, but you can certainly substitute non-organic ingredients if you wish.

3 sticks organic sweet cream butter (unsalted, at room temperature)
2.5 cups organic sugar (we grind ours fine in food processor)
1/2 cup good local honey
5 whole organic eggs (at room temperature)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups organic unbleached all-purpose flour (sifted)
1 cup raspberry hard cider
blackberry puree (recipe below)

To make blackberry puree:
Put 2 cups of fresh organic blackberries, 1 tablespoon organic sugar and 1 tablespoon raspberry hard cider (or soda) in food processor and mix well until liquified. Strain out the seeds through a mesh strainer.

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
2. Liberally butter and flour a bundt pan. Set aside
3. Cream together the butter and the sugar with a pinch of kosher salt until fluffy
4. Add the eggs in one at a time and mix well after each addition
5. Add the vanilla extract and honey and mix to combine
6. Add the sifted flour to the butter mixture in 3 additions mixing only until just combined
7. Slowly add the cider and finish mixing
8. Remove two cups of the batter and put in a medium bowl. Add the strained blackberry puree and mix gently
9. Spoon the regular batter into the prepared pan
10. Spoon the blackberry batter on top of the regular batter and smooth
11. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hr and 10 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until skewer or cake tester comes out clean
12. Cool in pan for 10 minutes then invert cake upside down onto plate

To make chocolate glaze:
For this ganache glaze, it’s 1:1 ratio of chocolate to cream.  x grams of semi-sweet chocolate to x ml of heavy cream.  Heat cream in sauce pan with dash of vanilla and spoonful of organic sugar until bubbling on the sides of the pan.  Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and stir gently with a whisk until dark and silky smooth.  Pour over the cake while slightly warm and let set.

This cake is velvety soft, moist, not too sweet, and full of delicious REAL flavors

Quick Lemon Velvet Cupcakes

(makes 12-14 cupcakes)

175g unsalted butter, at room temperature
160g superfine or bakers sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest (about 1 med lemon)
1 1/2 teaspoons good vanilla extract
pinch of kosher salt
1 tablespoon sweet sherry wine or Madeira (optional)
2 eggs, at room temperature
160g self-rising flour
100g unbleached all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
200 ml buttermilk

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cupcake pan with liners.
2. Sift together the 2 flours and the baking soda, set aside.
3. Beat the softened butter, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and pinch of salt together on medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Add the sherry and beat well.
5. Add in the eggs, one at a time, and scrape down the bowl after each addition.
6. Remove the bowl from the mixer and using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, fold in the flour and the buttermilk alternately beginning and ending with the flour.
7. Scoop even amounts of batter into cupcake tins and bake for 16-20 min (depending on your oven). Cupcakes are done when a toothpick test comes out clean and tops are springy
8. Leave in pans for 5 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

Note: Frost the cupcakes as soon as they are cool and then store in an airtight container or box immediately after frosting to prevent them from drying out. You can brush on a simple syrup before frosting to keep the cakes nice and moist. Cupcakes can also be frozen for up to 1 month.

We used this recipe for our lemon blueberry pie cupcakes for “national pi day” on 3/14  :)

This contest is only open to Colorado, US residents but don’t worry, we will be doing another giveaway this Summer that will include everybody..Yes, even you fantastic people outside of the US!

What is almost as good as a pot of gold?  Free CAKE!

WHAT YOU CAN WIN:

An 8 inch cake from our “Simply Ganache” line of cakes. The cake will have a secret St. Patrick’s day design! (up to $200 value)

The flavor of the cake will be IRISH COFFEE: TLB Black Velvet cake (double chocolate cake made with organic espresso), Vanilla Jameson whiskey syrup and Bailey’s Swiss buttercream, covered in the highest quality semi-sweet chocolate truffle ganache.

(the alcohol can be left out of the cake and filling if you will be sharing the cake with kids – just let us know!)

The giveaway entry period will run from March 1 to March 15.  One winner that meets all of the guidelines below will be selected at random (using random.org) on March 16.  Delivery will be made on the morning of St. Patricks day March 17th.

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

In order to be eligible to win the cake, you must meet the following requirements

1. You must live in the state of Colorado within 100 miles of Denver (Cheyenne, WY residents are eligible too!).  If you are entering FOR someone who lives within these boundaries, you must put that in your comment.
2. You must leave us a comment here on the blog (on the Three Little Blackbirds tab or the facebook tab) and tell us why you want to win this cake.
3. You must “like” our TLB Facebook Page
4. If you have a personal or business page on Facebook, please hit the “share” button below to share this giveaway on your page.

That’s it!  Good Luck!!

P.S.  If your comment doesn’t show up right away, don’t worry, sometimes it takes a few minutes to post.

I created this recipe as a way to get more whole grains, fiber, omega-3, and antioxidants into my kids on their trek to school on those mornings when I don’t have time to make them oatmeal. Speaking of oatmeal…this bread contains whole ground flaxseed meal with as much fiber as 3 cups of cooked oatmeal. Cool huh? And it’s soooo very tasty. You won’t believe how good it is.

DID YOU KNOW: To get the high levels of natural antioxidants found in just 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal, you’d have to eat about 30 cups of fresh raw broccoli. That’s a lot of broccoli!

Banana Mango Crunch Bread

(makes 2 loaves or about 18 large muffins)

3 cups ‘white whole wheat flour’ or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 pound unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
3/4 milk (preferably whole milk)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 slightly overripe mashed bananas (1 cup)
1 diced fresh mango or 1 diced banana (1 cup)
1 cup chopped toasted pecans or walnuts (optional)
1 cup toasted coconut
1 cup granola cereal (use any granola you want, or whatever you already have in the pantry)
1/2 cup ground flaxseed meal

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and generously butter 2 standard bread or loaf pans, or line muffin cups with paper liners.

Melt the butter in the microwave on high heat for about 1 min 30 seconds or until completely melted. Set aside to cool.

Dice the mango, and toast the coconut and nuts (you can certainly use these un-toasted and the bread will still be delicious, but this extra step makes it even more super delicious)

Mash the bananas and then mix or whisk together with the eggs, vanilla and milk. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and baking soda together in a mixing bowl. Add the salt and sugar and fit your mixer with the paddle attachment. (the following steps can also be done by hand rather than a mixer, if needed)

BTW:  I use this “white whole wheat flour” by King Arthur Flour.  It’s perfect for just this kind of thing because it adds all the whole grains and nutrition of whole wheat flour without creating a dense and heavy product like whole wheat would.  Regular old all-purpose flour works just fine too, just make sure it’s unbleached.

With the mixer running on low speed, add the melted butter slowly.

Mix until the flour is moistened and the mixture is crumbly.

With mixer still on low, slowly add in the milk, banana, egg and vanilla mixture and mix just until combined.  Remove mixing bowl from the stand and fold in the rest of the ingredients (mango, coconut, chopped nuts, granola, and flaxseed meal).

The “crunch” part of the crunch bread…

When all of the ingredients are well mixed in, pour the batter evenly into the pans.

Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown, no longer jiggly in the centers, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Or, for muffins, bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

Cool in the pans for 10 minutes and then carefully invert onto a cooling rack, flip right side up and cool before slicing.

TLB Tip: on a Vegan diet or allergic to eggs? Use flaxseed meal! For every 1 egg in a recipe, mix 1 tablespoon of flaxseed meal with 3 tablespoons of water and let sit for 2 minutes. Add to the recipe as you would the egg.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Printable Recipe

Makes a lot of frosting…enough to frost 24 cupcakes with big swirls, or to fill and frost a cake. Recipe can be halved or doubled with no problems, I have even made 1.5 batches of this recipe many times. If you have left over frosting, you can freeze it in an airtight container for up to 2 months or store it in the fridge for a week. To reconstitute it, take roughly 1/3 of the cold buttercream and microwave it until it’s warm and soupy (not hot). Add the warmed buttercream to the cold buttercream and rewhip with the paddle attachment until silky and smooth.

Okay, this is gonna get super easy.  Are you ready?  Just remember… 10, 15, and 20 (in that order) and you can make this buttercream anytime without even looking at the recipe.  To halve of course, would be 5, 7.5, and 10.  I’m talking ounces here, so get out your trusty kitchen scale.  If you don’t have one…go buy one.  With weight, you will NEVER go wrong with this recipe….

TLB Tip: Before you begin, wipe your mixing bowl and attachments (paddle and whisk if using a stand mixer) with lemon juice soaked paper towel.  Just squeeze some lemon juice into the bowl and wipe with a paper towel, use that same paper towel to wipe down your mixing attachments.  This will remove any residual oils or grease left on the bowl that would prevent your meringue from whipping up into silky oblivion.

You will need:

TLB Tip: Don’t go separating eggs, unless you really want to. Instead, go to the egg section of the grocery store and purchase liquid pasteurized egg whites. It’s so much easier than wasting egg yolks. I use these liquid egg whites for my buttercreams, royal icing, white cakes, lemon cakes, chiffons, angel food cakes, marshmallows, meringues, french macarons, and more. It’s great stuff!

You will need a medium sized sauce pan that can fit your mixer bowl into the top portion of it (test to make sure it will rest on top comfortably).

Put a couple of inches of water into the saucepan and then put your bowl on top for a second or two, remove the mixing bowl and check to see that there isn’t any water on the bottom of the bowl.  You want the bottom of the mixing bowl close to the water but not touching it.  Pour some water out, if needed.

Bring the water to a boil over medium high heat.

Set the mixing bowl on your scale and pour 10 ounces of egg whites into the bowl of your stand mixer, clear out the scale and then add the 15 ounces of sugar (you can use organic sugar with ease here because its cooked, the texture wont affect the buttercream). Add a pinch of kosher salt to the mixture.

Lightly whisk the egg and sugar and salt together until they are mixed together and the sugar is no longer clumped on the bottom of the bowl.

Place the bowl with the egg mixture over the boiling/simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 160 degrees on a candy thermometer, or until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture begins to look foamy.

TLB Tip: It’s important that all of the sugar gets dissolved so you don’t end up with grainy buttercream, so for best results, use a thermometer.

Carefully remove the bowl from the saucepan (with a pot holder on your hand) and place on the mixer.  Using the whisk attachment, turn mixer on to medium high (#8 on my mixer) until most of the steam is gone, then, crank up the mixer all the way to high (#10 on my mixer) and set a timer for 10 minutes.

If using a stand mixer, you can use these 10 minutes to practice good mise en place and clean up and get your 20 ounces of butter ready.  For reference, if using stick butter, that’s 5 sticks of butter.  Unwrap the butter, measure it out, and cut and the sticks in half, if using.  Some recipes will tell you to cut the butter into little tiny cubes, but that really isn’t necessary, it just makes the process go a little faster.  In fact, you can even use cold butter, yes cold, but it will take much longer for the buttercream to come together.

When the 10 minutes is up, the meringue should be beautifully white and fluffy, doubled in size, and the bottom of the bowl should be pretty close to room temp.  Stop the mixer, bang the whisk against the bowl several times to dislodge any meringue caught in it and switch to the paddle attachment.

If your mixer can handle the volume, add the butter in all at once.  I have a professional 6 qt kitchenaid and it’s a little much for my mixer (I usually double this recipe) so I start on the lowest speed and gradually throw in the butter so it doesn’t overflow.  Mix on low speed (#2 on my mixer).

Now is the time to NOT panic because your buttercream is going to look ruined and wrong but trust me on this, it’s just fine.

Stage 1: When the butter begins to mix in, the buttercream will become loose and soupy looking.  It’s just the air in the meringue beginning to get weighted down from the fats in the butter and it’s totally normal.  Scrape down the bowl if necessary and then continue to mix on low speed

Stage 2: Past the soupy stage, the buttercream may look curdled (sometimes it wont depending on the temp of the butter used).  This too, is just fine.  It’s just the butter beginning to break down and mix in, if you see this, you’re doing it right!

Stage 3: Right after the curdled stage, a miracle will happen.  All of a sudden you will look in the bowl and see the buttercream has become thick and creamy and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  This is called emulsification…and it’s a beautiful thing. Success!  Keep mixing on low speed a couple minutes more until its very silky.

Add in the vanilla extract on low speed and mix again until combined.

Taste the buttercream…it should taste like silky room temperature vanilla ice cream.  YUM.  Now you can add in any additional flavorings on low speed if desired.
How to make Cream Cheese Swiss Meringue Buttercream:

You would think that you could just add some softened cream cheese to a batch of SMB, but sadly, you can’t.  Believe me, I’ve tried it…many, many times. The best method for me is to follow a recipe for plain old cream cheese frosting and sub in the SMB.  Like this one, courtesy of “Miette” in San Francisco, which can also be doubled.

Now, instead of using the unsalted butter and the powdered sugar, you will substitute your prepared Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream instead.

Start by beating the room temp cream cheese until completely smooth, then add in the 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons Vanilla SMB and mix on low speed just until combined. Done!

This is my Caramel Swiss Meringue Buttercream which was born as Vanilla until I added some homemade caramel to it and a pinch of fleur de sel (sea salt)

Butter Pecan Cake

One recipe of our Butter Vanilla Cake

One recipe of your favorite vanilla frosting or buttercream, or use our Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

One batch of buttered pecans – recipe below

Bake Butter Vanilla Cake according to the directions.

While the cake cools in the freezer…

Make your Frosting:  We use our Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream that is silky and creamy. If you’d like our recipe with tips and techniques, just leave us a comment and let us know.  If we get enough interest, I’ll post the recipe!

Make your Buttered Pecans:

1 stick unsalted butter, 1 2/3 cup roughly chopped pecans, pinch of salt, 1 tablespoon real maple syrup

Melt the butter and pinch of salt in a saucepan and then add in the pecans.  Cook until the butter is slightly browned and bubbly about 3-4 minutes.  Butter will start to foam up and cover the pecans and that’s when they’re ready.

Transfer the pecans to a plate covered with two layers of paper towels and drain. Scoop pecans into a bowl, toss with a tablespoon of maple syrup and set aside to cool completely.  Stir nuts periodically while cooling.

Assemble the cake:

Remove the cakes from the freezer and unwrap the first cake layer (leave the rest wrapped until ready to use).  If cakes are frozen all the way through, let them defrost a bit first while still wrapped. Cakes are best trimmed and stacked in a semi-frozen state.

Trim the tops of a cake with a long, sharp, serrated knife (such as a bread knife).

Begin stacking the cakes by placing the first layer, trimmed side up, on the cake stand or cake round.  If using a cake round, spread a small amount of frosting or ganache on first to “glue” the cake to the cake round.

Brush the top of the cake layer with simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, boiled and cooled with vanilla extract or other flavorings), if desired.  This will keep the cake moist if it wont be eaten right away.

Spread or pipe an even layer of frosting on top of the cake…

Place a handful or so of the cooled pecans onto the frosting, staying away from the very edge.  Gently press the pecans down into the frosting…

Place the next cake layer, trimmed side up onto the frosting.  Gently press down on the cake to adhere the layers to each other.  Repeat the steps above.

Place the final cake layer on, trimmed side down and press gently.

Using a cake spatula or large butter knife, spread more frosting in between the layers so that there are no air pockets showing. Smooth with the spatula…

Using the plastic wrap you set aside from earlier, wrap the entire cake, pressing the plastic down smooth around the sides and top of the cake to cover completely.  Let the cake rest and settle for at least 30 minutes…

Unwrap the cake.  Spread an even thin layer of frosting all over the cake to “crumb coat.” There will still be lots of cake showing through…

Place the cake into the fridge for 15 minutes or until the frosting has hardened a bit and “set.” Spread another layer of frosting on, this time covering all of the cake.  It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth just yet.  Place cake back into the fridge for another 10-15 minutes.

Spread on one more layer of frosting, filling in any gaps, or low spaces.  Be generous with the frosting as you will be scraping most of it back off as you smooth in the next step.

Using a bench scraper, smooth around the side of the cake, removing any excess frosting.  Smooth the top of the cake as well until you are happy with it and it looks even and level…

You can either leave the cake as is, or you can pipe a border around the top and bottom edge as we have done here.  This is a “ruffle” edge using an open star tip and a wavy shell technique to create buttercream “ruffles.”

Carefully place remaining pecans into the center of the cake, and it’s done!

You might ask, why not just use cake flour? This, of course would solve a lot of problems but I can’t really market my cakes as natural and European style by using a heavily bleached processed product, and personally I loathe the taste and smell of cakes that are made with cake flour.  I can actually taste the bleach and the chemicals and it really takes away from that rich buttery flavor.  I knew there had to be a way around this.

I can’t tell you how many recipes I have tested, because I prefer to stay in denial rather than admit how much money and ingredients I have thrown away due to my obsession with making the perfect yellow cake. I can tell you though, that if a method of making yellow cakes existed, I have tested it.  I’ve tried hot milk cakes, mud cakes, meringue type cakes, pound cakes, reverse creaming cakes, simple yellow cakes, white cakes turned into yellow cakes…you get the idea.  There were Australian recipes, European recipes, French recipes and countless numbers of American recipes and none of them have scored all 5 stars for me.

Here’s how I rate each recipe and thus award stars:

1 star for taste - I’m looking for a rich buttery taste here with a hint of vanilla

1 star for texture – Soft, velvety mouth feel with a tender, light crumb with no crusty edges – I do NOT want my cake to feel like a muffin in your mouth

1 star for moistness - The cake needs to stay moist without drying out when it cools

1 star for chemicals – The lack of them, I want the cake to work with all-purpose flour and NOT bleached cake flour

1 star for stackablity – I want the cake to be light, velvety and fluffy, but I don’t want it to crumble and fall apart and I need it to hold up to rich buttercreams, heavy ganache, and multi-level, multi-tiered fondant covered cakes

Whew!  That’s a tall order. And anyone who bakes scratch cakes will tell you that this list is pretty close to impossible to achieve ALL five of those stars at once.  But have faith because it can be done folks, read on…

At first I considered using oil rather than butter to achieve the moistness and lightness, but not surprisingly, it lacked the butter flavor and left an oily residue in your mouth…FAIL!

I got the texture perfect and got rid of the chemical taste by using self-rising flour instead of bleached cake flour, but then realized that the self-rising flour was also bleached…FAIL!

I tried using a combination of hot milk and butter tempered to a specific temperature  (hot milk cake) then added to the A/P flour.  The cake smelled and tasted seriously buttery and rich and delicious but the crumb, when cooled, was too coarse and resembled a muffin rather than cake…FAIL!

I tried an A/P flour corn starch combination and the cake sunk in the middle…FAIL!

I have produced many cakes that taste perfect with a wonderful fluffy texture and buttery taste but every single one, and I am not exaggerating here, has sunk in the last 2-3 minutes of cooking.  Were talking anywhere from “looks like someone sat on the cake” to deep meteor craters sent down from the evil cake failing gods.  Can I blame the altitude and climate of Colorado for this sad disaster of: mix, cross fingers and say a prayer, bake, rise, sink, fail, scrape into trash? Probably.  But that wont stop me from trying though and quite possibly becoming the best scraper-of-cake-into-the-trash-bin-while-the-cake-pan-is-burning-your-hand chick…ever!

The good news for you though, is that my past failure can now be your yellow butter vanilla cake saving grace.  Why?  Because I would say that if a cake recipe works and is awarded all five of those stars AND is baked in the unforgiving location of the rocky mountains, you can pretty much bet it will work for you too.

Why this recipe works:  This recipe actually happened by accident.  It was a busy day making both my go-to yellow buttermilk cake and my double chocolate sour cream cake.  I accidentally added the sour cream for my chocolate cake into my yellow buttermilk cake and realized what I had done half way through baking.  To my delight, the cake was the most luscious, buttery, fluffy and moist yellow cake I had ever baked.  After a couple of small tweaks to the recipe, it was absolute perfection.  The combination of both sour cream and buttermilk is what I believe to be the culprit…that, and the addition of potato starch.  Potato starch can be used as a thickener in place of corn starch.  It is also used a lot in gluten free baking to soften the crumb of otherwise dense and tough baked goods.  The potato starch in this recipe works wonders and lightens up the all-purpose flour and produces a tender soft crumb like cake flour would.  You can find potato starch in most grocery stores in the baking isle (Bob’s Red Mill) or natural food stores.

Note: I use weight measurements when baking, but I have tested this recipe with the volume amounts below and it was just as perfect  If you don’t want to use the potato starch or you cant find it, you can use 3 ½ cups of regular bleached all-purpose flour instead.

( It’s a Miracle! ) Yellow Butter Vanilla Cake

(Makes 3-9 inch rounds, one half sheet cake, or 3 dozen cupcakes.  Recipe can be scaled in half if necessary)

Printable Recipe

339 g (1 ½ cups) unsalted butter, softened

452 g (2 ¼ cups) superfine or bakers sugar (I use organic cane sugar ground fine in a food processor)

5 large eggs room temp

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons sweet sherry cooking wine or madeira

405 g unbleached all-purpose flour – (I use organic unbleached soft wheat flour)

25 g potato starch (if using bleached a/p flour  or cake flour – omit this and add 25 g more flour)

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

296 ml (1 1/4 cups) buttermilk

8 ounces (1 cup) sour cream

Instructions:

Turn oven on to 350 degrees. Place oven rack in the middle of the oven.

Generously butter the pans then place parchment paper (cut to fit) on the bottom of the pan only. BTW: I am making a 6 inch, 3 layer cake for this blog which will leave lots of batter left over for cupcakes.  For most of my cakes, I bake in 3 inch high cake pans and tort them (cut them into layers) after they are cooled and semi-frozen.  For this recipe, however, you want the shortest amount of baking time to keep the cake moist and tender.  For this reason, I bake this cake in single layers, which means more pans to butter and parchment.  In the end, the extra work is definitely worth it. Alternatively, you can also bake this recipe in a half sheet pan and then cut your layers out of that (works well for smaller cakes), and then you are only dealing with one pan.

To cut the parchment paper to fit: Place the cake pan on top of a sheet of parchment paper, using a pencil draw around the edge of the pan. Cut out with scissors and place the paper pencil side down into the buttered pan. Set the pan(s) aside.

Have all of your ingredients ready.  Remove the sour cream and buttermilk from the fridge and set on counter to warm up just a bit.  Make sure your butter is room temperature and measure out amounts on a scale or by volume.

It’s very important that your eggs be room temperature so they don’t turn the butter cold when incorporated and produce lumps (which can cause large air bubbles in your cake).  I never take my eggs out to warm up before hand however.  Instead, I remove my eggs cold from the fridge, place the eggs into a bowl and cover with warm water while I prepare the batter.  By the time I need them, they are room temp.

In your mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and the sugar together.

TLB Tip: Don’t rush this important step. I usually mix for a minimum of 5 minutes. Start on low speed until the butter and sugar are well combined then crank the mixing speed up to medium high and let it go until light in color and very fluffy. You want to incorporate a lot of air here so that the texture of the cake will be light and airy. If you rush this, the cake will be dense and thick.

While the butter is beating, sift together the flour, potato starch, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl.  Scoop most of the flour mixture back into the strainer and sift one more time.  Add the kosher salt and set aside.

Add the sherry to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well, scraping the bowl as often as needed.

Next, add in the eggs one at a time, scraping the bowl often.

TLB Tip: When a recipe says to add the eggs one at a time, it really means one at a time.  Again, don’t rush this.  Add the egg and mix completely until no streaks of the egg remain.  Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl and paddle down after each addition of egg.  The eggs need their time to emulsify so they can build stability in your cake when baked.

Add the flour mixture to butter mixture on low speed alternating with the buttermilk (mixed together with the vanilla and lemon zest), starting and ending with flour.

TLB Tip: Now is the time to keep the mixer on low speed and never any higher.  We want to keep the gluten levels as low as possible to keep the cake tender.  Once the flour hits the butter, mix only until half way incorporated before adding the buttermilk.  You will still see flour that hasn’t mixed in yet and that is okay because we will render that in the next step.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and scrape off any residual batter/flour from the paddle.  Scrape down the bowl, add the sour cream and fold/stir in the sour cream by hand.

Keep mixing and folding until sour cream is completely mixed in and batter is nice and smooth, making sure to reach down to the bottom of the bowl with the rubber spatula and fold upwards.

Divide batter evenly among pans, lightly tap pans once against the counter to dislodge any large air bubbles and settle the batter.

Bake the cakes until the tops spring back just slightly when touched in the center and a toothpick comes out clean.  About 20-25 minutes depending on your oven and cake size. Start testing for doneness 3 minutes before timer beeps and watch the cakes carefully. Do not overbake.

TLB Tip: When you can smell the delicious buttery aroma of these cakes baking, it’s time to start testing for doneness.  Cakes will let you know, by smell, when they are done cooking. They might not always be done, and you can put them back in for a few more minutes and watch them carefully. But this way, you will not over bake them.

Cool cakes in their pans for 20 min (set a timer). After 20 minutes, cakes will still be warm to the touch, which is what you want.

Place a layer of plastic wrap over the cake still in the pan…

Place a cooling rack over the cake…

With one hand on the bottom of the cake pan and the other on top of the cooling rack, carefully invert the cake over to its bottom…

Carefully lift off the cake pan, and gently peel off the parchment paper…

Wrap the cake with the over hanging plastic wrap and then one more layer of plastic, being careful not to wrap too tight and cause the edges of the cake to be misshapen. Place cakes in the freezer while you clean up and prepare the frosting (this will make the cakes easier to trim, level, tort or shape).

If you will be leaving the cakes in the freezer for an extended time, wrap the cakes again in tin foil over the plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn.  Cakes can be kept frozen for up to 4 months.

BTW: This recipe also makes fantastic cupcakes…

Light, fluffy, moist, buttery, tender…delicious!

Because graham flour (a type of coarse wheat flour) can cause the dough to be too tough, I use a combination of whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour.  You can also just use all “white” whole wheat flour which is a whole grain flour that is milled softer than your average whole wheat.

The cookies are pictured in this blog, but I’ll tell you how to use this extremely versatile dough in other ways as well…

Graham Cracker Dough

makes about 15-20 cookies

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 whole wheat flour
heaping 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2/3 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey

1. Sift the flours and cinnamon together into a bowl and set aside.
2. Beat the butter, brown sugar, salt and honey together in the bowl of a stand mixer until fluffy (about 5 min)
3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture in 3 batches, mixing only until combined.
4. Collect the dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap (dough will be crumbly), place in the fridge for 30 min or up to 2 days.
5. Unwrap the dough and place between two sheets of wax paper.
6. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. place parchment paper on baking sheet.
7. Roll the dough between the wax paper until very thin (about 1/4 inch).
8. Using a scalloped cookie cutter, or cutter of your choice, cut out cookies and place on baking sheet 1/2 inch apart.
9. Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Sprinkle with sugar (optional) and cool on wire rack.