White Cake with Almond Buttercream Frosting

It’s Adam’s nieces birthday today. I asked if I could bring a cake because I have had the giant cupcake pan that I have wanted to get good use out of for a while.

I was worried how the cake would turn out in the pan as I had read about a lot of people that had trouble getting both sides to cook evenly. I had no problem. I filled the bottom less then full, and filled the top full. Both were done at the same time.

Everyone raved at this cake, it was very moist and the almond frosting was really yummy.

Classic White Layer Cake (From: The Way the Cookie Crumbles, Orginally From: Cooks Illustrated)

• 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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Almond Buttercream (Inspried From: Just2Good)

• 2 ½ sticks salted butter, softened
• 2 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
• 2 tsp almond extract
• 2 Tbsp heavy cream

Beat butter at medium-high speed until smooth, about 20 seconds. Add confectioners’ sugar beat at medium-low speed until sugar is moistened, about 45 seconds. Scrape down the bowl and beat at medium speed until mixture is fully combined, approximately 15 seconds. Add, almond and heavy cream and beat at medium speed until incorporated. Increase speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, approximately 4 minutes. Scrape the bowl down completely at about 2 minutes.

Tagged as: Cake, Dessert, Sweets