The Most Amazing White Cake: A Recipe to Delight Your Senses

Today on The Stay At Home Chef, we're going to make a cake that's light and airy, perfectly delicious, and really easy to make. I'm showing you an updated version of my famous white cake, and it's a game-changer. So, let's get started!

Preheating the Oven

Before we begin, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a crucial step that will ensure our cake turns out perfectly baked. While the oven is heating up, lightly grease two 9-inch cake pans and line the bottom with parchment paper. You can choose to do two thicker layers or three more thin layers, depending on your preference. If you like a more frosting-to-cake ratio, go for the thinner layers today; I'm just going to demonstrate with two.

Preparing the Cake Batter

For the cake batter, you'll need 1 cup of softened butter and 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar. Use a hand mixer to beat these ingredients together until they're well combined and turn into almost like a sugar-butter paste consistency. This will take about 2 minutes of mixing. If you don't want to use almond extract, you can also use clear vanilla extract instead; however, if you use regular vanilla extract, your cake won't be quite as white.

Adding Wet Ingredients

Next, we need to add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. You'll need to separate out 6 large egg whites using the shell method or another preferred method. Once you've got all 6 egg whites, add them to the rest of our liquid ingredients – either milk or buttermilk (I prefer buttermilk for a fluffier cake). I also like to add a little sour cream to my recipe; however, if you don't have it, you can still use the original 1 1/2 cups of milk or buttermilk. Mix the wet ingredients together with a fork until they're well combined.

Adding Dry Ingredients

For the dry ingredients, you'll need 3 1/2 cups of cake flour and 4 teaspoons of baking powder along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Give it just a quick stir to combine. Now, add about 1/3 of the dry ingredients into your butter mixture and mix until just combined (about 10-15 seconds). Then, add in half of your egg-and-buttermilk mixture and mix that in as well.

Assembling the Batter

Now, we'll add another 1/3 of our dry ingredients, mixing those in until just combined. Next, add in the remainder of your liquid ingredients, then finally the remainder of your flour. Mix this in until just combined and make sure to stop and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure everything gets mixed in.

Dividing the Batter

Once you've assembled the batter, divide it evenly amongst your prepared pans. This is a nice thick batter, so I like to spread it out a little using my rubber spatula. Super easy, right?

Baking the Cake

While your cakes are baking in the preheated oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25-30 minutes (or until they pass the toothpick test or have a slight jiggle when tapped), you can start preparing your frosting.

Preparing the Frosting

To make our frosting, we'll need powdered sugar. I use about 4 cups total, but start with just 1/2 cup at a time to achieve the desired consistency. After adding in the first cup of powdered sugar, add in 1 tablespoon of milk to thin things out before continuing to add more powdered sugar in 1/2-cup increments. Add as much powdered sugar as you need until you reach your desired frosting consistency.

Tips for Frosting

If your frosting gets too thick because you added too much powdered sugar, don't worry! Just add another tablespoon of milk to thin it out. This will give you the perfect frosting-to-cake ratio. Now that our cake is done baking and has cooled slightly, it's time to assemble and frost.

Assembling and Frosting the Cake

Once your cakes are completely cooled on a wire rack, it's time to assemble and frost them. Place one of the cooled cakes onto a serving plate or cake stand. Spread a generous amount of frosting over the top, then place the second cake on top. Use the remaining frosting to cover the entire cake.

Decorating Your Cake (Optional)

If you'd like to add some extra flair to your cake, now's the time! You can sprinkle some powdered sugar over the top or create a simple border using more frosting. If desired, decorate with fresh fruits, nuts, or other toppings of your choice!

Slice and Serve

Your beautiful white cake is finally complete! Slice it up and serve to friends and family, knowing you made something truly special from scratch.

Tips for Making Restaurant-Quality Cakes at Home

While we're making this amazing white cake, we can also share some general tips for making restaurant-quality cakes at home. One of the most important things is to use quality ingredients, especially when it comes to your flour and baking powder. Freshness matters!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enToday on The Stay At Home ChefI'm showing you how to make the Most Amazing White Cake.It's light and airy and perfectly delicious,plus it's really easy to make.Today I'm showing you an updated version of my famous white cake.Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit,then lightly grease two 9 inch cake pansand line the bottom with parchment paper.You can do 2 thicker layers on this or 3 more thin layers.So if you like a more frosting to cake ratio,go for 3 layers,today I'm just going to demonstrate with 2.For the cake batter you'll need 1 cup of softened butter,and we're gonna cream that together with1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar.Use a hand mixer to beat this together for about 2 minutes.You want to keep mixing until it's well combinedand it turns into almost like a sugar butter paste consistency.Then we're gonna add in 2 teaspoons of almond extract,and if you don't want to use almond extract or you don't like that flavor,you can also use a clear vanilla extract.If you use regular vanilla extract your cake won't be quite as white.We'll mix that in real quick just a few seconds,and then move on with the rest of our recipe.With the remainder of our wet ingredientsyou want them to be at room temperature,so make sure you pull them out of the fridgebefore you want to bake your cake.For this recipe you'll need to separate out 6 large egg whites,and I do this just using the shell method,going back and forth like so.There's also special tools that you can use and other methods,you can even let it run through your fingers,but the shell works just fine for me.Once you've got all 6 egg whiteswe're gonna add that to the rest of our liquid ingredients.You want to add your egg whites to 1 cup of either milk or buttermilk,I find that buttermilk gives a fluffier cake,and I'm just gonna grab a fork and kind of whisk this together.Now when I originally developed this recipeit called for 1 1/2 cups of either milk or buttermilk,but I've found that I like to add a little sour cream.You can still do the 1 1/2 cups of milk or buttermilk though if you don't have sour cream or can't find it where you live.I'm gonna go ahead and add my 1/2 cup of sour cream in with the butter and sugar mixture,and then mix that in really quick.If you're just using all milk or buttermilk though,you just leave that to the sideso that we can alternate adding in our dry ingredients.For the dry ingredients you'll need 3 1/2 cups of cake flour,this will give you the lightest, airiest cake,or you can use regular flour,but I highly recommend cake flour.Add 4 teaspoons of baking powder in with your flour,along with 1/2 teaspoon of salt,and give it just a quick stir to combine.Then we're gonna add about 1/3 of the dry ingredientsin with the butter mixture,into our mixing bowl,then we'll mix this in until just combined,which really takes only like 10-15 seconds,and then we'll add in half of our egg and buttermilk mixtureand mix that in as well.Then we'll add in another 1/3 of our dry ingredients,mix those in,just until combined,then add in the remainder of your liquid ingredients,mix that in,and then finally the remainder of your flour.Mix this in until just combined.And as always be sure to stop and scrape the sidesand bottom of the bowl to make sure everything gets mixed in.Then you'll want to divide this up evenly amongst your prepared pans.This is a nice thick batter,so I also just spread it out a little using my rubber spatula.Super easy, right?Next we're gonna bake this in our preheated 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.While your cakes are baking it's the perfect time to make your frosting,and really you can use any frosting you'd like on your white cake.Today I'm going to demonstrate a simple buttercream,but if you want a really really white frosting,the most white frosting I know of is 7 minute frosting,which takes about 7-10 minutes to make,so it's easy too.For a simple buttercream you'll need 1 1/2 cups of softened butter,to that we're gonna add 2 teaspoons of almond extract,or once again you can also use clear vanilla extract,then I'm gonna use my hand mixer to whip this togetheruntil it's light and fluffy.I like to give it a good 2-3 minutes of beating on a medium-high speedto whip in as much air as possible.Then you can start adding in your powdered sugar.I use about 4 cups total,but I start with just 1/2 cup at a time.After the first cup of powdered sugar is mixed in,I add in 1 tablespoon of milk to kind of thin things out,before I continue to add in my powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time.Add as much powdered sugar as you need until you reach the desired consistency that you want for your frosting to spread on your cake.If your frosting gets too thickbecause you added too much powdered sugar,just add in another tablespoon of milk to thin it out.Now it's time to check on our cakes.You can always use the toothpick test to see when it's done,or I like to tap the tops,and you can see this has a little bit of a jiggle to it,so it needs a few more minutes.Once they're done baking you'll want to place them onto a wire rackand let them cool in the pans for about 5 minutes.After 5 minutes remove them from the panand let them cool on the wire rack until completely cooled.Once these are completely cooled,all that's left to do is assemble and frost your cake.You are ready to slice and serve.Thanks for watching.You can find the full written recipeas well as the metric measurements in the video description.Be sure to subscribe, like, and follow,and check out the rest of my videos,where you can find hundreds of restaurant quality recipesyou can easily make at home.We'll see you later.\n"