Recipe: Birthday Cake

I love birthday cake.  Heck, I love cake in general.  So I was thrilled when I tasted this recipe in pastry school.  Some people correlate yellow cake mix with birthday cakes, but I have always used a basic white cake mix for birthday cakes.  Also, if you don't have time to make a birthday cake from scratch, don't feel bad about buying a box of white cake mix.  I can name a hand-full of high-end hotels and bakeries that purchase large sacks of Pillsbury or Duncan Hines white cake mix because those companies really took the time to perfect their recipe.  

No matter what though, do not skimp on the icing.  Everyone should be able to tell the difference from store-bought versus freshly-made icing and if you can't, know this - in order to keep a long shelf life, all those cans of icing are loaded with shortening instead of butter to prevent molding.  Don't get me wrong shortening has its pros, but if the cake isn't going to be sitting in 120 degree heat it's much better to use butter instead because of the mouth-feel and flavor.  

Also if you can buy a small scale for the kitchen, do it.  Baking is a very exact science and so 99.9% of bakers will use weight (ounces or grams) versus volume (cups, teaspoons) to measure their ingredients.  If you don't have one, here's a link to the one I have and love.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Egg Whites - 10.5 ounces

Milk - 18.7 ounces

Vanilla Extract - 2 tablespoons

Almond Extract - 2 teaspoons

Sugar - 23.1 ounces

Cake Flour - 23.1 ounces

Baking Powder - 3 tablespoons

Salt - 1 1/2 teaspoons

Butter (cold, cut into 1" cubes) - 13.2 ounces

Instructions:

1. Combine all dry ingredients together in a mixer bowl with a paddle attachment and mix.

2. Toss in 1" cubes of butter with the mixer on low speed until you reach a coarse meal consistency (chickpea-sized clumps)

3. Slowly pour half of milk into the mixer while mixing on low speed.  Then mix at medium speed for 1 1/2 minutes.  When done, scrape down the sides of your bowl.

4. In a second bowl, combine all wet ingredients including egg whites, second half of milk, vanilla extract & almond extract.

5. Slowly pour 1/3 of your wet ingredient into the mixer while on low speed, then mix for 30 seconds on medium speed.  Scrape down bowl and repeat process until all of your wet ingredients are combined with your dry ingredients.

6. Pour mixture into 2 - 9" cake pans that have been lightly sprayed with baking spray.  DO NOT over-spray your pans because this will keep the cake from rising as much as it should.

7. Bake at 350 degrees.

8. Once cool, stack & ice your cake (frosting recipes coming soon!)

Tips on baking:

* I hated when they didn't give us baking times in pastry school because I was so used to them, but this is because ovens vary wildly and not all 350 degrees are created equally as a result.  It's important to learn when a cake is done by smell and touch. The smell of cake should start filling your home when it's almost done and when you touch the middle, it should spring back.  If it leaves a dent or is wobbling in any way, then it is not ready.  If all else fails, stick a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean, it's ready!