Yes, this is "just" a plain white cake. It only comes with a few dollops of basic vanilla frosting to adorn it. Don't let that trick you into thinking it's boring though. This is a lovely cake. It is easy to make and beautiful in its simplicity. And the snowy white interior makes it feel a bit more special and elegant than a cake made with whole eggs.

White Cake

Ingredients

• 1 c. whole (3.25%) milk, room temperature
• 6 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 255g soft (cake/plain/standard) flour
• 1 3/4 c. sugar
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 3/4 c. butter, softened
• 1 recipe White Frosting

Directions

1. Combine milk, egg whties, and vanilla and set aside to warm up.
2. Grease and flour two 20cm (8") square pans and preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
3. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and mix well.
4. Beat in butter, one Tbsp. at a time, until only pea-sized and smaller lumps remain (almost as if you were making pastry).
5. Add ~2/3 of the egg white mixture and beat for a good minute or two.
6. Beat in remaining egg mixture, being sure that there are no dry, floury clumps left. (It's okay if the batter looks a bit curdled.)
7. Pour half the batter into each pan and knock them a couple times to make sure the batter is settled.
8. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for ~25 minutes¹.
9. Remove from oven and cool in tins for ~15 minutes.
10. Loosen edges and turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.
11. Once the layers are completely cool, spread ~1 c. of frosting evenly over the top of one of the layers.
12. Stack the second layer on top.
13. Using a piping bag fitted with a large open star tip, pipe three rows of three "cupcake spirals" onto the top of your cake.
14. Serve as is or topped with a few cherries.

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¹ I only have one square pan, so I decided to just bake a double-tall cake and split it into two layers once it came out of the oven. In order to get the centre baked without burning the outside, I had to reduce the oven temperature to 160°C (325°F) and bake it for quite a bit longer. I think it was close to an hour all told. If you have the pans available, I strongly recommend baking it as two separate layers. ^Back