Sorry for the delay in getting a recipe to you for really good cake. Heavy rain intruded on my basement and I've spent a lot of time with a shop vac and mop.
I thought about doing a pound cake first since to me that is one of the easiest cakes to make. The trouble is, my favorite recipe is for a bundt pan, not a loaf pan, and I need to scale it down to fit the loaf pan so folks don't call my a hypocrite for requiring special equipment. So I settled on a classic white layer-type cake. This cake is one of my favorites for its soft, moist texture. It makes great cupcakes too! This recipe is based on the Cook's Illustrated Classic White Layer Cake. I started with that recipe but wanted a softer texture, so changed it a little bit. The biggest change was to replace some of the butter with oil so the cake remains soft even when refrigerated. You can make a sheet cake with this recipe, which makes it even easier.
Yummy White Cake
2 1/4 cups (9 oz) cake flour (you can use 2 cups bleached all purpose flour, but the texture won't be quite as delicate. Don't let it stop you, though! It will still be good!)
1 cup milk (whole is best, 2% will work fine), room temp
6 large egg whites, room temp
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups (12.5 oz) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temp (about 65 degrees)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
This recipe fits two 9 inch round pans, but could easily be made in a 9 x 13 pan as well. I wouldn't recommend using 8 inch round pans because it might get too tall, but you could use 8 inch square pans if you have them. Or you could make 18-24 cupcakes!
Set oven rack in middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray or smear with cooking oil; line the bottoms with parchment or waxed paper rounds. Spray the paper rounds with cooking spray or smear with oil. You can skip the paper rounds if you will serve from the pans or if you are making a 9 x 13 sheet cake.
If you have never separated eggs before, there are several ways to do it. The old fashioned way is to pour the yolk back and forth between the egg shell halves until most of the white is gone. Be careful not to break the yolk on the sharp shell. For this application, a little bit of yolk won't hurt a thing, though. (The FDA recommends against this practice due to salmonella risks. I continue to do it.) An alternative way it is messy but also works. Pour the egg into your clean hand, and let the white drip down through your fingers as you hold the yolk. You can also buy a tool to do it, but that's not necessary. Even with all the baking I do, I don't use one.
Put the egg whites, milk and vanilla into a small bowl or large measuring cup. Mix together with a fork or whisk (it doesn't have to be 100% blended, just mix it fairly well). Measure flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk or mix with a mixer for a few seconds to distribute the ingredients evenly. Add butter and oil and mix until the mixture gets crumbly and there are not any dry pockets of flour remaining.
Add about 2/3 of the milk mixture to the crumbs. Mix on medium high speed for about 1 1/2 minutes (or about 3 minutes if doing it by hand. I recommend a wooden spoon.) Scrape the bowl well with a spatula to make sure there aren't any dry spots remaining, then mix in the remaining milk mixture for about 30 seconds. Scrape batter into pan(s), spreading evenly.
If using two pans, make sure they have room around them (use separate racks if necessary, changing about halfway through baking). Bake at 350 degrees, checking after 20 minutes, for about 25 minutes. A 9 x 13 cake will take about 35 minutes; cupcakes will take 15-20 minutes.
Here comes part of the baking adventure where people seem to have a real problem. How do you tell when the cake is done? Many ideas abound, including using skewers, toothpicks, pressing on the cake with a finger, checking the color and even listening to the sounds the cake makes (yep, it makes noise) while baking. I tend to use a skewer or toothpick, taking the cake out when there are just a couple of small crumbs on the pick when removed from the center (check at an angle for maximum exposure to the cake). You definitely don't want to see any wet batter on the toothpick. One thing to make sure of is that the cake has not begun to pull away from the edges of the pans while in the oven. The cake should only come away from the edges while it is cooling. If you see it starting to shrink in the oven, pull it out!
Let the cake(s) cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack if you plan to make a layer cake. Otherwise, you can just let it cool in the pan. Uh-oh, now I gotta come up with a frosting recipe. Be back soon!
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