Butter Cake with Buttercream Frosting

It's taken me 7 hours from deciding to bake a cake to digesting my first slice and uplading photos. Since it's so fresh in my mind, and I doubt I'm going to sleep anytime soon thanks to a sugar rush, here is my post about the recipe.

I'd baked the cakes according to the recipe here. It took me about 45 minutes to bake each cake to perfection (i.e. not undercooked, brown on all sides, even rising, and not overcooked so that it's dry). It would've been faster if I'd baked 3 cakes instead of 2, but then I wouldn't have enough frosting. I suppose it also would've gone faster if I had more than just one cake pan :P

Here's a picture of the first cake cooling in its pan!


I took cake out of pan, washed pan, yadda yadda yadda, baked second cake. I did what was mentioned in the recipe: for each cake, I first cooled it in the pan for about 10 minutes, then I took it out and wrapped it tightly in clingfilm and left it to cool like that. I must say, the cake really stayed moist that way!! I must remember to employ that method more frequently.

I was desperate to finish making the whole cake in one night, rather than leaving it to cool then frosting it tomorrow, so I put the warm cakes into the fridge to cool *cringes* Yes yes, I'm a bad girl for doing it, but I was desperate!

Anyway, I followed the frosting recipe that was given in Bakerella.



Easy Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1b. 10X powdered sugar
1-3 teaspoons milk, half and half or cream


Using a mixer, cream softened butter and vanilla until smooth.
Add sugar gradually, allowing butter and sugar to cream together before adding more.
If you want your frosting a little creamier, add a teaspoon of milk at a time and beat on high until you get the right texture.
Then, just use icing colors to tint the frosting the color of your choice.



It's essentially the same frosting that we use for our cupcakes (see this picture) but this was easier to remember: one stick of butter with one teaspoon of vanilla, mixed, then one box of icing sugar. Easy! And absolutely delicious to boot :D

Here's a picture of the mostly-frosted cake:


Yeah, the frosting looks ugly, but I don't have a proper spatula to use, so I had to make-do with a knife, and I didn't actually have enough frosting to make prettier/deeper swirly patterns, so I'm stuck with this.

OH and the reason why the "plate" looks so weird is because it isn't actually a plate. I don't have any flat plates, and I didn't have any of those stiff cardboard cake-plate thingies, so I made my own. I cut a large circle out of a cardboard box (courtesy of my Il Bordello take-away dinner last night. The spaghetti carbonara was good, as always), then wrapped it in two layers of foil and one layer of clingfilm. I'm a little worried I might accidentally rip the clingfilm when I'm cutting the cake, but there isn't anything I can do about it now.

Once the frosting was done, I had to wait for it to set. In the meantime, I attempted to take "artistic" pictures :P

I love how this picture shows the texture!




In the background, you can't actually see it, but the laptop screen has the recipe on it :P

And finally, I decided it was time to cut the cake and reward myself with a not-so-little slice.





Aaaaaand more attempts at artistic photography! :D





I must admit, I do like that second-to-last picture. It really makes me think of home, for some odd reason! You know... A slice of cake on a plate, just waiting to be eaten. A laptop nearby, all set to be used. The rest of the cake sitting oh-so-temptingly in the background... All on a wooden table. All it needs is a mug or something! :D

Don't mind the weird colours of the photos.
Bad lighting + no flash = nearly sepia-like feel. I kinda like it! :P

Anyway, onto my review of the cake!


The Verdict:
Ingredients: Except for the butter flavouring, this recipe, being a very basic recipe, is something you can just whip up whenever you feel like it. If you are someone who bakes often enough, all the ingredients should already be in your store cupboard/fridge. :)

Easiness: It's really simple to make if you have a mixer. Even if you don't have a mixer, it doesn't take too much energy! It doesn't really affect the taste or texture, I think. The cake I made today was entirely by hand, and it was really good, anyway! :)

Texture: Very nice texture. It's a little crumbly, but not at all dry! That might change as the cake gets older, but I'll have to get back to you on that ;) Best thing about it is that although it's moist, it isn't so moist that the cake sticks everywhere in your mouth and on your teeth when you eat it. It's just perfect, in my opinion!

Taste: Excellent taste! Not too sweet, not too cloying, although the buttercream frosting can be a little overwhelming at times. Not as buttery as some (i.e. mum) might like it, but then again, I didn't add the butter flavouring. I'll add some next time, and we'll see how it tastes then :)


Will I use this recipe again? Most definitely! I will admit that this butter cake turned out nicer than the other butter cake my sister and I tried baking over the summer. Horribly dry with little butter taste, that one was. I think this recipe will now replace my old recipe as favourite basic recipe! ;)

Hey Ling, since you have the KitchenAid at home, why don't you try making this? I'm sure that Ma will loooooove it, especially if you add the butter flavouring! But bake it in a square tin, and don't put the frosting, otherwise the parents prolly wouldn't eat it ;)

If anyone else does try this recipe, please post a comment on how it turned out! <3