White Cake with Whipped Buttercream Frosting

I saw the recipe for Funfetti Cake on I Heart Eating and tucked that away for the next time I wanted to pull out some type of white cake recipe. Well the occasion arose very recently when I decided I wanted to make white cake cupcakes and frost them in pink for my work "announcement" of our pregnancy. I looked this one up and got to work! I actually didn't have enough cake flour, and ended up subbing more than half all-purpose and really recommend waiting 'til you have enough cake flour for this one as my cupcakes came our fairly dense and not nearly as light and fluffy as I would have liked - but they still tasted pretty good. I did think both the frosting and the cake mix needed a little more flavor - more vanilla and/or another extract. It's important to use good quality vanilla extract so you get the best possible flavor in this recipe.

I also used Kate's Whipped Buttercream Frosting recipe (also below) which I loved the texture of! I will warn you though, make sure you use all the frosting up as soon as your cakes are cooled enough to frost, and don't refrigerate your frosting and then try to use it - the texture changes pretty drastically after refrigeration and then re-stirring (much more granulated). I couldn't fit all of my cupcakes into the fridge overnight so I only frosted about half of them, and refrigerated the frosting, planning to frost the rest in the morning before I took them to work. It was fascinating to see the difference in both color and texture after refrigeration! The ones that I frosted and then refrigerated looked perfect though! It makes a pretty big batch of frosting - we didn't use all of it for the cupcakes, and have some leftover. I'm scheming about what I can come up with to use it on! :)

White Cake (slightly adapted from I Heart Eating)

Makes 1 2-layer cake, or 24 cupcakes

 

Ingredients

3 ½ cup sifted cake flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup butter, melted

1 ½ cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 c. sour cream

3/4 c. milk (I used 1%)

2 TBS vanilla extract

 

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 9-inch round cake pans (or line 2 pans of cupcake holders).
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together sifted flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, blend together melted butter and sugar. Add in eggs, sour cream, milk, and vanilla extract until well-combined.
4. Add flour mixture and stir until incorporated (my batter was fairly thick).
5. Divide the batter between prepared cake pans or cupcake tins.
6. Bake for 25-30 minutes for cake, or approximately 18 minutes for cupcakes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
7. Let the cakes or cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes.
8. Remove cakes or cupcakes from pans; let them finish cooling on wire racks.

 

Whipped Buttercream Frosting from I Heart Eating

 

Ingredients

7 TBS all-purpose flour

1 ½ cup milk (I used 1%)

1 ½ TBS pure vanilla extract

1 ½ cup salted butter, room temperature 

1 ½ cup granulated sugar

Pinch of salt

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, whisk flour into milk and heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens. It will be the consistency of a thick pancake batter - it goes pretty quickly so keep a close eye on it.
2. Remove from heat and let it cool to room temperature. Once cooled, stir in vanilla.
3. When the mixture is cooled, cream the butter, sugar, and salt together until light and fluffy on medium high, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the butter mixture to the completely cooled milk mixture.
5. Beat these together for about 5 minutes on medium-high to high, until it looks like whipped cream. If it looks separated at first, keep beating until it combines. Be careful not to overbeat or you'll have a more butter like consistency.