” We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called ‘Opportunity’ and its first chapter is NEW YEAR’S DAY! “ [Edith Lovejoy Pierce] . Sharing this beautiful thought with home style vanilla cake with fresh cream icing.
New year is the time to make resolutions, forgive enemies, make new friends and strive for achievements. There is no big celebration than New Year and every big Celebration calls for a big cake. It’s been 10 years now, I’ve been baking cake for my family and friends but I cakes I love the most are the one I bake in winter holidays…be it Christmas, My Birthday followed by New Year. Seasons best fruit goes into the new year cake, fruit from the heaven…the fruit of love and passion. Strawberry and Pineapple Cake are one of my most favorite cake I bake for my family and friends.
No matter how many cakes i bake, the one that’ll always be the most special is a VANILLA CAKE that i learned from my mother during my initial days of cooking and baking. We did’t had an OTG that time hence we use to bake our cakes in old electric oven where temperature monitoring was the most important. I remember the house smelling cake during winter holidays and that’s how baking turned out to be so therapeutic to me. I personally like my cake without any icing , like they say A NAKED CAKE. But slowly with time my son started to demand a frosted cake hence i had to try my hand on icing as well. To frost this cake i got some ready made heavy cream, added some food color to it to pipe florets and kept the center clean to write a message or place a card on top. For piping and dressing my cakes i use dessert decorator from Wilton Tools as i find the easy to use and clean after the mess. I already have couple of recipes where i have mentioned how to prepare a fresh cream icing at home. You may check them out HERE.
How to bake Vanilla Cake ?
INGREDIENTS :
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup softened butter
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1.2 tsp baking soda
- 4 tbsp milk
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
METHOD :
- Take a 8 inch pan and line with parchment paper and keep aside. Pre heat the oven at 180 degree C for 10 mins.
- In a large mixing bowl, sift flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda together suing a sieve.
- In a separate bowl add sugar and butter, blend using an electric blender until soft and creamy.
- Add eggs one by one and blend until smooth.
- Add vanilla extract and mix well.
- Now add dry mix to the wet mix along with milk and fold in to make a smooth batter.
- Pour the batter in the lined or greased pan and tap gently to break air pockets, if any.
- Place the pan on the middle rack of the pre heated oven and bake for 35-40 mins or till the tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
- Shift the baked cake pan on a wire rack and let it cool completely.
- Once the cake is cool, de-mold it from the pan and gently cut into pieces and serve.
How to make Fresh Cream Icing ?
In a large mixing bowl, take heavy cream/ whipping cream and add icing sugar to it. With and electric blender whip the cream till soft peak appears. Refrigerate the whipped cream for 10 mins. Your fresh cream icing is ready to frost on the cake.
NOTES :
- Never whip the batter too hard. Always fold in gently in one direction till creamy.
- Don’t over heat the oven as it may reduce the baking time of the cake and the cake may burn.
- Heat of the oven depends from oven to oven, so it’s not necessary that the cake will bake in the given time, Keep a check on the cake and after 30 mins, insert a tooth pick in the center of the cake, if it comes out clean then your cake is done Or else bake for another 5 mins or more.
- Never frost the cake when it is hot, always let the cake cool down completely before you take on icing it.
If you liked this easy home style vanilla cake recipe, then try baking this season and enjoy!
Love : Shaheen
