Baking a Cake in three acts

I have more friends than I thought. I'm so glad to see you two more people. I'm so glad... I'm making you a cake.

Sorry that's a lie. It's not for you. Isaac's 1st birthday is next week. So I'm saving myself some stress by making this cake in a 3 act kind of way. So let's get started.

Here are the players



First we'll start with the hardware. This recipe calls for two 10" pans. So that's what I got.


Second we'll take the bottoms out of my pans, and trace them onto a sheet of parchment paper.... What!? the bottom of your pans don't come out. That's okay, just trace around the bottom of the pans.


Then you have to cut out the perfect circles and prove to the world what a good circle cutter you are. And if you don't want to prove anything to anybody. Cut them like I did. There is no judgment here!

Now we prepare our pans. Grab your baking spray. I love this stuff. Gone are the days of sticking your hand into a container of Crisco and getting flour all over the sink. Plus this stuff smells like cake batter.


(Well I tried to get them all in a line. I need Kate's design program. And Kate's knowledge of the design program. Okay. I admit. I just need Kate.)
So here we are we've sprayed the bottom of the pan, put the papers in, and sprayed the whole pan. Sides and all. Whew! Who knew it took so much to make it so your cake won't stick to the bottom of the pan.

So now we prepare our ingredients.

The most important step!!!
Entertain the BABY!



We'll start with the dry ingredients.
flour, baking powder, and cream of tartar. And we'll sift these together.










Why sift? Because when I worked at Magleby's as a baker of desserts. We got a really lumpy batch of flour. So after we'd baked a couple cakes we realized the lumps weren't beating out. So we bought a sifter and sifted. It also makes a lighter cake.

It's a thing of beauty. Set it aside.

Now we turn to our handy dandy mixer. Make sure you are using the paddle attachment and not the whisk. You'll incorporate too much air into the batter. Add your butter, sugar, and salt. We're going to cream these together.


This is not creamed.


This is more like it.


Give the baby more toys. He's mad.


Don't forget to scrape the bowl, it's important. I just didn't take a picture of it. Now we're going to alternately add the wet and dry ingredients. Start with your dry ingredients. I sifted mine onto the bendy cutting board. Add 1/3 of the dry, with mixer on low.

Let it mix for a few seconds, you don't want to overbeat this mixture. Please, please, please don't overbeat this mixture. The cake will do funny things if you overbeat. Repeat with me. I WILL NOT OVERBEAT. While it's mixing add the vanilla to the milk, and add 1/2 of your milk mixture to the bowl. Mix for a few seconds and scrape the bowl.
Add 1/2 of your leftover flour, accidentally make a mess, then add the rest of your milk mixture.
Add the rest of the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Now if you have an extra mixing bowl for your Kitchen Aid. Go ahead and grab it. If you are poor like me. Scrape the batter into another bowl, ooohh and aahhh over how pretty it is, and wash out your bowl.










Make sure you get all of the grease from the butter off of the bowl. Now we're going to whisk egg whites. If you don't get all of the fat out of the bowl, the whites are not going to fluff up the way they are supposed to. Put the bowl back on the machine and put the whisk on. Put the whites in and turn that sucker up high.

Beat until you get a nice stiff peak. In Provo because we have a high elevation, you'll want to go a little softer. Go ahead and take a little of the whites and mix it into the batter to lighten it up.


Now we're going to fold in the rest of the whites.
*Quick folding lesson. Take your widest spatula (rubber scraper) and slice down the middle of the batter, scrape the bottom and up one side, bringing the batter on the bottom onto the top. Rotate the bowl while you do this. Be very gentle. If you are too forceful you'll deflate the whites.


Keep folding until there are thin streaks of whites left. You don't have to mix 'em all in. Beautiful!


Split into two pans and bake in a preheated 350F oven.


Bake until sides start to pull away, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes away with a few crumbs. Let cool for 15-20 minutes before removing from pan. And wrap with plastic before you put in the freezer if you are making this in 3 acts.









White Cake
makes 9 cups

3 1/3 cups cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cream of tartar

6 oz unsalted butter (room temp)
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 t salt

1 1/4 cups milk (room temp)
3/4 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup egg whites (room temp)

Preheat oven to 350.
Sift together first three ingredients, set aside.
Cream together, butter, 1 1/2 c. sugar and salt.
Mix together milk and vanilla into a pourable measuring cup.

With mixer on low, add 1/3 of the flour, then 1/2 of the milk. After scraping bowl, add 1/2 of the flour and the rest of the milk. Scrape bowl again then add the rest of the flour.

In a clean mixing bowl, beat egg whites until frothy. Then with mixer going add 1/2 c sugar and beat until whites are a stiff peak. Fold into batter. Divide into prepared pans and bake 25-30 minutes. Or until sides pull away and tester comes out clean.


So my cakes turned out okay. But I did it wrong. I added all of the sugar at the beginning. Well, you win some... you lose some. (I think)