Last Friday, I baked a cake for a friend's birthday. It was a yellow cake, this recipe in fact http://allrecipes.com/recipe/davids-yellow-cake/. It's a nice recipe. The cake is moist, has a smooth texture and flavor, and there was none left at the end of the night. That's always a good sign. There was only one problem -- the recipe calls for 8 egg yolks which left me with 8 egg whites.
After the success of the yellow cake, I decided to try my hand at another cake with the leftover whites. In my opinion, it came out pretty damned well. I just tweaked the yellow recipe, and for prosperity, my recipe for the white cake is below. (if I don't write this out and save it, I WILL forget)
White Cake Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 1/2 cups white sugar
8 egg whites, at room temperature
3/4 cup milk minus 2 tablespoons
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
lemon juice from one large lemon
zest from the lemon
Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour 2 - 8 inch round pans. I use a baking spray that has flour in it. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whip the egg whites to the stiff peak stage. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Stir in the vanilla and lemon zest. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Mix in lemon juice, and then fold in the egg whites. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean or with only a few crumbs. Cool 15 minutes before turning out onto cooling racks.
I used this frosting, from http://www.grouprecipes.com/61740/fluffy-lemon-buttercream-frosting.html.
Lemon buttercream frosting
3 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
1/2 cup of butter softened
1/4 cup of milk
1 t vanilla
1 T lemon zest (the rind of a lemon)
2 T lemon juice
Mix the butter, lemon zest and vanilla together, making sure all the lumps are gone. Add the milk, and quickly cream it into the butter mixture. One 1/2 cup at a time, mix in the sugar. Once all the sugar is mixed in, cream on "high" for two minutes. Mix in lemon juice.
The above cake has so many options. Instead of lemon, you can do orange, lime or grapefruit. You can also exchange the vanilla for another flavored extract, and increase the milk to a full 3/4 cup and take out the citrus. It will also make a dreamy coconut cake by taking out the lemon and substituting coconut milk for the milk. The coconut cake is my next project.
Here's the lemon cake:
