The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 6

Don't forget to sign up for the GIVEAWAY! The deadline is Monday, July 5th!

I think we found THE cake so far. The recipe comes from the baker at Cake Love, Warren Brown.You may have seen him a long time ago on Food Network's Sugar Rush.

This cake was easy to put together. I made three modifications based on previous cakes: 1) I used 1 egg yolk plus 3 eggs instead of 4 whole eggs; and 2) I used 6 oz of all-purpose flour with 3 oz of cake flour (9oz total) instead of 7oz of AP with 2 oz of potato starch (9oz total).

We plan to try out more yellow cake recipes, but so far, this one is my favorite. Lydia thought I had put oil in it, but it doesn't have a lick of oil in it. The batter is AMAZING. I would give the batter a 10 because I kept licking the beater and ended up licking the bowl and spoon once everything was in the oven, and I have never done that with any of these yellow cakes.

THE GOOD:
The texture of the cake is soft, light and fluffy, yet it is sturdy enough to be used in a strawberry shortcake cake or something requiring a wet or moist filling. It tastes close to, but better than a cake-mix cake in my opinion. It isn't spongy or oily. I would not call it moist; however, I wouldn't call it dry either. It just has a perfect texture. You could easily eat it without frosting (like Warren Brown did in his video that I posted below). In fact, that is what I did with the fallen pieces of cake that didn't get frosted.

I would pair the chocolate frosting with a quick type of buttercream instead of the "gourmet" one that requires melted chocolate and 3 sticks of butter. I used the latter, and my friend, my mother (SHE'S IN TOWN!), and I agreed that the frosting was overwhelming and distracted you from the cake too much.

THE BAD:
I can't think of anything bad about the cake. My mom couldn't either. That doesn't mean it was perfect, though; it was just really good.

THE UGLY (aka ratings): (ratings in bold because they were not present in the original post)
Memoria: 9/10 (C1: 6.5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 8/C5: 7.5)
Lydia: 9/10 (C1: 5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 9.5/C5: 7.5)
Memoria's Mom (new rater!): 8/10
Lydia's Husband: 10/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: 4/Cake-Mix(C4): 9/C5: 7)
My Neighbor: 9.5/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: N/A/Cake-Mix(C4): 9/C5: 7.5) He said the cake was moist and fluffy. He loved it.

Like I said, we will be looking at other recipes to see if there is something better out there, but so far, this is my favorite and is the winner . . . for now.

Yellow Butter Cake

adapted from Cake Love (linked to a great video of him making this cake)

6 oz (3/4 cup or 1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
14 oz (1 3/4 cup) superfine or regular granulated sugar (I used regular)
3 large, whole eggs (room temperature)
1 egg yolk (room temperature)
6 oz AP flour
3 oz cake flour
1 tsp salt (I used kosher)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 cup half-n-half
1 Tbsp vanilla extract
(Warren Brown also used 2 Tbsp of brandy)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (335 degrees if using a convection oven). Prepare your 8" or 9" cake pans (I used Baker's Joy).

Cream the butter and sugar for about 3-4 minutes. Add in the eggs one at time, making sure the batter is well-blended before adding another egg.

I love how yellow this batter is after adding the eggs!

In a separate bowl, whisk or sieve the flours, salt, and baking powder. In a (2-cup/16oz) liquid measuring cup, mix the half-n-half and extract. Pour in a 1/3rd of the dry and a 1/3rd of the wet ingredients and continue to alternate, ending with the flour mixture. The batter should be thick (and tasty).

No longer yellow but still very delicious!

Pour batter into cake pans, and bounce them on the counter to remove air bubbles and to make the batter even. Bake the batter for 30-35 minutes, or based on your own oven, which I'm sure functions better than my oven.

For the "gourmet" chocolate buttercream I used, go here. For the simple chocolate buttercream I recommend for this cake, look below.

"Cheaper" & "Simpler", Yet Still Tasty Chocolate Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3-4 cups powdered sugar, to taste
3/4-1 cup cocoa powder, to taste
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 Tbsp milk, to desired consistency

Blend the butter on high for about 1-2 minutes. On LOW, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add the cocoa powder. Once mixed well, add the vanilla extract and milk until desired consistency.

Happy 4th of July to all who observe this holiday!

UPDATE:

One of the readers of this blog asked about my reasons behind my changes to the recipe. I actually addressed them on previous posts about the yellow cake, but for sake of simplicity, I answered her questions in the comments section, but I thought it'd be helpful to post my reasons here.

1. 1 yolk + 3 eggs instead of 4 whole eggs: To make the batter/cake more yellow and less eggy-tasting. It didn't make the batter look more yellow but before adding the flour and half-n-half, it looked yellow (look at the next to last photo above). Also, we had another cake that called for 4 eggs, and it tasted eggy.

2. Cake flour instead of Potato Starch: I didn't have potato starch and felt it unnecessary to purchase it for a cake. I also wanted a recipe where most ingredients are accessible and usually found in most homes. Even though not everyone has cake flour, I believe it is more present in homes than potato starch. Since Warren Brown of Cake Love said that the protein amount for the cake flour was different from that of potato starch, I adjusted the ratio of AP vs. cake flour. The cake flour makes the cake lighter, and the all-purpose makes it a bit more dense.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 5

This cake was my favorite so far, but it still has a long way to go. It comes from Martha Stewart. I baked it in my oven, so it wasn't fully done in the middle, but it still had the prettiest, external color out of the five cakes we've made :(.

I picked this recipe because it had oil in it just like what is required in cake-mix cakes. The batter came out so runny that I added a little more flour to make it thicker. It was still not very thick, but I didn't want to change the recipe too much so that I could have a fair judgment of the cake. I forged on with this batter because it reminded me of the batter of my favorite chocolate cake recipe, which is also very runny.

For the frosting, I made the cheap variety like I did in the second cake; however, I also added some leftover frosting I made for another cake (I will blog about this later). So, the texture of the frosting was gritty but tasty.

Let's proceed to the ratings, shall we?

THE GOOD: I liked how moist it was. I liked the flavor. It didn't taste "eggy" like the second one did, and it was pretty yellow for not having dye. Lydia liked it and said it would be a good rum cake. I just took her word for it because I don't drink :).

THE BAD: It was also too moist. Some oil even sort of leaked out of the cake as my fork sank through a piece. That could be because it was not fully done, but I really think there's too much liquid in the batter. My neighbor said this cake was spongy. I think that is a good quality, but he felt it was a bad one, and its spongy state contributed to his lower rating.

THE UGLY:
Memoria: 7.5/10 (C1: 6.5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 8)
Lydia: 7.5/10 (C1: 5/C2: 5/C3: 0/Cake-Mix(C4): 9.5)
Lydia's Husband: 7/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: 4/Cake-Mix(C4): 9)
The Neighbor: 7.5/10 (C1: 8.5/C2: 9/C3: N/A/Cake-Mix(C4): 9)

As you can see, Lydia and I feel more differently about most of these cakes than the two other raters with the exception of this one and the Duncan Hines cake. Case in point, this cake received the highest rating Lydia and I have given one of the from-scratch cakes and the lowest rating from one of the other two judges. I hope that when we find THE cake, we will all be in consensus or at least close enough.

Because Lydia and I think highly of this cake, we plan to work on this recipe to reach the quintessential cake. I will post only the final result. In the meantime, I will have something special for you all on Monday that has absolutely NADA to do with yellow cake.

Martha Stewart's Basic Yellow Cake

slightly adapted and found on Slice of Feist

4 1/4 cups flour (I added an extra 1/4 cup, so I used 4 1/2. I also used half cake flour & AP flour.)
3 1/3 cups sugar
3 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
3 large eggs plus 1 yolk
1 3/4 cups warm water (warm up cold water for 1 minute)
2 cups buttermilk
3/4 cups vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 360 degrees, and prepare cake pans.

In a mixing bowl, sift all dry ingredients together.

I use the whisk to sieve the dry ingredients.

Slowly beat in all of your other ingredients.

I think the the eggs and vanilla should be mixed in a bit before adding the other liquids to avoid small, drier clumps of batter. I also think the amount of liquids should be reduced.

Bake cake at 360 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until slightly brown on top and firm to the touch.

You would think the cake was done at this point, right?

[It was hard to strictly follow these steps above. I really think you should add the wet ingredients in more moderation than is described here. When I revamp this recipe, I will give more detailed instructions.]

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 3 "and 4"

The "diet" cake

Okay, so on Friday Lydia and I decided to make one cake each. She made a "diet" version of a yellow cake from her grandmother that ironically called for a pint of heavy cream but no butter. I don't really know what is "diet" about that cake, but that is what the grandmother called it haha.

The "Cake-Mix" Cake 

(*sigh* my photos are getting worse and worse. I don't know why.)

Along with making that cake, Lydia decided to make a cake mix version of the yellow cake to make a fair comparison of the best from scratch cake. We never planned on doing that, so I was pleasantly surprised she did it. Meanwhile, I made a Martha Stewart recipe that I will blog about next.

So, I drove over to Lydia's house with my cake, and she cut two slices (one for me and one for my neighbor) from each cake she made. After tasting my cake and her two cakes, I became so sick of yellow cake hahaha. We are now both so tired of this stuff! So, after I post about cake 4, you won't be hearing about more cakes until next week (Is that okay, Ingrid? haha). I would take a longer break, but I know that Esi's and Lydia's birthdays are coming up.

Anyway, let's proceed to the good, bad, and the ugly aka the ratings for the "diet" cake...

THE GOOD: I don't think there was anything good about this cake. So, let's proceed to the bad...

THE BAD: Everything. The texture, taste, and look were terrible! It tasted so badly that I had to spit out my first bite.

THE UGLY aka THE RATINGS:
Memoria: 0/10
Lydia: 0/10 (she's disappointed at her grandmother even more now hahaha!)
Lydia's Husband: He probably won't be tasting this since she threw it in the dumpster already haha.
The Neighbor: I didn't bother giving him a slice. That would be mean haha.

I think it would be mean for me to share the recipe of the "diet" cake, so I'll just talk about the cake mix cake. Again, my friend made this cake in order to gain a fair comparison of the scratch cakes to this one. She used the Duncan Hines cake mix. Also, she used store-bought frosting because she messed up her homemade frosting by using granulated sugar LOL! She's too cute. That's something my mother would do. Anyway, here's what we thought:

THE GOOD: The color was great. The texture was even and nice. The taste was just what it was supposed to taste like. What more can I say? haha

THE BAD: They use DYE to make the color great. Here we were working hard to make the cake yellow with eggs, only to find out that we will never reach that level of yellow without dye haha. While the cake was moist, I thought it could stand to be a bit more moist. It lacked in vanilla flavor.

THE UGLY:
Memoria: 8/10 (This may be because I'm so sick of yellow cake, though)
Lydia: 9.5/10
Lydia's Husband: 9/10
The Neighbor: 9/10 (he said it was pretty close to the taste of the second cake; he also said it was moist)

Stay tuned for the next cake! I will post it in a few hours.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 2

Okay, here is the second attempt. Click here for the first cake we made.

I didn't get any good photos of this cake because it kept sliding. Someone impatient forced me to ice the cake after waiting 40 minutes for the cake to cool. Needless to say, it was still warm.

This time around, we tried the long-awaited recipe of my partner-in-crime, Lydia. The difference with this recipe was that it wasn't based on making a mix, so I didn't have to use my disastrous powdered milk. Another difference was that this cake required four eggs instead of the two in the previous cake. A plus about this recipe was the amount of vanilla required - 2 1/2 TABLESPOONS!

Surprisingly, this cake didn't come out as yellow as the first one even with two extra eggs. However, even though it was cooked better since we used her oven, it didn't taste better than the first. Because we made the cake at her house, we had to make some modifications. First, we used a hand mixer that caused flour to fly everywhere at the beginning of the process hahaha (everytime I use a hand mixer, I am once again thankful I have not one, but two stand mixers (thanks, mom and Pioneer Woman!). Also, I forgot to bring my cake pans, and she didn't have any (gasp!), so we used a 9x13 pan. The cake thus didn't look as prototypical as the first cake, but I knew that wouldn't affect the flavor and our judgment of the cake. Her husband had to go to the store to get baking powder because I forgot to bring that too, and I had to make a flour/butter base to the pan like back in the old days instead of using my beloved Baker's Joy (such an appropriate name for this spray).

The frosting looks different on this one because I made a simple, cheaper frosting that required only cocoa powder, powdered sugar, butter, vanilla, and milk. So, there was no melted chocolate and 3 sticks of butter this time around. I also made a cheaper type of frosting so that the testers would focus more on the cake than the frosting because they did the opposite on the first cake haha. Once we find THE cake, we will try it again with the good frosting.

THE GOOD: Lydia loved the salient taste of vanilla in this cake and plans to modify future cake recipes with this amount of vanilla. The texture was much softer and "spongier" than the first. Even with the hand mixer, this cake was easier to put together than the first because the intention of the cake was not to make a dry mix but to make a cake. With a better oven, this cake baked much more evenly. Most importantly, this cake didn't taste like sweet cornbread.

THE BAD: When I took my first bite, I tasted the eggs. I didn't like that issue at all. Also, even with two more eggs than the first, the cake was much lighter in color. This cake didn't knock my socks off at all. I thought the first cake even with its problems was better than this one.

THE UGLY AKA RATINGS (rating of previous cake in parentheses):
Memoria: 5/10 (Mel's Cake 6.5/10)
Lydia: 5/10 (Mel's cake: 5/10)
Lydia's Husband: 9/10 (Mel's cake: 8.5/10) He preferred this cake over the other.
The Neighbor: 9/10 (8.5/10) He's the preferred this cake over the other.

My friend was greatly disappointed and became very sad and despondent after this cake test because this recipe was supposed to be her grandmother's tried-and-true recipe. She stated that she thinks that it wasn't because she remembered it being as yellow as the ones you see on the cake mix boxes. Then, she was forced to suspect that her grandmother had always made those cakes from a mix instead of from scratch. I then told her about my story of finding out that my stepmother, a reported baker of many wedding cakes and such, just doctored up cake mixes. Lydia was really affected by this cake test. I told her that it was okay because we are looking for THE ONE, and that we will find it.

On that note, I think that all these tests will cause us to just create THE recipe at the end of it all. We are taking note of what we like in our attempts and will be adapting upcoming recipes with our preferences. So far we plan to use some egg yolks and more vanilla in our future recipes. I have found quite a few recipes, and we plan to try them all. I hope you're still onboard. I need to hurry up for Esi's birthday, so I hope I can find one soon hahaha.

Here is the recipe, if you're curious.

Lydia's Grandmother's Yellow Cake

1/2 cup of whole milk, room temperature
4 eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 Tbsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cup of cake flour
1 1/2 cup of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cool

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour your 8-inch cake pans or a 9x13 pan, or use Baker's Joy or the like.

Blend milk, eggs, and vanilla together in a liquid measuring cup. Blend flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in the mixing bowl. Cut the butter into tablespoons, and add the butter to the dry mixture. Mix the mixture well until you form small to medium chunks of butter deeply encased in the dry mixture.

Upon seeing this photo of my friend's hand on my computer, I instantly realized that these moments of making yellow cake will forever be in my memory and thoughts. Even though this photo is blurry, it is so comforting to see her hand caressing my silver bowl. *sniff* haha

Next, mix in ONE CUP of the liquid ingredients. Once mixed, add the rest of the liquid ingredients. Do not overmix!

Pour the mixture into the pans, and bake for 20-25 minutes if using cake pans and 30-35 minutes for 9x13 pan.

"Cheaper" & "Simpler", Yet Still Tasty Chocolate Buttercream

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3-4 cups powdered sugar, to taste
3/4-1 cup cocoa powder, to taste
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
4-5 Tbsp milk, to desired consistency

Blend the butter on high for about 1-2 minutes. On LOW, add the powdered sugar one cup at a time. Add the cocoa powder. Once mixed well, add the vanilla extract and milk until desired consistency.

The Search for the Perfect Yellow Cake: Part 1

My friend and I have decided to search for the perfect yellow cake. The idea for this search started when my friend told me that she was craving a yellow cake with chocolate frosting - the prototypical cake in my mind. She asked me if I knew of a good recipe, and I told her that I didn't. Thus, the search began.

We then planned to meet each other once a week and try out a recipe. On the first week, we were hoping to try out the recipe from her grandmother because she says that it was her favorite growing up. After weeks and weeks of begging for the recipe, she was never able to get it from her grandmother until today! We will be trying out that recipe tomorrow, so I will keep you posted.

As you can see, I didn't bother with fancy decorations. The point was to test the cake.

On this post, I present to your our first attempt. At the end of the post, I will give you the rating we and two other people gave on this cake. This first recipe comes from one of my most reliable food blog for good recipes - Mel's Kitchen. I love her recipes and get excited about just about any recipe that pops up.

When she blogged about a homemade yellow cake mix recipe, I was so excited. I was even more excited that I had all the ingredients in my apartment already, including the powdered milk....ahhh, the powdered milk (from hereon, we will call this ingredient PM). After making the batter, we tasted it and were surprisingly disappointed. The PM was the most salient taste; it really tasted off. Nevertheless, we forged ahead, baked, and frosted the cake with my favorite chocolate frosting.

My beloved, overheated oven caused the cake to burn around the edges while the center was still not done. I continued to bake the cake and then cut off the burnt, crusty tips. After frosting the cake, I cut into it in order to take photos. The knife struggled through the burnt, overly-done edges of the cake and then I pulled out the piece only to reveal an underdone cake! I cut another piece that looked a bit better and took photos of it instead.

We tasted the cake reluctantly and were disappointed. My friend was more disappointed than I. I think the problem primarily came from the powdered milk and the oven. I should have used a newer box of PM and maybe I could have ground it up a bit before adding it to the cake mixture because the granules were quite large. Also, I need to request the apartment owner to install a new oven for me hahaha. I hope I have luck with that. Anyway, everyone who tasted the cake loved the chocolate frosting, but that had nothing to do with the yellow cake in itself.

I finally used one of the blocks of chocolate given to me by Guittard in the frosting. 

I love the design on it.

Here are the ratings:

RATINGS:
Memoria: 6.5/10
Lydia: 5/10
Lydia's husband: 8.5/10
My Neighbor: 8.5/10

So, the non-picky people gave the cake a much higher rating. I think if I were to fix the two problems mentioned above, the cake would dramatically improve. So, with that said, I wouldn't totally dismiss this recipe at all. I plan to try it again under better circumstances. Despite the negatives, this cake was moist and buttery. All the homemade yellow cakes I've made prior to this one tasted like sweet cornbread for some reason. This one tasted like a cake even with the problems it had.

For the next cake, we will be using my friend's oven, and this recipe doesn't require PM :). Stay tuned!

Homemade Yellow Cake Mix

from Mel's Kitchen Café

*Makes enough for two 9-inch layer cakes (bake according to recipe), or one 9X13-inch cake (bake for 30 to 35 minutes), or one 12-cup bundt pan (bake for 40 to 45 minutes), or 24 cupcakes (bake for 18 to 20 minutes)

2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour (or 1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp all-purpose flour and 3 Tbsp cornstarch) 1/2 cup nonfat dry milk powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons butter (2 sticks), cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Process sugar, flours (or flour and cornstarch if making the substitution for the cake flour), milk powder, baking powder, and salt in a food processor for 15 seconds to combine. Add butter and vanilla and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal (you want this much finer than, say, a pie crust). Freeze the dry mixture in a zipper-lock bag for up to 2 months or use immediately.

To make the cake, adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour your pan of choice (I used Baker's Joy).

1 1/4 c warm water
2 large eggs, room temperature

With an electric or stand mixer, beat the prepared cake mix, warm water and eggs until the mixture is smooth, about 2 minutes.

Scrape the batter into the prepared cake pan(s) and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25-27 minutes for two 9-inch layer cakes. See the note above the recipe for alternate cooking times with other baking pans. Cool the cake(s) in pan(s) for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream
from the Daring Baker's Dobos Torte. Recipe copied from PastryPal

4 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Guittard semi-sweet chocolate)
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder, Dutch-processed
1 1/4 cups (125 g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fill a pot with water, bring to a boil, and place a larger bowl filled with the chocolate over it. It will melt gently. Let the chocolate cool to lukewarm on the side.

Meanwhile, beat the butter until completely smooth. Add cocoa powder and beat in. Sift the powdered sugar directly over the bowl and beat that in.

In the top photo, you can see the Cocoa Rouge Powder. I love the dark red hue in this powder.

Next, in goes the vanilla and the melted chocolate.

Mix together, and place a crumb coating on the cake. Refrigerate or freeze the cake for 30 mins-1 hour. Then, add another coat of frosting.

*If you want to do a lot of decorating with his frosting, I suggest making another half portion of this frosting or doubling it.