Huge Vanilla Cake
Prep
25m
Cook
32m
Total
57m
Bigly says
Sit down for this one. We're doing vanilla cake. And before you scroll past — and don't scroll past, scrolling past a vanilla cake is the move of a WEAK person, a person who has been LIED to about vanilla — let me tell you something. Vanilla is not boring. Vanilla is the foundation. Vanilla is the load-bearing wall of the dessert world. Take vanilla out tomorrow and the entire bakery industry collapses, COLLAPSES, gone, sad scene. Chocolate gets the magazine covers, vanilla does the work. Plain and simple.
And this cake. THIS cake. This is the greatest vanilla cake in the history of vanilla cake. Nobody knows vanilla cake better than me, nobody, it's not even close. Big strong men, tough men, professional pastry chefs with the little hats and the credentials and the framed certificates, they eat one slice of this and they cry. They sit in the kitchen and they weep. I had to hand a guy a napkin last week. A grown man. Sobbing. Over cake. That's the power of doing it right.
The secret is real vanilla extract, and the food chemists — and I've talked to food chemists, very smart people, the smartest, a guy with a PhD spent 90 minutes explaining this to me and I listened to every word, worth it — the chemists agree: real vanilla has hundreds of aromatic compounds, the imitation has ONE. ONE compound, folks. That's why the fake stuff tastes like a sponge somebody found behind a refrigerator. Spend the extra few dollars on real vanilla. The cake will reward you. Your relatives will look at you differently. Even your critics will admit it. That's the bottom line.
Ingredients
- 3 cupsall-purpose flour
- 1 tbspbaking powder
- 3/4 tspkosher salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks)unsalted butter, room temperature(actually room temperature, not microwaved into soup)
- 2 cupsgranulated sugar
- 4large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tbsppure vanilla extract(real vanilla, not imitation, never imitation)
- 1 1/4 cupswhole milk, room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks)unsalted butter, room temperature (for frosting)
- 5 cupspowdered sugar, sifted
- 2 tsppure vanilla extract (for frosting)
- 3-4 tbspheavy cream
- 1/4 tspkosher salt (for frosting)
Steps
- 1
Heat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment, and butter the parchment. Dust with flour and tap out the excess.
- 2
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.
- 3
In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed for 4 minutes, until pale and fluffy. Scrape the bowl down twice.
- 4
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the vanilla extract.
- 5
With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the milk in two additions, beginning and ending with flour. Mix just until combined.
- 6
Divide the batter evenly between the two pans and smooth the tops. Bake 30-34 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs.
- 7
Cool the cakes in the pans for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely, at least 1 hour.
- 8
For the frosting: beat the butter on medium-high for 3 minutes until pale. Add the powdered sugar a cup at a time on low speed. Add vanilla, salt, and 3 tbsp cream. Beat on medium-high for 3 minutes until fluffy. Add more cream a teaspoon at a time if needed.
- 9
Level the cooled cake layers with a serrated knife if domed. Place one layer on a serving plate, spread with about 1 cup of frosting, then top with the second layer.
- 10
Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining buttercream. Let the cake set at room temperature 20 minutes before slicing.
One more thing
That's a vanilla cake. A HUGE vanilla cake. Slice it thick, put it on a real plate — not a paper plate, paper plates are sad, why are we putting cake on paper, who started this — and let people see it. They'll be amazed. They'll say, 'Wow, that's just vanilla? Just vanilla?' And you'll say, 'Yes. Just vanilla.' And they'll never look at vanilla the same way again. That's the gift you're giving them. Vanilla is back. Vanilla never left. Tremendous.
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Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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