Perfect White Cake

I have deemed this year the year of entertaining. Since finally having moved out of the shoebox we lived in for 7 years, I now have a home and a great backyard that is great for entertaining (or at least it will be). I already have 3 big parties on the calendar, with the first being in one week.

If you visit my Pinterest page, over half of my boards are party related. The problem with this is that you, and by you I mean me, get so inspired that you buy everything to make absolutely every detail from scratch, then get so overwhelmed that you end up with barley half of what you had planned. I have vowed that this will not be the case this year, so I have a very detailed to do list.

Like last year, I want the birthday cake to be the "piece de resistance." However I am not the best cake decorator so this should be interesting. In an effort to get organized, I have been testing cake recipes for the last month. I wanted a cake that was stable and could hold up multiple layers.

Well folks, this is the recipe. It is delicious and will be perfect for my multi layer cake. The recipe comes from Add A Pinch. Basically the only thing I did differently was use all buttermilk. It was moist and delicious! I used my favorite Italian Meringue recipe because it makes a ton and is beater licking delicious! I highly recommend this cake for your next birthday cake baking!

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Perfect White Cake

Prep Time

15 mins

Cook Time

25 mins

Total Time

40 mins

 

Servings: 12

Author: Jackie

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• ½ cup vegetable shortening
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 5 eggs , room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk , room temperature

Italian Meringue Buttercream

• 1¼ cups sugar , divided into 1 cup and ¼ cup
• ⅓ cup water
• 6 large egg whites , room temperature
• ¾ teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup salted butter , very soft cut into pieces
• 1¼ cup unsalted butter , very soft, cut into pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease 3 9 inch cake pans with non-stick cooking spray.
2. Cream butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing throughly in between each addition.
4. Mix in vanilla.
5. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt and mix to combine.
6. Add ⅓ of the flour to the butter/egg mixture, mixing on low.
7. Mixing just enough to combine, add ⅓ of the buttermilk.
8. Continue until all of the flour and buttermilk has been incorporated, again mixing until just combined (do not over mix!)
9. Evenly distribute cake batter into pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and allow to cool slightly in cake pans for about 5 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

Frosting

1. To make the Italian Meringue combine 1 cup of sugar and water in a small sauce pan.
2. Heat sugar and water on medium until boiling (you want large bubbles).
3. In the bowl of your electric mixer, beat egg whites and sugar until frothy.
4. Increase your mixer speed to high and beat egg whites until hard peaks form.
5. Reduce mixer speed to low and slowly and carefully pour into egg whites.
6. Slowly increase the mixer speed again and beat until the mixture is no longer hot or warm and is fluffy. (mixture needs to be as close to room temperature as possible before adding butter).
7. With the mixer set at medium speed, slowly add butter pieces. Mix until smooth.
8. Separate buttercream into 3 bowls, and color with your preferred frosting colors.
9. Fill each layer with buttercream and stack cake.
10. Frost assembled cake.