This cake may be the all important cake that has the basic ingredients that most rich cakes require : flour, eggs, butter and sugar. It is important to learn how to make a good butter cake because it has so many possibilities of transforming it into something else just by adding a few other ingredients. For example: Just by omitting the milk and adding orange juice and the zest of an orange, we can transform it into an orange cake. Add a few mashed bananas and you will get a banana cake. But you do need a good butter cake recipe and the simple techniques to get a reasonable good cake.
230g high fat content butter ( I use Lurpak or Golden Churn Brand)
195g caster sugar
5 large eggs (each egg weighing about 58g to 60g)
200g cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
60 ml full fat milk
half a teaspoon fine grain salt
Grease and dust with flour an 8 inch square tin. If you like to line your cake tins, then grease cake tin, line with baking parchment paper and then grease again and dust with flour.
Always measure out all your ingredients with a digital weighing scale and have them ready in front of you so you do not accidentally forget to include any ingredient. If you are using salted butter, leave out the salt in this recipe. Eggs, butter and milk must be at room temperature (which is 25 to 28 degrees Celsius.)
Whisk the butter with an electric whisk until soft and creamy. Add the caster sugar and whisk for 2 minutes. Use a spatula to scrape down the bowl. Add the first egg, beating well until combined and then add the next egg and whisk well after each addition. Keep doing this and scraping the bowl down at least twice in between additions. After the fifth egg is added, whisk the creamy batter for at least two to three minutes. This ensures that the sugar is properly melted and becomes homogeneous. (You should not be able to feel the grainy sugar but a creamy batter only). The batter should look pale and increase in volume (fluffy, as some may call it).
Heat the oven on convection 165 Celsius or 325 F
Sieve the flour with the salt and baking powder. Stir the vanilla extract into the milk.
Now add one-third of the flour mixture and half of the milk mixture and fold into the creamy batter. Mix well and then add the next one-third of flour and the rest of the milk mixture and fold into the cake batter until incorporated. Finally add the remaining flour and fold into batter, going deep into the middle and round the sides of the bowl to mix well. Do this several times.
Transfer the cake batter to the cake tin and level the surface with an offset spatula.
Put the cake tin on a lower third rack and centralise your cake tin in the middle.
Bake for 55 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick in the middle of the cake. If there is no wet batter sticking to it, it is done. If the top of the cake starts to become very dark brown after 35 to 40 minutes of baking , tent the top of the cake tin with a piece of aluminium foil. I forgot to do that and got a top a little bit burnt. But that part which is the dome can be sliced off.
Let the cake cool in the tin for 10 minutes. You will notice the cake start to pull away from the sides of the tin. Remove the cake from the tin and peel off the baking paper (if using). Let cake cool on a wire rack completely before you frost it with the icing of your choice. It is easier to frost if cake has been chilled for 45 minutes.
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