ATK: the white cake
my sister liz is the cake person. i am the cookie person. but, when she has a birthday, i guess i become the cake person by default! she requested this cake because it was the best recipe she’d found for white cake (and she’s been through a lot).
so, not being a cake person, i had to be told that the weird thing about this cake is that you don’t stiffen your egg whites. i didn’t know that stiffening them was the norm. instead, you beat your egg whites with milk until they’re mixed, then add it to the batter later on. the weird thing, in my opinion, was that after mixing your dry ingredients, you added chunks of butter and blended it like you would a pie crust (those i know!).
i even went all out and bought actual cake flour.
the EPIPHANY OF THE YEAR: greasing and flouring your cake pans, then lining the bottom with parchment rounds.
OMG i will never make a round cake again without doing this. taking the cake out of the pan has never, ever been easier.
regardless of the parchment thing, which is awesome, this is pretty darn good white cake. it didn’t really rise in the middle – in fact, it kind of sank – and it was dense, but not too dense. plus it was delicious; i could have eaten the entire bowl of batter and been ok with it.
i made a chocolate ganache for the frosting (i cup heavy cream + 10 oz. chocolate chips + vanilla), and because i was pressed for time, it was a little messy. if i’d made this earlier, it would’ve been more frostingesque.
point: ATK