Butter Cake

I never liked Butter Cake until just recently. The Butter Cake from my childhood came from a local bakery. Though their bread was excellent, the Butter Cake was something else. It had a sickly sweet smell which came from rose essence or cheap vanilla essence. So I didn't have a very good impression of Butter Cake until I baked one myself. 

You see, my father loves Butter Cake (he is the one who buys  the horrible butter cake from the bakery) and I wanted to impress him with my new baking skill. My initial attempts were not very successful. My cake was too dense and it always cracked. I gave up for a while until I came across Mrs Ng's Butter Cake posted by Wendy. I must also mention another recipe posted by Tintin which is also pretty good.

Please go to Wendy's post to get Mrs Ng's recipe. I have experimented and made some adjustments. I must say that this recipe will be my go to recipe for Butter Cake. For once, my Butter Cake did not crack and it was incredible fluffy.

Butter Cake

Mixture A

250g butter at room temperature (I used Golden Churn)

80g fine sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used pure vanilla)

4 egg yolks

2 tablespoons milk

200g self raising flour (sifted)

Mixture B

4 egg whites

80g fine sugar

Method :

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla essence.

2. Add egg yolks one at a time and mix well.

3. Add flour in three additions. In the first addition, add 1 tablespoon of milk. Mix on low speed until just incorporated. In the next addition, add in second tablespoon of milk and mix. Then add in last addition of flour. Do not over mix.

4. In another bowl, whisk egg whites and gradually add sugar. Whisk until stiff peaks.

5. Fold in 1/3 of egg whites into the butter mixture. Mix well and fold in the remaining egg whites.

6. Bake in 8" round pan at 160C for 50 minutes.

A word about the egg whites. I noted in Mrs Ng's and Tintin's recipe that the egg whites are beaten to soft peaks. I tried that but my cake did not turn out well as it sort of collapsed at the sides. 

And remember to level the cake batter and make a well in the center so that the cake rises evenly.

I must say that I am incredibly pleased with the butter cake I baked today. Many thanks to Mrs Ng and Wendy for kindly sharing the recipe. Also a word of thanks to Tintin.

Look, Ma! No cracks, just a couple of bumps.

Cut into 12 slices.

One piece for sampling by the cook.

Very fluffy cake.