Tasty Yellow Cake with Near Perfect Buttercream

Oh man, what a hard week. I won’t bore you with the day-to-day details. Even though this week was rough, when I come home, I have a wonderful husband who loves me and I have an amazing hobby that helps me relieve the stress from the week. This week’s post is special for two reasons: first, it is my first post with a smoothed cake, which was super fun. Second, this awesome cake plate! This 6-inch cake was made for the first party we held at our new home.

Last Christmas, husband got me a round of cake decorating lessons from one of the local bakeries. It was so much fun and I learned some really important basics and I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I so look forward to taking more lessons! One of the things I learned was how to smooth a buttercream cake. Now, the teacher said it could only be done with a shortening-based buttercream, but I’ve proven her wrong! It took me about an hour to smooth down this little cake and it was so worth the time.

As for the cake plate, I found it at a church garage sale for $2! When I saw it, it was all grubby, stained, and old. When I got it home, I mixed up a pearlized seafoam paint and went to town. I am so so happy with how it turned out! It is such a wonderful addition to my cake stand collection!

The cake itself is another recipe from my Bakewise cookbook. I love this book and I’m still learning a lot from it. It contains three recipes for yellow cake, all with different techniques. The first recipe was a traditional kind of creaming method, which I tried out with my Golden Cake and Strawberry Buttercream post. The second recipe dissolves the sugar in hot water before everything else is mixed together. That’s the one I used for this cake. The difference in texture is the most obvious. The density of this cake is very close to pound cake. I love it. You can’t tell from the pictures, but there were actually four layers in this cake. The middle filling was the buttercream I used to cover the cake. The other layer fillings had marshmallow filling. I can’t decide if it is unfortunate or not, but the marshmallow soaked into the cake, which made it that much more amazing. Recipes for all after the strip!

Moist Yellow Cake Recipe (Dissolved-Sugar Method)

Makes 2 6-inch rounds or one 9-inch round

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and coat your pan with shortening and powder with confectioners sugar.
2. Beat together flour and baking powder in a medium bowl for about a minute and set aside.
3. Heat water to a simmer and pour over sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat for a few seconds to dissolve the sugar, then beat in the butter, vanilla, and salt. Add the oil and mix on medium to blend.
4. Sprinkle one-third of the flour mixture over the sugar mixture. Blend in on low with a minimum amount of beating. Continue adding the flour until all of it is incorporated.
5. Stir in the egg yolks by hand, one at a time, then do the same with the whole eggs.
6. Place a bowl, whisk and the heavy cream into the freezer to chill for five minutes. Whip the cream until soft peaks form when the whisk is lifted. Whip just a bit beyond this stage. Stir about one-quarter of the whipped cream into the batter to lighten. Then gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream into the batter.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out clean, but moist.

Near Perfect Buttercream Recipe

• 1 lb unsalted butter, brought to room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 bag (2 lbs) confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Completely cream the butter in your stand mixer.
2. Mix in the vanilla and salt and beat for 30 seconds. If you have food coloring that you are using, I recommend using it now.
3. Pour in about a third of the confectioners sugar and mix slowly until it is completely mixed in. Add in another third and mix, finishing with the last third.
4. Evaluate the texture of your frosting and add the cream to get the consistency you desire. I used the whole 1/4 cup. If the frosting becomes too soft for your liking, add in more powdered sugar and alternate with cream until you get the desired consistency.

Whipped Toasted Marshmallow Filling

• 12-16 standard-size white marshmallows
• 2 sticks, softened and cut into cubes
• 1 cup sifted powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 7.5 ounce jar of Marshmallow Fluff
• pinch of salt

1. Place marshmallows on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Place on lower rack of oven, and broil marshmallows until nice and brown on top (be sure to keep an eye on them–they burn very, very quickly), then remove tray from oven and carefully turn them over and return to oven to brown. Remove tray from oven and place on a wire rack to cool.
2. In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, whip butter for 8 minutes–it will be very pale and fluffy.
3. Add sifted icing sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt and beat for another 6 minutes.
4. Add toasted and cooled marshmallows and marshmallow cream, mixing on low speed for about 2 minutes.