The Cake Wars

I'm beyond frustrated....

I have always been able to make a decent cake. Chocolate, Carrot, whatever. My cakes were always pretty good. I even became the unofficial birthday coordinator in my office, making a birthday cake for all my friends and many of my coworkers. But the one cake that always threw me off was vanilla. Such a simple cake, yet the most troublesome. I tried quite a few different recipes, and while they always turned out alright, none were ever spectacular. None were up to my overachieving standards.

So after moving back to the United States, where butter and flour are sold at reasonable prices, I decided to start a Vanilla Cake project. It was so tempting at first to start using cake mix. It seemed every other week the supermarket had them on sale for near $1 to $1.25 a box. Easy AND cheap, what a great combo! But I felt really uncomfortable with all the chemicals listed on the side, not to mention my own sensitivity to processed foods. So, I decided it best to avoid cake mix at all cost and stick to scratch baking. I was determined to create the perfect base vanilla cake. One that was so tasty on its own, but versatile enough that I could add other flavors and expand. That's not asking too much, is it? 

Day 1: I don't have a picture. I was making blue colored cupcakes for a friend and experimented with a couple recipes. 

• Recipe 1: Joy of Baking White Cake - ok, this isn't vanilla cake. But I was making blue cupcakes, not green. These turned out awful. Completely awful. In part, it was my fault because I think I whipped my egg whites too long, so they were probably too stiff when I put them in. They ended up a bit dry and kinda rubbery at the crust (because of the overbeaten egg whites) and tasted like baking soda. Gross. I did make this cake once before as a rainbow cake ("gayke" - picture below) and it turned out alright, flavor and all... but this time it was all bad. 
• Recipe 2: Glorious Treats "Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes" - I had high hopes for this one. The author testified that she went through dozens upon dozens of cupcakes to perfect this recipe. Well, they turned out pretty darn good. They did bake perfectly and they were so spongy and light. However, the taste was not so great. Again, this tasted a little heavy on the baking soda and using oil in the recipe I think left something missing in the final product. I don't know how to describe it, but it was almost like eating a hallow cake. It was perfect and yummy on the outside, but it just didn't taste "complete". ok, not the greatest explanation... but in the end I was disappointed. It looked perfect, but the flavor just wasn't there.

Day 2: After disappointment with the "Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes", I went online and bought myself the Cake Bible. 

Yeah, so these didn't turn out so great either. *sigh* I tried 2 white cake recipes and 2 yellow cake recipes. 4 dozen cupcakes. ugh. From L-R:

• Recipe 3 - Vanilla cake recipe from Three Little Blackbirds. This recipe is based on the yellow cake recipe in the Cake Bible, but supposedly adapted to perfection. Ummmm, well the cupcake didn't rise much and was quite wet and sticky on the outside. I thought it tasted "ok", but the consistency was NOT what I was going for. Next, please.
• Recipe 4 - The Cake Bible "All Occasion Downy Yellow Cake". This one rose too much and then flattened on the top. I also found that it took much longer than the recipe said for it to bake. I think I baked them an extra 10-15min. Consequently, the tops were hard and crusty, and somehow a bit rubbery (? not sure why). The inside of the cake was good though. My thought was to try this recipe with oil instead of butter.
• Recipe 5 - The Cake Bible "White Velvet Cake" - I read really good reviews online about this one. The flavor was really good, but as you can see, the top baked flat and it was crumbly/flimsy. Half the top broke off when I tried to pick it up. According to the book, either my oven temp was too low or I undermixed - both possibilities because I was trying not to overmix and not really checking the temp of my oven. 
• Recipe 6 - The Cake Bible "White Velvet Cake" - After seeing the results of the Cake Bible cupcakes, I substituted oil for the butter and remade the White Velvet Cake. I added a tsp of butter flavoring to make up for the lack of butter. The texture of the cake was perfect. I also replaced a portion of the milk content with yogurt for moisture, but I'd like to try this again with just milk. Overall, I thought this cake was pretty good, but it gave me a bit of that "empty" or "incomplete" feeling that I got with the Three Little Blackbirds cake. Back to the drawing board.

Day 3: I really have high hopes for the Cake Bible. So many bakers swear by it. So I tried it again. This time, I waited until my oven was preheated before I started making the cakes, just to be sure the oven was hot enough by the time I got my cakes in there. I am going to make a "construction" themed cake for my cousin's 1st birthday (will post later), hence the crazy yellowness of the cake. It's the food coloring, not the recipe.

• Recipe 7: I first made the one on the right. The Cake Bible All Purpose Downy Yellow Cake (again). I thought that maybe I was having trouble because the last time I made this, I halved the recipe. This time I did the whole recipe (a super thick 9" round layer and 10 cupcakes). For some reason I have such a hard time baking these. And I don't know if it's a human error, or if it's my oven. It's most likely me, and I have no one here to tell me what I'm doing wrong! Ok, so this cake baked better than the last time I tried it, but it was still dry. The top of the cupcake was again crusty and dry. This time the inside was a bit dry too. The flavor was ok. *sigh*
• Recipe 8 (the one on the left): Bakerella's "Moist Yellow Cake" - This one uses butter AND tells you to add butter flavoring. What? Really? Well, I did. and...    it was all sorts of awesome. I loved the flavor, but thought it could use some more vanilla. This is probably the closest I have come to achieving my goal. However, as you see, the crust completely crumbled off as I tried to get it out. Also, the 9" cake crumbled to pieces when I tried to get it out the pan. Big Phat PHAIL! *grumble*. Well, even though the cake was unstable and the top was completely crusty and crumbly, the inside was heaven. Seriously. Moist and great flavor. I am so close! I just need to fix the consistency and figure out what's going on with my oven. Although I used Bakerella's recipe, I followed the semi-complex mixing instructions from the Cake Bible (because I'm still thinking that this really is the Bible of cakes). Perhaps that is where things went wrong. But it's just cake, right? (ha). My notes on this are to add another teaspoon of vanilla, take the cake out before it looks done (because I seem to keep overbaking!), and wait until the cake is completely cool before I take it out of the pan. Oh, and perhaps I should buy an oven thermometer? I don't like my cupcakes to have a crusty top! Oh again, I also thought of removing 1 egg, since the cakes were so unstable. Most other recipes I have found only use 3 eggs. But maybe i'll try the recipe once more as is, before I start playing around with eggs.

After all these disappointments, I searched online and found a great link. 

Suggestions for fixing all sorts of cake problems. 

Day 4: I'm a bit sick of cake. In fact, this isn't a project in the works 4 days in a row. I started about a month ago, and ate so many test cupcakes that I made myself sick (because of my sensitivity to gluten & sugar). I couldn't eat normal food for about a week and had to give up coffee for a good two weeks (gasp!). My stomach is still in a bit of a funk, but I needed to get all the layers done for my cousin's construction cake, so I went at it again. I tried Bakerella's recipe again, following her instructions (not the Cake Bible) and adding a teaspoon of vanilla [note: I don't have self-rising flour so I mixed 3 cups homemade cake flour with 2tsp baking powder and 1tsp salt. I previously used 4 tsp. baking powder as per instructions in the Cake Bible, but I read in the Cake Bible forums that reducing the amount of baking powder will help make a more domed cake].

they at least look MUCH better

• Recipe 9: seriously. 9 dozen cupcakes. The local supermarkets are loving me. So I used Bakerella's Cake Recipe and followed it to the "t". The result, not as good as yesterday's cakes! What's going on here? They baked pretty awesomely though, so I'm going to stick with my reduction of 2tsp. baking powder instead of 4tsp. However, I thought that the batter just wasn't as flavorful and still had a slight crust on the top. I'm really thinking it might be my oven. I bought an oven thermometer and even when my oven "beeped" that it was at 350°F, my thermometer only read 200. So I kept it going for another 30min. My thermometer only read 280. Which do I trust? The oven or the thermometer? I turned up the oven to 360°F and gave that a shot. The thermometer hovered around 300. But my cakes started to brown around the edges too early, so I turned it back down. I think I have a faulty thermometer. hmph. Ok, whatever. I will revert back to the Cake Bible recipe, but reducing the amount of baking powder to 2tsp. and adding 1/2tsp. of butter flavoring... because I love butter. Since I have 3 dozen cupcakes in the freezer and absolutely no more space, I guess I will have to wait until the next baking opportunity to try this recipe. 

To Be Continued...