Butter Cake II 奶油蛋糕 II

This is a refined version of my first butter cake recipe. After seeing so many smooth top butter cakes, I am inspired to make a flawless butter cake. A normal smooth top butter cake calls for a higher ratio of butter to flour (butter more than flour). As I do not like my cake to be too oily, my go-to recipe uses only an equal amount of butter and flour. This makes it harder to maintain that smooth top. The method and technique used here were the same as the old recipe save for the following changes:

1. Bake in a larger surface 7" x 7" pan;
2. Use low heat and steambake.
3. I drastically reduced the sugar content.







...and happily for me, the cake turned out just the way I liked it. Smooth top, good height and fluffy.

Butter Cake II 奶油蛋糕 II

Ingredients

3 large eggs (AA) , room temperature
200g butter, softened
200g superfine flour/cake flour
50g and 40g castor sugar
3 tbsp milk, room temperature
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Cooking Instruction


1. Line a 7x7" tin with baking paper. Separate egg whites from egg yolks. Sift flour, salt, baking powder and sodium bicarbonate together.

2. Whisk egg whites until foamy. Add in 50g of sugar and continue to whisk until soft peak. Cream butter with remaining 50g sugar until pale and creamy. The volume should almost double. It is essential that this stage is done properly to give volume to the cake when baked.

3. Add egg yolks one at a time. Whisk well after each addition. Lastly, add in vanilla extract. 

4. Whisk in milk and then fold in flour 1/3 at a time.

5. Gently fold in 1/2 the meringue and then another 1/2. Do not overmix.

6. Pour batter into pan and level with spatula. Drop the pan a few times to level the batter and remove trapped bubbles.

7. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 45 mins. I added a tray of hot water at below the cake to bake together. If skewer comes out clean when tested, remove and  let cool in rack.