Vanilla Cake with Vanilla Buttercream Icing
Sometimes the middle of winter requires cake. It just does. A tall slice of moist vanilla cake smothered in vanilla buttercream icing, with a glass of Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay. Nothing better.
That lull after Christmas and before summer can feel so long, but it’s a great time to just celebrate the every day with people you love, especially over food and wine. So why not gather your friends and family and have a cake night? Sometimes it’s just nice to get together and share a dessert over a glass of wine, without the pressures of preparing an entire dinner menu. I guarantee you will have fun! Cake and wine are fun. Trust me.
I’m a big fan of cake, especially uncomplicated and classic recipes like my traditional chocolate cake and this delicious vanilla cake. When I made this recipe I doubled the ingredients so that I could make the tallest cake I could handle. And cutting into it actually gave me heart palpitations. But it was worth it for this moist and super delicious vanilla cake! But for an every day cake, it’s a lot of cake so I would recommend just following the recipe below, and making this as a single 2 layer cake. And don’t worry about making the perfect cake…as you can see I am clearly not a cake decorator, but it tastes delicious!
Seriously though, look at that icing.
- 2¼ cups flour
- 1½ cups sugar
- 4 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 3½ cups icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- Prepare 2 - 8 inch cake pans. You can lightly butter or spray them. (I also line the bottom of my cake pans with a circle of wax paper. The cakes then easily slide out.)
- In a bowl, using your mixer, beat the butter until it is soft and creamy.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time and mix until smooth.
- Add the vanilla and mix.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Add the flour mix to the creamed butter mixture, alternating with the milk.
- Beat until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes.
- Cool before icing.
- Sift the icing sugar (confectioners sugar). Set aside.
- In a mixer, beat the butter until soft and fluffy.
- Add the sifted icing sugar, and mix until smooth.
- Add the vanilla and beat until smooth.
Enjoy!
Jo-Anna
Credits: Photography: Jo-Anna Rooney of A Pretty Life | Recipe adapted from Chatelaine.com
