Finding the Perfect Homemade Yellow Cake

In my culinary journey- in fact I feel like in almost everyone's culinary journey, we have been searching for the Holy Grail of homemade yellow cake recipes. Some of us own businesses or is the 'baking queen/king' in the family and gets everything down to a perfect science… except that darn yellow cake. So we doctor up Betty Crocker mixes and go along with that because most non-bakers can't taste the chemicals! Well I'm here to let you know that the search for you just MIGHT be over. I say might because I, like you I'm sure, have been told this over and over again with the same fails.

Looks pretty right? Too bad it tasted like nothing.

Really nice texture and very fluffy - no flavor!

The cake is too flat, it rises perfect but tastes bland, it came out more like cornbread or a muffin, it's too dense, it's dry, it's okay but I wouldn't eat it without the frosting… we've all been there. Today, just try this recipe out. If it doesn't work for you, I'm sorry for the wasted ingredients and time. I really hope it does because I've found the best cake for me. If it doesn't work, I say try it ONE more time. Then that's it… if it sucks, you can continue your search.

Weird crumb cake concoction that was the result of a failed yellow cake recipe. Tasty... but tasted like muffins. The second layer completely fell apart...

We want everything like a box-mix cake minus the chemicals. We want flavor, rise, moistness, perfection almost every time- but we want to be able to say we made this with our own fresh ingredients and our own loving hands. Before I move on, I'm going to link to where I got the recipe and add a thank you to this kind soul who posted it:

http://www.cheftalk.com/t/45372/finally-that-perfect-homemade-yellow-cake

I believe it's a combination of two recipes that came out great!

Delicious, moist, fluffy... excuse the mess!

I had to take pictures before it disappeared!

This was delicious, moist, and was definitely able to hold a good amount of frosting. In fact, the layers would have been perfect if I didn't rush the process and try to take the cakes out of the pan while still hot… good thing frosting covers everything!

So as I said, try this out this weekend. I'm going to try them as cupcakes and follow up, but this is the one that I will pass down to my children and their children!

With Love,

Cookie

Perfect Yellow Cake Recipe

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (do not sift the flour)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups milk
Vegetable oil
1 stick butter (not margarine), softened
1-tablespoon vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350°

Cut wax paper to fit the bottom of (3) 9 x 1 1/2-inch round pans. Spray the pans with cooking spray, place the wax paper in the pans and spray the paper.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, mixing well.

Measure the 1-1/4 cups of milk in a 2 cup measuring cup….then add enough vegetable oil to bring the liquid up to 1-1/3 cups.

Add the milk/vegetable oil mixture, butter and vanilla to the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer on medium to medium-high speed for 2 minutes, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Add the eggs and continue beating an additional 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared pans.

Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near center of cake comes out clean, or until cake springs back when touched lightly in the center.

Cool cakes on wire racks for 15 minutes; remove from pans and cool completely.

Frost as desired.

Note: It rises well, but I only made two out of the three rounds... I had to cook it for longer but it still came out great.