scratch yellow cake? WBH or Mermaid Bakery recipe? - Page 2

Vinegar is a substitute for buttermilk, I do it all the time, you just add 1 tbls. of vinegar per one cup of milk.

I first made the Mermaid Bakery cake with AP and then made it with cake flour, cake flour came out much smoother and finer crumb, the texture you are talking about may very well be because of the flour. I did make it once using mostly AP and it kind of reminded me of corn bread. I personally prefer cake flour when making yellow or white cake, it does make a big difference. Just make sure to adjust your measurements.

yes that is it cornbread! In fact that is the exact term I used when I described it before, but I wasnt sure it was the right one! Maybe I will try it will cake flour then. I see that the WBH book's recipe is pretty similar except with egg yolks and cake flour. Maybe I will try that one.

oh and BTW, do you guys use simple syrups on these cakes? or do you find them moist enough without it?

I use buttermilk in the mermaid cake bakery recipe, I have found no difference on the occasion when I use the milk and vinegar

okay...so I just made a 1/2 batch of the WBH golden butter cake (I just made cupcakes) YES! I liked it a lot! Though it really doenst seem that yellow to me...or golden for that matter! It looks more white. I guess maybe because like I said earlier I just started baking from scratch, so a yellow cake mix might just be unusually yellow perhaps? I did just use egg yolks too. Oh well. The cupcakes are pretty fresh out of the oven, but can I hope that this recipe remains moist?

Did you cream the sugar and butter together properly? Any scratch cake that is not properly aerated and or overmixed will have the texture of cornbread.

I looooooooove that cake and have never had a cornbread texture. I do know exactly what you are talking about though because I have baked many cornbread textured cakes Sometimes I think it's the recipe.. and sometimes I think it's me unfortunately... lol

you're right it doesn't turn out as golden. i just used a few drops of yellow food color in it when I made mine. hehe. but yeah it stays moist. REALLY GOOD! glad you liked it. btw, how many cupcakes did it make?

I only made 1/2 batch and I made 12 cupcakes. But there was a little batter leftover and I filled the tins too much. I think easily it would have made 15 or 16. In the book it says a full batch makes 9 cups it doesnt seem like it would be that much to me. What size do you normally bake with it?

Do you use simple syrup with this recipe at all?

I think maybe if i go ahead and use this recipe for customers I'll just go ahead and call it a butter cake. Then it can just encompass the white/yellow cakes for now!

i didn't use simple syrup at all. i baked it in a 10" pan. then i made another batch so i can have two layers of cake. i used SMBC with it it was yummy. the cake itself was just delicious. it's the kristin's 18th bday cake or something in my photos.

i would also just call it butter cake. i'm also interested in trying the chocolate butter cake. maybe i'll half it cause me and DH are on a "Sugar is EVIL!" diet and can't eat them

Now today my cupcakes seem a little dry I don't know maybe because they are cupcakes they might have dried out a little faster? Maybe I'll try again with a cake instead.

Regarding the yellow.. yup scratch cakes don't come out yellow like boxed cakes. That is the first clue when trying to figure out if a cake is scratch or not. I personally love boxed yellow cakes so I am usually excited when I see a cake is made from a box.. lol.

The big difference between a yellow and white cake (scratch wise) is egg whites opposed to whole eggs and if you want it really white.. shortening opposed to butter. They usually end up off white opposed to the bright yellow color we're used to getting from our trusty boxed cakes

were they frosted? kept in the fridge in a container? i sometimes even leave cake on a plate when i put it in the fridge and it doesn't go dry

I just put them in an air tight container out on the counter. Not super dry or anything. i mean I'd definitely still eat them! They were not iced. I think though coming from the boxed white cake it seemed dry, but perhaps not really. Maybe I'll try baking a cake and using some simple syrup on it. I do like the flavor a lot!

I've never tried WBH, but I do love Mermaids. I didn't like it at first, but found that I liked it much more a day or two later. The flavors came through and it seemed moister. I use either buttermilk or vinegar + milk. Both work fine. I also spoon my flour into the measuring cup, then level it rather than scooping it. Not sure if that helps, just my 2 cents. HTH

I just tried the WBH golden yellow tonight and while it seems moist and the scraps tasted very good, I wasn't fond of the texture. I was having some problems with cracking/crumbling, which I've never had with any other recipe. I also used 9-inch pans, there wasn't enough batter for 10 inch pans, as the recipe stated. My favorite butter cake recipe is the Decadently Moist White Cake from Epicurious (this is more of a butter cake...not white, but not really golden either). It uses coco lopez, but there isn't a coconut taste to the finished cake. I've made this over and over and it always comes out perfectly. I searched epicurious and couldn't find the link; here is the recipe:

Decadently Moist White Cake

Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup canned sweetened cream of coconut (such as Coco Lopez)*
4 large eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 2-inch-high sides. Cut parchment paper to fit bottom of pans. Put parchment paper in and butter it too. Flour parchment-lined pans. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar, butter and sweetened cream of coconut in large bowl until fluffy (butter MUST be at room temperature for this to work, and it may take awhile). Beat in egg yolks and vanilla extract. On low speed, beat in dry ingredients and then buttermilk, each just until blended.

Use clean dry beaters to beat egg whites with pinch of salt in another large bowl until stiff but not dry. Gently fold beaten egg whites into batter with a spatula. Do not over mix; there should still be very slight white streaks when you are done.

Divide cake batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool cakes in pans on rack 10 minutes. Run small sharp knife around pan sides to loosen cakes. Turn cakes out onto racks and cool completely.

*Canned sweetened cream of coconut is available in the liquor section of most supermarkets nationwide. NOTE, this is NOT coconut milk, but cream of coconut, which is most often used for mixing drinks, and is usually located near the alcohol or can be found in any liqueur store.


Bec

Edited to say that I just double checked my file and remembered that this recipe is from Shubox bakery. Just wanted to give proper credit! Here is the recipe on epicurious: www[dot]epicurious[dot]com/recipes/food/views/Coconut-Layer-Cake-102696