Vanilla Cakes and Cupcakes???

Are you looking for a scratch vanilla recipe? It's always been the hardest to perfect. But try FromScratchSF's recipe. It is now my go to recipe for a scratch vanilla cake. Otherwise, I just use Kakeladi's Original WASC recipe that is here on CC.

http://fromscratchsf.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/white-cake-part-3-with-recipe/

How do cupcakes bake up? Also, I think I read on that article/tutorial that its best to bake smaller tiers (9 inches or less)...have you tried baking big tiers?

I've made cupcakes from the recipe and the rose nicely. (I had to check the link's comments to find mine. ) Jen does say in the recipe how many it makes, andin the comments other people have mentioned making cupcakes. I looked through the comments and found one of mine where I raved about the recipe and the cupcakes. I am not a big vanilla person, but this recipe really has an awesome flavour.

I asked Jen if the recipe multiplied easily and she said it did, just fine, so I have doubled and tripled without issue.

Read through the comments if you haven't already because there is a lot of good info there.

Be careful when adding the color. At this point, you may overmix to get the color consistent, making it tougher.

I agree about the method. It changes everything.

I recently tried fromscratch's for Tiramisu and Bailey's cupcakes because my cake recipes were not suited for cupcakes. It worked fine. But I do things to all of my plain vanilla cakes that make them different. I did them to hers too. My big one is to use 2 tbsp of Hennessy Cognac to the batter. I also use tons of vanilla bean paste and 1/4 tsp of ground ginger.

What kind of flavor does the Hennessy bring out?

A rainbow cake is on my to-do list as well... I never even thought about the over mixing while coloring the batter... Do you think you could add coloring after creaming, like when you add your extracts?
 

 

It seems that reverse creamed cakes which blend the flour with the fats and liquids, then end with adding the eggs are more forgiving of over mixing.  For my rainbow cake, I used a reverse creaming method white white cake (shortening, egg whites only, almond extract) and grocery store food colors.  My reasoning in using the grocery store colors is that they are liquids and would require less mixing to fully incorporate with more of a gentle folding technique than a gel which would require a more vigourous mixing. It worked extremely well and my only problem was figuring out how much batter to use for each color since I was using graduated layers in order to do a carved princess cake.  This is the cake I used it for:

 

 

While the layers didn't even come close to being all the same height (and no-one seemed to care, lol), they were all perfectly level (no does), the cake texture was excellent, and the colors were bright.  You could try From Scratch's all egg white recipe; I'm sure it would yield a perfect rainbow.

I was just looking at the FromScratch white cake recipe today... Lol That one will be in my kitchen tomorrow! Will the reverse creaming method work well for that recipe? (Nice princess cake btw)
 

 

As written, that recipe is a perfect example of the reverse creaming method.  I haven't tried it yet.  Had planned to last week, but health issues intervened.  Maybe this week during the bread marathon that I have planned for Wednesday/Thursday.  Thank you for your kind words about 'princess blue'.

SCP1127, do you sub some of the other liquids for the Hennessy's?  And what does the ginger do to the taste?  I've always made the recipe as is and love it, but am always looking for subtle little changes once in awhile.  As to the vanilla bean paste, I always add the same amount of paste as extract.  LOVE, the flavor it gives the cake!