RECIPES
Hope and Lawrence w cake

Plain Cake

I love to scroll through recipes and spend hours doing it. BUT, I always come back to the same old recipes when I bake--from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible. This and the following icing recipe are my coarse simplifications of her exquisite recipes.

  1. Preheat oven to 350°, prepare 3- 9 inch pans--don't forget the parchment paper lining.
  2. Combine in mixer bowl: 3 cups of flour,1 and ½ cups sugar, 1 T,1 Tsp baking powder, pinch salt.
  3. Beat in 6 oz very soft butter, then add ¾ cup milk and keep beating till smooth
  4. Mix 3 eggs with ¼ cup milk, vanilla. Add this mixture in 3 parts, beating smooth after each addition.
  5. Divide between prepared pans, bake till done.

Buttercream icing

YES, you have to beat the boiling syrup into the eggs. Be brave! This is SO MUCH BETTER than that sickly sweet butter/confectioners sugar icing, you'll see.

  1. Soften 2 cups of butter to a mayonnaise consistency.
  2. Beat 3 eggs in the mixer bowl using the whip beater.
  3. Mix ¾ sugar with ½ cup corn syrup in a saucepan.
  4. Bring to boil, cook until surface covered with large bubbles.
  5. Pour boiling syrup into eggs, beating the while.Continue beating until mixture is cool.
  6. Beat butter into mixture, a spoonful at a time, beating well each time.

Caramel Filling, From Cook's Illustrated

  1. Combine 1 and ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup corn syrup, and ¼ cup water in a saucepan and bring to boil.
  2. Cook without stirring until mixture is amber colored
  3. Reduce heat and continue cooking until mixture is dark amber, about 380°.
  4. Remove from heat, stir in 1 cup heavy cream, 1 stick butter, vanilla.
  5. Return pan to heat, stir and cook until smooth and reaches 240°.
  6. Pour into greased pan, let cool.

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