Moist Vanilla Cake

Moist vanilla cake

Ok first of all I need to apologise for not updating the blog regularly. I know it's been quite a while since I last posted a recipe, so I'm very sorry about that and hopefully this time I'll be able to post more recipes up regularly.

Now some of you may know that it's the holy month of Ramadhan (this is the month where all the Muslims around the world fast from dawn till sunset). So Happy Ramadhan to everyone, but I have to be honest, it's been hard. We are past the first week of Ramadhan and I still don't think I'm used to it. Fasting until 9pm in this heat without water is not easy, but I suppose this month is here for us to realise how blessed we are.

In one of my previous posts (the pretty cupcakes with raspberry frosting) I promised you all I'd share my vanilla cupcake recipe. Well here it is. I probably use this recipe the most, as I don't just use it to make cupcakes I also use it to make a vanilla sponge cake. If you love to bake like me then you'll also know that one of the most essential cake recipes is a vanilla cake recipe as it is used a lot and its the most versatile.

To make this cake nice and moist I used three tablespoons of buttermilk. However in my house we only buy buttermilk for baking so I only get it when I know I'm going to bake something. Now for three tablespoons I didn't want to buy a whole carton of buttermilk, so what I did was use 3 tablespoons of milk and just added around half a teaspoon of vinegar to it (you could add lemon juice instead) and let it sit there for 5 minutes, and there you go a buttermilk substitute!

Vanilla cake:

225g unsalted butter

225g (1 cup + 2tbsp) caster sugar

210g (1+ 2/3 cup) self raising flour

25g (3 tbsp) corn flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)

4 eggs

3 tbsp buttermilk

1+ 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

(for best results make sure your butter, eggs and buttermilk is at room temperature)

1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius and line the bottom of two 8 inch cake tins with greaseproof paper and grease the sides and bottom of the cake tin
2. In your mixing bowl beat together the butter and sugar for around 5 minutes, it should be smooth and creamy. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix, then add the vanilla and buttermilk and beat till everything is mixed in
3. Sift in the flour, corn flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and fold in gently (or beat at a low speed, do not over mix) until everything is incorporated
4. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and pop in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden around the edges. Check the cake by inserting a tooth pick into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean your cake is done.

Enjoy! :)