B turned 14 yesterday. Quarantine birthdays kinda stink, but we looked for ways to (safely) make it fun. On Sunday, he and three friends from elementary school gathered for backyard foosball, pingpong, and football, and I fed them cupcakes. There was a big debate about the best way to eat a cupcake:
- Lick off frosting, then eat naked cake
- Eat straight through, getting some cupcake and some cake in pretty much every bite
- Pull off the bottom half of the cupcake, stack on top, and eat as a sandwich
- Pull off the bottom half of the cupcake, eat it first, and then it the remaining cupcake top with a delightfully imbalanced frosting-to-cupcake ratio
B is a 2. H is a 3. I am a 4. They are wrong. But, to each his own.
B requested pink and blue frosting that looked like sherbet, and that is exactly what he got, swirled. I made a funfetti cake recipe that I have actually made before, from Sally's Baking Addiction. It is pretty similar to her The Best Vanilla Cake Recipe I've Ever Had recipe, but the funfetti recipe is scaled up and makes more batter. They are also slightly different methods. Since I was making 12 cupcakes and a 6" cake, I used the larger recipe. It tastes good and the consistency is fine - but I am still not wowed. So... either I have some more work to do to find my favorite vanilla/white/yellow cake recipe, or I just don't like cake that isn't chocolate that much! (Anyone with a favorite cake, please feel free to share the recipe and I will try it!)
[Oh no!! In writing the recipe below, I just realized I made not one, not two, but three mistakes! That is hilarious. Please ignore all judgments above (except for the part where I say I have made this before and am still not 100% convinced it's my favorite cake). I could judge it better if I had made it properly. Oops. First, pictures.]
Here is the recipe for the Funfetti cake as it's actually supposed to be made:
Funfetti Cake
Makes a generously-sized 3-layer cake
3.75 cups (15.94 ounces, 431 g) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature*
1 3/4 cups (12.25 ounces, 350 g) sugar
4 eggs, room temperature
2 egg whites, room temperature**
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1.5 cups (12 ounces, 360 ml) buttermilk, room temperature*
3/4 cup sprinkles, plus extra for decorating if desired
Preheat the oven to 350F. Line 3 (or you can do 4 slightly shorter layers) 9" cake pans with parchment and spray lightly with cooking spray with flour. (You can also grease and flour them if you'd rather. AND you can use a 3" tall pan instead of separate cake pans; you'll just have a longer bake time.)
Start with the dry ingredients. If you are using a scale to measure your flour, you can skip sifting it, BUT if you are not, I highly suggest sifting your flour first, then measuring it, to make sure you don't have too heavy a cup of flour. It can easily get compacted. With that decision made, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl, then set aside.
Beat the butter on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 1 minute. Add sugar and beat on medium-high for five minutes until creamed together very well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. On medium speed, add one whole egg at a time, beating after each addition. Set aside the egg whites for now. (Here is where I totally went off-book - no idea what planet I was on.)
With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Mix each addition until just incorporated, but do not overmix the batter. It will be smooth, velvety, and slightly thick. Vigorously whisk or beat the two additional egg whites until thick, foamy, soft peaks form - about 3 minutes - and gently fold into batter. Finally, fold in sprinkles. I recommend using jimmies, not ball sprinkles, because the ball sprinkles will bleed and dye your batter. Pour the batter evenly into the cake pans.
Bake for around 25 minutes or until baked through. (If using 4 cake pans, it will be 22-24 minutes; if using a tall 3" pan, it will be 55+ minutes.) You can test for doneness using a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, it is done. You can also press on the cake lightly with a fingertip, and if it springs back, it is done. If not, keep baking.
Cool the cakes completely in the pans set on a wire rack. They must be completely cool before frosting and assembling. Frost with your favorite frosting!
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Here's what I did wrong.
1. Her two cake recipes, while similar, use different amounts of the same ingredients and two different methods. I apparently used the ingredient amounts from one recipe and the method from the other!
2. Both recipes call for whole eggs plus egg whites. Somehow, I twisted that around and used whole eggs plus egg YOLKS!
3. And I used three instead of the two that were called for!
With as many cakes as I've made, nothing seemed particularly awry, but now I have to wonder... which may mean some correctional baking tests!
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