Vanilla Cake - Quick and Easy!!

" Happiness is knowing there is cake in the Oven."

Finally my regular vanilla cake is up here. If there is one thing that I passionately tried and tried for years without giving up, it should be baking a cake. I have attempted to bake cakes multiple times, in cooker , the convection oven , the OTG and what not. This story is from years ago, when the blogs were just cropping up. And believe me, to look up the internet for a recipe was unheard of. A cookbook  ? Yes. A magazine ? maybe, but the internet was not usually a trusted aide in a cooking experiment. Who knew ? Right. So, I collected recipes for cakes from everywhere and wrote it down in every scarp of paper I could get my hands on. I tried and failed. Gave up and swore never to spend another afternoon on any of the cakes again. Half baked cakes, caved in bakes, too hard, too sticky, almost burnt - ask me any variation and I have usually made it. After every fail, I would go into a period of hibernation and resign to my fate that maybe I should just not bother about cakes. And then, I will be overcome with this fierce instinct of getting it off my to cook/bake list. Then, I would start again - reading and collecting tips and hacks, and spend my weekends baking and fuming at the failed attempts. And then my little cousin, asks me to try it with a different pan. Really ? I was not going to blame all those failed attempts on a pan. I lived in denial for a few months and then tried again. Yes. With a different pan. And there I had my very first cake. A vanilla flavored one if you care to know. 

Somewhere, between all these attempts and a decade later, brownies, marble cakes and chocolate cakes happened. While I am here bragging, I have to mention, I even baked a checker cake. Although I declared soon after baking, that it is a once-in-a-lifetime attempt. But vanilla cake is / has always been / still my choice of an afternoon bake. And I do not usually frost my cakes, so it is also an easy bake for the lazy cook in me. Well, here is my most baked cake recipe. It is light and fluffy and not overtly sweet. Perfect for that evening tea. Frost it up and it is good for a celebration too. 

Ingredients :

Cake Flour - 1.5 Cups ( See substitute in notes )

Unsalted Butter - 1/2 Cup or 1 stick ( If using Salted butter, omit the salt mentioned below)

Eggs - 2 - Large

Sugar -1 Cup

Baking Powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp

Whole Milk - 1/2 Cup 

Method : 

1. Preheat the Oven to 400 Degrees F. Coat an 8 inch pan with butter and dust it with flour. Keep ready. 

2. Sift flour, salt and baking powder at least two times and keep aside.  

3. Beat in the butter and sugar till it resembles fine damp sand. 

4. Add the eggs and beat one at a time. 

5. Add vanilla and milk.  Beat well.  To this add the flour. Do not beat, instead mix it with a spatula just until there is no unmixed flour.  Do not overmix. 

6.  Pour the batter into the prepared cakepan and bake for 30-35 minutes till a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. 

7. Unmold and cool completely before slicing. 

8. Enjoy. 

Notes : 

 Cake flour can be easily substituted with a combination of all purpose flour and corn starch. 

For 1 Cup of Cake flour = Take a 1 Cup measuring Cup and add 2 Tbsp. Corn starch. Now to this, add all purpose flour and fill up the cup. Now you have 1 Cup of cake flour substitute. 

Recipe Source : from here.