Vanilla Butter Cake

You’ll love today’s Vanilla Butter Cake with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting. I do! I recently toted this cake - frosted right in the pan - to a picnic. No one complained - their mouths were too full.

Vanilla Butter Cake:

⅔ c. soft butter or margarine
1-¾ c. sugar
2 large eggs
3 c. cake flour (see Note)
1 tbsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1-¼ c. milk
1-½ tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 deg. F. Have all ingredients assembled and at room temperature before starting. Grease and flour a 9x13-in. cake pan (or a greased pan with parchment paper trimmed to fit the bottom). Beating at medium speed, combine butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating about 5 min. until no “grainy” feeling remains when you rub some of the batter between your thumb and index finger. With mixer on low speed, add sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk and vanilla, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Bake 35-to-40 min., or until the cake tests done when a toothpick inserted at the center comes out dry.

Note: No cake flour? For each cup of cake flour required, substitute 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 tsp. added cornstarch. 

You know exactly how to make a cake!

Easy: From Step 1 to completion!
Trust in your ability, Dollinks!

Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting:

One 8 oz. (250 g) pkg. brick-style cream cheese, softened
2 tsp. vanilla (see Further Note)
1 c. sifted icing sugar (“confectioners” or “powdered” sugar)

Beat cream cheese with vanilla until well blended. Gradually add icing sugar until smooth and creamy. Makes enough to frost one 9x13-in. cake.

Variation: 

Citrus Cream Cheese Frosting:, 

Omit vanilla. Add 1 tsp. each finely grated fresh orange and lemon rinds with 1-½ tsp. lemon juice, proceeding as above.

Further Note: For a bright white frosting, use white vanilla, available in sensible supermarkets. For a tan-colored frosting, shrug your shoulders and measure out the standard vanilla extract.

Frost 'n' go: Dash to that picnic, Dollinks!