Vanilla Butter Cake

• Prep25 min
• Cook30 min
• Total2 h 5 min
• Serves12

Ingredients

• 310 g all-purpose flour (2 1/2 cups)
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 225 g unsalted butter, softened (1 cup, 2 sticks)
• 300 g sugar (1 1/2 cups)
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 240 g whole milk, at room temperature (1 cup)
• Butter and flour, or baking spray, for the pans

Instructions

1. Take the butter, eggs and milk out of the fridge about 1 hour ahead. The butter is ready when it dents easily under your finger but still holds its shape, about 18-20°C (65-68°F): cold butter cannot trap air, and melted butter cannot hold it. Heat the oven to 180°C (350°F), grease two 20 cm (8 in) round pans, line the bottoms with parchment and dust them with flour.
2. Place the flour, baking powder and salt in the clean, dry mixing bowl and mix 5 sec/speed 6 to blend and aerate. Transfer to a bowl.
3. Place the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl and mix 2 min/speed 4. Scrape down the sides with the spatula and mix 2 min/speed 4 more, until the mixture is pale, fluffy and clearly lighter in color. This is creaming: the sugar crystals cut tiny air pockets into the butter, and those pockets become a fine, even crumb.
4. Crack the eggs into a cup. Set the TM7 to mix 1 min/speed 4 and pour the eggs through the lid opening one at a time, about 15 seconds apart, then add the vanilla. Each egg needs to blend into the butter before the next one goes in; added all at once, they can make the batter look curdled, and the cake bakes up heavier. If it does look curdled, add 1 tbsp of the flour mixture and mix 5 sec/speed 4.
5. Scrape down the sides. Add a third of the flour mixture and mix 5 sec/speed 3, then half of the milk and mix 5 sec/speed 3. Repeat with another third of the flour, the rest of the milk and the last of the flour, 5 sec/speed 3 each time. Starting and ending with flour keeps the batter smooth, because the butter can only take in a little liquid at a time.
6. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with the spatula and give the batter a few folds by hand, just until no streaks of flour remain. Stop there: once the flour meets the milk, every extra turn builds gluten, the stretchy network that makes bread chewy, and in a cake it means a tough, dense crumb with tunnels and a peaked top.
7. Divide the batter evenly between the pans (a kitchen scale helps) and smooth the tops. Bake in the oven 28 to 32 minutes, until golden, the tops spring back and a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
8. Cool 10 minutes in the pans, then turn the layers out onto a rack, peel off the parchment and let them cool completely, about 1 hour, before filling or frosting.

Tips

• 24 cupcakes: line two 12-cup muffin pans with paper liners, fill them two thirds full and bake at 180°C (350°F) for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.
• Sheet cake: bake all the batter in a greased 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 in) pan at 180°C (350°F) for 30 to 35 minutes. It is perfect for a party, frosted right in the pan.
• Flavor swaps: replace 1 tsp of the vanilla with almond extract; mill the sugar with the peel of 1 lemon or 1 orange 10 sec/speed 10 before adding the butter in step 3; or use canned coconut milk instead of milk for a tropical cake.
• Make it ahead: wrap the cooled layers well and keep them 2 days at room temperature or 2 months in the freezer. For a mojadito style cake, brush the layers with cooled syrup before filling them.