FoodBanter.com - Yellow cake

Yellow Cake

This cake is excellent when served and eaten without adornment;
and eating it so is the best way to assess the cake's qualities
and its taste.

Note that it has no chemical leavening. I can usually taste
baking powder, and much prefer to do without.

The cake must be baked with a wet cake pan strip wrapped around
the cake pan. Without it the cake will be over baked on the edge
before it is cooked in the middle. This recipe uses equal weights
of egg, sugar, flour, and butter. The weight is determined by the
weight of the eggs; typically the weight of the eggs is
170g-200g. Depending on the size of the eggs, you need 3-4 eggs.
Have 200g soft butter ready. Heat the oven to 350 deg F.

Weigh 3 eggs in their shells, and if they weigh less than 210g,
add one more egg. In a small mixing bowl beat the eggs lightly.
Put the stand mixer bowl on the scale and strain the eggs through
a coarse wire mesh sieve into the bowl, then note down the weight
of the eggs. From the note of the egg's weight, weigh out equal
masses of sugar, flour, and butter. For instance, if the eggs
weigh 180g, weigh out 180g sugar, 180g flour, and 180g butter.
Add to the eggs 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 20 drops rose
water. Add the sugar to the eggs and beat at high speed. On a
good stand mixer use the paddle and stand there and watch. With a
little toy mixer, beat at highest speed until your hand tingles.
The egg and sugar batter is ready when it becomes light yellow
and is perfectly smooth. It will appear to glow.

Add the flour and mix at very low speed until it is incorporated
into the batter, but mix only the bare minimum. Beat the softened
butter with a wire whisk and mix it in at very low speed for
about 20-30 seconds. Remove the mixing bowl from the mixer,
scrape it down, and give it a few final folds by hand to insure
that all ingredients are incorporated. Put the batter in a
buttered 8 1/2 " cake pan. The batter is thick, so tilt and
jiggle the pan a bit to get the batter toward the edge. Then set
the cake pan on a smooth surface and spin it a few times to
spread the batter evenly out to the sides. Wrap a wet cake strip
around the cake pan and secure it; then bake the cake at 350 deg F
for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 300 deg F. Bake
for a total of 40-50 minutes. If you have a window on the oven,
and watch closely you can see when the cake stops rising; at this
time the cake is baked or nearly baked. To test for completion,
push the pad of your finger tip about 1-2 mm into the surface of
the cake at the center. If the surface feels squishy or retains a
distinct impression then the cake is not quite done.

When the cake is baked remove the cake pan to a cooling rack,
remove the cake pan strip, and allow the cake to remain there for
10 minutes. Then remove the cake from the cake pan, and leave it
on the cooling rack until it reaches room temperature, at which
time it is ready to eat.

--
Michael Press