Recipe: Old-Fashioned White Cake

I felt like making a cake, so I did.  My intention was to make a birthday cake for my mother, but she already had one.  But that didn’t stop me from baking during this wintery weekend.  Nothing fancy shmancy, but good ole cake!

Old-Fashioned White Cake
From The Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

Makes 1 two-layer 9-inch cake

You’ll need:
– ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
– 1½ cups granulated sugar
– 2 cups self-rising flour
– 1 cup milk
– 2 tsp vanilla extract
– 4 large egg whites

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease and lightly flour two 9 x 2-inch round cake pans, then line the bottoms with waxed paper.

To make the cake: In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream butter until smooth.  Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add flour in three parts, alternating with the milk and the vanilla extract, beating well after each addition.  In a separate bowl, on the high speed of an electric mixer, beat the soft egg whites until soft peaks form.  Gently fold into batter, making sure no streaks of white are showing.

Divide batter between the cake pans.  Bake for 25 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean.  Let cakes cool in pans for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool completely on wire rack.  When cake has cooled, ice between layers, then ice top and sides of cake.  Make sure you brush all crumbs off the sides of the cake layers and place the layers top side up on a level surface.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough confectioners sugar to make my own frosting, but luckily I had some premade frosting on hand!  Mmmm.