Vanilla Bean Cake

I did some baking tonight. The completed cake ended up delicious but was outrageously messy to decorate. Apparently there is such a thing as too much filling where cake is concerned. I was however incredibly pleased with how the yellow cake itself came out. This will give you two perfect sized thin-ish layers, but if you’re going for a typical height cake you’ll want to increase the amounts here by 50% and you’ll need a third cake tin. I filled mine with a blueberry caramel…at least I think that’s what I’d call it. I made a thin caramel and then added blueberries and vanilla bean. Then I frosted it with a lemon and vanilla buttercream. The cake is super sweet though so I think all the frosting and filling was overkill (seriously, my pancreas hurts) – If you top it maybe with some balsamic macerated strawberries (lightly sweetened) that would have been ideal. Overall though, I’m really the most satisfied with the cake portion of it. I’ve been monkeying with recipes for years to get a light, but moist yellow cake and I finally got it.

  1. Mix 1 tsp baking soda with 1 cup sour cream and set aside
  2. Blend 1 stick of butter (softened to room temperature) with 1 cup of white sugar until creamy
  3. Add 2 eggs, one at a time, to the bowl while the beater is running
  4. Add the seeds from 3 vanilla beans, and 1 tsp. vanilla and blend well
  5. Into the wet mixture sift 1 1/2 cups cake flour and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and fold in gently just to start it combining. I used five or six folding stirs to get this going
  6. Fold in the sour cream mixture, trying to leave as much air in the mixture as possible
  7. Bake in two 8-9 inch round cake tins, that have been buttered and floured, at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes

3 Responses

  1. jo says:

    Ok, that sounds absolutely delicious. I think you need to share it with the rest of the class here. 🙂

    • jo says:

      Oh, I highly recommend using Trader Joe’s Lemon Curd as a filling for such a fabulous cake.

      • Noah Krohn says:

        I have no idea why I was never alerted to you commenting on this. My apologies – it was not neglect. I’ve not had Trader Joe’s lemon curd. I’ve only had store bought curd once and was so horribly disappointed with it that I only make my own now.

Leave a Reply