Vanilla Bean Cake

Nonnie4Two's Note:

Found at a food blog, but I can't remember where. The original recipe didn't say how long to bake the cake for, so I always start with 30 minutes and work from there.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 tablespoons cake flour
• 1 cup milk, room temperature
• 6 large egg whites, room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 large vanilla bean
• 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool
• 4 tablespoons oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. Grease and flour two 9in cake pans.
3. In small bowl combine milk, egg whites, vanilla, scraped insides of vanilla bean and set aside.
4. In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder and combine at low speed.
5. On low, add butter pieces one at a time and then oil; mix until resembles moist crumbs.
6. Add milk mixture and beat at medium speed for two minutes until light and fluffy.
7. Stop mixture, scrape down sides of bowl and beat again for about 30 more seconds.
8. Divide batter evenly between pans and place in the oven to bake until toothpick inserted into center of cake comes out clean (start testing at approximately 30 minutes).
9. Remove from oven and let cool in pans for 5 minutes.
10. Turn out onto wire racks and cool completely, about an hour.
11. Frost as desired.

Reviews

[denaiparker]

I too used a Madagascar vanilla bean with 100% pure vanilla extract. The cake is delicious and I will be making this for my guests at my upcoming anniversary party (this weekend). Don't forget to add in the salt though.

[lisak_87]

Very good! A couple of suggestions...
Use a Madagascar vanilla bean for the most vanilla flavor.
Also, I kept the egg whites separate and at the very end, I beat them until they formed soft peaks. Then, I folded the egg whites into the batter. This made for a lighter cake. I frosted with a home-made strawberry buttercream.
Tasty!

[ChefGuedj]

This recipe is incredible! Definitely my favorite vanilla cake recipe of all time. Note: Step 4 of the instructions does not say to add the 1/4 tsp of salt, but it should! Don't forget to add it!

Love, love, love this cake! Hooray for vanilla bean awesomeness!