Tippy on How to Make Yellow Cake

is a substantial cake with a fine, tight crumb and it is as tasteful as it is good for stacking and decorating.

As a little girl, I was lucky enough to follow my grandmother around her kitchen, learning the baker’s tricks of the trade. The yellow cake I now make is my grandmother’s recipe, with one small alteration: the addition of a small amount of sour cream. When possible, grandmother would substitute buttermilk for plain milk but buttermilk was not always available. Sour cream, or any acidic ingredient, like buttermilk, increases the leavening effect of the dry ingredients, especially when baking soda is used.

To make my Yellow Cake, you will need the following ingredients:

1 cup real butter (room temperature)

2 cups sugar

Five medium eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sour cream

3 cups All-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans. I’ve found that using pans with straight sides produce the best cake layers for stacking. You can use a 9-by-13-inch cake pan, if you prefer.

Cut the butter into small pieces. While the butter should be at room temperature, that’s a confusing thing for some bakers because a room may vary 10 or more degrees in temperature. I prefer the butter to reach approximately 72 degrees and no warmer to prevent separation during mixing.

Use a stand mixer if you have one and beat the butter with the paddle attachment until it is light and soft, this usually takes about three minutes on medium speed. Add the sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, and beat one full minute between additions and after the final addition. The butter/sugar mixture will be pale yellow and fluffy. Don’t worry about the sugar dissolving.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each one. This is where I cheat a little bit. I just slowly add one egg after the next and keep the mixer running the entire time. One tip here, however, is to break all the eggs into a cup and then add them from there. It saves time to break them right into the bowl, but if a bit of eggshell gets in the batter, it’s tough to retrieve.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl after the last egg addition and then beat the mixture for two more minutes on medium speed.

Sift the flour and the rest of the dry ingredients into a separate bowl. A lot of people skip the sifting stage but some flour tends to be lumpy and sifting is the only way to ensure a smooth batter. Mix the milk and the sour cream together in another small bowl.

Add half of the flour mixture to the batter in the bowl and mix on low speed just until it’s blended. Then, add half of the liquid and beat it in slowly. Repeat one more time, adding the second half of the flour and then the last of the liquid. As soon as the mixture is blended, stop the mixer. At this point, more mixing will break down the leavening agents and reduce the rising properties of the cake.

Separate the batter evenly into the two cake pans and gently tap the pans on the surface of the counter to bring any large bubbles to the surface. I usually give my pans a gentle spin at this time to push the batter toward the edges of the pan. This helps reduce the large center lump that forms on some cakes as they bake.

Bake your yellow cake layers for approximately 45 minutes. Once they are in the oven, don’t open the oven door until at least 35 minutes have passed. Opening the oven door too soon may result in a temperature drop and cause your cake layers to fall. The layers are done when a toothpick, inserted near the center, comes out clean. Another sign that the cake is done is a small gap around the layer, next to the pan.

Let the pans cool for five minutes on a cooling rack and then turn them out. I cover mine with a clean dishtowel to keep the moisture from escaping while they cool. After an hour, you may wrap the layers in plastic wrap until you’re ready to use them or freeze them for up to two weeks.

Fill and frost to suit your own tastes. My family usually chooses a deep chocolate icing, but yellow cake tastes good with just about any flavor icing.