I’ve always wanted to bake a butter cake but somehow, some butter cake recipes are to be dumped. (I’ve tried a few and most turned out either too dense or too dry. I simply can’t stand a dry butter cake!)
Nic loves butter cakes. He loves anything with butter. He’s such a butter fiend that we can stockpile butter in the freezer. Each time we shop in Jusco or Tesco, he’ll comment that butter wasn’t this pricey when he was a kid. Still he’ll buy at least 3 blocks of butter.
So when there’s a butter sale, we buy butter and keep them. (Anyway we shop infrequently too so having more butter than less is always good – since I have those mad moments when I’d decide to bake something, anything after dinner. I am fortunate I live in my own home and no one can tell me I can’t bake at 11pm. My sis who lives at home with my parents sometimes get the nags when she starts having that itch to bake at 11pm.)
And so, butter tales aside, I’ve finally found a butter cake recipe I can live with.
I am not sure where I got this from as I often trawl blogs and websites for recipes – and these days with Pinterest (yup I am on Pinterest too), it’s a lot easier as everyone shares delicious finds.
The cake got the nod from Nic. Actually I’ve reduced the sugar – we normally take less sugar in our cakes if I can help it.
Then, two weeks ago, I went home to Banting to celebrate my Dad’s 70th birthday. It was a family affair – just my sisters, parents and my nephew and niece.
Back home, my sister introduced me to yet another butter cake recipe. This one, Mei says, was so scrumptious that her 9 year old son ate it all! Now my nephew is one picky boy. He’s mostly vegetarian because he can’t stand chicken or fish or anything weird (our regular food is weird to him). He can eat chicken rice without the chicken. He loves KFC cheesy wedges but that’s about all he really likes. So if he eats up most if not all of a butter cake my sis makes, it must have been really superb.
So Mei taught me the butter cake recipe which she obtained from a very dog-eared copy of Amy Beh’s recipe book.
This cake turned out wonderfully well. It was supremely light and tasted almost like a moist Japanese cheesecake. It had a bounce (which my first butter cake didn’t have) as a result of having meringue folded into the cake. It was a keeper and a winner. And this is one cake you can whip up quickly too.
I didn’t take photos of this moist and light butter cake as we were all so busy eating it! Promise to post when I next bake it which should be in the next few days as I am dying to eat this lovely butter cake again.
OK, now onwards to the recipe.
Butter Cake One
(this recipe is the denser butter cake recipe, the one I first made)
- 250 gm butter
- 150 gm castor sugar (originally was 200 gm but I never liked overly sweet cakes so I reduced it)
- 250 gm self raising flour
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate
- 1/2 tsp orange essence (added to eggs)
- 1 tbsp condensed milk mixed with 6 tbsp hot water
1. Preheat oven (180C) and grease a square tin. (I am normally rather lazy and just grease and lightly flour the tin. This method works just as well as the parchment paper. Plus I don’t waste paper.)
2. Beat butter and sugar till fluffy.
3. Add eggs one at a time. Fold in flour and soda bicarbonate.
4. Stir in milk to combine.
5. Pour into tin and bake for 25-30 mins depending on your oven.
Butter Cake Two
(this is the lighter, fluffier butter cake that my sis made)
- 250 gm butter
- 100 gm castor sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- Rind of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 150 gm self-raising flour sifted with 1 tsp salt
- 5 egg whites + 25 gm castor sugar (beat till stiff peaks form – or a meringue, as it’s called)
1. Beat castor sugar and butter until fluffy.
2. Add egg yolks one at a time and continue beating.
3. Add lemon rind and vanilla.
4. Fold in flour followed by meringue.
5. Pour into a greased and lined 20cm pan and bake in a preheated oven for 25- 30 minutes or until cake is done.
