YELLOW CAKE
Makes 1 (8-inch) cake
We played with a lot of cakes for this cookbook: the festooned-with-raisins-and-pecans Lane cake, the banana- and pineapple-flavored hummingbird cake, the eight-layered Smith Island cake. They are all much beloved and all rather elaborate. But in the end, we knew the cake most of us would make, most often, is this basic yellow layer cake.
This recipe is the template recipe for most of the cakes in this chapter. Once you feel confident making this cake, you can make spice cake, coconut cake, pineapple upside-down cake, and any coffee cake you want. But make two of these yellow cakes, slather them with chocolate buttercream frosting, and stack them on top of each other on a cake plate—you’re going to make any birthday kid happy.
P.S. once you know how to make this cake, you could also figure out how to adapt the Lane cake, hummingbird cake, and Smith Island cake to make them gluten-free too. You can do it.
- Fat for greasing the pan
- 280 grams All-Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1¼ cups (260 grams) organic cane sugar
- ½ cup (100 grams) coconut oil, melted
- 1 cup (210 grams) full-fat sour cream
- 2 to 5 tablespoons water
Prepare to bake. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch cake pan. Lay a greased round of parchment paper into the pan.
Combine the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour blend, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
Cream the eggs and sugar. Add the eggs to the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment. Add the sugar and cream them together on medium speed until they are light and fluffy. With the mixer running on low, pour in the melted coconut oil. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Finish the batter. With the mixer running, add approximately one-third of the flour mixture to the cake batter. When the flour has disappeared into the batter, add half the sour cream. When the sour cream has blended in with the batter, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Repeat, varying between the flour and sour cream, ending with the flour. The batter should be light and fluffy, sliding easily off the paddle. If the batter is too thick, add water, 1 tablespoon at a time with the mixer running on low, until the batter is pourable.
Bake the cake. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Give it a little thump on the counter to settle the batter evenly. Put it on the middle rack in the oven. Bake until the cake has started to pull away from the edges of the pan and the center has a little athletic jiggle when you touch it, and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 18 to 25 minutes.
Cool the cake. Let the cake pan rest on the counter for 10 minutes. Gently, run a table knife around the edges of the cake. Invert the cake pan onto a plate, then invert the plate onto a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool completely before frosting it.
