Love, Life, and Sugar’s Moist Vanilla Layer Cake

Manageability – Piece of cake.

Listen to me, and listen well. Vanilla cake is the best cake of all the cakes. Don’t @ me on this. So when it was my nephew Tyson’s birthday and I was actually commissioned to make a cake, I went with Love, Life, and Sugar’s Moist Vanilla Layer Cake. Happy birthday Ty-Ty, this one was a win.

It’s light, fluffy, and delicious, and super easy. The icing is very smooth and creamy, acting as a perfect compliment on the cake, and decorating was fun. There’s plenty of icing in between the layers, which is a great thing because it means more icing per slice. After all, that’s why the corner piece is always the best. But when you have 6-inch circle cake with icing in between each layer, you have infinite corner pieces! Oh yeah, I used 6-inch cake pans and six layers, rather than the 8-inch pans. As a result, my cake was taller, but it also required that I make 1.5 times the recipe. Not a big deal.

Finally, I made this cake into a Mickey Mouse-themed cake for Ty-Ty (dude loves Mickey). My decorations included circle and Mickey-shaped fondant cut outs. Be warned though, after you cut them, the fondant will start to stiffen, so be sure to wait until you’re ready to apply to make them. I guess you can make any cake decorations you want, but Tyson likes Mickey.

You’ll see I also made some Mickey Mouse cupcakes. I’ll post the recipe for that one soon!

INGREDIENTS

VANILLA CAKE

• 2 1/2 cups (325g) all purpose flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (310g) sugar (bah bah bah dah, dah dah, oh, honey honey)
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs (from large chickens)
• 1 1/4 cups (300ml) milk

VANILLA FROSTING

• 1 1/2 cups (336g) salted butter
• 1 1/2 cups (284g) shortening
• 12 cups (1380g) powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 6–7 tbsp (90-105ml) water or milk, from a faucet or cow
• Violet get icing color
• Cornflower blue gel icing color
• Sprinkles

INSTRUCTIONS

FOR THE CAKE:

1. Prepare three 8 inch cake pans with parchment paper circles in the bottom and grease the sides. Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). (I used 6 inch cake pans and made 1.5x the recipe)
2. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
3. Add the butter, sugar, oil and vanilla extract to a large mixer bowl and beat together until light in color and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes. Do not skimp on the creaming time, you little cream skimper.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing until mostly combined after each. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated.
5. Add half of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix until mostly combined.
6. Slowly add the milk and mix until well combined. The batter will look curdled, but that’s ok. Just don’t worry about it. You’re still a good person.
7. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until well combined and smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed to be sure all ingredients are well incorporated. Do not over mix the batter.
8. Divide the batter evenly between the cakes pans and bake for 22-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs.
9. Remove the cakes from the oven and allow to cool for about 2-3 minutes, then remove to cooling racks to cool completely.

FOR THE FROSTING:

1. To make the frosting, beat the butter and shortening together until smooth.
2. Slowly add half of the powdered sugar and mix until smooth.
3. Add the vanilla extract and 4-5 tablespoons of water or milk and mix until smooth(er).
4. Slowly add the remaining powdered sugar and mix until smooth(est). Add additional water or milk, as needed to get the right consistency of frosting.

TO ASSEMBLE THE (Mickey Mouse) CAKE:

1. To put the cake together, use a large serrated knife to remove the domes from the top of the cakes so that they’re flat. These cakes don’t have a large dome, but I like to make sure they’re completely flat.
2. Place the first cake on a serving plate or a cardboard cake round.
3. Spread about 1 cup of frosting evenly on top of the cake.
4. Add the second layer of cake and another cup of frosting.
5. Repeat, and repeat.
6. Top the cake with the remaining layer and frost the outside of the cake.
7. For Mickey and circles, roll out fondant to approx. 1 mm thickness, and use cookie cutters to pop out the shapes you want. Be careful – the longer fondant sits out the more crispy it will get.
8. Line the top and bottom of the cake with Sixlets, alternating red/yellow/black.
9. Sprinkles around the bottom sure look nice!
10. Store in an air-tight container. Cake is best for 3-4 days.