Cook's Illustrated White Layer Cake
 
Cook time
Total time
 
Ingredients
  • 2 1/4 cups cake flour
  • 1 cup whole milk (at room temperature)
  • 6 large egg whites (3/4 cup) (at room temperature)
  • 2 teaspoons almond extract
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 stick (12 tbsp) butter, unsalted, softened but still cool
  • 2 9? round cake pans or 3 6? square pans
Instructions
  1. With oven rack in the center of the oven, preheat the oven to 350° F.
  2. Prepare your baking pans, spray with Baking Spray or grease with butter. Line the bottom with wax or parchment paper and spray/grease that as well. Dump a few tablespoons of flour in each and shake it around until coated with flour. Invert and bang to remove excess flour.
  3. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the warm milk, egg whites, almond and vanilla extract.
  4. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mix on low until the dry ingredients have blended. Loosely cut the butter into chunks and add to the dry flour mixture. Blend on low until the mixture looks somewhat like bread crumbs.
  5. Slowly add in all but 1/2 cup of the milk mixture and blend for 1 1/2 minutes on medium speed (high if using a hand-held mixer). Mix in the remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and blend, scraping down the sides occasionally, and beat for another 20 seconds.
  6. Divide batter evenly between your prepared pans. My small square pans used 2 1/4 cups batter each. Place the pans in the oven, staggering them so that they are 3? from the oven walls and each other. Use a second rack if necessary. Bake until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean, the tops are lightly browned and the cake is just pulling away from the edges.
  7. Total baking time in smaller pans was 18-20 minutes in a convection oven. 2 9? round cake pans bakes for about 23-25 minutes.
  8. Take them from the oven and let them rest on a wire rack for about 3 minutes. Then invert them, peel off the wax paper, then turn them back right side up on the wire rack until they’ve cooled completely. (I left mine upside down so the tops would flatten while they cooled.)
Notes
If using the next day, freeze your cake layers by wrapping them individually or place in separate plastic bags and freeze. Remove the next morning in order to begin a crumb coat.
Recipe by Just a Smidgen at https://justasmidgen.com/2013/02/25/gateau-de-couche-printemps-pastel/