White Cake

My mom's birthday was yesterday so of course, that means CAKE! I feel as though I've perfected my chocolate cake recipe, but I hadn't quite gotten there with the white cake yet. So, I decided I'd better give it another shot! This turned out great! It really is a great balance of flavors that come together to make the perfect white cake.

-1 stick butter
-2 c. sugar
-3 1/4 c. all purpose flour
-1 t. salt
-3 t. baking powder
-1 1/2 c. cold water
-1 t. vanilla extract
-3/4 t. almond extract
-4 egg whites
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. (It'll look like white foam...this takes a while, patience grasshopper!) While egg whites are going, mix flour, salt, and baking powder together in a bowl; set aside. Mix vanilla and almond extracts in with water. Once egg whites are beaten stiff, pour them into a separate bowl. Beat sugar and butter in the mixer now until light. Add half of water to sugar mixture and mix. It will be kind of lumpy looking- no worries, you're doing it right. Add half of flour mixture and mix- see? Now it's looking like normal cake batter! Add water, mix again. Add rest of flour mixture, mix well. Take bowl out of mixer. Pour egg whites into the bowl. Fold in with a rubber spatula until incorporated. Pour into greased and floured (and/or parchment lined) pans. Bake until top springs back when lightly touched. I bake this cake in 2 8X8 square pans and they take about 37 minutes. Slide a knife around the edges and invert onto a cooling rack after they've been out of the oven about 10 minutes.

Don't worry, I know I'm not a cake decorator... just wanted to show you how tall the two are when stacked!

I frosted this cake with my vanilla frosting recipe, found on my RECIPES page! You could make this as a sheet cake, cupcakes, etc... just adjust your baking times! I haven't done it any other way than square pans yet, so I am not sure on baking times. Cupcakes- I'd start checking them around 20 minutes, Sheetcake- probably start checking around 25 minutes.