White Cake

This is my favorite recipe for white cake so far, and it is indeed very rich, elegant, and perfect for a wedding. This recipe is adopted from "The Wedding Cake Book" by Dede Wilson, and changed slightly. The recipe here is for two 6x2 inch cakes.

2 1/3 cups unsifted cake flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/3 tsp salt
4 large egg whites (this is the only thing I changed - instead I used Wiltons Meringue powder, following their recommendations)
1 cup whole milk (oh yeah, I used skim milk with a little heavy cream)
5 1/3 ounces (slightly more than 1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Prepare pans with cooking spray (I use Wiltons Cake Release, which works wonders). Combine flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. Whisk together the egg whites and milk in a small bowl and set aside.

Place the butter in the bowl of your mixer, and with the flat paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed. Add the sugar gradually and beat until well blended. Scrape down the bowl once or twice and beat in the vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients and the egg white mixture alternately, scraping down the sides several times. Continue to beat on medium speed just until smooth. Scrape the batter into the pans and bake about 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick tests clean. The edges will be slightly brown and will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool, place on cardboards, and wrap with plastic and/or foil.

Note: I do not recommend filling the cake pans up past halfway. These cakes will rise in the oven.