WINTRY WHITE CAKE

This recipe came from Southern Living December 2012...I made it for Christmas Dinner Dessert....it turned out really good...nice and moist and has lasted several days since the first cutting.  Next year I would like to try a fondant decoration as shown in the magazine..this year edible silver sprinkles and light blue sugar were the decorations...thanks to my sister Janet who supplied me with those!  Enjoy!

Mrs Billett's White Cake

Makes 10-12 Servings;  Hands on Time: 40 mins;  Total Time:  2 hrs (including frosting)

Use a heavy-duty electric stand mixer for best results.  Also, lining the bottoms of the pans with parchment paper ensures that the layers come out of the pans with ease.

Parchment paper

1 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3 cups cake flour

1 TBsp baking powder

5 egg whites

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting (recipe follows)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease 3 (8-in) round cake pans; line bottoms with parchment paper, grease and flour parchment paper; tamp.

2.  Stir together milk and vanilla.

3.  Beat butter at medium speed with a heavy-duty electric stand mixer until creamy; gradually add sugar, beating until light & fluffy  Sift together flour and baking powder; add to butter mixture alternately with milk mixture, beginning ending with flour mixture.  Beat at low speed just until blended after each addition.

 4.  Beat egg whites at medium speed until stiff peaks form; gently fold into batter.  Pour batter into prepared pans.

5.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-23 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes.  Remove from pans to wire rack; discard parchment paper.  Cool completely (about 40 minutes)  I cooled, left the parchment paper on the cake and froze the cakes so I could frost at a different time.

6.  When frosting, spread vanilla butter cream frosting between layers (about 1 cup per layer) and on top and sides of cake. 

VANILLA BUTTER CREAM FROSTING

Makes 4 1/2 cups;  Hands-on time:  10 min; Total Time:  10 min.

1 cup butter, softened

1/4 tsp salt

1 (32 oz) package powdered sugar (I sifted the whole pkg and used that)

6-7 TBSP milk

1 TBSP vanilla extract

Beat butter & salt at medium speed with an electric mixer 1-2 minutes or until creamy; gradually add powdered sugar alternately with 6 TBsp milk, beating at low seed until blended and smooth after each addition.  Stir in vanilla.  If desired, beat in remaining 1 TBsp milt, 1 tsp at a time, until frosting reaches desired consistency.

Enjoy!