Vanilla Cake with Royal Icing

Ranjit, my husband, has been after me to bake vanilla cake. I actually tried an egg-less recipe, the texture was great but the taste wasn't up to the mark. Probably, it would have tasted great with frosting. But for a usual tea time bake we don't really need frosting. Unless I get an awesome (taste and texture) egg-less cake recipe I'm not blogging it.

I baked one with egg, my own recipe and it came out great. Initially, i.e. soon out of the oven, when we tried it, I wasn't impressed enough with it, I started to think of adding more sugar etc etc. But after it cooled down, it tasted so good that I don't want to change anything about it. Lesson learned, have enough patience for the cake to cool down before giving the verdict.

This post has been in my draft since I baked vanilla cake last month for my sister's birthday, but I'd been too busy that I couldn't take pictures. It was a big hit and disappeared as quickly as it was presented and they were craving for more. The cake is really good on its own even without the frosting.


It has been a while since my oven died. And I've been itching to bake and all I needed was a reason to bake. The reason was my darling husband's birthday. I baked the vanilla cake in a pressure cooker and decorated it with royal icing. Ranjit absolutely loved it and was not ready to share too much with others.

Vanilla Cake

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients: 

• 1cup Cake Flour
• 1cup Powdered Sugar
• 1tbsp Baking powder ( update: I tried baking with 1/2 tbsp baking powder and it works well for the taste though the cake doesn't rise as much but the texture is just fine)
• ½tsp Baking soda
• 2 Eggs
• ½ cup Vegetable oil
• ½ cup Milk
• 1tbsp Vanilla Essence
• a pinch of salt 

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius. Grease a baking dish. If using pressure cooker just keep the cooker ready and grease the pan that will fit into the cooker.

2. Sift the flour with baking powder and baking soda twice, just for even distribution of the ingredients and also to aerate the flour.

3. Just pour all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix well using a wire whisk.

4. Pour the batter into the baking dish and bake for 40 minutes at 180 degree Celsius. If using a pressure cooker, pressure cook without the whistle for 30-35 minutes.

 5. Allow it to cool for five minutes and remove from the baking dish and let it cool completely, to either enjoy it, as it is or go ahead and frost it with some Royal Icing.

Royal Icing 
Adapted from Joy of Baking  (do check out the video)

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2large egg whites
• 2tsp fresh lemon juice
• 3cups Icing Sugar

Procedure:

1. Mix the egg whites and lemon juice using a whisk until combined.

2. Add icing sugar, little by little and keep mixing. The right consistency is achieved when you lift the whisk and the icing that falls on the surface should look like the picture. Cover the icing with a cling wrap to avoid it from hardening.

 3. Take 2tbsp of the icing in a separate bowl and add more sugar to make it of piping consistency.

Frosting the cake:

Procedure:

1. Slice the cake horizontally into two equal halves. This can be tricky so do it very carefully, starting from the edge, cut around the cake and then move in towards the centre. Make sure you don't push the knife through the cake, instead use a to and fro motion like a saw to slice it.

2. Use a piping bag (foil pouch or zip lock pouch would do) Fill it with the piping consistency Royal Icing, cut the end off to get a reasonably thick piping and slowly draw a boundary around the cake. Fill it with the Royal Icing and place the other half of the cake on.

3. Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of Royal Icing. Use a spoon to pour the icing on the cake and make sure this spoon doesn't touch the cake or the icing on the cake. Use a spatula or a spoon to spread the icing around evenly, starting from the centre. You will see the crumbs and it is normal. Now pop it into the freezer and let it harden or just leave it out for it to harden (I didn't have time to wait, so I used the freezer, downside is that, when you keep it outside after freezing, water droplets, wets the surface of the icing due to condensation).

4. Now you can coat the final layer with the Royal Icing using a spatula, I just roughly spread it around and wrote the words, using the leftover piping mixed with melted chocolate.

Notes:
1. I used vegetable oil instead of butter but you can use the same amount of butter.
2. The amount of  baking powder and baking soda may seem like too much for a cup of flour ( I read in Joy of baking), but the cake tasted great and did rise up perfectly.
3. The amount of sugar required for the icing may vary from 2- 3cups depending on the consistency you want to achieve and also the amount of egg whites. The egg whites I used were small, so I used only two cups of sugar.


Health and Nutrition

This is a food item you can totally live without having. The total amount of calories you get from a single slice is too much when compared to the very little nutrition you might get (thou your might not be able to resist the temptation). 

Update: Check out the Healthier version of the Vanilla Cake with Oats and Wheat Flour.

I'm sending this recipe to Bake with your heart, Bake Fest , Christmas delicacy , Jingle all the way,

Decorating Challenge