Butter Cake Recipe

Anything is better with butter, says Chef Gene Gonzales.

I totally agree with Chef Gene. Butter is amazing. It can turn anything from good to best (three times over) but rarely it is the star of the show. If butter were an actor, it's usually cast as the best friend of the hero or heroine. It usually is delegated as the support. Much like what vanilla is to any other baking ingredient.

And so for this post, we're turning the spotlight to my much loved baking ingredient. Butter. We're making butter cake today. 

But before that...I can not wipe the silly nervous grin off my face because I am about to share three embarrassing pictures from the first time I made this cake. Yes, I have been toying with the idea of making an "ode to butter" post by making a butter cake for awhile now. The first time I made it, I used a fancy bundt pan. Oh my, little did I know it will not work! Wanna know why? Because the cake did not rise. At. All.

Here's the batter before I put it in the oven. 

And here's the after shot. It did not rise at all. After making this,  my friend Kat and I were talking about it and she told me, this special bundt pan requires certain recipes to make in it. Apparently, the butter cake recipe didn't agree with this pan. Too bad.

And look at this shot! Haha, too funny not to post, it looks like a tiger's paw doesn't it? Oh well, enough of my misadventures. Here's the recipe and how I was able to successfully make it. 

 Butter Cake Recipe
adapted from AllRecipes

What we need:

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butter
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Here's how:
(1) Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

(2) Add eggs one by one. Make sure to beat eggs well before adding another one. 

(3) Sift/dry whisk flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Add a third to the mixture.

(4) Add a half of the buttermilk. Repeat until all is combined.
(5) Heavily grease two 8 1/2" by 4 1/2" loaf pans (Note A: but any pan will do as long as just fill it up until its half full. Note B: Or you can also line the loaf pan with wax paper) divide the batter into two and bake for about 40 minutes or until done. 

The original recipe calls for a butter sauce you can soak the cake into but I opted not to make it.  I enjoyed the cake as it is but right now I all this talk about butter made me doubt my decision. Hmmm... it seems I need to make this cake one more time.