Vanilla cake with chai buttercream

Vanilla Butter Cake with Chai Spiced Frosting

The sweet smell of cinnamon, mixed spice and ginger are such a perfect complement to this vanilla butter cake.  I love to make vanilla cakes, as the choice of frosting is endless and this beautiful chai spiced frosting is not only reminiscent of the festive season, but it enhances and improves the overall taste of this simple butter cake.

butter vanilla cake

I made this cake in 2 x  8″(20cm) deep dish cake pans, so the overall effect was that of a multilayered cake, but as there were only two deep layers it reduced the amount of sweetness from the buttercream frosting between the layers.  Sometimes a little more spice is nicer than a whole lot of sugar.

Vanilla cake with chai spiced buttercream

 

TIPS  for Using fresh flowers and plants for decorating

Although edibles flowers are obviously my first option when decorating a cake, when using non edible ones, you have to make sure that you remove them all from the cake before slicing.  Another thing to be aware of is that you should know the source of your flowers.  Never use any that have come into contact with pesticides or fertilisers.

For this cake a used an extra dollap of buttercream and set the succulents and Rosemary into that so that they could be removed in one easy piece and the ends of the flowers did not come into contact with the edible part of the cake.  I also painted melted chocolate onto the open end of the succulents to seal them before placing them on the cake.

For other delicious cakes with fresh flowers see my

Dreamy White Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream

Decadent Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Roses

Three Creative Ways to Decorate your Christmas Cake

Vanilla Butter Cake

This amount makes 1 Single deep dish 20cm(8")round cake.  I doubled this quantity to make a very large deep cake made in 2 x 20cm cake pans. 

Course: Baking
Servings: 24
Author: Butter cake recipe from The Australian Women's Weeklly
Ingredients
  • 185g (6oz) butter
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract or essence
  • 1 cup superfine castor sugar
  • 3 (60g/2oz) eggs
  • 2 1/4 cups self raising flour
  • 3/4 cup milk
Instructions
  1. Preheat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF)


  2. Line either one or two cake tins (depending on whether you are doubling the recipe or not) with baking paper on the bottom

  3. Beat your butter, vanilla and sugar in a bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

  4. Beat eggs in , one at a time.

  5. Stir in sifted flour and milk, alternatively, starting with flour and ending with flour. Flour, milk, flour, milk, flour.

  6. Spread the mixture in the baking pans and bake for 45mins - 1 hour depending on your oven.  I bake for 30 mins and if the cake is starting to brown too much on top I will cover the pans with foil for the next cooking period.  Never open your oven before half way through the cooking process 

  7. Test cake by inserting a skewer into the centre.  If it comes out clean then the cake mixture is ready.

  8. Cool cake in the tin for 10 mins before turning out onto a baking rack.

Recipe Notes

This recipe is great for cakes that are going to be topped with fondant ie. wedding cakes as the finished cake is dense and able to hold up the weight of the fondant.

Chai Spiced Buttercream Frosting
Prep Time
10 mins
 

If you are doubling the cake recipe you will need to double this quantity as well.  I like to do a crumb layer first - keep the cake in the fridge  until the crumb layer has hardened and then do the decorative frosting.

Course: Baking
Ingredients
  • 300 g butter softened
  • 3 1/2 cups icing sugar sifted
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ginger powder
  • 1/4 tsp mixed spice powder
  • 2 TBLsp milk
Instructions
  1. Sift icing sugar, and the three spices into a bowl.

  2. Beat the butter in a mixing bowl until softened.  Add the sifted ingredients slowly until combined.

  3. Add the milk a few drops at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

  4. Any extra frosting can be kept in the deepfreeze.

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2 Comments

  • Reply Jackie Feuilherade December 12, 2017 at 8:42 AM

    Beautiful recipe Evie, so loving your recipes.

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