Butter Cake

Thank you sunset magazine, I've been looking for a vanilla cake to add to my repertoire, this worked very well. I made 2 9 inch cakes and then sliced them into thin layers and sandwiched them with a chocolate buttercream. I didnt follow their recipe, I just made my usual chocolate buttercream. It was yummy.

The only downside with it is that it uses cake flour, and that makes it much more expensive than a cake with all purpose flour. If anyone knows a good cheap source for cake flour I would be eternally grateful, the only stores that carry it are ralphs, vons and albertsons and its hellish expensive.

I made it for a friend, so I didnt obsess about getting the decoration perfect, I had my first play with modelling chocolate and I really like working with it, and it has the added benefit of being much more palatable than fondant, especially the dark chocolate version. Soo easy to make too!!

Visit sunset for the recipe and some variations!

Chocolate buttercream- makes enough for more than this cake!!
1 lb butter-soft
1 lb confectioners sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3 oz cocoa powder
3 oz melted chocolate (I used a mixture of milk and dark)
milk-as needed

Sift the cocoa powder and sugar. Beat the butter until fluffy, add vanilla, beat, then add the cocoa and powdered sugar in two batches, starting off really slowly to begin! Add the chocolate and beat again. If the mix looks too thick, add some milk until as soft as desired.

Modelling chocolate
1 part chocolate to 1 part corn syrup. Melt chocolate then add corn syrup and mix together. Put in fridge then knead. Keep in fridge wrapped in plastic until needed. Warm with hands before use.