Baked Sunday Mornings: The Whiteout Cake

The recipe on the Baked Sunday Mornings schedule this week is the "The Whiteout Cake" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. I made this cake (and blogged about it) seven years ago, so I thought about skipping the cake this week and going rogue with a different recipe. But then I remembered how much I liked the cake the last time I made it and thought that seven years was too long to go without enjoying a Whiteout Cake. Plus, I usually serve a couple of layer cakes at our holiday party each year and it so happens that I recently bought 2.5 kg (5.5 pounds) of Cacao Barry Zéphyr Caramel white chocolate. So I happily made the cake again for our holiday party a few weeks ago.

I love the Baked white cake recipe. It -- or a minor variation thereof -- is the basis for many of the gentlemen bakers' layer cakes, including the Ultimate Birthday Cake, Lemon Drop Cake, Aunt Sassy Cake, and Holiday Spice Cake with Eggnog Buttercream. To make the batter, you cream softened butter and shortening with sugar and and vanilla until light and fluffy; add an egg; alternately add the dry ingredients (cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt) and ice cold water; and fold in egg whites that have been beaten with cream of tartar to soft peaks. You divide the batter between three 8-inch pans and bake.

The frosting is a white chocolate version of the Baked cooked flour buttercream. You cook flour, sugar, cream, and milk until the mixture boils and thickens; beat until cool; incorporate softened butter; and add vanilla and melted, cooled white chocolate. Zéphyr Caramel chocolate is a warm ecru/light tan shade, so my frosting was definitely more beige than white. I had some Valrhona Dulcey crunchy pearls on hand and thought about using them as garnish, but ultimately decided that I wanted frosting to be the only decoration.
This cake is even better than I remember. In significant part, I think that using the Zéphy Caramel had a huge impact on the final product. You could definitely taste a caramel-butterscotchy flavor in the frosting and it was amazing. The cake itself is dense, vanilla, and delicious. There's nothing not to love about this cake, and I think the extra flavor from the Zéphy Caramel white chocolate is worth sacrificing the lily white color scheme. I hope it's not another seven years before I make this cake again!

Recipe: "The Whiteout Cake" from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.

Previous Post: "White and Vanilla but Far From Ordinary: The Whiteout Cake," August 23, 2010.

Comments

Louise said…
This is a beautiful cake. How does the flavor compare with the Restaurant Eve cake? I love the idea of the caramel white chocolate.
Oh, for the cakes alone this is a hard call and I think I'd have to taste the cakes side by side to be sure. But with regard to frosting, this one beats the Restaurant Eve frosting, no question.
Unknown said…
Looks amazing! How do you get your cakes to rise so high? Mine come out like thin little layers- so frustrating!