Traditional Butter Cake

 A review on Mrs Ng's traditional butter cake. 

Some thoughts before we go into the recipe, this recipe is a familiar one, that i have been baking as a kid, my mum used to tell me one part of flour, one part of sugar, one part of butter of equal weights, a splash of milk and some eggs. the recipe was never really written. i used to look through a thick hardcovered recipe and i think we have had this recipe as well. it has been around for some time. Thankfully and credits to daily cooking quest Mrs Ng's old fashioned butter cake, i can finally taste back the taste of childhood. the original recipe in the website calls for an 8inch x 8 inch square cake pan: 

Egg yolk batter: 

- 180 gram (about 1.5 cup) all purpose flour

- 2 teaspoon baking powder

- quarter teaspoon salt

- 2 stick (16 tablespoon/230 gram) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature and cubed

- 150 gram sugar

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 4 egg yolks (Large)

- 1/4 cup milk

for the egg white batter:

- 4 egg whites (Large)

- 50 gram sugar

The website also shows how to troubleshoot the cake and variations around it which i find it helpful.

important to notes from the website: 

1. if swapping for self rising flour, replace the 180g all purpose flour and 2 tsp baking powder with 200g of self rising flour.

2. if using salted butter replace the 230g butter and salt with 230 g butter

3. if using cake flour, just swap and it will be closer to a sponge cake.

4. for ease of taking out can use parchment paper

for  variation of flavours, like 

- orange butter cake, use 1/4 cup of orange juice instead of 1/4 cup of milk and orange zest instead of vanilla extract. 

- For chocolate buter cake remove 30g from 180 g all purpose flour and replace with 30g cocoa powder and 250g butter instead of 230 g of butter and to add a tsp of espresso powder.

- marble butter cake: use 250 g unsalted butter instead of 230g for the egg yolk batter, transfer 1/3 portion of egg yolk to a separate mixing bowl and add 10g of cocoa powder and stir/fold. and fold 1/3 of egg white batter to choc batter and the remaining 2/3 into the original batter.

Troubleshoots: 

1/ if cake is dense greasy heavy soggy, make sure the butter is soft and at room temperature - being able to make an indentation on the butter with finger and hold its shape. but not too soft. the butter needs to be room temperature fo catch the air

2/ iif cake is gluey spots in several places = over creaming the batter, medium speed to sugar butter and eggs and oppposed to the website's recommendation to  mix the flour with mixer at low speed, I fold the flour in.

3/ the cake shrunk after it cooled down = cool the cake 10-15 mins int he pan before removing it from the pan and cool on a wire rack 

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My version of the recipe makes about 4 aluminium foil tray sized of 10cm x 20cm x 5cm roughly.

and I doubled the portion of the recipe as follows: only to swap 360g all purpose flour and 4 tsp baking powder to self rising flour of 400 g and the salt and butter with 2 slab of salted butter at 360g (I used anchor brand for this round)

Ingredients:

Egg yolk batter: 

1. 400 gram (about 3 cup) self rising flour

2. 4 stick (32 tbsp/360gram) salted butter, softened at room temperature and cubed

3. 200 300 gram sugar (i used cane sugar and brown sugar at this round)

4. 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

5. 8 egg yolk

6. half cup of milk

for the egg white batter:

- 8 egg whites (Large)

- 100 gram sugar

Methods:

1. Bring the butter out from the fridge, left at room temperature (soft but still holds its shape), measure all ingredients, sift the self rising flour, prepare the eggs dividing egg yolks and egg whites in separate bowls

2. Cube 360g butter and put the butter and sugar in a mixer bowl , and switch on the mixer on medium to high speed, ocassionally stop it after every a min to check on it and use a spatula to remove the bits sticking on the wire whip into the bowl, give it a flip in the bowl and continue to mix in the mixer. Continue until the butter sugar mix looks pale and fluffy about 2-3 mins later, add the vanilla extract to it and subsequently the egg yolks in batches of 3 or so.  one thing to note is to not overwhip the butter mixture.

3. Once the egg yolks are well incorporated in the butter sugar mix, take it out from the mixer bowl and transfer the egg yolk mix into a clean bowl. Add the self rising flour in 2 batches into the egg yolk batter and use a spatula to fold the mixture. Add in the milk in 2 batches as well into the egg yolk butter mix and repeat the same, folding the mixture until there are no signs of white flour and milk. put it aside and prepare the egg white batter.

4. now, reminder to preheat the oven to 180 degree celcius (350 farenheit)

5. for the egg white, use a clean mixer bowl (i did a mistake and did not clean it and my egg whites did not become meringue/peaks, anyways...) In a clean mixer bowl, put all the egg whites in and 1/3 of the sugar required and put on high speed within 30 seconds or so the egg whites will have foam like you see in a bubble bath. after another 30 seconds add the second 1/3 of sugar and let it run on high speed in the mixer and in another 30 seconds or so add the final 1/3 of the sugar required.

after all of the required sugar for the egg white batter has been added, let the mixer run on high speed for another min or so and you will see the egg whites form a very dense foam and turn white. To guage whether it is good to go, stop the mixer, use the wire whip dip into the mixture and lift it up and if the egg white mixture sticks to the wire whip of the mixer and form a triangle and doesnt drop back to the bowl its good to go. if the egg white mixture does not stick to the wire whip and is runny, then continue to mix it in the mixer with high speed. one thing to note is to not overmix the egg white mixture... 

6. Assembly: remember the bowl of egg yolk batter from step 3? with a spatula, pour the 1/3 of the egg white meringue into the bowl of egg yolk batter and fold it. fold thoroughly gently until it is well combined and remember not to overfold it. Then add the second part of the egg white meringue and fold until there are no white bits to be seen. this time it should combine with less fold times compared to the first. Lastly, to do the same with the last part of the egg white meringue, add ot the egg yolk batter and fold it in till no white bits are seen.

7. divide the batter into the 4 aluminium foil tray and bake it in the oven at 180 degree celcius. the recipe mentioned that it is to be baked for 45 mins but my cake are done in 35 mins. How to check if the cake is done? monitor your cake after 30 mins and use a toothpick to do a toothpick test. poke the toothpick into the cake while it is still in the oven and if there are no batter sticking to the tooth pick it is done.. turn off the heat and let it in the oven for 2-3 mins then take the tray out to cool for 30 mins. 

To store the cake: the cake can be stored in room temperature for 2 days in a tropical setting.