White Cake Taste Test

Some members at Cake Central recently started Great Scratch Off - White Cake Taste Test. Yes, White Cake! I was hunting for the "perfect" white cake recipe so I joined in having fun. Eight recipes are selected for comparison (see list below). I wanted to try everything, but I was pressed for time, so I chose four for the sample: one made with white butter, one with buttermilk, one with only butter, and one with sour cream.

Here are links to eight recipes chosen by Cake Central for comparison:

King Arthur Flour - Tender While Cake Recipe - I want to try this recipe. This is a standard "butter" recipe, but also gives you the option of using vanilla yogurt or pure milk. I always wonder how yogurt will affect the taste / texture of the cake, but I don't have King Arthur flour so I have to scratch this one from the "to bake" list.

Rebecca Sutterby's (WASC recipe developer) - White Velvet Cake recipe - Buttermilk recipe with vanilla bean paste. I don't have vanilla bean paste, so this one is scratched too.

Cook Book Maniac adapts Rose Levy Beranbaum: The Cake Bible - White Velvet Cake recipe - This is a butter recipe that also uses thick cream. It sounds good, rich, and very fattening. I really wanted to put this one in and make a five-layer cake, but I was confused by some instructions from Cook Book Maniac. Especially the instructions for cooking at 175 degrees (not mentioning Celsius or Fahrenheit) and using only one pan 9x2 ". I can make the assumption that the temperature is Celsius, but one pan makes me confused. It seems too much dough for one pan. I also have run-ins last year with Rose Levy Beranbaum people when I put the Red Velvet Cake into one of my taste tests, I didn't want to repeat the drama, so I dropped this cake from my line.

Cook's Illustrated - White Cake recipe - This is a recipe of Butter with lots of egg white. I put this recipe in my taste test. This is the shape of the cake that has been made:

Elisa Strauss The Confetti Cakes - Vanilla Cake recipe (note: scroll down through this long post. The recipe is near the bottom of Post # 1) - This is another Butter recipe with lots of egg white which is very similar to Cook's Illustrated recipe.

K8Memphis' yellow cake version Sylvia Weinstock from Sensational Cake Sylvia Weinstock - Sylvia's famous Sour Cream Yellow Cake recipe has been modified (reduced egg yolks) by K8 to make baked cakes look less yellow. What is the shape.

Group White Cake Recipes' Delicate Recipes - this is a shortening-based recipe without butter. What is the shape. Very snowy right? There is no butter in the dough making the cake very white.

Rebecca Rather from the recipe book The Queen Pastry - White on White Buttermilk Cake - Lots of butter and buttermilk in this recipe. Not intended for anyone who is worried about their cholesterol.

So here all cakes are stacked and waiting for ice.

For this taste test I have 11 lab mice (oops, I mean family members). They were told to evaluate only cakes and not cake / ice combinations. Each taster was given a piece of cake and I interviewed each and recorded their comments. They are asked to make cake rankings from 1-4. # 1 is their favorite and # 4 is their least favorite.

And based on the rank of my lab rat,

WINNER OF MY White Cake Taste Test ...........

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With an overall score of 1.6 .............

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The BUTTER recipe is pure from Cook's Illustrated White Layer Cake recipe

Yes, Three Cheers for Cook's White Layer Cake !!!!
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The scoreboard is as follows (note: the lower the number the better the score):

# 1 - First Place goes to Cook's Illustrated Butter cake with a score of 1.6,
# 2 - Second Place goes to Buttermilk cake Rebecca Rather (The Pastry Queen) with a score of 2.4,
# 3 - Third place goes to Shortening Group Recipes' cake with a score of 2.5,
# 4 - Fourth Place goes to K8Memphis' Sour Cream Cake with a score of 3.4

Under the guidelines of Central Cake Great Scratch Off - White Cake Taste
Assessment criteria include:

1. Taste
2. Texture / Crumbs
3. Moisture
3. Ease Recipes
4. Recipe Fees
5. The ability to be converted into a cupcake

full source: https://thebakemore.blogspot.com/2011/01/white-cake-taste-test.html

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