White Velvet Cake

You have, of course, heard of Red Velvet Cake. But I will never eat one, since red food coloring makes me sick. At any rate, I think that adding an entire bottle of food coloring to a recipe is icky. There are recipes for Red Velvet Cakes made with pureed beets, but that throws the flavor off. So why not make a White Velvet Cake?

I have always been on the search for the perfect white cake. It seems that most white cakes, which are made without egg yolks so they are really white, are a bit dry and tough. Egg yolks add fat and moisture to the cake batter, so a cake made without them will naturally be more dry.

I made one step in the right direction when I found Dinah Shore’s recipe for Pecan Rum Cake from her inimitable cookbook Someone’s In The Kitchen With Dinah. It’s a white cake cut into squares, frosted on all sides with a fluffy frosting, then rolled in chopped pecans to coat. It’s not difficult to make, but it can take hours! And it is incredibly good.

But when made on its own without that intense ratio of frosting to cake, the cake is still a little dry. Then I had a brainstorm.

Add ground white chocolate! When white chocolate is ground in the food processor so the particles are very fine, it will melt into the crumb of the cake and add fat and flavor. It doesn’t weigh the cake down, and doesn’t add much white chocolate flavor; it just adds the perfect amount of moisture.

I also changed the milk to buttermilk, added a touch of lemon juice, and added some baking soda to balance everything out. It’s now the perfect White Velvet Cake. My search has ended.

Use my recipe for Old-Fashioned Frosting for this White Velvet cake; it is a wonderful recipe. I first saw something like it a long time ago and was so intrigued by the method. To make it, you cook flour and milk together in a saucepan until the mixture is thick. The flour paste is cooled, then beaten into shortening and butter and sugar. You have to beat and beat until the frosting is smooth, but your reward will be a velvety smooth and fluffy frosting; the perfect topping for the perfect white velvet cake.

Or you could use cream cheese frosting, or a classic buttercream.

Tips for the best White Velvet Cake:

• Be sure to measure the flour accurately. Do NOT dip the measuring cup into the flour. Spoon the flour lightly into the measuring cup and level off with the back of a knife.
• When you beat the cake, beat only until the flour and/or liquid disappears. Don’t overheat or the cake will be tough.
• Fold the white chocolate in just until it disappears. If you fold too much or too vigorously, the cake will have less volume.
• Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly touched with your finger. You can also use the toothpick test; insert the toothpick and it should come out clean or almost clean with no wet crumbs attached.
• Let the cake cool completely before you frost it or the frosting will melt and lose its fluffy texture.

Why this recipe works:

• Beating the butter with sugar in the first step sets up the texture of the cake. The sugar creates tiny holes in the butter that will fill with air as the cake rises in the oven. The more you beat the butter, the more finely-textured the cake will be.
• The ground white chocolate is the secret ingredient in this recipe. It is called a “finely divided solid” and it acts as an emulsifier (a fancy word that just means to make things smooth and blended).
• Adding the four unbeaten egg whites at the end really makes the texture of this cake fine. Because they are unbeaten they do not add volume, but add water and protein. Using the whites without the yolk also makes the cake white.
• Using a combination of cornstarch and flour is a substitute for cake flour. This reduces the protein content of the flour and interferes with gluten formation. That makes the cake more tender.
• Buttermilk and lemon juice make the batter more acidic. Adding a little bit of baking soda will neutralize the batter, which makes it rise a bit higher and be more tender.