Okay, someone needs to tell me who coined the phrase "Vanilla is basic" because I have neither understood nor agreed to that sentiment. If anything, vanilla is versatile, it's easy to understand, and it isn't trying to be something it isn't.
Having said that, I should probably explain why i'm uploading a vanilla recipe when there are literally millions of them online...
I just felt like it.
Plus, it looked really awesome, and I guess that's what gave me the energy to actually start my laptop and type all of this up.
It's my sister's birthday, and I was ready and willing to make her the best birthday cake she had ever seen. Fantasies of beetroot and carrot cake were wafting through my mind, all the frosting dreams I had were finally going to come to fruition...but, alas, the young lass asked me for a vanilla cake...and nothing else.
Naturally, this threw me into a tailspin...I tried to convince her to try new flavours, to be adventurous...and although she turned me down, I managed to manoeuvre around the challenges presented to me, which is how I ended up with a funfetti vanilla cake with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting, speckled with dried blueberries (and I am happy with the outcome)
Method:
To make it, preheat your oven to 170C, and prepare two cake tins (don't forget to grease). in a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup of butter, with 1/2 cup canola oil and 1 & 1/2 cups of sugar (mixture should be well incorporated). Next, add 4 eggs (one at a time) as well as 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence. mix it well.
I tried to make this a one-bowl situation, seeing as I absolutely despise washing dishes, so, in the same large bowl, add in 3 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon of baking powder and 1 & 1/4 teaspoons of salt. once properly incorporated, add in 1 & 1/4 of milk and mix until all of the ingredients come together.
Add in 1 to 2 cups of sprinkles (the choice is yours) and fold in. add to your prepared cake tins, and bake in your oven for about 35 to 40 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean when inserted into the cake.
For the icing, combine 500g of plain cream cheese (at room temperature) with 160g of melted white chocolate. To this, add in 1/2 a cup of icing sugar, and about 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (i like my icing to be a bit salty, sweet, and sour, to create a flavour combination in your mouth...anything that is too sweet automatically distorts the flavour profile of the entire dish). to this, add about a 1/4 cup of crushed dried blueberries (this is optional), and voila...you have a banging cream cheese frosting
decorate it however you want...decorating a cake is personal. It's you putting your heart...on a cake.
And finally...don't forget to enjoy
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