We are passing a milestone with today’s post: we’ll have 200 posts on this blog. That’s the size of a serious cookbook, and we have just begun to post. It’s one day and one post at a time, because we prepare, taste and double check every recipe before posting them here.

So, what has been the most popular post so far? That’s easy: The Simply Delicious Yellow Cake followed by Sweet Pink Buttercream Frosting. Suzen entered those recipes two years ago and we still have people flocking to them.

Since that yellow cake is so desired, we decided to give you an option. Our friend Stephen Schmidt wrote what quickly became a classic cookbook. Master Recipes was published in 1987, and has since been republished and cherished by cooks around the world. The premise of Master Recipes is wonderful: provide a superior master recipe for, say, yellow cake, and then list several options and extensions, each of them equally delectable.

Stephen was working on the update for the Joy of Cooking and enlisted me and my team to be the test kitchen. Stephen is, without question, a meticulous chef, teacher, and cookbook author. Every step counts for him, as you will see in the very detailed instructions he provides for this cake.

I have applied an additional trick when making this cake. Rather than frost it, I infuse the cake and its adorning whipped cream. When you bake the cake, before you put the batter in the pans, place 2 washed and dried rose-scented geranium leaves in the bottom of each pan. After the cakes have cooled, remove the leaves. There is a very lovely herbaceous aroma that modestly penetrates the cake.

And, instead of frosting, I steep lavender blossoms in whipping cream for two hours, then whips the cream with a little sugar and crowns the cake with another herbaceous tone.

This cake is a true mellow yellow and a refreshing light dessert on hot summer nights.

Stephen, by the way, has over a decade devoted to his next book, the ultimate, comprehensive survey of American desserts. We understand that publication is forthcoming, and we look forward to enjoying what will surely be the pinnacle of dessert books.

Master Yellow Cake

Yield: serves 8

Ingredients:

4 large eggs, separated
2 cups sugar
16 tablespoons (two sticks) butter
2 ¼ cups on sifted cake flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
Salt

Preparation:

Bring all ingredients to room temperature. If the ingredients are either too old or warm, they will not become aerated when beaten and they will not blend with one another in the proper manner

Set racks in the upper middle and lower third levels of the oven.

To bake a cake in 9-inch layers, select three round pans measuring 9 inches across and 1 ½inches deep.

There must be enough room in the oven for the cakes to be placed at least 2 ½ inches apart and 3 inches distant from the oven walls; otherwise, they will rise in a lopsided fashion. If you have a small oven test the oven size with the empty pans. If there is not enough room, baked just two layers of the time, one on each rack. Set the third layer aside at room temperature, loosely covered, and bake the other two were done.

Smear the bottom sides and corners of each pan with 2 teaspoons soft butter or vegetable shortening. Sprinkle 1 ½ tablespoons flour and each pan and shake and tap the pan so the bottom and sides are completely dusted. Invert pan over the sink and rapid sharply against the faucet to remove any excess flour. If you follow this procedure conscientiously, your cakes will never stick to the pans.

Preheat oven to 350°F 20 minutes before baking

Step 1: Creaming Butter, Sugar, and Egg Yolks

Separate eggs, placing yolks in a 4-quart mixing bowl and whites in absolutely grease free 3-quart bowl (not use a plastic bowl for whites). Set egg whites aside.

Add sugar and butter to yolks and beat at moderately high speed with electric mixer, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, until soft, off-white in color, and nearly as fluffy as stiff cream. This will take 6 to 8 minutes depending on the efficiency of your mixer. The purpose of the step is to incorporate air into the batter, so don’t stint on the beating. On the other hand don’t overbeat the batter either, or it will turn grainy and curdled-looking and much of the air that you have beaten in will escape.

Step 2: Adding Flour, Baking Powder, Milk, and Vanilla Extract

Measured flour and baking powder into a 2 ½-quart mixing bowl and toss with a fork or wire whip to blend thoroughly; the leavening must be well distributed within the flour or the baked cake will be riddled with large holes. Sprinkle one third of the flour mixture evenly over top of cream butter mixture.

With electric mixer set at moderately low speed, beat for about 5 seconds or until the flour is partly incorporated. Pour one third of the milk over the batter, again mixing about 5 seconds. Continued adding flour and milk alternately by thirds, until both are used up, beating about 5 seconds after each addition. Add the vanilla. With the mixer still set at low speed, beat the batter about 20 seconds longer, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. As soon as all the ingredients seem blended together and the batter looks smooth, raise mixer speed to moderate and beat for 20 to 30 seconds or until the batter thickens perceptibly and takes on a satiny creamy appearance. Do not beat beyond this point, or you will deflate the air bubbles and caused bake cake to be low, excessively fine, and crummy.

Step 3: Beating Egg Whites, Completing the Batter

Wash beaters thoroughly in hot sudsy water and dry well; the slightest trace of grease will prevent egg whites from mounting properly.

Beat egg whites at low speed with electric mixer until they look foamy, then add cream of tartar and a generous pinch of salt and increase speed to medium. When egg whites form soft frothy peaks, increase speed to high and beat until the whites are thick, glossy, and stand firmly at the end of the up to beaters. Using a rubber spatula, gently but thoroughly fold egg whites into cake batter.

Step 4: Baking, Cooling, and Frosting the Cake

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans. Then gently shake each one back-and-forth on a flat surface to level the batter and to burst any large air bubbles.

Set filled cake pans in the thoroughly preheated oven, ensuring that the pans are at least 2 ½ inches distant from each other and 3 inches of the oven walls and that they are staggered rather than one right above the other on the racks. Three 9 x 1 ½” layers will need to bake 20 to 25 minutes; other sizes will require proportionally longer or shorter baking times. To test for doneness insert a cake tester or toothpick in the center of a layer; the needle should come out clean, with no liquid batter adhering. Another sign of doneness is the shrinking of the cake from the sides of the pan. You may also transfer doneness by pressing the center of a layer with your finger; the cake will spring back fully baked.

Place the cakes on racks in the cooled in the pans for about 10 minutes but no longer or they may get soggy.  One layer at a time, run a butter knife around inside of pan to loosen side of cake, and shake the cake back and forth very gently to loosen the bottom. Invert a rack over top of cake and gripping pan and rack invert them both; cake should immediately fall out onto the rack; lift pan off cake invert. Invert a second rack over the bottom of the unmolded cake and, holding the cake between the racks, flip the layer over so that it rest son its bottom side. Remove rack from top of cake.

Allow cakes to cool thoroughly — at least one hour at room temperature — before wrapping or frosting. Frosting will become runny if spread on a cake that is even slightly warm, and warm cakes become sweaty and gummy when wrapped.

Source: Master Recipes by Stephen Schmidt