Light Butter Cake

The year-end final exam for my son, Ryan, is finally over. What a relief! I can bake again and update my blog. What to bake? I wanted something simple that we can eat during tea time or any time of the day. Classic butter cake comes to mind. I've baked a rich yellow butter cake before. It's rich and sinful because only egg yolks are used. Too much saturated fats and cholesterol from egg yolks and butter. No good for the arteries and heart. This time, I wanted to try a lighter version of butter cake. To do this, I used whole eggs and separated them. I whipped up the egg whites chiffon style to lighten the batter and thus created a lighter cake. The texture is fine and light and that's what I wanted. I'm going to stick to this recipe now.

Ingredients:

150g unsalted butter, cut into cubes at room temperature

100g castor sugar
3 egg yolks
1½ tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp salt
125ml fresh milk
175g cake flour
1½ tsp baking powder
3 egg white
40g castor sugar

Preparation:
Grease and line a 7” round cake pan with parchment paper.
Pre-heat oven at 200°C.

Method:
1. Sift the cake flour and baking powder together into a bowl.
2. Add the butter and 100g of sugar into a mixing bowl. Using the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Start a low speed before increasing to medium speed.
3. Reduce the speed to low, add in the egg yolks, one at a time until it is incorporated before adding the next egg. Increase the speed to medium and beat until mixture is well blended.
4. Add in the vanilla extract.
5. At low speed, add in one third of the flour mixture and one third of the fresh milk alternately until done. Stop once mixture is well blended.
6. In a separate clean bowl, whisk the egg white and 40g castor sugar until stiff peak forms.
7. Fold in the egg white into the yolk and flour mixture until well blended.
8. Pour out the batter into the cake pan.
9. Place the pan into the lower third rack of oven and bake at 180°C - 190°C for about 30-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
10. Place it to cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes before unmoulding.