Winn-Dixie Signature Recipe
Snowy White Wedding Cake with Egg White Buttercream Icing
MAKES: 1 12-inch, 1 8-inch and 1 6-inch cake for stacking.Preparation Time: 45 min.
Cooking Time: 50 min.
Serves: 60
Ingredients:
CAKE
6 cup Flour, white, all-purpose, enriched, bleached
4 tablespoon Baking powder, double-acting, sodium aluminum sulfate
1 tablespoon Salt
3 stick Butter, unsalted (sweet) -- (12 ozs)
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract -- pure
4 1/2 cup Sugar, granulated
3 cup Milk, 3.25% (homogenized)
12 large Egg, white, raw -- (may be frozen and thawed)
EGG WHITE BUTTERCREAM ICING:
2/3 cup Water
1 cup Sugar, granulated
3 tablespoon Sugar, granulated
2/3 cup Egg, white, raw
6 stick Butter, unsalted (sweet) -- (1 1/2 lbs), at room temperature
2 tablespoon Vanilla extract, clear -- optional
1 tablespoon Butter, with salt -- or more to grease pans
Preparation:
1. Cake Preparations: Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until soft. Add the vanilla and then the sugar. Beat thoroughly, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl, until the sugar is well mixed.
4. On low speed, add the sifted dry ingredients, and the milk, beating well each time.
5. Add the unbeaten egg whites and beat on high speed for 2 minutes. The mixture may look slightly curdled, and that is fine.
6. Butter each baking pan to be used. Cut rounds of parchment for each. Butter and flour the parchment in the pans.
7. Divide the batter among the various-sized pans, filling each pan 2/3 full. Bake as many pans as will comfortably fit in your oven, allowing air to circulate between the pans. Refrigerate the remaining batter until ready to bake.
8. Begin checking the 6-inch pan after 25 minutes. The 8-inch pan will probably take 30 to 35 minutes. The 12-inch pan, 40 to 50 minutes. Test with a cake tester or toothpick. As soon as any of these reads clean, remove it from the oven. Try to remove them before they start to shrink from the sides of the pans.
9. When out of the oven, let them stand for 5 minutes. Remove the cake form the pan onto a cooking rack.
10. Egg White Buttercream Icing Preparations: Combine the water and cup of sugar in a medium saucepan over moderate heat. Bring to a boil and boil until a candy thermometer reads 238F or 240F.
11. In a bowl, begin beating the egg whites with an electric mixer. Gradually add the 3 tablespoons of sugar while continuing to beat. Beat until soft peaks form.
12. With the machine running, add the hot sugar syrup in a steady stream. Continue to beat until the mixture cools to room temperature. It is important that the butter be almost the same texture as the egg white mixture when you add it (very soft). Beating at medium speed, add the butter in about 3-tablespoon pieces. If the mixture looks like it might curdle, turn the mixer to HIGH and beat vigorously for one minute.
13. When all the butter has been incorporated, add the clear vanilla, if you wish.
14. Frost and decorate. Cake is ready to serve. (Makes approximately 6 cups of icing.)
15. The buttercream can be made a few weeks in advance and frozen. Defrost gradually in the refrigerator and then bring to room temperature before re-beating.