Basic Yellow Cake

So yesterday was our Korean engagement party!  It was also the first time that our parents met each other, so it was a big deal.  And, being who I am, I decided to make my own engagement cake for this occasion.  I wanted to make a 3-layered (not tiered) cake and just kinda keep it sleek and simple, but elegant.  My mom has a cake decorating book, and we picked a recipe from there, but the attempt turned out just awful.  I nearly had a panic attack.  But then I found this recipe online, and it's one of the best yellow cakes I've made.

Here is the recipe for the cake. 

Ingredients (for two 9-inch rounds):
-2 sticks of butter, melted
-1 1/2 cups sugar
-8 egg yolks (save the whites and make an egg white scramble with them)
-3/4 cups milk
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla
-2 cups flour
-2 tsps baking powder
-1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F.
1.  Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together.  Set aside.

2.  Cream the melted butter and sugar until well combined. 

3.  Add a yolk, one at a time.

4.  Add vanilla.

5.  Alternate milk and flour mix until you get a nice thick batter. 

6.  Pour into two greased 9" rounds.  Don't try to bake it all in one pan.  I did that and it sucked.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until center comes out clean.

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Okay, so that's the basic recipe for a delicious yellow cake.  You could just cool them, frost the top of one, plop the other layer on it, and frost the whole thing.  That could be it.  But I didn't stop there.

I baked 3 rounds and leveled them with a cake leveler.

(Yeah, the weird one above that is all weird and kinda burned on the sides is because I baked the first two rounds in one pan instead of two.  Don't do this.  It takes forever to bake.)

Okay, then I cooled them and wrapped them up for the night.  The next morning, I started work on it again!

I frosted the in between layers, and plopped one right on top of the other!  Then i frosted the whole thing.

It doesn't have to look super pretty or anything, the icing is just for the fondant to stick to.  I did kinda go around the sides with a knife to even things out. 

There!

Okay, then I made some soft yellow fondant, which you can learn about here.  And I covered the cake in the fondant and smoothed out the pleats a little on the bottom, then gave it a trim. 

I also cut some ribbon to go around the bottom of the cake.  Isn't that pretty?

My mom made some big yellow flowers to put on the cake.

I painted the inside of the flowers with a little food coloring made of yellow and red dye.  I dropped in a few of my favorite little candy pearls that make it look like the flower stamens. 

The leaves I made from just pulling some green fondant between my fingers and pinching them off.  I would love to have shown you a picture, but I needed both hands to make them.

There!

That was our pretty little Korean engagement party cake.  Korean modifying "engagement party", not "cake".  The cake is pretty darn American.

Just thought I'd clarify my adjunct usage.

Okay, back to the cake.

Everyone loved it!  Even our server at the restaurant was impressed with how it turned out.  I couldn't have done it without my mom, who actually ended up rolling the fondant for me after I got frustrated with it.  And she made the flowers and thought of the creative stuff.  But yes, we made a good team :) 

It was a wonderful way to celebrate our engagement with our families!  Hooray!

For a printable version of this recipe, please click here.