Most cake recipes are good for 2×9″ cake pans, or one 9″ tube pan.
I was planning on making 3×7″ since the math works out to 3.3 of these. (π r^2 ftw!), but I went with 2x 8″ square baking pans. Even more math ftw!

Here are approximate baking times at the magical 350F (325 for dark metal pans)

mini cupcakes 14-18 minutes
large cupcakes 18-23 minutes
7″ square by 2″ high 25-30 minutes
7″ round by 2″ high 30-35 minutes
each additional inch of diameter or width adds another 5-8 minutes
12 cup (9″-ish) tube, Bundt, or angel food pans are 35-60 minutes

As always, make notes of cooking times, and start checking for doneness 1-2 minutes before the minimum time.
Insert a toothpick in the spot you expect to be most undercooked. The cake is done if the toothpick comes out clean.

Grease and flour – is exactly what it sounds like. You smear a thin layer of vegetable shortening (or butter), then coat with flour. Tap the excess out, and this will greatly reduce the chance of anything sticking to the pan. Some recipes call for the bottom to be lined with greased parchment paper. Is this overkill? I don’t think so, but largely depends on the quality of the non-stick surface. I like to use a wide silicone brush for greasing my pans.

Side note – cake flour = 5.25 cup AP flour + .75 cup cornstarch, sifted a bunch of times (5+).
If you’re using cake flour instead of AP, make sure to add 2 tbsp per cup because of the difference in density (4.5 oz/cup for AP vs 4 oz/cup cake flour). I didn’t use cake flour today – it has specific uses, and I rarely use it.

Today’s cake is made with the most basic of cake ingredients!

Basic Vanilla Cake

Print Recipe

Course Dessert

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, or salted and omit the salt (1 cup = 2 sticks) (must be room temperature)
1.25 cup granulated sugar
3 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (if using unsalted butter)
4 large eggs (room temperature)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1.25 cup whole milk (3/4 cup cream + 1/2 cup water)

Instructions

Sift all the dry ingredients together.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until the sugar is fully absorbed, lighter colour, and fluffy. This takes approximately 3 minutes on medium with a hand/stand mixer.
Slow the mixer to medium, and slowly mix in the eggs, one at a time.
Keep mixing and add the vanilla.
Alternate adding the milk and dry ingredients, 1/3 of each at a time.
Pour the batter evenly into 2 9" diameter cake pans, that are greased and floured, and the bottom is lined with greased parchment paper.
Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.
Let the pans cool for 10 minutes on a rack.
Carefully cut around the edge of the pans (plastic knife, not metal), and flip the cakes over on the cooling rack.
Let the cakes cool completely.
Remove the parchment paper, and trim the tops with a serrated knife if desired.

Notes

Bake at 325F if using a dark metal cake pan.

I took about 1 cup of batter, added 1 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp heavy cream, mixed it up, and swirled it on top of each cake in the pan, just for funsies. Here are the cakes out of the pans, pictures of tops and bottoms – greasing and flouring really helps with removing cakes from pans! The third picture is the trimmed cakes, layered and coated with my ganache (made with regular sugar, not erythritol).

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