Recipe courtesy of Amirah Kassem
From:
Food Network Magazine
Bonilla Vanilla Cake
- Level: Intermediate
- Yield: One 6-inch 6-layer cake
- Total: 1 hr 30 min
- Active: 40 min
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups milk
Purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and pink gel food coloring, for tinting
Cooking spray
Magical Frosting
1 3/4 cups assorted rainbow sprinkles, for filling
1 cup rainbow nonpareils, for decorating
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 350˚ and put the oven rack in the middle. If you are using a convection oven, set it to 325˚.
- Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl and whisk until they are really mixed together. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, use an electric mixer on medium speed to blend the butter and sugar together until they become fluffy. Make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula so it’s all mixed in from the sides.
- Add the eggs, one at a time, to the butter-sugar mixture, with the mixer on medium speed. Again, make sure to scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the vanilla to the milk and set it aside.
- Mix about one-third of your dry ingredients into the butter mixture, then blend in half of the milk mixture, always mixing on medium speed. Mix in the second third of the dry ingredients, then the remaining milk. Scrape down the bowl, then mix in the last of the flour mixture. You don’t want any lumps, but don’t overmix it—stop the mixer as soon as the batter is smooth.
- Divide the batter evenly among six small bowls. They don’t have to be exactly identical, but you want them to be close. (It’s about 1 cup of batter per bowl.)
- Color the batter individually in rainbow colors: We use purple, blue, green, yellow, orange and pink for our six-layer cakes. Start with a tiny drop of food coloring, stir it in completely, then add more until it is your desired color. (The baked cake will come out pretty close to what you see.)
- Spray six 6-inch round baking pans with cooking spray, then pour in the colored batter. (If you don’t have 6 pans, cool, wash, dry and respray your pans before you refill them with batter.) Bake the cakes two at a time for 8 minutes without opening the oven door, then rotate each pan and bake for another 8 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when you insert it into the middle of the cake.
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for 5 to 10 minutes, then flip them over onto a baking sheet or cooling rack and let them cool completely before you frost them.
Cook’s Note
To make ahead, bake the cake layers and let cool, then wrap individually in plastic wrap and refrigerate 2 to 3 days.