Julianna Bananna: White Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

These past few days have been insanely busy!! But school is out and I am so happy it is summer. Expect quite a few catch-up posts coming soon!

On the last day of school I made Jay's graduation cake! I even frosted it all by myself (and usually I am not-so-talented in frosting decorations so I was pretty proud of this one).

The cake itself is my favorite cake recipe of all time. I am so excited to share it with you guys!

White Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

White Layer Cake:

Ingredients:

3 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3 sticks room temperature unsalted butter
2 cups sugar + 1/4c reserved
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup nonfat milk
8 egg whites

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In an electric mixer beat butter and the 2 cups of sugar until light and fluffy (about three minutes). Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl so everything is evenly incorporated. Beat in vanilla. Keeping the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the flour and milk, beginning and ending with flour (usually I add the flour in three or four parts).

Separate your eggs over a clean bowl. Using a hand mixer (an electric mixer would work, if you have two different bowls that attach to it) beat the egg whites until foamy. Gradually increase the speed of the mixer while adding in the 1/4 cup sugar. Beat on high speed until stiff peaks form (it took me about six or seven minutes).

Fold about a quarter of the egg whites into the butter/flour/milk mixture until they are incorporated. Fold in the rest of the egg whites in 3 parts, making sure to fully combine them - but don't stir the mixture a lot, the egg whites are what give the cake its fluffiness!

Spray two 9in circular pans with cooking spray and line bottoms with parchment paper; then spray again. Divide the cake batter evenly into the two pans and bake for 30 minutes.

When cool, remove cakes from pans and let them cool on a cooling rack. Now, make your frosting!

Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter at room temperature
8oz cream cheese at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups (480g) powdered sugar

Directions:

Cream butter and cream cheese on medium speed until the mixture is an even consistency. Add vanilla and half of the powdered sugar and mix for about 3 minutes. Make sure to scrape down the sides. Add the remaining powdered sugar and mix on medium speed for 3 minutes.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature or in the refrigerator.

Frosts 2 9in cakes