White Cake Fail
A friend of mine asked me recently if I would make a cake for her daughter's first birthday, and, of course, I obliged. The party-throwing mum opted for a white cake as the one that might appeal most widely to children and adults alike. So, for the past couple of weekends, I've been trying out recipes to find the perfect one for what will surely be the birthday party of the year for the under-5s at least. The problem is that, here in Northern Ireland, 'white cake' seems to be synonymous with Victoria Sponge: an egg-based cake served layered with fruit or jam and cream, and sprinkled with icing sugar (see the photo below from Wikimedia Commons ). When it's done well, it can be very tasty indeed, but frequently it's a bit too dry for my taste. And, to be very honest, having grown up with buttercream frosting, a cake just isn't complete, in my mind, without lashings of the stuff. Anyway, I started my experimentation with the white cake recipe in Peggy...