Basic Butter Cake

It's been a rough year for Malaysia in general.

Today, we celebrate Merdeka Day (Independence Day) on a solemn note. For the first time in as long as I can remember, no celebratory fireworks were lit at the stroke of midnight. As I write this, it is all quiet in the night sky. The only noise is the sound of passing cars and the screechy vroom of small motorbikes - the Mat Rempits, we label them.

Basic Butter Cake

Since we had decided on loafing at home for the long weekend, I decided to bake a cake to keep us company ..and it does make good company. It's always comforting to know that there's something within reach to snack on.They say that a hungry man is an angry man. We don't want any of that happening here, now do we *wink*

I tried this recipe from food-4tots.com. For the how-to and tips, visit the page directly. This is my adventure in pictures and my personal experience baking this wonderful recipe.

1) Lightly grease baking tin. Line with baking paper.
2) Beat butter with sugar. Add the eggs one by one, beating as you go.
Then, add 1 tsp vanilla essence.
Slowly add sifted flour +  double action baking powder +  tsp salt.
Finally, mix in 4 tbsp of milk.
3) Pouring the batter into a 18cm square tin. Level the mixture out.
4) Bake at 175c for 40-45 minutes

1) Oo..it's rising. It's also browning a little too quick.
2) Ecstatic that it's evenly cooked and browned.
3) Lovely bottom too.
4) Letting it cool.

Perfectly Browned Butter Cake

Let's Eat!

Texture: It's moist enough and not as dense, as you can see. I admit rather embarrassingly that five slices have made their way into my stomach whilst composing this blog post. Uh-oh!

A great tip I learned from this baking experience: When I noticed that my cake was browning a little too quickly, I loosely placed a foil over the tin to prevent the cake from getting burnt on top (as suggested in the recipe) - but I waited for it to brown evenly to a nice shade before doing this. Yes, I was glued to the oven door.

I used an 18cm square baking tin instead of the suggested 22cm baking tin. This left me with a small portion of batter remaining. I baked what's left over in a medium-small round baking tin, lightly greased with butter. No baking paper was used to line the tin. This was the result:

Butter cake - no baking paper

It slid out of the baking tin effortlessly. This is one recipe that I'm noting down where baking paper is not a necessity.

You know what will go nicely with this cake? A good movie. I hope you enjoy your weekend as much as I am loving my day. You know the saying - eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we diet.

To fellow Malaysians, Selamat Hari Merdeka!