VERY VANILLA ONE BOWL{v} BUTTER CAKE @ DONNA HAY

 It already feels like Christmas and its Christmas Time again , in the kitchens and homes of Bright Morning Star , so u'll see a lotta reds , whites and greens here , sprinkled with hearts and Santas ....
And love.....

 Ofcourse Snowman will be there too.

Christmas times are also times of bakes and cakes and hot chocolate and Marshmallows...

And i want to begin with a very quick and simple Vanilla butter cake , yeah with lods of vanilla everywhere, coz all good things begin with butter.

And to make things even better , i came up with this really wonderful salted butter glaze with a caramel or two , which is poured over the warm cakes and it soaks in for a beautiful flavor and delicious crust .



This butter cake is nice , not very moist ,a bit on a drier side {not dry in a bad way} but with a very wonderful flavor from the vanilla beans and LorAnn Butter flavor, a nice cake with a nice almost crispy , crust that forms while baking.

 And the flavor deepens to buttery and delicious , in a day and better the next.

I dont know if its the baking pan or the recipe that gave me so wonderful a crust.

 I begin with Butter and Vanilla , gorgeously smooth and creamy Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla ,see even the pack is moist with some of the super moist vanilla.

 2 whole beans went into the cake :-)Oh so fragrant, didn want to wash my hands after this one.....

 See the amount of fantastic caviar.......and loving bringing out all my Christmacy stuff out , these spreaders are super cute and come with little bowls too:-)

This mini board is specially for vanilla beans and its oh so fragrant at all times, love it...see all the Vanilla oil there...

Besides adding the 2 beans to the melting butter , i added another one {yeah u read rite , that takes the count to 3}, to the sugar, rubbed it well into the sugar , ahh d aroma wafting around is gorgeously delightful..

There is the butter in the background , dunno where the lone pic of the butter went, butter ,melted with lods of beans galore...

And yeah u need to have 2 eggs at hand too , 2 whole eggs and see so tiny pretty specs of vanilla here too , yeah they were all over the place i tell u..

Flour , KaF, unbleached AP flour...

Wait a minute, i did something to it , i added Cornflour to it to make it into Cake flour , tender cake flour , yeah the one that makes all cakes tender and nice , i wanted that something nice to my Butter cake too!

For exact measurements for making cake flour , Joy the wonderful Baker has a step by step tutorial here.

 And milk , not only to lighten the cake but...ok i dont know:-).......see some vanilla in there too , oh it spread everywhere!

And there are 2important things to do, one is put the oven on and two is to butter the pan well.
See i got a new pan , a mini loaf pan , so good for the holidays n gives u eight loaves ,so u can eat one {so important and a plus factor} while u dress and wait for them to set and u are left with a perfect number , 7 cute little loaves.

I went in to Canola oil this time with this , very pretty Zak Mister , its super cute, red  { ok ,not pink but so good for the hols no?}, and sparys beautiful + u can make vanilla flavored oil in there , will show u how sometime soonnn....{lods more u can do i tell u...}

Once ur done there , u can begin the mixing , the recipe calls for adding all into the bowl and jus mixing till combined , but i did it step by step ,but i still feel a had mixer would result in a fantastic texture.
So i began with the melted Vanilla butter and Vanilla sugar, love my Le Creuset Batter bowl for one Bowl cakes .

And then beat in the eggs , or mix it all as the recipe{below} says.

Fold in the flour and the milk , which i warmed in the microwave.

And scoop equally {i'll show u how i do it in a min} into the prepare pan or a 8inch round tin.

Now this Zeroll Food scoop is one of the few blue things that are allowed in the BMS kitchens during the holidays:-)
Perfect everytime and pretty colors too!

Time for the tray to go into the oven and for u to do the dishes :-)
Which for me is fun by the way , as long as the water runs warm and i have lods of dishwashing liquid i am happy there.

And baked , cooled a bit and turned out to top with the glaze while i begin digging into one of 'em.

Melted around 55grams salted butter with 3-5 Caramels , and stirred adding brown sugar , icing sugar and a few drops clear butter extract.

 Bliss, it glides beautifully over the cakkeys and the fragrance adds to the baking aroma...and then absorbs into the cake , making the crust even better.

It also helps stick any colored deco u might wanna add.

The Caramel glaze goes all in and its so good , the crust that forms gets even better.

Its fantastic outa the oven , better the next day with a deeper flavor and even better the day after that , the buttery ,caramelly and vanilla , get together as the best of pals and u have a awesome bite with ur cafe or chai.

Whether with a spread of Nutella or Apricot preserve , or Rasberry jam or jus on their own, they are Oh so Good!

Quick Recipe

adapted from Classics2, Donna Hay

Preheat the Oven to 180 C {350 F}

Place the below in a bowl,

1 3/4 th cups plain AP flour, 

1 3/4th tsp baking powder,

1 cup castor sugar with Vanilla rubbed in,

125grams butter melted with 2 whole vanilla beans {innards},

2 eggs,

1/4th cup milk {warmed}

Mix well till combined.

i think a hand beater/mixer would do all the work for u here.

Scoop into 8inch cake pan lined with baking paper or in a mini loaf pan or muffin pan.

Bake for 25-40 mins till done , u'll know when the aroma fills the air and the cakes spring back to touch.

Cool for 10mins and then invert onto plate or rack.

Make glaze as above or dust with vanilla sugar or icing sugar .

Enjoy......

Buttery and delightful....

Oh so goodddd........
{am trying to edit my design to make it red and have snow but blogger refuses to oblige}

And dont forget Jesus , is The Reason for This v Wonderful Season!