Vanilla Sprinkle Cake

If you ever feel like baking a cake but you don’t have a lot of time on your hands, this recipe is perfect. The icing takes 2 minutes to make and the cake itself uses a few basic ingredients that you most likely have at home already. 

This vanilla sprinkle cake is the classic British traybake. It's light and moist with a loosely textured crumb. I can promise you everyone will love it. 

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Ingredients you will need:

Butter/ Baking spread- I use baking spread because it comes to room temperature much faster than butter. It’s super important to use room-temperature ingredients because they will blend a whole lot better. For example, if the butter is too cold, it won’t cream properly with the sugar, which can impact the fluffiness and rise of your cakes.

Sugar- I use caster sugar because the grain size is much finer in comparison to granulated sugar. Caster sugar also dissolves and incorporates more quickly when creamed together with the butter.

Eggs- For most of my recipes I use UK large eggs. It’s super important that your eggs are at room temperature otherwise they won’t blend well with the rest of the batter, causing an uneven rise when baked.

Vanilla- You can use either extract or paste in this recipe. For the cake, I used vanilla extract.

Raising Agent- To help the cakes rise further I use a teaspoon of baking powder. Baking powder already contains acid which means it will activate when mixed with liquids. Don’t use bicarbonate of soda

Flour- I use self-raising because it will ensure the cake rises well.

Milk- I add a small amount to loosen the batter and make the cake extra soft and fluffy.

How to Make the Vanilla Traybake:

To make the cake batter, mix the baking spread and caster sugar, until light and fluffy. Then whisk in eggs and vanilla extract.

Add the milk and self-raising flour, and gently whisk or fold in. Spread the mixture out into the tin.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes or until a thin skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool fully. For the buttercream, mix softened butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk together.

Accurate Baking:

Weighing ingredients accurately is an important part of baking. So always use scales rather than guessing quantities by eye. The best scales to use are electric scales, as they are the most accurate. 

The principle behind a good cake sponge is that the batter contains equal weights of butter, sugar, eggs and flour. So if you want to increase or decrease the amount of batter measure out the eggs first and then measure out identical quantities of butter, sugar and flour. Large eggs weigh between 55 and 65g each.

Sieve your flour… in the beginning, I didn’t see the point of sifting the flour unless there were clumps. However, it turns out that sifting your flour helps aerate it, which makes mixing it into the batter a lot easier and quicker. Over-mixing the flour can result in a slightly denser cake, so be careful not to over-mix.

Tips and Tricks:

Use room-temperature eggs: Make sure your eggs are at room temperature before you start baking. This will help everything blend well. If you forgot to take your eggs out of the fridge beforehand, fill a bowl with warm water (not hot or boiling water) and just leave the eggs to soak for around 10-15 minutes.

Don’t over-mix the cake batter: After adding the flour it's important to not over-mix the batter. Mix on a low speed or use a spatula and just mix enough to combine. Over-mixing can cause your cake to turn out dense. 

Bake time: This is important…although I provide a bake time in most of my recipes, I would recommend using it as a guide as some ovens run hotter than others. 

Opening the oven door: Keep an eye on the cake but, don’t open the oven door when the cake is still rising. If you open the oven door too early the cake will sink in the centre and the temperature in the oven will drop, causing a slightly dry crumb texture.

Decorating:

Decorating for this cake is pretty simple, but also fun!

To make the icing start by weighing out and sifting any lumps in the icing sugar. Then using a tablespoon gradually add a few spoons of water at a time. Then give the icing a mix and continue to add more water until you reach the perfect consistency.

You want the icing to easily pour and spread over the cake. If it's too thick the cake might pull crumbs into the icing when you spread it out, but if the icing is too thin it will slip straight off the sides of the cake.

Once you have reached a good consistency pour it over the cake, then use an offset spatula to spread it out evenly. 

Before the icing starts to set sprinkle over some sprinkles of your choice. I used the ‘Expensive Sprinkles’ from Bake Away because they are super bright and colourful.

After decorating, allow the icing to set completely before slicing it. Otherwise, it could get a little messy.

If you liked this recipe you might also like…

Victoria Sponge Cupcake Recipe

Don’t forget to take photos and tag me @sabsbakes if you do try this recipe, I would love to see your creations. 

Also if you have any questions or need help with baking feel free to message me on Instagram or TikTok @sabsbakes and I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible.

Happy Baking,

Sabs