Hi CC'ers

So I decided to go in search of the ever-elusive perfect white scratch cake recipe and ran my first experiment today. However, although I am happy with the results I am wondering why (although all of my ingredients were white in colour) my cake doesn't look snow white.

i am not too technical / scientific when it comes to baking but I am missing something here? Here is the recipe that I used:

8 ounces shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
8 egg whites
2 tsps clear butter flavouring
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream
4 tbsps mayonnaise

I added the mayonnaise at the last minute because, based on what I read, some people mentioned that their shortening-based cakes lacked moisture.

I am happy with the way the cake turned out and tasted just not happy with the colour, I wanted a stark white cake. Do you think that simply adding some Americolor Brite White would help with the colour issue?

Stacey

How white does this cake need to be?

Your mayo, AP flour, and possibly the sour cream are not pure white. I have Pillsbury AP flour in the pantry which is off-white. The mayo we use is also very off white, as it's made with eggs (most mayo is egg-based).

Is there no vanilla in this recipe?

You could try adding the whitener or use a pin prick of violet gel color to see if that will cancel out the yellow.

Hi

I was hoping for a really white cake but maybe that is not possible with the ingredients that I used. I didn't use any vanilla just the clear butter flavouring.

i'll try either the Americolor Bright White or using the violet colour and see how it turns out. My guess is that if I use the violet colour technique I could as well use my vanilla cake recipe (using butter, whole eggs and vanilla) instead of using the above recipe.

I have never tried the violet in cake batter, but I have used it to brighten up buttercream.

Good luck!