Making My First Vanilla Butter Naked Wedding Cake - Help!

Baking By JoJo4 Updated 27 Aug 2016 , 5:13pm by kakeladi

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JoJo4 Posted 26 Aug 2016 , 6:37pm
post #1 of 14

Hi all,

This is actually my very first wedding cake as I have refused up until now to make one. I figured a naked cake was an "easy" cake cuz I didn't have to smooth and have nice edges and decorate etc! Welllll it's not appearing to be quite that easy. I have done a lot of research on how to make it not dry out etc. So I'm feeling good about that. 

The bride of course chose a flavor/type of cake that I have never done before. She wants a Vanilla Butter cake. All the recipes that I find are done in a bundt pan. I'm assuming I can bake in any pan yes? Anyone have any advice about a vanilla butter cake? She wants a plain white buttercream in between the layers - seems kind of plain to me so I suggested some type of jam between some of the layers. 

Anyway, if anyone has any advice on 1) a good recipe for a vanilla butter cake (there is only one listed in the recipes on this site and 2) doing a naked cake, it would be greatly appreciates. Thanks all!

Joanne

13 replies
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kakeladi Posted 26 Aug 2016 , 9:15pm
post #2 of 14

I have never made a cake using an actual recipe for vanilla butter cake.   If I had to I'd use a favorite white cake recipe replacing the oil called for w/melted butter and probably add some butter flavoring along w/a generous amount of vanilla (like 1 or even 2 Tablespoons).  I have found using a bundt recipe makes a somewhat denser cake but that might be exactly what this bride wants.  Also it bakes best in smaller sizes - any size over 12" could pose problems baking completely in the center.  

As for naked cake just use your b'cream as if a crumb coat - it's that simple.   The thinner the coating of b'cream thebetter.

As far as the bride's request for such a 'plain' cake.....I had a customer who always ordered white cake w/bavarian creme - drove me nuts as there was sooooo much more one could choose from but she loved, Loved LOVED that combination and no matter what else I suggested she would say no :)  Don't get me wrong I like white cake and love bavarian creme but not necessarily together :)    Hope that helps you.

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-K8memphis Posted 26 Aug 2016 , 9:35pm
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idk -- like kakeladi I've never specifically made a cake called vanilla butter cakes -- but yeah it sounds very bundt-y 

when i looked it up i found a box mix cake so disregard that if you're doing scratch but check out this sauce to soak into one  -- and I think I would brown the butter just a little -- ooh that sounds good

https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/vanilla-butter-cake/7c7843f3-532b-4196-96db-b7b6911a71ce

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bubs1stbirthday Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 4:24am
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This recipe is actually a lemon yoghurt cake and uses a mix of oil and butter but I regularly leave out the lemon and add vanilla extract with no noticeable change to the texture. I use a 'naturally sweet' vanilla Greek yoghurt and it a delicious cake. Might be worth a trial for you. You could try with a bit more butter/less oil etc.

325gm Caster Sugar : Rind of two small lemons : 1 - 2 tbspn lemon juice (when I make it as a lemon cake I add more like 3-4 tbspn) : 62.5gm butter, melted together with 100gm oil : 300gm S.R Flour : 260gm yoghurt (natural or flavoured - it's up to you) : 2 large eggs.

Mix rind, oil/butter , eggs and sugar in a bowl with a fork. Add lemon juice and stir. Add remaining ingredients and combine well.

Pour into greased/lined tins. Bake at 150*celcius until skewer inserted in middle of cake comes out clean.

When I bake the whole recipe in an 8 inch tin it takes 1 hour and gives me a 6cm high cake. If you split the recipe between two 8 inch tins you will get a slightly fluffier cake, adjust baking time accordingly.

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cakebaby2 Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 9:57am
post #5 of 14

Joanne, a naked cake is  just that "naked" they are NOT easy to someone who doesn't know how to bake a cake that is level and beautiful. There is no hiding mistakes behind b/cream , fondant and decorations. That's why bakers don't like them...they are the Little Black Dress of the cakeworld..no frills no fuss just pure class/skill. There are literally thousands of recipes on the internet for vanilla cakes, don't limit yourself to one site and make sure you nail the perfection of the appearance of the cake..because there is no hiding behind fluff on this one..(other than possibly some fruit and a few flowers?)

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-K8memphis Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 12:38pm
post #6 of 14

cakebaby said it -- remember i came into caking  from the 70's -- so when the original bare naked cakies came out that were flawlessly smooth iced cakes I vigorously hated those -- no where to run to no where to hide indeed -- now they're down to fully exposed cake butt nakedness -- next they'll be stripping it down to a few dowel and a couple boards hahahaha

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-K8memphis Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 12:40pm
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in which case I should get back into caking and we could use all the feathers and disco dust we wanted hahahahaha

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JoJo4 Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 2:47pm
post #8 of 14


Quote by @-K8memphis on 17 hours ago

idk -- like kakeladi I've never specifically made a cake called vanilla butter cakes -- but yeah it sounds very bundt-y 

when i looked it up i found a box mix cake so disregard that if you're doing scratch but check out this sauce to soak into one  -- and I think I would brown the butter just a little -- ooh that sounds good

https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/vanilla-butter-cake/7c7843f3-532b-4196-96db-b7b6911a71ce

I saw this recipe and it looks YUMMY! I'm sure that sauce makes the cake. 

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JoJo4 Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 2:49pm
post #9 of 14


Quote by @cakebaby2 on 4 hours ago

Joanne, a naked cake is  just that "naked" they are NOT easy to someone who doesn't know how to bake a cake that is level and beautiful. There is no hiding mistakes behind b/cream , fondant and decorations. That's why bakers don't like them...they are the Little Black Dress of the cakeworld..no frills no fuss just pure class/skill. There are literally thousands of recipes on the internet for vanilla cakes, don't limit yourself to one site and make sure you nail the perfection of the appearance of the cake..because there is no hiding behind fluff on this one..(other than possibly some fruit and a few flowers?)

I have realized it won't be easy but I'm up for the challenge. I CAN bake a cake that is level and beautiful so I'm not particularly worried. I'm more worried about the actual cake flavor now. IT's being decorated with a ton of fruit and a few flowers. 

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JoJo4 Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 2:50pm
post #10 of 14


Quote by @-K8memphis on 2 hours ago

cakebaby said it -- remember i came into caking  from the 70's -- so when the original bare naked cakies came out that were flawlessly smooth iced cakes I vigorously hated those -- no where to run to no where to hide indeed -- now they're down to fully exposed cake butt nakedness -- next they'll be stripping it down to a few dowel and a couple boards hahahaha

ha ha ha ha! 

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JoJo4 Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 2:51pm
post #11 of 14

Thank you all! It seems that I can probably achieve an easy vanilla butter cake by substituting butter for the oil and also using a butter sauce to soak the cake. I will be making a trial cake tomorrow. Fingers crossed. It's a 4 tier cake, with 3-4 layers per tier. Lots of cakes! I plan to make ahead and freeze. Fingers and toes crossed!

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-K8memphis Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 4:07pm
post #12 of 14

there's a peculiar thing about freezing/thawing/rewarming cakes made with butter -- but you have a great advantage here due to no icing involved -- toss a piece of your test cake in the freezer -- thaw completely at room temp and see if it doesn't stay firmer than the never chilled cake --  kinda scrapes down the back of your throat -- could be called 'dry' but it's just the butter which tightens up after getting cold --

but if you freeze your cakes without any icing you can gently very briefly microwave to restore the original soft texture

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Jinkies Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 4:18pm
post #13 of 14

Don't be afraid  to ask your client exactly what they mean when they order something you don't usually offer.  I just had someone request and odd flavor that is a family favorite and I asked her to give me the family recipe so I could get a grasp on what she wanted.  The recipe was a doctored mix so I adapted it to one of my scratch recipes and they loved it.

Better to ask then to make yourself crazy and risk you getting it wrong, then your client is unhappy.  

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kakeladi Posted 27 Aug 2016 , 5:13pm
post #14 of 14

jinkies is right......make sure you and the customer are on the same page.

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