White Spice Cake

I love spice cake that is mostly about a bit of cocoa and cinnamon, and not so much about ginger and cloves. That's what this is. Everyone always loves it. Also, if you keep the basics stable, you can change around the flavorings and spices however you like. I recommend combining it with my white cinnamon frosting.

Ingredients

¼ c milk
4 egg whites
½ t almond extr
¾ t vanilla extr
2 c sifted cake flour
1 c sugar
1 t bkg powder
½ t salt
½ t cinnamon
1.5 t cocoa
16 T unsalted butter, softened

8 inch round

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Prepare an 8-inch round pan, greased and floured, lined with parchment or wax paper, then greased and floured again. It might seem repetitive, but you really should do this if you want to get the thing out of the pan later.

2. Lightly combine milk, egg whites and extracts (in a bowl other than your main mixing bowl).

3. In the mixing bowl, combine dry ingedients and mix on low for 30 seconds.

4. Add butter and ½ of egg mixture. Mix on low speed until moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat for 1 minute to aerate, etc. scrape down sides.

5. Gradually add remaining egg mixture in 2 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down sides. Of course I'm not the boss of you, but you really should do the beating this way, in the three stages. It will make a much better cake.

6. Scrape batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface with a spatula. Bake 45 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cake should spring back when touched lightly in the center. Depending on pan (glass, dark steel, light steel, etc) and oven (gas, electric, well-insulated, ancient), this could take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes. I set a time for 30 and then judge from there. It usually takes 40-45 minutes.