Butter Cake

Recipe from Gracious Treatz

Ingredients: 

250g (1 cup) unsalted butter 
200g (1 cup) castor sugar
5 eggs 
230g (1¾cups) self raising flour*
50g (⅓ cup) milk
1 tsp vanilla extract 

*You can substitute this with cake flour or all purpose flour and add ½ tsp baking powder

Instructions: 

1. Preheat over at 320°F / 160°C.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder. Set aside.
3. In the mixing bowl, add in the butter and sugar. Mix it on low speed for 2 minutes until the sugar disappear. Then increase to medium speed and mix for 15 minutes. One of the keys to this butter cake, these 2 ingredients must be mixed well. Continue mixing until the butter is white, light and fluffy. You will see that in about 15 minutes.
4. Add in the eggs, one by one. Mix until the yellow eggs disappear.
5. Add in the sifted dry ingredients spoon by spoon. This is another key to make good butter cake.
6. Add the milk and vanilla extract. Continue mixing for another 3-5 minutes.
7. Pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake at 350°F / 160°C for 55-60 minutes.
8. Test the cake using the toothpick.
9. Cool the cake on the cooling rack for about 15 minutes. Once it is cooled, you may cut and serve the cake. 

*Note: Feel free to use a hand mixer, if you don't not have a large mixer. 

Frequently Asked Questions : 
Why do I need to mix the butter for so long?

Butter is a very heavy content, and you know this is a butter cake. It's like the main character in this recipe. If you don't mix it long enough, it will become clumpy and that's why your cake will sink. If only you are baking a regular sponge cake which doesn't consume much butter, you don't actually have to mix so long. However, they normally rely on a lot of air leven ingredients, b soda & b powder. This cake on the other hand doesn't quite rely so much, only 1/2 tsp of b powder, that's it. So the mixing of the butter and sugar is the key, which will eventually make the cake rise and soft and light.