White cake with white chocolate buttercream - Dan's birthday cake

Since Lan asked me (oh so nicely, I might add, heh) to share the recipe I used for Dan's birthday cake last year, I decided to post it up for her. I don't think I've ever posted a recipe on this blog before, but there's a first for everything! And, well, because I baked this a year ago, I don't remember everything I did, so please forgive me if I'm missing something.

I got the recipe from Epicurious; at the time, I was still a noob to cake baking (Still am, HOLLAAA. Not really...), I searched around for a cake that had white chocolate in it (Dan's favorite kind of chocolate) and found this recipe. The original recipe is actually a white chocolate layer cake with apricot filling and a white chocolate buttercream, but I was afraid all that white chocolate might have been too much, so I cut it out of the cake, and took out the apricot filling (I was NOT feeling very ambitious. I had a lot of other things to cook that day AND I didn't know if Dan liked apricots, though I'm pretty sure he's allergic to them... Mm, good thing I didn't make it, haha. That wouldn't have been good. "Happy birthday! Here's death on a plate!") and threw in some strawberries and mandarin oranges for decoration.

Despite my modifications (more like wimp-ifications!), the cake came out nicely and everyone said it was scrumptious. I don't really remember what it tasted like. I only had one bite; had to make sure everyone else got a piece. But like I said, everyone else said it was good, so that was (and still is) good enough for me!

So, here's the recipe. I pretty much just copy-pasted the entire thing from epicurious. I didn't really digress from the original one (except for the aforementioned changes) because ... well, I was a noob. Why fix it if it ain't broke?

Cake
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups whole milk

Buttercream
1 1/4 pounds imported (what is this imported business?! Can't afford imported on a college student budget) white chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli)
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans with 2-inch-high sides (Actually, I used 2 springform pans; 9-inch and 4-inch. So..my cake was a little uneven. Ehhh.). Sift flour, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk in 3 additions, blending well after each addition.

Divide batter equally between pans, smoothing tops with spatula. Bake cakes until tester inserted into centers comes out clean, about 30 minutes (I baked the two pans separately... since I used different sized pans -___-;;). Cool cakes in pans on racks 20 minutes (cakes will fall). Run small sharp knife around cake pan sides. Turn cakes out onto cardboard round or tart pan bottom. Turn cakes right side up onto racks and cool completely.

For buttercream:
Stir white chocolate in top of double boiler over barely simmering water until melted and smooth. Remove white chocolate from over water. Let stand until cool but not set, about 20 minutes. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in white chocolate and vanilla, scraping down sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in powdered sugar. Cover and refrigerate until thick enough to spread, about 45 minutes (frosting will be very soft).

Enjoy! :)