Vanilla Funfetti Cake

In South Africa we call funfetti vermicelli, but somehow it just doesn't sound as exciting. Cutting into this cake to see a beautiful vanilla cake with bright spots of colour is better described  much better by funfetti than vermicelli! Since I first saw this cake I thought it would be a great treat one day when the niece and nephew came over. Last weekend we had some of the family over, complete with nieces and nephews. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring some funfetti to Joburg.

The cake is from Sally's Baking Addiction, although I adapted the recipe slightly to accommodate the local ingredients and use weight instead of cup measures. I prefer working with weight in baking: you don't need to worry how tightly packed things are in the cup or that if you scoop the ingredients instead of spooning them into the measures it may ruin your cake and your day.

Please excuse the sloppy icing. The finishing touches were added as everyone walked through the door.

Vanilla Funfetti Cake

213g all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

151g sugar

50g light brown sugar

113g butter (melted)

1 large egg

1/4 cup yoghurt

3/4 cup milk

1 tbsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup sprinkles (I used vermicelli)

1. Preheat the oven to 180⁰C and grease a 23cm springform pan with either cooking spray or butter.
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. Vigorously whisk the sugars into the melted butter, making sure there are no sugar lumps.
4. Whisk in egg, yoghurt, milk and vanilla extract until combined.
5. Slowly add in the dry ingredients until no lumps remain and batter is thick.
6. Fold the sprinkles into the batter. Do not overmix as sprinkles will bleed.
7. Pour batter into prepared cake pan.
8. Bake for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminium foil and bake for a further 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
9. Allow cake to cool for about 15 minutes in the tin before removing. Allow cake to cool completely before icing.

Creamy Vanilla Buttercream

227g butter (at room temperature)

512g icing sugar

250ml heavy cream (I used Woolworths Ayrshire Double Thick Cream)

2 and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Buttercream is always a bit of an experiment. When adding in the icing sugar, do so bit by bit until you reach a consistency you are happy with. If you use another (more liquid) cream, it is possible you will use less cream or more icing sugar.

1. Beat the butter on medium for about 3 minutes until smooth and creamy.
2. Add in the cream, vanilla extract and then powdered sugar in batches, until you are happy with the consistency

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