Ingredients
- 4 Large Eggs at room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups Granulated or Castor Sugar
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- 8 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 1/2 cups Cake Flour
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In the bowl of your Kitchen Aid mixer whip the room temperature eggs on high speed with the whip attachment until foamy, then gradually start adding in your sugar very slowly.
The eggs will take about 5–7 minutes to reach the ribbon stage, so in the meantime you can heat your milk and butter together in the microwave or on the stove top and reserve to keep warm- you will want to add this to the mixture as described in the liaison while it is still warm/hot.
Also have your flour and baking powder and salt sifted together to aerate and lighten.
The ribbon stage is a stage where the egg/sugar mixture is very light in color, very thick and when lift your whip attachment and the batter runs back into the bowl it makes a ribbon effect before disappearing back into the mixture. You can also do a “figure 8″ pattern with the mixture and if it stays visible for a few seconds before disappearing you know you have achieved ribbon stage.
At this point add in all of the dry ingredients at once with the mixer OFF first and then on low speed mix in the dry mixture. You can gradually go up to a higher speed to make sure it is all incorporated evenly.
Next you will prepare a liaison with the hot milk and melted butter mixture. A liaison is a technique in which rather than dumping the liquids straight into the main batter causing deflating of this delicate foam we took such care to achieve; you will take out about 2 cups of the cake batter into a separate mixing bowl, and with a hand whisk add the hot liquids to THAT 2 cups of batter. Whisk it all together and then proceed to add this liaison to the original cake batter in the Kitchen Aid bowl. Add the vanilla extract last.
Divide the batter in half and add the cocoa powder to one half, then swirl the batters together in each pan before baking.
Bake this cake at 350 degrees F for about 25 minutes, then lower the temperature to 325 F to continue baking UNTIL IT’S DONE !
Yield 1 Bundt Cake or 2- 8″ layers