Best Vanilla Cake with French Macarons and Meringues
The BEST Vanilla Cake and Vanilla Frosting recipes you can find. Make and decorate this pale green cake with French Macarons, Meringues, and Gold Leaf! Recipe via Brita Larson, Baking is a Science Blog. This recipe makes one 9-inch cake layer.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: Makes one 9-inch layer cake. 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Scale
Vanilla Cake Ingredients:
- 1 1/4 cups (150 g) cake flour
- 1 cup (199 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1/4 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Vanilla Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted, add more until to desired thickness
- 2-4 Tablespoons whole milk or heavy whipping cream
Green Tea Buttercream:
- Triple batch of this recipe
For decorating:
- Green Tea French Macarons
- Edible Gold Leaf (expensive, but you’ll need less than a sheet for this cake)
- Meringues
Special Equipment:
Instructions
Make the vanilla cake (triple this recipe to make the 8-inch cake in the photos):
- Preheat oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch round cake pan with shortening. Line with a parchment paper round.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside. In a second bowl, whisk together the Greek yogurt, milk, and vanilla.
- Add the melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix on low until incorporated. It should look like small white peas. Add each egg one at a time.
- Add the liquid mixture and mix on low until incorporated. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix for another minute. Do not over mix!
- Pour into prepared cake pan.
- Bake for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Make the Vanilla Frosting (double the recipe for a four-layer cake):
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter until pale and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Mix in milk. Cream until fluffy and add more powdered sugar to get desired consistency.
To Assemble:
- Level cakes and stack, alternating cake layers with vanilla buttercream. Use an offset spatula to level.
- Use green tea buttercream to do a crumb coat. Chill cake in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
- Coat the cake with a layer of green tea buttercream. Use remaining green tea buttercream to ‘glue’ macarons and meringues to the cake in a cascading pattern. Fill in the gaps by piping buttercream stars intermittently. Use a tweezers to gently lay pieces of edible gold leaf on the cake to finish.
Notes
This recipe is for one 9-inch layer cake. To get enough batter to make the 8-inch layer cake you see in these photos, you’ll have to triple the recipe. Also double the vanilla buttercream recipe.