Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2-1/4 cups sifted cake flour
- 1-1/2 cups sugar
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 4 egg whites
- Cooked Fudge
- 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13x9" pan and line bottom with waxed paper. Sift flour, sugar, and baking powder into a large mixer bowl. Add butter, salt, milk and vanilla. Beat on slow speed until blended. Then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl. Add unbeaten egg whites (yes, UNbeaten - that's the trick), and beat two minutes longer at medium speed.Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until cake is light golden brown and is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan. Cool completely.
Prepare Cooked Fudge, cooking to about 231 degrees F. This is a little less than soft ball stage, which means you'll need to beat the mixture longer when it cools, but that will also make it easier to handle. When the mixture is cool, beat until it starts to lose its gloss and thicken. Pour immediately over the cake. If the frosting gets hard too fast, add a teaspoon or so of heavy cream, then beat until smooth.
This is a complicated recipe; the fudge should only be attempted if you have some experience. You could top the cake with almost any fudge recipe if you'd like; try Easiest Fudge in the World, using a combination of milk chocolate chips and semisweet chocolate chips.
Please note: this batter is thick, not like a typical pourable cake batter. Because it is thick, you have to be careful measuring the flour. If you measure the flour incorrectly, by scooping it out of the container with the measuring cup, the cake will be dry. ALWAYS measure flour by spooning the flour into the measuring cup and leveling it off with the back of a knife.
