Eggless Simple Vanilla Cake

My neighbour had asked for a birthday cake for her son. As he didn't want to celebrate his b'day, she wanted to decorate the cake with a simple design without any letterings. So I decided to do a mehandi designed cake. I got a piece of the cake and it was very tasty. I think the designing was also nice. As mentioned earlier, I am giving the steps included in the decoration of this cake. Sorry for the lengthy post. Hope you enjoy it. Sending this to Akila's Dish Name Starts With E

Ingredients:

For the cake:
Flour-250gm
Butter-100gm
Condensed Milk-400gm / 1 tin
Baking powder-2tsp
Soda-bi-carb-1tsp
Milk-1cup
Vanilla Extract-1tsp

For the frosting:
Simple Syrup:
Sugar-1cup
Water-1cup

Butter cream:
Butter-1cup
Icing Sugar-4cups
Milk-4tbs
Vanilla extract-1tsp

Procedure:
Cake:
1. Beat butter and condensed milk.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, soda 3 times.
3. Mix vanilla extract and milk.
4. Add milk and flour alternately to the butter mixture. Mix it slowly.
5. Grease 2 9" tins and dust with flour.
6. Pour the batter into the tins.
7. Preheat oven to 175C. Bake the cakes for 25 minutes or until a tooth pick comes out clean.
8. Remove from oven and let it cool for 5 minutes.
9. Invert on to the wire rack and allow it to cool completely before frosting.
Simple Syrup:
10. Mix sugar and water and bring it to a boil. Switch off stove and allow it to cool. This is the simple syrup.
11. With a serrated knife trim the cake to make the top even.
Butter Cream:
12. For the butter cream, beat butter until soft.
13. Add the icing sugar and slowly incorporate it into the butter.
14. When you have finished adding the sugar, add milk and vanilla extract.
15. Beat it for 5-7minutes. The more you beat, the smoother the butter cream will be.
Frosting and Decorating:
16. Take about 1/2cup of butter cream and add 2tbs milk to make the butter cream thinner.
17. Apply 2tbs thin butter cream on a plate and keep one trimmed cake on it. The butter cream acts as a glue and prevents cake falling from the plate.
18. Drizzle 4tbs simple syrup on the cake. This will make the cake moist.
19. Apply a layer of the thin butter cream on the cake with a spatula. Keep the other cake upside down on the frosting.
20. Now take the frosting with the back of a spoon and fill the gaps between the cakes.
21. When finished, the cakes should look like one cake.
22. With a spatula smoothen out the frosting. This is called as the crumb coat. Crumb coat should always be thin compared to the top frosting. This layer prevents the crumbs from mixing into the main frosting.
23. Allow it to dry for 30 minutes. When touched, the icing should not stick to your finger.
24. Take 1 cup of butter cream and add 2tbs milk and the required colour. Mix well.
25. With a spatula apply this generously on the cake covering it fully.
26. With a spatula Smoothen out the frosting and remove any excess frosting.
27. At this stage the frosting may be uneven. But don't worry.
28. Allow it to dry for another 30 minutes. Some prefer to refrigerate the cake at this point. But be patient. Air drying will give you the best results.
29. When the frosting is dry, take a plain tissue paper and keep it on the side. With a spatula smoothen it out. (refer photo tutorial)
30. After the sides are done concentrate on top. When you are satisfied with the smoothness, you can start decorating.
31. I used mehandi design for this cake. You can design it according to your wish.

Photo Tutorial: