Testing Recipes: Vanilla Cake

Time flies really fast. Our little one is turning three soon. All she wants is a nice Barbie or Disney princess cake -- the one with a doll in the center and has edible cake and frosting for the dress. Since I am into a little baking for the past year, I would like to make this cake possible for her --- with my own two hands. It seems easy to make when you watch tutorials on Youtube. But from experience, I know it's a little challenging when you don't have molders, pans and a really go to recipe for the frosting, filling and cake. I only do very basic (not following exact recipe) cakes for no occasion snacks and dessert. Though those would be applicable for the Doll Cake, I still want this cake to be a little special since it's for my child's birthday. So I've been experimenting with some basic vanilla cake recipes and frostings. 

I'm posting the recipe here for reference.

Vanilla Cake:

A) flour mixture

1 cup flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

----mix and sift before mixing to other ingredients

B) Egg yolk mixture

3 egg yolks, whisked

1/4-1/3 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

--- mix together using electric beater

C) 1/2 cup milk

D) Egg white mixture

3 egg whites

1/4-1/3 cups sugar

--- beat until peaks form

Pour A and C alternately on B. Mix /Beat until well blended. Fold in D to the ABC mixture.

Bake at 180degrees C for 30-40 mins.

The cake was okay, maybe needs a little more vanilla and sift the flour ( I ALWAYS skip this part) to make it fluffier. But I think this is good enough for what I need since it looks like it can hold a heavy (frosting) dress and can keep the doll in the center without falling off and out of the cake. However when I tasted this right after it came out of the oven, it tasted a little "egg-ish". That's why I decided to make Caramel sauce to cover that quite unpleasant taste.

*After resting the cake for a while, there was no more "egg-ish" taste anymore. So the cake can do with or without the sauce

Caramel Sauce:

2 Tbsp sugar

--- caramelize over low-medium heat

then add

1/2 cup cream

---mix till well blended and reached desired consistency

then remove from heat and  add

2 Tbsp butter

--- mix well

Pour over cake.

The cake and caramel sauce tasted good together. I'm now considering using the caramel sauce for filling and maybe for crumb coating  the doll cake instead of buttercream. But I found this Battle of the Buttercream of Nila from the The Tough Cookie. Now, I am tempted to try and experiment again. 

 I am sabotaging my own diet with testing these recipes.