Cooking-ez.com

1,536 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 78 videos

Plain cake

Plain cake
This is a classic, loaf-shaped cake, deliberately left plain for you to embellish as you choose.
94 K 3.5/5 (19 reviews)
Grade this recipe:
duree1 hour 30 min. difficultéEasy prix2.10 € pour combien1 cake ingredients6 Ingredients
Keywords:
Last modified on: December 30th 2019
For this recipe: Comment Send to a friend Ask me a question Follow Printable Diaporama Video
For 1 cake, you will need:
Change these quantities to make:
Change measures:
Times for this recipe
Preparation: 25 min.
Resting: 30 min.
Cooking: 35 min.
All in all: 1 hour 30 min.
When should you start or finish this recipe?
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe

Stage 1 - ⌛ 4 min.
Plain cake : Stage 1

Allow ingredients to come to room temperature


Take the butter out of the fridge at least 1 hour beforehand.

Break the eggs then weigh 125 g butter carefully; this is important for the rest of the recipe. Put into a bowl and leave at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
Stage 2 - ⌛ 3 min.
Plain cake : Stage 2

Make the cake batter


Put into a food-mixer bowl: 125 g butter (cut into small pieces), 110 g caster sugar and 15 g vanilla sugar.
Stage 3 - ⌛ 5 min.
Plain cake : Stage 3
Start beating and mix the sugar and butter thoroughly.
Stage 4 - ⌛ 3 min.
Plain cake : Stage 4
Add the eggs one at a time...
Stage 5 - ⌛ 2 min.
Plain cake : Stage 5
...and beat until the mixture is smooth.

Important: If the mixture begins to curdle, stop beating and plunge the bowl into a pan of hot water, beating with a hand whisk until the mixture homogenizes (normally about 1 minute).
Stage 6 - ⌛ 2 min.
Plain cake : Stage 6
Sieve 160 g flour and 10 g baking powder together.
Stage 7 - ⌛ 30 min.
Plain cake : Stage 7
Mix into the batter with whisk.

Refrigerate the batter for 30 minutes.
Stage 8 - ⌛ 2 min.
Plain cake : Stage 8

Bake the cake


Preheat the oven to 390°F (200°C).

Pour the batter into the mould or tin.

Note: As always with cakes, if you want a nice opening on top when baking, try this very effective trick.
Stage 9 - ⌛ 35 min.
Plain cake : Stage 9
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Test the centre of the cake to check that it is cooked .
Remarks
If you want to include dry fruit, chocolate chips, etc., add these at stage 6, mixed with the flour.
Keeping: Several days.
Source: Based on recipe by Gaston Lenôtre.
Nutritional information
Proteins (gr)Carbohydrates (gr)Fats (gr)Energy value (in k-calories)Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe30 RDI=10 %310 RDI=30 %120 RDI=20 %2,220 RDI=110 %9,290 RDI: 110 %
Per 100 g5 RDI=2 %50 RDI=5 %20 RDI=3 %390 RDI=20 %1,630 RDI: 20 %
The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman
Possible allergens in this recipe: egg, milk, Gluten
How much will it cost?
  • For 1 cake : 2.10 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
This recipe uses (among others)
Flour
Flour

Like these other recipes: Muffin dough, Hollandaise sauce, Pistachio shortbread biscuits, Grandma Solange's biscuits, Cramique, ... See them all 207

Egg
Egg

Like these other recipes: Pear and strawberry verrine with tiramisu cream, Hamburger buns, Eggs in tomato shells, Saint-Lô cake, Italian toast, ... See them all 246

Butter
Butter

Like these other recipes: Choux pastry (pâte à choux), Salad greens and small omelette, Creamy polenta with green asparagus, Smoky potato and potimarron gratin, Marchand de vin sauce, ... See them all 483

Caster sugar
Caster sugar

Like these other recipes: Sandwich bread, Little chocolate and hazelnut fondants, Apricot jam with vanilla, Household cake (Gâteau de ménage), Macaronade mixture, ... See them all 366

Other recipes you may also like
Exotic fruit tart
Exotic fruit tart
An exotic fruit tart (bananas, kiwi and pineapple), with crisp pastry and almond cream which are cooked beforehand. It's a rather simple recipe, but the final result will impress your guests.
May 27th 2020337 K5 2 hours 25 min.
Brioche dough
Brioche dough
It's a soft and rich dough, with butter and eggs which give a smooth and incredibly tasty brioche. This is the basic recipe for brioche dough, used for all other brioche-based recipes on the site.
September 16th 2020547 K 44.2 14 hours 30 min.
Herb olive oil
Herb olive oil
This flavoured olive oil, easy to prepare, goes very well with Mediterranean cuisine: pizzas, pastas, pan bagnat, etc...
February 21th 2011326 K3.8 25 min.
Chocolate sauce
Chocolate sauce
This rich smooth chocolate sauce, with its full flavour, is one of the indispensable ingredients of profiteroles, but it can be used with many others desserts.
February 21th 2011322 K 24 35 min.
Coconut paste
Coconut paste
Similar to marzipan or walnut paste, coconut paste can be used in a variety of cake or sweet recipes, but you can enjoy munching it just as it is.
October 13th 2010308 K 14.2 15 min.
News list of cooking-ez.com

Sign up to receive the latest recipes (next batch due to be sent on 2025-12-14)

*Your e-mail Your first name or nickname
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing

Follow this recipe
If you are interested in this recipe, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the recipe is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page