Corn-Starch Cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup corn-starch
• 2 cups flour
• 4.5 tsp baking powder
• 5 egg whites
• 0.75 tsp vanilla extract
• 0.5 tsp almond extract

Method

This is a butter-cake built on the creaming method: the friction between butter and sugar incorporates air, which the egg whites stabilise to give you a crumb that's tender rather than dense. The corn-starch matters — it inhibits gluten development, so the flour's structure weakens and the cake stays delicate. This is deliberate.

Cream 225g butter and 400g caster sugar together for a full 5–7 minutes until the mixture is pale, fluffy, and noticeably lighter in volume. It should look like wet sand turning to mousse. This is where the lift comes from; don't rush it. Whisk the five egg whites to stiff peaks — they'll hold the air the creaming introduced and stabilise the batter against weeping. Sift 250g plain flour with 250g corn-starch and 22.5g baking powder three times; corn-starch lumps will wreck your texture.

Fold the dry ingredients and 240ml dairy (whole milk works best) into the creamed butter alternately, starting and ending with the dry mix. Three additions of each: this prevents the batter from breaking or splitting. The protein in the milk needs time to distribute evenly without overworking the gluten. Fold, don't stir. Gently fold the egg whites in two additions until no white streaks remain. Add 3.75ml vanilla extract and 2.5ml almond extract — the almond should whisper, not shout.

Divide the batter between two 450g loaf tins lined with baking parchment. Smooth the tops and bake at 170°C for 40–50 minutes. The cake's done when a fine skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean and the surface is a light golden brown, not dark. The top should spring back when pressed gently with your fingertip — there's some carryover rise, so don't overbake. A dense, gummy crumb means you either overworked the batter or the oven ran cool. Let the cakes cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. The corn-starch keeps the crumb open and absorbent; this cake rewards a light syrup soak if you're after something closer to the original Victorian style.