Egg Yolk Vanilla Sheet Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Icing

Active time: 30 minutes | Bake time: about 26 minutes

My inspiration for this cake was actually the fact that I had a bunch of egg yolks leftover in my fridge after making French Macarons. Macarons are made with only the whites, and I like to save my yolks; I hate to waste food! The yolks produce a perfect yellow cake which pairs beautifully with this light and fluffy icing.

I actually used this cake recipe to make adorable “mini cakes”; I used a cookie cutter to cut shapes out of my cooled sheet cake. I then sliced down the center to make two thin pieces, so that I ended up with tiny 2-layer cakes. I then iced in between the layers and the tops to create these easy and fancy mini layer cakes that are sure to impress! Since I didn’t want to waste the scraps of cake, I even made mini trifles with the cake scraps, extra icing, and chocolate ganache, so you really get two different desserts out of one project.

Ingredients:

For the Cake:

• 226g (1 cup / 2 sticks / 16 tbsp) butter, softened

• 267g (1 ⅓ cups) granulated sugar

• 5 egg yolks

  • Save the whites! You can make meringue frosting with them, meringue cookies, macarons, etc.

• 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (or high quality vanilla extract)

• 286g (2 ½ cups) cake flour

• ¾ tsp salt

• 1 ½ tsp baking powder

• ½ tsp baking soda

• 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature

For the Icing:

• 16 ounces (2 blocks) cream cheese, softened to room temperature

• 240g (2 cups) powdered sugar

• 1 ½ cup heavy whipping cream, cold

• 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)

• ⅛ tsp salt

• Food coloring, optional

Directions:

1. For the Cake: Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl with a spatula or an electric mixer with a paddle attachment, cream the butter until creamy and smooth. Add the sugar and cream the butter with the sugar until well combined (about 3 minutes).

3. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla until incorporated. The mixture may look curdled at this point.

4. Fold in the cake flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda until just combined, do not overmix.

5. Pour in the buttermilk and mix until just combined and the batter is smooth and thick. If you are using an electric mixer, pour in the buttermilk while mixing on low speed.

6. Pour your batter into your prepared cake pan and bake for 24-28 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean, or with a few crumbs on it. If there is liquid cake batter on the toothpick, bake for another 1-2 minutes, then check again.

7. Allow the cake to cool in the pan completely, once cooled, use opposite corners of the parchment paper to carefully lift the cake out of the pan and transfer to a cooling rack (though, if desired, you can just keep the cake in the pan instead). Allow the cake to cool completely before icing.

8. For the Icing: Fit the bowl of your electric mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk heavy cream on medium-high speed until it has become whipped cream (??? minutes).

9. Transfer the whipped cream to a small bowl. Keeping the whisk attachment in place, whisk the cream cheese until light and smooth.

10. Add powdered sugar and beat on low speed until mostly incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

11. Add salt, vanilla, and food coloring if using. Beat on medium speed until all ingredients are fully incorporated.

12. Add whipped cream to cream cheese mixture and use a spatula to gently fold whipped cream in with cream cheese until thoroughly combined.

    1. At this point, if icing is too thin, add an additional 1-2 tbsp powdered sugar, mix well and re-evaluate.

    2. If icing is too thick, add 1-2 tbsp heavy cream, mix well and re-evaluate.

13. Transfer icing to a piping bag to pipe onto cooled cake or cupcakes. You could alternatively use a butter knife to spread the icing, or even an ice cream or cookie scoop to scoop it onto cake or cupcakes.