A Southern Grace: Vanilla Bean Butter Cake

Vanilla Bean Butter Cake

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Makes one 8-inch round or square cake
Ingredients:

  • 1 cup granulated sugar, plus extra for dusting the pan
  • 3 vanilla bean pods, scraped clean
  • 3 eggs, warmed slightly
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup flour
  • 10 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
  • 4 tablespoons coconut oil, melted and cooled
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round or square pan and dust it with granulated sugar. Set aside.
If your eggs are cold, place them in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes. As the recipe creator explains, having your eggs warmed will help with the next step of beating lots of air into them!
In a stand mixer (or large bowl with hand-held electric mixer, if you're a)a glutton for punishment, b)in need of an arm workout, or c)NOT the proud owner of a stand mixer), beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla beans for 4 to 5 minutes. The mixture should be pale and almost doubled in size. When you lift up your beater, the mixture should fall in thick ribbons.
Add the vanilla extract and salt and mix gently.
Sift the flour over the egg mixture.
Using a spatula, gently fold the flour into the batter until no streaks remain. You want to be careful not to deflate all that air you just spent time beating into the eggs and sugar.
Add the melted butter and coconut oil to the batter and fold gently but thoroughly using a spatula until the batter is well-mixed.
Pour the batter into your prepared pan and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the cake starts to pull away from the sides. It will puff up in the oven, but will deflate a bit once you take it out, which is fine.
Run a knife around the edges of the pan and let the cake cool for 5 minutes. Turn it out into a wire rack to finish cooling if desired (I left mine in the pan).

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