Yesterday was my husband Sammy’s birthday and I wanted to make him an absolutely dynamite cake. Recently Richard admired one in Food Network Magazine that looked like a cheeseburger. I guess it was cute enough, but come on, cake mix, pudding mix, and my least favorite thing, fondant icing. No, I wanted a yellow cake, not freakishly yellow like some cake mixes, with a nice crumbly moist texture instead of something that looked like a sponge.
Don’t get me wrong, cake mixes are a fabulous time saver and can be quite good. I highly recommend them for the novice cook. I do prefer the mixes where you add eggs, milk, and oil rather than the just add water variety. But even for the novice cook, a cake made from scratch can be quite a treat and not so difficult. Let someone else provide the meal, or go out to dinner and come home for cake, or just have cake for dinner!
You’ll use 2 bowls and an electric mixer, which is just one more bowl than you would need if you made the cake from a mix. See, already it’s easy.
The recipe I used had butter, a flavor plus, and buttermilk for a little tang. It makes two 9 inch round cakes or one single layer 9 x 13 inch sheet cake. I can’t really approve of a sheet cake for a birthday, not enough icing.
Ingredients
4 c flour (I think the original recipe called for cake flour, oh well)
2 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 c sugar
2 sticks softened butter (doing that in the microwave)
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
2 c buttermilk
Directions
In one bowl mix up the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a mixing bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy and then add eggs one at a time beating after each addition. At low speed, add the buttermilk, it will look kind of lumpy.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray two cake pans with baking spray or butter and flour them if you’d rather.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in two batches so it doesn’t make a big mess. Divide batter between the two prepared pans. Rap them on the counter a few times to get rid of air bubbles. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes till golden brown. Cool in pans for 10 minutes then invert to a rack and cool for an hour before frosting.
Easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Ingredients
8 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
6 c confectioners sugar
2 sticks butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
8 Tbsp milk
½ tsp salt
Directions
Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Let cool to room temperature.
Combine remaining ingredients in mixer and add cooled chocolate. Add more milk if necessary for consistency.
Ice your cake and viola!
We had coffee ice cream with ours. Perfect with cake! In fact it was a perfect birthday.
There’s another cake recipe I want to get my hands on for my birthday. (No, I don’t mind making my own cake; I get to lick the bowl.) I have a delightful friend who is the mayor of a small, wealthy, metropolis, only a few miles away. I hear she is a benevolent ruler, but I think that’s in part because her husband makes, hands down, the best chocolate cake I’ve ever tasted. Anyone have connections
