"To Everything There is a Season and a Time"...to make cake!

Lets talk about cake. Cake is that one dessert you can have at any time during the year.
Spring? Check.
Summer? Check.
Fall? Check.
Winter? Check.
It's never to "cold" or "hot" to devour a piece of this sweet delicacy we lovingly call cake. Halloween parties, Christmas, Thanksgiving, Office parties, Birthdays, Bar Mitzvahs, even Groundhog's Day. Because if you're like me and ol' Phil sees his shadow, you succumb to a state of severe depression and would make yourself happy by eating about 10 of those cupcakes. See, cake just makes everything better.
So when I was asked this week to make a cake for a baptism, I was more than happy to.

This is my friend, Ali. Ali decided to get baptized. :)
She was dunked in the fountain on campus.



Her dad surprised her.




It was beautiful.


Congrats, Ali. Now have a piece of cake!


This cake is super moist and a better choice than a boxed mix (though I love me some boxed cake mix.) The buttercream is also good, a little too sweet for my taste, but still delicious.

Plain or 1,2,3,4 Cake

Adapted from New Southern Baking

Makes three 9-inch round layers or two 9-inch square layers

8 ounces (1 cup or 2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
14 ounces (about 3 light cups) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Butter and flour the cake pans. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and gradually beat in sugar until mixture is light and lemon-colored. Beat in eggs one at a time.

In a separate bowl, sift or whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Add vanilla to milk. Beat the flour and milk/vanilla mixture, alternating, in four additions, into the batter, beating well between each one.

Divide the batter equally among the pans. Bake for 25 minutes, or until the tops are lightly colored and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove the pans to wire racks and let the cake cool completely before taking them out of the pan and decorating them.


Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

From The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook

Makes enough to frost an 8-inch, two-layered cake

4 cups powdered sugar, sifted

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 tablespoons whole milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat the powdered sugar and butter together in an electric mixer fit with a paddle attachment on medium low speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Turn the mixer speed to low. Combine the milk and the vanilla extract and slowly stream it into the butter and sugar mixture. Once incorporated, turn the mixer to high and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes. If you find that your frosting is getting to warm in the summer months, stop beating and set in the fridge for a few minutes. Once chilled, hook the frosting back up the the mixer and beat once more until you reach the desired consistency.