Best Birthday Cake Ever: Part 2

Well, I can now say that I really made it.  That is, made it through the first year of motherhood!  I have many people to thank for this epic achievement.  Namely, my most fantastic and supportive husband, the Three Aunties of Camberville (you know who you are), and my awesome dragon parents group.  Of course, we must not leave out the six adoring grandparents and other family and friends who have been amazing and loving as well.  It really does take a village to care for a little one.

In celebration of our sons' first birthday, I followed the recipe from the smitten kitchen blog for the best birthday cake.  Note:  The first time I made this was for my husband's birthday.  I had a few mishaps (if you want entertainment, see previous post), which I learned from so this time the cake was PERFECT!  It seemed fitting that we make this particular cake again because the first time I made it I was very early pregnant (so early I didn't even know yet).   I like to experiment in the kitchen, but when it comes to baking I am really trying to be better about following the recipe exactly...at least the first time through.  It's so hard for me, but I am getting better :)  This successful second attempt is enough to convince me that I should trust the experts first time around.

I followed the recipe exactly for yellow cake with chocolate sour cream frosting, so I won't bother to write it all out.  We didn't find it to be too sour, it was a great pairing with the moist and dense cake.  I went a little light on the frosting, so I did have some leftover (at least a cup).

For frosting, I put a little dollop of icing on the center of the serving platter to hold the bottom layer in place.  Then, I slid some slips of parchment under the cake on all sides so the dish would stay clean post frosting.  My husband made the sun design by cutting a stencil from parchment.  Even though it wasn't intentional, I like the rippled effect of the icing caused by the parchment stencil.  It reminds me of the way heat creates a disturbance or distortion in the air.

The layers cooling

The Sun Cake

Either signing for "more" or perhaps clapping because he liked it?

My son looked absolutely astonished and delighted that I served him an entire slice of cake.  He had lots of chocolate frosting smeared into his clothes, deposited in his ears, and wiped through his hair.  Cake was being double-fisted, and crumbs were flying!  Happy birthday and thanks for taking this wild ride with us.

Birthday Times! Ice Cream and Cake and Cake!

The finished product!  Yellow Cake with Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting

Yummilicious with French vanilla ice cream

On January 3, we celebrated Nathan's 31st birthday!  Some neighbors and friends joined us and though it was bitter cold outside (8 degrees F!) we had a cozy little gathering.

If you want the recipe, it is from an awesome food blog Smitten Kitchen 

I pretty much followed the recipe exactly, except for the cake: I used wheat flour, and organic cane sugar, which created a cornbread-like effect and was very tasty.

Also for the icing what I did differently was omit espresso and used brown rice syrup instead of corn syrup.  It was sort of difficult to spread, but with some elbow-grease it all worked out nicely.

Now for the hilarious part!  So, I have never made a real, from-scratch cake.  I was hell-bent on doing a 9-inch layered cake and this recipe seemed fool-proof, or so I thought...

Cake batter prep went smoothly and looked beautiful.  I popped the pans in the oven and about halfway through baking I smelled something burning.  I ran over to the oven to discover my cakes flowing like lava out of the pans and oozing onto the oven and all over the racks!!!  I quickly slid some baking sheets under to catch the goo.  Sadly, that didn't work and the bits on the bottom caught fire and smoke was billowing out of the oven :(

Thankfully, Nathan saved the day by calmly opening the window, shutting off the oven and helping me pry burnt pieces from the oven.  He reassured me the cakes could be recovered, which I doubted but wanted to believe.

So I set about scraping the pans' edges free of batter, placing sheets under the pans and commencing with part 2 of the baking.  It worked!!!  I was thrilled!  Nathan was thrilled too because the cake kept oozing but eventually formed a nice little mold of cake around the outside of the pans which we were able to eat right away!

If I didn't tell you it happened, there was no way to tell there was a cake mishap!  The only thing I can think that went wrong is that perhaps the pans were 8-inch causing the overflow.  Or maybe my baking soda was too fresh?  I checked and the flour was definitely not self-rising.

Everyone liked it, we had a little adventure making it and I finally succeeded in making a cake from scratch.  Yay!

I'd love to hear about your baking mishaps--do share as it's way more funny after the fact ;)