Celebration Cake
We're celebrating.
Why, you ask?
I believe every day should be a celebration, because there is always something to celebrate.
Some days I celebrate my good hair day. Other days I celebrate the weather. Need some celebration inspiration? Being healthy, having someone that loves you, doing a good deed for a stranger, a meaningful compliment, or just a plain good mood!! It doesn't take too much searching to find something worth celebrating.
This cake is a mashup of multiple things. Finals are ending. Summer is beginning. Coldplay's new album just came out. I won 10 bucks in a bet. My birthday {as well as my Paul's, (my boyfriend)} was last week. All this put together equals a happy, relaxing, summery celebration.
What better cake to simply celebrate with than a classic yellow cake and fudge-y chocolate frosting?
Fluffy, moist and tender vanilla cake layered with a creamy chocolate frosting. Nothing fancy. Yet anything but boring. It's classic. And we're feelin' classy.
I never understood what all the rage was about this combination. I've always been a chocolate girl. If given the choice, normally I prefer chocolate with chocolate. But Paul told me this is actually his preference when it comes to cake, so I conjured up a recipe, and dove in head first!
I wanted a simple chocolate frosting. Nothing too difficult. No chopping up varieties of bitter chocolate. No melting. No fuss. This chocolate frosting is based off of my buttercream frosting, The Best Buttercream Frosting. The recipe for the chocolate frosting is here: Easy Chocolate Buttercream Frosting. Just adding some cocoa powder gives it a nice chocolate taste. Not too rich, or strong, but a simple chocolate frosting that pairs wonderfully with the cake. It sort of reminds me of chocolate milk. Milk chocolatey!
The cake turned out WONDERFULLY! So THIS is what everyone is talking about!! I finally get it. So simple, yet so perfect! It's light and moist, and has a great flavor. I inhaled the piece in the pictures after tasting it. I've already decided that I want this cake for my birthday next year.
As my sister stood in the kitchen eating (inhaling) the remains of the cake with a fork, I politely asked her to just cut a small piece and the restrain herself from eating any more...{My family ate over half of it last night after I made it, and there's about 1/4 left now} {I plan on taking some to work and saving some for Paul so he can try it tonight}... to which she replied, "NO!!!! He's your boyfriend, he gets more cake than any of us!"
So my sister and boyfriend might have to battle it out tonight for the last piece.
It's THAT good.
I promise this will be your new go-to yellow cake. I can definitely say this is the best yellow cake I've ever had! And I think the reaction from everyone proves it.
Simple and classy, like we like it. And if by classy we mean stuffing cake into your face, then yes.
Yellow Cake:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 Tb. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks (1 cup) of butter
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
4 eggs + 1 egg yolk
2 cups buttermilk (half milk and half buttermilk is fine too)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease 3 round 8 or 9-inch baking pans. Sift together flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar for 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Then add in the vanilla.
Mix in the eggs, one at a time. Beat well after each addition, and stop to scrape the sides down.
Then, alternately add in the buttermilk and the flour mixture. Starting and ending with the flour.
Flour, mix, buttermilk, mix, flour, mix, buttermilk, mix, flour, mix.
Spread batter evenly among the 3 pans, and bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. (Until a toothpick inserted comes out clean). Cool in pans for about 10 minutes and then cool on a rack completely.
Frost with my Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, and enjoy!!
