Let's Talk Cake

A friend recently asked me some cake questions and then suggested I post about it all. Good idea! So... here we go. Cake 101.
I must admit it's been years since I made cake from scratch. I do the box thing. I DO make my own icing though. It's so easy, and tastes better than the stuff in a can. This is the icing recipe that I always use - it's for a buttercream icing. If you use clear vanilla it will be pure white, if you use "regular" vanilla it will have a buttery color.

• 1/2 C butter
• 1/2 C shortening
• 4 C powdered sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1-2 TBSP milk

• cream together your butter and shortening. add vanilla. add sugar, 1 cup at a time. mixing well. add milk. Start with 1 TBSP and add 1 more if it's still too thick.

The thick is good for decorating, so if you wanted to pipe "Happy Birthday" on the cake you could take a scoop out and add the milk to whats left. Do you have cake decorating bags? You can also use a ziplock with a small corner snipped off.
Want to give it some pizazz? Ice the whole thing, and see how much you have left. (the recipe makes 3 cups) Separate leftovers into 2 or 3 different containers and use food coloring to make different colors. Using the ziplock (or cake decorating bags) make polka dots. When the icing drys on the cake you can dip your finger in some powdered sugar and smooth out your dots so they don't look piped on.

One of my kids favorite cakes... for Christmas we made Jesus a birthday cake shaped like a giant cupcake. So... like a cupcake we put sprinkles on it. A LOT of sprinkles. So if you have sprinkles that would be a fun way to decorate... and the kids can help. :)

I made cakes when I was young. I remember calling my mom at work and asking her if i could walk to the store to get some cake mix. My first "decorator" cake was a Winnie-the-Pooh cake done for one of my daycare kids who was moving up to the next class. That started me off on a love for decorating cakes! I wish I could show you a picture of that, but it was LONG before the days of digital cameras. I actually have a Polaroid of it....somewhere. :)
I'd have to say thought that my favorite cake that I have made so far was Hannah's 1st Birthday cake. It turned out better that I imagined.




I've made 2 wedding cakes, and they were nice... but I don't want to do that again anytime soon. Foolishly, I have NO pictures of either. So... here you have my favorite cake... so far.
What about you? Whats your favorite cake that you have made? Not the baking type? How about the favorite cake you ever received? I'd love to see pictures!

This is how it works. You post about your cake loving experience on your blog... pictures n' all. Then you use Mr.Linky to link your post my my site.
New to Mr.Linky? It's simple. Copy the URL from your cake post and paste it into Mr.Linky. The key is to copy your specific post and not just your blog name.
Make sense?
Have fun!!

Here is a picture my sister sent to me. This was for her son's 3rd birthday. It's Rocket from Little Einsteins. Cute cake.





*sidenote* I'm never posted with Mr.Linky before. I'm not sure what the "In Other Words" thing is. I had to pick a name from a list... it was confusing.**