In my December issue of Food Network magazine they had "a year's worth of birthday cakes" article that I took as a challenge. Basically it's a cake a month. I loved that they are all double layer cakes made from scratch, with filling from scratch, and each has it's own frosting, again, from scratch. The flavors were interesting as well. There's a grasshopper cake and a pina colada cake in there. I would consider myself an average baker. I can whip up some chocolate chip cookies that would rock your world, but I'm not one to really eat cookies and cake, so I don't make it very often. I've attempted to make my daughter's birthday cakes every year with interesting results. Lets just say, luckily the nugget is young enough that her childhood won't be traumatized by my horrible cake decorating skills. They've always tasted just fine though, and I never burn them, so I feel that puts me slightly above the awesomeness of people who literally burn everything. I'm better then a novice but it's stretching it to call me an expert.
I didn't own a round cake pan, but found two very easily at our local dollar store for about $3 each. Like I said, we aren't huge sweets people in our home but I felt a cake a month might be yummy. It's turning out to be a lot harder then I thought it would. After 3 months of cakes, I'm actually tired of making them.
But, like I said, I took this as a challenge so I'll continue this cake junk. You can check out food network HERE
First we need to start with the basic cake recipes which you can find HERE for the chocolate and HERE for the vanilla.
Both the basic cake recipes are way more complicated then I generally come across. With their bunch of different steps and mixing in like 20 different bowls, but the cakes always turn out lovely so it's totally worth it! I do get lazy and end up chucking everything in the bowl just to cut down on my steps, the first time I did this the cake tasted just fine but came out the density of cardboard, so follow the directions. Unless you want a freakishly dense cake, which is still totally edible, but it's different to say the least.
So Challenge accepted Food Network Magazine!
If you're interested in subscribing to Food Network magazine, which I highly recommend you do if cooking at all interests you it's a wonderful magazine, you can check that out HERE
It worked out that the January cake was vanilla on vanilla because January just happens to be the month my dad's birthday is in and he's a very vanilla guy. We wrote on ours because I made it for an actual birthday. After this one we won't have a birthday, birthday cake until my birthday in May, so no writing. I'm horrible at putting letters on cakes and I find it super tedious, I have absolutely no patience when it comes to decorating anything to be honest. This cake turned out just fine, I must have gone wrong with the actual cake recipe because it turned out super freakishly dense. Not in a horrible way, it tasted just fine, but it was like cutting cardboard it was so dense. If you're into vanilla, you will LOVE this cake! It's so rich and full of vanilla deliciousness. I would totally make this again, probably for my dad's birthday next year. Everyone enjoyed it and it was fun to customize. You could really use any sprinkles you'd like, it would even work with candy, it's a wonderful basic cake.
You can find this recipe HERE Ultimate Vanilla Cake (Food Network Magazine)
You'll use the basic vanilla cake recipe for this one, you can find it HERE on the Food Network site.
Enjoy!
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