Birthday Cake

I love birthdays.
Whether it's my birthday or not, I love them.
What's not to love?
Everybody is happy on their birthday because it is a celebration of yourself, and who doesn't want to celebrate themselves??  Family usually gathers for birthdays, which always entails a good time.  And, one of my personal favorites-- there's cake!!  There is always cake, for everyone.  Whoever decided to celebrate birthdays with cake is a genius.
Last weekend was full of birthday celebrations in my family, so I was a very happy camper.
My mom's birthday was Saturday and my auntie's birthday was Sunday, and we celebrated all day Friday.
For my mom's celebration, my dad and I had her open the presents we got her (I got her an ice cream maker!)  and we had pizza and cake.  For my auntie's celebration, two of her kids came and surprised her (best surprise ever) and we went and ate dinner with her at my aunt and uncle's house.  My uncle made an amazing seafood pasta and it was just a really nice evening. 
I made my my mom what was supposed to be a 3 layer cake, but I decided we didn't need all 3 layers so I saved the third layer and made it into a mini cake for my auntie.  I thought it was a bit dry, (I should have followed the "adding moisture to the cake" section on Bakerella's blog) but it was a hit with everybody else.

P.S. What flavor of ice cream should we make with my moms new ice cream maker?!

Birthday Cake
Adapted from:  Bakerella

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) of butter (room temperature)
• 2 cups of sugar
• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 3 cups of sifted self-rising flour (White Lily)
• 1 cup of whole milk (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (McCormicks)Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease and flour (3) 8 inch cake pans.
Using a mixer, cream butter until fluffy.

Add sugar and continue to cream for about 7 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each egg is added.

Add flour and milk (alternating to creamed mixture), beginning and ending with flour.
Add vanilla to mix; until just mixed.

Divide batter equally into three cake pans.

Hold each layer about 3 inches above your counter and carefully drop the pans flat onto counter several times to ensure release of any air bubbles. This will help you have a more level cake.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes (depending on your oven) until done.

Cool in pans for 5 – 10 minutes.
Remove and immediately wrap each layer in plastic wrap to seal in moisture.

Cool completely on wire racks.
Once cooled, you are ready to assemble your cake.

Easy Buttercream Frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 1b. 10X powdered sugar
1-3 teaspoons milk, half and half or cream

• Using a mixer, cream softened butter and vanilla until smooth.
• Add sugar gradually, allowing butter and sugar to cream together before adding more.
• If you want your frosting a little creamier, add a teaspoon of milk at a time and beat on high until you get the right texture.
• Then, just use icing colors to tint the frosting the color of your choice.

 

 For my auntie's cake, I made Chocolate Frosting scaled down to 16. I liked both cakes equally.