Classic Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Frosting

This is a recipe for exactly what you want to see with candles on top of it on your birthday- a mass of chocolate frosting with layers of amazing vanilla cake going on amidst it all.  Layers of cake created essentially as a vehicle to support the real reason birthday cake was invented- which is to eat frosting as a noble way to celebrate the day you were born.

Have you ever baked yourself a birthday cake?  I really want to know the answer.  It’s a total pleasure to get a cake placed in front of you, baked by someone else (or a bakery, that’s fine too), but what if no one is going to bake you a cake, like ever?

The Husband will make me a special meal for my birthday (I’m downright giddy for the birthday dinners he creates… one year it was Lamb Three Ways, and last year it was an Ode to the Potato*… I’m a spoiled bitch, I know).

BUT.

I will never get a birthday cake from him.

And no one else will ever make me one (not because everyone I know hates me [I don’t think?], but because no one makes gluten-and-chocolate-free cakes, which is what I want/need/like).  Seriously- I haven’t blown candles out on an actual birthday cake since maybe the early 90s.  So maybe I’m on tap for cake duty in a few months when my day of birth arrives.  (This isn’t a “it’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to” moment; it’s an exciting “I can make my own freaking flamed-up cake if I want to” moment.  Loads of potential.  Maybe I’ll make a cake for every day of the week.)

For those of us proud to make our own birthday cakes- Happy Birthday to Us!

Adapted from my Buttermilk Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting recipe…

CAKE:

1 ? cups all-purpose flour

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¾ cups + 2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

¾ cup sugar

3 eggs

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING:

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup salted butter (1 stick), softened to barely room temperature

3 – 4 tablespoons heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

 Tips:

• No buttermilk?  I hate it when that happens.  Just stir a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into milk to equal the total amount of buttermilk called for in the recipe.  Wait 5 minutes and it’ll clump up like buttermilk.  Gross, but good.  TOTALLY essential for the recipe- don’t think you can make this cake without it!
• Why spend so much time creaming butter sugar, and then after adding in each egg?  Just because.  Stop questioning sciency stuff.
• Cupcakes- can I make them instead?  You can do whatever your sweet-loving heart wants.  Bake for 18 minutes (check after 15).  Oh, and use liners so they turn out much neater on the sides.
• Yes, this cake freezes well.  Ideally frost just before serving…
• Enjoy!
• *An Ode to the Potato 2014 Birthday Dinner: sigh.  I love the basic spud, so The Husband centered the secret meal around it… there were baked potato fries with white truffle oil and parmesan truffle salt, lemon potatoes, sweet potato latkes with cheddar, bacon sour cream, and grass-fed beef bison tenderloin (a couple hunks of meat had to offset the starch a bit)… and the #1 wine of 2009 according to Wine Spectator, which was the 2005 Columbia Crest Cab Sav Columbia Valley Reserve.  It got 95 points and was so relatively cheap, and was yummy (from what I remember?).  Wow, wow, wow.  Bring back that dinner!

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