The Bluestocking Belle: A Birthday Cake Worthy of the Man Himself

Earlier this week, I made Himself a birthday cake. Totally homemade, I might add. I've been getting into homemade cakes lately, and I have to tell you, once you do, it's hard to go back to cake mixes. Homemade just tastes better.

Anyway, I had a vision for my beloved's cake and of course the reality fell short, for a variety of reasons. But it was still darn tasty. So I thought I'd share the recipes. Do not judge the cake by its photo. Or its baker's lack of decorating skills.

The cake recipe, which is pinned on my Tasty Eats and Sips board, is one of THE best white cakes I've ever tasted. It would be lovely as the base for a sour cream coconut frosting. Or any other frosting, frankly. It comes from Robyn Stone of Add a Pinch, and she calls it The Best White Cake Recipe {Ever}, which is really throwing down the gauntlet. But after making and eating this cake, I think she's got the right to that name. I'm sending you to her site for the recipe for two reasons: she talks about the recipe and why she made it as she did AND her photos are much better. She also has links to suggested frosting recipes, in case you're at a loss for a frosting idea.

Okay. So that's the cake.

Himself has a fondness for a local bakery's white chocolate raspberry cake, so I thought I'd do something along those lines. Back to Pinterest I went, and I found what seemed to be a nice white chocolate frosting. It's White Chocolate Buttercream, from The Bewitchin' Kitchen.

My idea was to frost the outside of the cake with the buttercream, but to put a raspberry preserves/sweetened whipped cream mixture between the layers (it's a three-layer cake). And I bought fresh raspberries for decoration. Sounds nice, right?

Well, I forgot to buy the raspberry preserves at the grocery. Did I mention I was making the cake on his actual birthday? So I had to improvise.

Strawberry jam or preserves would have been nice, but I didn't have either of those. I DID have apricot jam. But I DID NOT have time to make the whipped cream. Himself was grilling the baby back ribs while the cakes baked. So. I mixed half a jar of the apricot jam with some of the frosting and used that between the layers.

(Meanwhile I was having trouble baking the cakes. My oven is not large, so I had to keep moving the pans around to avoid over-browning any of the layers. I think I'll stick to two layers next time and use the remaining batter for cupcakes.)

When it came time for candles and cutting the cake, we sliced big pieces for us all. And got a surprise: all of us thought the frosting was cloyingly sweet. Interestingly, the girls and I did not think it too sweet when we licked the beaters and scraped the bowl. But on the cake it was. And the cake itself is not an overly sweet cake.

The good news is that the frosting is better at cold temperatures, so now we eat our cake right out of the fridge. Next time, I'll try a different frosting. And there will be a next time; the cake is that good!

Happy Memorial Day weekend!