Tuesday, July 20

Yellow Cake and Lemon Buttercream Icing

This past week was my sisters birthday. I was so happy when I found out that her family and my parents would be up to visit and we could celebrate! Not only did I get to see family but I also had an excuse to make and decorate a birthday cake! My sister just got a new job at a school where the mascot is an owl, her and my mom have been decorating her new classroom, all in owls, so I decided to go with the "owl theme" and make her an owl cake! I had so much fun making it. The cake was a good recipe I found for a simple yellow cake (I really wanted to defeat the boxed cake mix and I think I acheaved it!) and the main icing was a lemon buttercream. I was please with how both turned out so if your in search of a good birthday cake recipe continue reading! As far as the owl decoration, I chose to make a marshmallow fondant! If you missed my last post about marshmallow fondant follow this link. It's really easy to make and fun to play with! The only problems I had in this process was being too hot. My poor hands woudn't stop sweating while I was "kneading" the fondant's color in and it made for a sticky mess. I finally gave up and put a stand up fan in the kitchen and used my hands as little as possible. So this is a for-warning if your hands get sweaty your fondant will NOT work!!!
All in all, the cake was yummy (or so i'm told) and I had tons of fun making it!! I have to say, I wish I had more oportunities to practice my cake decorating.

Yellow Cake
recipe from Smitten Kitchen

Yield: Two 9-inch round, 2-inch tall cake layers

Ingredients:
4 cups plus 2 tablespoons cake flour (not self-rising)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups buttermilk, well-shaken
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and line with circles of parchment paper, then butter parchment. (Alternately, you can use a cooking spray, either with just butter or butter and flour to speed this process up.)
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until pale and fluffy, then beat in vanilla. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. At low speed, beat in buttermilk until just combined (mixture will look curdled). Add flour mixture in three batches, mixing until each addition is just Incorporated.
3. Spread batter evenly in cake pan, then rap pan on counter several times to eliminate air bubbles. (I like to drop mine a few times from two inches up, making a great big noisy fuss.) Bake until golden and a wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then run a knife around edge of pan. Invert onto rack and discard parchment, then cool completely, about 1 hour.

Lemon Buttercream
recipe from Wilton

Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter softened
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
4 cups (approx. 1 lb.) confectioner's sugar sifted
Additional lemon juice or milk (optional)

Makes: About 3 cups.

Directions:
In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add lemon juice and zest; beat well. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, if icing is dry, add additional juice or milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy.

4 comments:

  1. Its soooo cute and taste good too. good job

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is too cute! and I'll bet is yummy, too!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good job Mr Sue!!! that is so cute!!!!!!!! miss you every friday afternoon :) and other days too!

    ReplyDelete

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