Yesterday was my birthday, and in 27 years, I had never made my own, from scratch, layer cake.
Last night, I decided it was time to alter that, and high on a false sense of my own capabilities. I went out and bought the ingredients for Smitten Kitchen’s best yellow layer cake, and Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting from the food network.
While I was cooking, I whistled the happy tune of the blissfully delusional. Till I realized I didn’t have circular cake pans. And then when when the cake cracked when I turned it out of the pan and cut it in half to make two layers. And then when boyfriend accidentally flipped the top layer onto the bottom without a layer of frosting. And again when I realized the frosting (which I put in the fridge so it wouldn’t get too soft while the cake cooled) was so hard it fused to the bowl.
Both of these recipes seem lovely by the way, but this poor cake just suffered too much user error. It tastes, fine, it’s just a hot mess in the looks department.
You’d think this cake fail would discourage me, but it just makes more determined to make a passable layer cake. And so I declare this
the year of cakes!
Each month I will make at least one cake and document my progress, with whatever tips and tricks I can cobble together along the way.
Birthdays are a good time for resolutions, and while I’ve also been thinking about personal types of growth, I resolve not to let another year go by with subpar cakes!
