Moist yellow cake

The last few weeks in October predictably find me in a till- January successive frenzy. My annual Pinterest phase kicks in and I am all over the place, attempting a series of household/bathroom/doggie-costume, ahem, artistries. I like to call it seasonal transition therapy. And I kind of take pride in nailing almost everything, despite the fact that half the fun of pin-posting is in its fails. 

Let's just say, you need a different ending sometimes.

It was the cake technique, Wilton decides all of us can do. Not to dissuade you, but side warning, friends, whenever a tutorial tells you to pull apart a template from a seamless finish frosting, never, ever ...repeat and repeat, NEVER listen.  I mean, you might as well smash the project, and start over again. Which is almost what I did. After I cried...then pushed mini pumpkin cutters in, a sort of half attempt to salvage what I thought was completely lost.

Was it the better ending? I believe so. A saving grace where peek-a-boo jack-o-lanterns in an altered, albeit better buttercream ultimately freed the avant garde creative in me.

The take away from the whole spiel?  Don't get distracted by the one wrong thing that you miss out on all that could be right. 

Furthermore, it was the cake that featured as the centerpiece and raffle item in a vendor stall gig I did at a nearby school fair, also major part of the above mentioned frenzy. 

Justification came when the winner of the raffle stated to me the following day, "there's cake and then there's Your cake." How fine does the inflection in that"your" sound, huh?! All because shifted perspective led to cookie cutters setting in motion an alternative and veritably good destiny.

Getting to cake in point, the contents underneath the flame frosting is a moist yellow one, buttery enough that you can't deny where most of the flavor comes from. 

It's moist, owing to the same reason. But a consideration here is in the preparation to getting that texture in crumb. There is an imperative balance to batter beating. Overbeating will make it dense and unable to rise. Underbeating will lead to a sort of gloop, where fat and eggs separate, leaving you with uneven baked cake. 

A sizable part of the labor was painting on the extra coat of frosting, which you will not have to worry about. 

Do consider making it, though, whether it be for holiday, birthday or just to amp up your weeknight dessert scheme.

Who knows? It might enthrall you enough to not weed from the monster packs of candy you're intending to hand out tomorrow.

Ingredients:

• 3 ¼ cup all purpose flour
• ¾ tbsp baking powder
• ¾ cup salted butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• ½ cup milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour cake pans (2- 8 inch is what I used)
• In bowl, whisk flour and baking powder together.
• Beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
• Add eggs one at a time and beat after each addition. Scrape bowl as when needed.
• In another bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together buttermilk, milk and vanilla. 
• Alternately add the flour and buttermilk mixtures, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions flour mixture- 2  additions buttermilk mixture).
• Beat until just combined. Don't overbeat.
• Distribute evenly among the prepared pans.
• Bake for 24-28 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
• Once done, allow cakes to cool in pans for 5 minutes. 
• Flip onto wire racks and let cakes cool completely, upto an hour.
• Decorate with vanilla buttercream.
  

Hey ya, lovely person who won the cake. Thank you for the snapshot of the slice you were eating. You're the best. God bless!

October 2016: Fanta cake

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"Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will come quickly. Your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard." Isaiah 58:8