Baking Memories

Baking.  It's a complicated thing.  There is a lot of measuring and quite frankly all those specific increments are a bit constrictive. 

 

You see, I come from just about the best baker in the history of Southern cooking.  No, I am not claiming to be kin to Paula Deen, but I am telling you my grandmother was an exquisite baker.  She was a firm believer in a freshly baked cake on the back counter just in case someone dropped in at 4 PM for a cup of coffee.  I don't think there was a death in Polk County where my grandmother's five flavor pound cake wasn't a centerpiece at the grieving family gathering. 

 

Now, as much as I love to cook, I never fell in love with baking.  In fact, I was a little intimidated by it.  The truth is that I am horrified at the amount of sugar, oil, butter, etc. that usually goes into baking.  Because I am always trying to reduce fat and calories, I often can't help myself, and make substitutions that rarely pan out.  There's that "exact" thing in baking that is a real kill joy.

 

My precious angel girl just celebrated her 12th birthday.  What a special birthday!  We got our first pair of pointe shoes.  She celebrated with a few friends and had a swim party sleepover.  She went to a fabulous restaurant for a memorable birthday dinner.  On her actual birthday, she requested her favorite meal, my world famous spaghetti.  We had already had fancy, super-expensive, gourmet cupcakes, a trio of delicious desserts from the restaurant.  What we needed was a special, homemade birthday cake, so I got out the Crisco and went to work.

 

It was SO tall, I couldn't even cover it with my cake cover!

Well, I must confess, that I had to make this cake recipe my own.  I cut back on fat and calories in the cake, but you can't cut the fat in chocolate buttercream frosting.

 

 

 

RECIPE
Vanilla Butter Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Icing

 

CAKE

• 1 golden vanilla cake mix
• 1 stick Land 'O Lakes Light Butter, melted
• 1 tsp. PURE vanilla extract
• 1 c. fat free half and half
• 3 eggs
• Crisco (for greasing the pans)
• Flour (for dusting the pans)

1. Preheat the oven according to cake box directions (I used non-stick, metal pans, so I baked at 325 degrees)
2. Grease and flour pans, shaking out excess flour.
3. Put cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl.  Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for one minute.  Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Increase the mixing speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes. 
4. Divide batter between the two greased and floured pans.  Place the pans in the oven side by side.
5. Bake for length of time recommended on the cake mix box.  Please note that the baking time is different according to the size of your pans.  I used 8-inch pans, so I baked for 25 minutes.
6. Remove pans from the oven and cool on baking racks for 10 minutes.  Run a dinner knife around the edge of the pan and invert onto the cooling racks and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes.  (this cake smells so good that it will be hard to wait 30 minutes!)

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

• 1 stick of butter, room temp (yes, I used REAL butter, b/c you cannot make buttercream icing with anything else)
• 2/3 cup of cocoa (unsweetened, of course)
• 3 c. of powdered sugar, sifted  (pluse extra if needed for thickening)
• 1/3 c. fat free half and half
• 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. salt

1. Add butter and cocoa to a large mixing bowl.  Blend with mixer on low speed until mixture is well-combined.  (about 30 seconds)
2. Add the powdered sugar, 1/3 cup half and half, vanilla and salt.
3. Mix on low until the color lightens and is fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Add more half and half if icing is too thick, or powdered sugar (1 T. at a time) if icing is too thin.
5. Ice that fabulous cake, and be sure to let your children lick the beaters. 

Well, here it is!  Self praise is half scandal, but I dare to say my sweet little grandmother would have thought is was DIVINE!