Lady Baltimore Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Last week I mentioned that I was turning 18 in a few days. Well I am now 18 and I am proud to say I have not done anything stupid like get a tattoo; however, one of my friends said he was going to take me to a strip club….

Annnyyways, what is a birthday without cake? A pretty sad one I would say. For the past two birthdays (first my sister’s and then my mom’s) I have been making the birthday cakes. I think it’s more special and fun that way; plus you get to control what’s going into the cake and what grocery store bakery would bake a brown sugar cake? Not many I am sure. Last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, and so on, I had a store-bought cake. Well not this year; this year I opted to make my own birthday cake.

For Christmas my dad got me this really cool multi-tiered cake pan. It’s square, but it has four molds that create a three-tiered cake look. I knew I wanted to try it out at some point, and it took me all of two seconds to come to the decision that I would make my birthday cake in my new cake pan-toy. And, just so you know, it is awesome! If you properly grease the pan, the cakes come straight out and they look so adorable. The only thing I recommend is that you slice the tiers before frosting the cake because for one, it’s easier to frost, and two, you get to have a filling like a real tiered cake.

So this year I went with a vanilla cake with chocolate frosting-a.k.a a classic. I like the contrast of white and chocolate together. I originally only made two tiered cakes, but after my family and I ate both, I decided to make the cake again on Sunday (we celebrated on Saturday because I had to work on my actual birthday-the 6^th) because I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the original cakes. The one I made on Sunday didn’t turn out nearly as pretty as the first two, but that’s ok, it still tastes great!

The cake itself is so fluffy and soft. And I think I may have mentioned before, that I am not a frosting person, I think that buttercream frostings are way too sweet (maybe I should give Swiss Meringue Buttercream a try?), but this chocolate frosting wasn’t too sweet; it was actually very tasty and soft. Then again, I did take out almost half a cup of powdered sugar out of the mix.

The recipe I have down below is enough to fill two of the multi-tiered cake molds or one 8 inch round cake pan. If you follow the link, it will give you the full recipe for a normal three-layer cake. The frosting recipe on the other hand is enough to frost a two-layer 9 inch cake or all four mini multi-tiered cakes.

**I know the pictures aren't too pretty, but that's what happens when the first "pretty" batch gets eaten and you remake the recipe in haste. 

Lady Baltimore Cake
Adapted from Sing for Your Supper

Ingredients
½ stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 pinches of salt
2 tbsp + 2 tsp milk
2 tbsp + 2 tsp water
½ tsp vanilla
2 egg whites, room temperature

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your chosen pan (if you actually have the multi-tiered cake pan, be sure to generously grease it) and set it aside.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until it is nice and fluffy. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together; set aside. Combine the milk, water and vanilla extract; set that aside too.
3. Add about a third of the flour mixture to the creamed butter-sugar mixture. Pour in about half of the liquid. Keep alternating the two until both are used up. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
4. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold stiffened egg whites into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared pan (if using the funky pan, don’t fill it more than the first two tiers). Place in the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes (same time frame goes for the multi-tiered cake pan).
5. Take the pan out of the oven and let it cool before inverting it onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Frost the cake after is has been cooled completely.

Chocolate Frosting

Adapted from The Pastry Affair

Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups + 2 tbsp powdered sugar
2/3 cup natural cocoa powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk

Directions

1. In a large bowl, beat the butter until completely smooth (no lumps). Gradually add in the powdered sugar and some cocoa powder followed by a drizzle of milk. Keep doing this until you have used up the powdered sugar, cocoa powder and enough milk has been added for desired spreading consistency. Beat in the vanilla. Frost the cake to your hearts content.