A Certain Cake, Revisited + “Staying Whole” Essentials Pack Winner!
First, some business…
The winner of the “Staying Whole” Essentials Pack giveaway was comment #65:
Shannon: “We’re moving towards more & more organic foods.”
Congrats, Shannon!!
This Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Cream Frosting has caused a bit of excitement around here lately. Over the past couple of months it’s been flying around Pinterest like wildfire and since my oldest caught sight of it again, she requested it as her birthday cake.
We get pretty excited about birthday cakes around here. I’m the farthest thing from a cake decorator, but I do like to make cakes and have my girls design them for their birthdays. My first born (who, I realized this week, has grown 5 inches in the last 8 months) turned 5 last week and requested this cake again, but with blueberries instead of strawberries.
Aren't you amazed at my piping skills? I mean, LOOK at those flowers. They're so life-like.
Also, we’re into My Little Pony lately and Rainbow Dash is her favorite. Hence the 5 different colors of frosting. I just bought the little tubes at the store, and my heart hurt a little thinking of all of that artificial coloring.
Let’s not talk about the fact that I was finishing up the SUGAR POST the same day as I made this cake. We survived, though, but I think I’m going to steer them away from rainbow-themed cakes for now on.
That hairy thing is Rainbow Dash herself. I wasn't going to try to do her justice in frosting.
A month ago she explained to me how she wanted her cake to look, and I drew it out for her. I kind of like the marshmallow clouds. (That was the little one’s idea.)
As far as the cake itself, here are the changes we made and how it turned out:
1. I halved the recipe, baked it in a 7×11 pyrex dish and split it into 2 layers.
2. Instead of strawberries and strawberry preserves, I simply used frozen blueberries. I cooked some of them down (adding a little cornstarch to thicken), and used that as the “preserves” in the frosting. Yep, that frosting is a natural purple color. It was quite pretty.
3. Then in the center, I added a layer of frosting and put the remaining blueberries (thawed and drained) on top before adding the second cake layer.
THE RESULT: I was curious to see how this would turn out because the first (and only) time I made it we were living at sea level in a moderately humid area. Now, we’re up at 4500 feet and the air is extremely dry. The cake had great flavor, like last time, but I found it to be slightly drier than before. I didn’t over bake it, either. If I happen to make the cake again, I’ll tweak the dry-wet ratio to see if it turns out more moist.
Overall, though… still an awesome cake and we LOVED the blueberries. Cutting the recipe in half also helped out with portion control and we didn’t have a giant cake sitting around for a week.
I’ll have some real food for you, real soon!
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Blog is the New Black — May 24, 2012 @ 5:36 am
Sounds wonderful!
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Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar — May 24, 2012 @ 5:59 am
Such a cute birthday cake! I can see why this cake took off. It looks fabulous!
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Krista — May 24, 2012 @ 7:45 am
This sounds wonderful! Yum!
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Wendy — May 24, 2012 @ 8:57 am
Mmm! The original cake is SO delicious, and everyone I’ve made it for LOVES it! This one must be equally as wonderful!
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Suzanna Rica — May 24, 2012 @ 10:04 am
I’ve baked this cake three times for practice as my daughter (going on 50) asked for it for her b-day. I’ve had four testers (including my husband) and everyone loves it (all adults). I also believe in healthy cooking and healthy eating but also enjoying life. This is a cake everyone needs to eat at least once. It’s great.
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Natalie replied: — May 24th, 2012 @ 6:59 pm
I like how you think, Suzanna. :)
Jeanett — May 24, 2012 @ 10:52 am
how do you half 7 eggs? looks yummy.
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Natalie replied: — May 24th, 2012 @ 6:58 pm
I cracked three into the batter. Then I cracked another into a small bowl, beat it with a fork and eyeballed about a half into the batter.
Joanne — May 24, 2012 @ 6:26 pm
You did such a great job with the cake! It is gorgeous! Thankfully, one day of the year of artificial food coloring won’t hurt them. :P
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Natalie replied: — May 24th, 2012 @ 6:58 pm
Gorgeous? LOL. You have a pretty low standard when it comes to cake beauty, my dear. :)
Theresa — June 18, 2012 @ 6:28 pm
O sweet! The icing looks really light and fluffy and just right for a little girls birthday. I’ll bet that the kiddo will be asking for another when she celebrates her birthday again next year.
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Debbie — March 1, 2013 @ 8:28 pm
Let me know your adjustments. We moved to Colorado and are at 5000′ now. I am still adjusting to how to cook & bake at this altitude!
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Natalie Perry replied: — March 2nd, 2013 @ 2:02 pm
Hi Debbie! I haven’t made this cake since then, so I don’t have any suggestions. Quite honestly, I’m not familiar with high-altitude baking. Our altitude isn’t quite high enough to warrant a lot of changes, so I don’t adapt anything that I bake. I’m sure if you search online for standard high-altitude tips you’ll find something!
Gina replied: — July 21st, 2013 @ 10:58 pm
Ooh. I just found this site. Hopefully it helps! :)
http://allrecipes.com/howto/high-altitude-cake-baking/
Gina — July 21, 2013 @ 10:55 pm
I’m at almost 7000′ in altitude in Falcon, Colorado and I just took out 6 tbsp of sugar. Sadly, I didn’t get to try my cake so I will have to make it again and I’ll let you know how it turns out. Hopefully it will be fine.
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Gina replied: — July 21st, 2013 @ 10:56 pm
PS: The frosting is AMAZING!!!
Debbie replied: — July 21st, 2013 @ 11:12 pm
Gina, like I said, I’m still learning. For most things, I haven’t had to make too many changes, but I do know that baking is different. So I should use this recipe as is, but remove 6 TB of sugar?
You aren’t that far from me. I am in Fort Collins! I have a few friends here in Colorado that I graduated from high school with back in Indiana. I never knew they were here until I moved!
Gina replied: — July 21st, 2013 @ 11:33 pm
Ah yes. Ft Collins is right up the street! ;)
As for the cake, I did some more research about high altitude baking and I found a GREAT site that I hope helps. I grew up here in Colorado and have yet to make a decent cake from scratch, but I will be trying these adjustments the next time I try to bake. I’d recommend that you follow the adjustments on http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/high-altitude-baking.html. It’s very informative! Let me know if/when you try it. I may have to bake again soon just to test it out.
Debbie replied: — July 22nd, 2013 @ 8:39 am
I do have a homemade chocolate cake recipe that I made back in Indiana, and when I make it out here, the only change I make is to cook it a slightly shorter amount of time. The grandkids are so happy that they still get my homemade chocolate cake! They live in Arvada.
Thanks for the website, I’ll check it out.
Gina replied: — July 22nd, 2013 @ 8:50 am
Mmm! Chocolate cake! I’m glad that one works for you. :D