Horseys and Birthday Cake

This weekend I tried a new recipe with cake mixes. Actually I tried two. However the first one I didn’t take pictures of because I was in a hurry. It turned out really well though so I wanted to share the recipe. I’m sure I’ll use this method again later so I can post pictures then.

So one thing I wanted to start doing this year is to use my baking for good. Well if I’m going to be baking I might as well do it for a good reason. Friday my family and I went to Turfway Park to watch some horse racing and enjoy their dollar beers and dollar bets. My uncle Mike’s birthday is in a couple days so I thought it would be nice to surprise him with a birthday cake at the track. I text his daughter, one of my very favorite sister cousins, to see what his favorite flavor cake was. So I was set out to find the best Vanilla cake recipe I could find. I had a ton of cake mixes because I took full advantage of a 98 cent sale on Duncan Hines cake mixes a few weeks ago. I had a funfetti cake which was pretty vanilla-ey to me. I remembered seeing a trick to make cake mixes more like a bakery cake and I wanted to try that so that’s what I started with. Then I’d never made a butter cream icing from scratch before so I went with that.

To doctor up the cake mix all you have to do is:

• Replace the oil with melted butter and double the amount (if it calls for a tablespoon of oil melt 2 tablespoons of butter and dump it in!)
• Replace the water with milk
• Add an extra egg (or two if you want it to be super rich) I wussed out on the extra egg because my cake mix already called for 3. Next time I’m going to get crazy and add another egg, promise.
• Add a Tablespoon of Vanilla Extract

The cake turned out really good. It was a bit more dense than a regular cake mix but still very moist. Definitely the way to go for when I’m ready to start decorating cakes more. 

For the icing I just made a very simple Vanilla Butter cream frosting:

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter (2 sticks or 1/2 pound), softened (but not melted!) Ideal texture should be like ice cream.

3-4 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar

1/4 teaspoon table salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

up to 4 tablespoons milk or heavy cream

Instructions

Beat butter for a few minutes with a mixer with the paddle attachment on medium speed. Add 3 cups of powdered sugar and turn your mixer on the lowest speed (so the sugar doesn’t blow everywhere) until the sugar has been incorporated with the butter. Increase mixer speed to medium and add vanilla extract, salt, and 2 tablespoons of milk/cream and beat for 3 minutes. If your frosting needs a more stiff consistency, add remaining sugar. If your frosting needs to be thinned out, add remaining milk 1 tablespoons at a time.

The cake was a success! Everyone really liked it, however I felt bad because my mom and my aunt Dianne gave up sweets for lent! Ugh, and beer. They are saints.

Even though I don't have a picture of the cake I do have a picture of the birthday boy and my momma!