Let Them Eat Cake

I know, I wrote about dieting yesterday, get over it.  I had made this cake over the weekend.  And I ate only one slice.  And no ice cream.

I usually make cupcakes.  I love baking cupcakes.  I love icing cupcakes.  I'm planning on participating in Cupcake Wars in the town where I work.  But, we were celebrating my dad & sister's birthday so I decided to go the traditional actual birthday cake route.

My dad isn't too picky on cake flavors, so my sister chose.  Originally she wanted a plain white or yellow cake.  When I told her I was making a cake from scratch she changed her mind, lemon cake.  I just got a new cupcake cookbook that had a great lemon cake recipe in it.  I wish I could share it with you, but it's not accessible through Betty Crocker online and I'm too lazy to walk into the kitchen to get the cookbook.  Sorry.  Just trust me, it was delicious.  And not very hard to make at all.  I really wished I had made it at home so I could've used my stand mixer instead of a hand mixer.  It just would've been easier.  But it still turned out very well.

So, I made a two layer lemon cake with butter cream icing.  I used real butter in my butter cream because of my whole soy allergy thing.  Butter works just fine as long as you're going to keep it somewhere reasonably cool.  I try desperately to keep cakes out of the fridge because it tends to dry them out.  Anyway, it survived until time to eat anyway.  I think it held up okay after that too though.

I would've loved to do a smaller cake with four layers, but I had to work with what I had available.  I'm going to have to get some small layer cake pans.  Anyway, I dyed my icing a lime green.  I just used regular McCormick food coloring.  I usually use the gel or paste, but again, working with what I had.  I usually pack my own food coloring but I was in a hurry this time.  I used a large star tip to ice the top and I just flat frosted the sides.  Well, more accurately my mom flat frosted the sides because I suck at it.  Blarg.  Anyway.  Pictures.  All we really care about is the pictures.

So, without further ado....

A view from the top

Mmmm.  Looks like spring instead of fall.

I'm ready for my close up.