Birthday Cake

Well, we had Evie's 1st birthday party today. I stayed up way too late making food and decorating a cake but things went really well.

I usually have my mom decorate the birthday cakes because she does a really good job. This time though, my parents weren't coming up until about 30 minutes before the party so I decided to decorate the cake myself. I have never decorated a whole cake by myself so it took me forever!

This is my absolute FAVORITE birthday cake recipe. I found it in an old, out-of-print cookbook that someone gave me as a teenager (Grandma's Great Desserts).

Moist Chocolate Cake

• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup vegetable oil (you can substitute 1/2 with unsweetened applesauce and then use a little less sugar)
• 1 cup hot coffee
• 1 cup milk (I use fat free)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions

• Sift together all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add oil, coffee, and milk; mix at medium speed for 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla; beat 2 more minutes.
• Pour into two greased and floured 9” cake pans (or two 8” cake pans and six muffin cups). Bake at 325˚ for 30-35 minutes.
• Once cake is cooled, frost and decorate (even if using the fondant you still have to use a thin layer of frosting for the fondant to adhere to).

Instead of doing buttercream frosting, I decided to do a rolled fondant (I think I've been watching a little too much Food Network, especially Ace of Cakes). Here is the link for the recipe (Rolled Buttercream Fondant). I would suggest reading several of the reviews before attempting to make fondant for the first time.