In anticipation of the “Storm of the Century”, I was in a baking mood this weekend. Well, the storm never came, but the baking sure did. I baked a few things. And I was very pleased with both outcomes. This week, I’ll feature the cake.

I am a little surprised with how well this turned out because I combined three recipes into one. And, if you skip the whole melted white chocolate part, it’s super easy.

The recipe below features melted white chocolate. Had my husband not been home, I probably would have omitted this step because it requires watching the stove more than my son.

What you will need:

• 9 x 9 cake pan
• mixer

Cake

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (8 tablespoons)
• 2 eggs (best at room temperature)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 – 3 oz. melted white chocolate (optional)

Mom it Down!

The Cake

Preheat your oven to 350.

Grease a 9 x 9 cake pan.

Put half stick butter in the mixer and let that sit until it’s nice and melty. Add your sugar. Cream those two together.

Add eggs, one at a time.  Add vanilla extract.

If you have a double boiler, melt the white chocolate. I do not. So I used a Pyrex measuring cup and a pot of boiling water.

It did the trick quite nicely.

Add flour and baking powder intermittently with the milk and melted white chocolate.

Give that a good mix to make sure it’s all creamed together.

Pour that into a cake pan. You’re done!

Bake for 30 – 40 minutes. (I checked mine at 30 and gave it just a few more minutes until it was nice and golden.

The Icing

I have a confession. Yesterday, whenever I set out to make this cake, I wasn’t going to make my own icing. I know! Terrible. You see, I haven’t had much luck with icing. Aside from the vegan icing I made for the cupcakes last year, I haven’t been too pleased with the outcome. I’ve made some ganache and it just didn’t appeal to me enough to do it again. Plus, I always end up with too much and then having to throw it out. I thought I’d just have Toby Joe pick me up some trashy store-bought icing. He did.

The biggest mistake one can make in this instance is to read the ingredients as well as the nutritional information. Needless to say, I immediately looked to the Internet in search of yet another chocolate icing recipe; one I could make with what I had available. I found one on All Recipes and modified it ever so slightly. It’s nothing short of awesome. No lie. It’s great stuff.

What you will need

• Mixer

Frosting

• 2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 5 tablespoons milk (add more if you need to)

In a bowl, combine sugar with cocoa powder.

In mixer, beat your butter until it’s creamy. (You’ll want this to be as close to room temperature as possible.)

Add flour and cocoa powder mixture intermittently with the milk. If you need to, you can add more or less milk to reach the desired consistency.

Add that to cooled cake. You’re done!

Give the child the spoon to lick.

This cake rules. I have one fan for life.

Overcoming Obstacles

Again, if you don’t have the time or desire to melt chocolate, I recommend skipping that step altogether. I can’t imagine it would matter too much. I only added it to mine to give it a little more vanilla flavor.

I haven’t personally tried with this recipe, but I bet you can freeze the batter and bake it at a later date. I have done this with cupcakes in the past and have had success with it. That way, you can split the two steps especially if you don’t have someone around to amuse the little one. You’ll just want to make sure it’s thawed entirely before baking. (Do not quote me on this as I haven’t tried yet!)

Variations

I imagine that this recipe would go great with a vanilla frosting. Also, feel free to make cupcakes. But I reckon you’ll want to lower the baking time down to 20 – 25 minutes.

Doubling this recipe is an option as well if you wish to make a layered cake.

Also, vegans! I cracked open a bloody egg on Saturday night while making pancakes for Em and damn near vomited into the bowl I was using. I know what eggs are. I know where they come from and what they become if we don’t snatch ’em up right away, but I try and block all of that out most of the time. (This is something I can’t do with most meats.) Anyway, staring at bloody egg was not something I dealt with all that well. I am seriously considering giving up eggs and dairy, so I may try a vegan version of this next. I can’t imagine it’d be that hard. But who knows?