Making Cake and Eating It Too

We had baked a cake earlier last week in my new Topsy-Turvy cake pan (see example above), my very first shaped cake pan. Sis had wanted to make something chocolate and I had some chocolate cake mix leftover from a set of vanilla and chocolate mixes I'd bought at the warehouse store when I was in cake class. So, with the new pan, we made a chocolate cake. Which was great practice for me because I'd never made a shaped cake before (and it worked perfectly, perhaps because I used shortening for the greasing not spray). And then we didn't eat it! Sis had a smidgen of the leftovers from when I leveled the cake and then ran off to play (typical, they never seem to eat much of what we eat; no complaints, since we can take it to church). I made chocolate buttercream and frosted and deocrated the cake with rainbow sprinkles (so imagine those pictures above all chocolate but with sprinkles on "top" of each "layer," i.e. where the white frosting is).

So, I froze the cake and we took it to church today. Remembering that they didn't even get a bite of the cookies we took last time before they were inhaled by fellow congregants, I cut them slices as soon as coffeehour started and saved them for when Sunday School let out (I couldn't bear another teary ride home empty-bellied). And this time they were much more interested in eating the cake, inhaling their own pieces. I'm sure we'll be making more cakes as the summer progresses . . . especially because I also now have a new cupcake pan and lots of ideas for decorating it!

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Chocolate Buttercream

6 tablespoons butter, softened

6 tablespoons shortening

2 tablespoons milk

5-6 tablespoons cocoa (or more to taste)

3 cups powdered sugar

Cream butters in mixer. Add cocoa and milk until mixed. Add sugar in small batches to combine. Mix until smooth.

adapted from Wilton's chocolate buttercream for the American Celebration Cake