My Very Own Cake Wreck

So a certain girl we all know and love may or may not be turning TWO in a little over a week's time. And we may or may not be hosting some of Mr. Milkweed's family here for a party next Saturday, meaning the pressure's on for me to finally get this place completely in order and move the rest of the boxes out of the dining room. There are only two in there, but MAN...unpacking those is like trying to lose that proverbial last five pounds, which is to say: drag city, Daddio.

I'm excited, though, because I'm going to make her cake again this year. Last year I made some awesome carrot cupcakes from a recipe over at Nook and Pantry, but this year I felt that a full cake was called for.

I also thought it was time to open our last wedding present.

Yes, it's true. Mr. Milkweed and I skipped off under the banner of nuptial bliss a little over six years ago, but have moved into no less than four different places with a gift that was untouched in its original packaging until Monday night.

That gift, my friends, was none other than a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer.

I know, I know. An amazing appliance, right? Some of you might be pining for one of your own, and many of you probably find them indispensable in the making of the quaint little cakes and tortes that sell so swiftly in your Austrian bakeries. Pre and post ski season!

In all seriousness, however, my little Hamilton Beach hand-held and I had been doing just fine for so long that I kept saving the KitchenAid for a "special occasion." Then I happened to be the one that had to carry it from the U-Haul down into our basement this last move, and I decided that occasion was coming, and soon. Those things are HEAVY!

And so began the cake-making saga. (It was a practice cake, because I'm Type-A that way.) I decided on the All-Purpose Chocolate Cake recipe from America's Test Kitchen, since they've never let me down before. I borrowed a Wilton ladybug pan from Erika, since Eva's loving ladybugs these days, and decided to use Wilton's Buttercream Icing recipe for decorating.

First, I got out the ingredients.



(I'm bringing the eggs to room temperature in that bowl of water. America's Test Kitchen suggests the eggs, butter, and milk be at room temperature for baking. Actually, they demand it, or they take your first born. Rumpelstiltskin!)

Then I realized I'd never had my picture taken with so much butter before. And a half a stick of vegetable lard!



Time to get down to business. After a minor adjustment to the height of the beater attachment, I was off and running with the batter. It took so much less time than with a hand-held mixer! And the ingredients combined more evenly, too.

All hail the mighty KitchenAid!



There was some pouring of batter into pans and some washing of mixer implements, and I made the buttercream icing.



About 35 minutes later, the cake was done! A comparison shot between the cake and the pan shows that it kept its shape nicely.



It was time for beddy-bye at that point, so the next morning Mr. Milkweed took Eva to Music Together while I played around with food coloring and some icing tips. I could write as novel about how icing a cake isn't as easy as it looks-- and actually, I think it looks hard, if that tells you anything about how long it took me-- but about the time they walked in the door, I had produced this!



And eaten a piece of it, as you can tell by the upper back. I was very pleased with the cake-to-icing sweetness ratio, especially because the cake isn't a super sweet one and provided some much-needed depth to the very sugary icing.

Mr. Milkweed had a piece and then took the rest of the practice cake to work with him, where it was devoured in under two hours by some academics who were somewhat confused by the bright pink ladybug in the breakroom.

My very own cake wreck! I'm excited to perfect it for her birthday party next weekend.