Birthday Cake

My mom always made the best birthday cakes. They would be round two-layer cakes with buttercream frosting (that we would get to have on graham crackers, too, if there was extra), with our names iced on the top and, of course, candles for every year, served on a cake plate.

When we registered for the wedding, I made sure I included it so I also had a cake plate, almost exclusively for birthday cakes. Sadly, the poor guy has hardly been used at all, and never for a birthday cake. So this year for Nathan's birthday, I decided to put it to use.

Thanks to pinterest, I found a recipe for lemon-blueberry marble cake, on a blog called Lick The Bowl Good. I was a little worried as I started making it because it was a little more detailed than I thought I could handle (I mean, there was actual cake flour involved!) but they looked OK when they went in the oven and when they came out. I actually did the recipe a little differently, because I didn't have three round cake pans. I halved it, and split it between two pans, and the cakes came out just a little smaller, which was fine because it wasn't serving very many people. I also totally used the jar of jam vs. making them.

The frosting recipe, however, was something I knew was above my skill-set (and timeframe. and patience level.) So instead I used a basic white icing glaze, from Martha Stewart, which was preferable for Nathan anyway because he doesn't like frosting all that much. It didn't look as pretty though.

So there you have it, my first birthday cake baking experience. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself.