Happy Birthday To Me??

Open Gift Box Cake

Lesson learned.  Don't be stubborn, let someone else make your birthday cake.  Last year I did the same, insisted on making my own cake.  But last year there was no design, I just focused on my favorite flavors (white cake with apricot filling and white chocolate buttercream, mmmm).  Since this year I gave into the kids and made vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream, I decided to attempt the open gift box design that I've been wanting to try. You might not be able to tell from the strategic angle of the photo, but it was a disaster!!  A disaster that could have been avoided in so many ways. First and foremost, a little planning would have helped.  I spent the entire weekend celebrating (I had sooo much fun!), leaving very little time to make and decorate the cake.  With the proper equipment and products, a few hours would have been sufficient.  But due to my lack of planning, that wasn't the case.  Believe it or not, I do not have one decent 8" square pan. Thankfully, I did find an old one that was probably stolen years ago from my mother's kitchen.  Sometimes you just have to work with what you got. Uggh!  I had to bake and cool each layer (3 of them) before I could start the next one.  Another mistake was using store bought buttercream.  I ALWAYS make my own, but because of my time constraint, I cut a corner. Maybe it's me, but it just wasn't the same to work with.  And not to mention the "store bought" taste, but don't get me wrong, I could still sit back and eat the entire container with a spoon.  I told you I have a wicked sweet tooth!

Well, at least my bow and tissue paper had enough time to dry....

After all the excuses, here it is.....

Sloppy crumb coat, not enough lid support and poor fondant work.....everyone has a bad day now and then!  Time ran out, so the only corrective measure taken entailed a big knife and some hungry kids.

As for the vanilla cake recipe......moist and delicious!  I've searched and tested many, this one is a favorite!

Sylvia Weinstock's Classic Yellow Cake

I've made it with cake flour and I've substituted with 2 cups of all purpose flour, it always comes out perfect!