Birthday Cakes!

From September 21 until October 19 we have three birthdays in this house (and then mine is 2 weeks later, but who's counting...). I look forward to my oldest girl's birthday all year long because she always comes up with the most interesting requests for her birthday cake. It started off simple when she turned 3: I want a pink cake with chocolate frosting. Easy enough.. then it evolved into a blue Dora and Diego cake with purple frosting. And this year? She wanted a white cake with strawberry swirls, banana frosting and flowers that you can eat. And make it a My Little Pony cake, thanks. With these kind of requests, I don't think I could have bought the cake if I'd wanted to!

This cake was for my 2-year old. She has inherited her big sisters' love for princesses and loves anything pink and pretty. Last year we didn't get to have cake for her birthday because our entire family was fighting the stomach flu. It was very sad... Honestly, I don't think she knew the difference, but I really wanted her to have her very own FIRST birthday cake. So to make up for it this year, I made an extra satellite cake to her princess cake. The funny thing is... she wouldn't even taste it! She kept pushing it away saying, "Don't want it! I want cake!" ... She just wanted a slice of the big cake that everybody else was having! Sigh...

Let me just say... I am not a cake decorator. But I like to pretend! It's fun and I hope to be able to make prettier cakes in the years ahead for my family. In the meantime, my kids are young and think this sloppy mess looks "beautiful!".

Strawberry Swirl Cake

2 2/3 cups flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup milk

1/2 cup shortening

1 tsp vanilla

4 egg whites

1 cup strawberry preserves

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl except the egg whites and strawberry preserves. Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping the bowl. Beat on high for 2 minutes until smooth. Add egg whites and beat on high for 2 additional minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally. Pour into 1 greased and floured pan. Drop preserves by tablespoonfull all over the top of the unbaked cake. Swirl with the tip of a knife, first one way and then another to get a nice swirled effect. Bake at 350 F for 40-45 minutes. Cake is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely.

Banana Frosting

(Thanks to my friend for helping me solve the banana frosting dilemma- she gave me the great idea to use pudding for the flavor!)

1 small box banana pudding

1 cup powdered sugar

8 oz thawed cool whip

Mix the above ingredients on low with an electric beater until frosting is smooth. Spread over cooled cake or cupcakes.

For the princess cake, I used the cakes that I had in my freezer from my "teenage son helping me bake" fiasco. (I knew they'd come in handy eventually!) It was super simple and with the exception of my failed frosting recipe, it turned out great! The frosting by the way should have been a stiff buttercream frosting, but I'm really not a big fan of buttercream so I instead used my sour cream frosting recipe that is delicious! Only problem is that the frosting melted on the way to the in-laws for the little gal's party. Whoops!