Yellow Cake: We meet again...

My very first attempt to bake resulted in soft rock shaped yellow cake (I tried to make cupcakes). Not this time! I tried a different recipe (from: http://www.ehow.com/print/how_11464_make-yellow-cake.html) and used my electric mixer. This is how:

2.5 cups flour (I used cake flour instead)
2.5 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup butter (unsalted)
2 eggs
1.25 cups milk (I used 1%)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1.75 cups sugar (granulated)
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. I prepared by 9 inch cake pans with some butter and flour. Probably not the most efficient method. Also, the cake stuck pretty well to the pan (after cooling)... not sure why.
2. Mixed flour, baking powder and salt together.
4. Beat butter in the electric mixer to fluff it up!
5. Added the sugar and vanilla to the butter for good flavor.
6. Added the eggs one at a time. This looked really cool. Next time I'll take a picture.
7. Added the flour mixture and milk to the butter mix alternately - mixed on a low speed until just combined. Everything looks really promising at this point.
8. Poured the batter into the cake pans.
9. Baked at 375F for about 25-ish minutes. The recipe calls for 30-35 minutes, but I really didn't want to burn the cake.

I went ahead and made the fail-safe "Quick Vanilla Buttercream Frosting" from an earlier blog (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/gale-gand/quick-vanilla-buttercream-frosting-recipe/index.html). I used this lovely mix on the two layers of yellow cake and put them in the freezer to set!



The cakes look good so far! They seem a little too bubbly, though. As they were baking, the golden color forming on top was looking highly irregular, and it is because of these bubbly-bumps forming on top (and I'm assuming all through the cake). What I think happened is that it didn't get mixed too well. I know! Even with my electric mixer I didn't mix it very well. I decided to try out a little piece, so I cut off the edges of the cake (crispy crust!) and ate those. I must have cooked it for too long to get those crispy edges. I digress. The cake actually tastes pretty good! *BUT* it's still not fluffy enough for me. I really want a fluffy amazing yellow cake. Really really really badly.

The yellowish cake will soon be covered in my marshmallow fondant into all sorts of fun patterns!

Fondant covering (used an exacto to cut out the designs) was really really thin this time, but the decorative fondant I put on top (the leaf-y design) makes the thinness of the first layer of fondant hard to see - yay!:





*****UPDATE*****
Alen (my wonderful boyfriend) and I just ate some yellow cake (slices missing shown below) all covered in fondant and such, and it tastes really good. Like awesome, really good awesome. *takes a bow*