I can bake!

[jadedmusings]

I love to cook and I especially love to bake, but it wasn't until recently when I got my new oven that I've had the ability to cook well. When you can't tell what temperature you've set your oven to, it's hard to do much of anything without a lot of guess work and offerings to the culinary gods that you didn't mess it up. Now that I can cook again, I think I'm going to make an effort to journal about my kitchen experiments.

With that in mind, I thought I'd show pictures of the kiddo's birthday cake from start to finish. I made a two-layer peanut butter cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. Both the cake and icing were made "from scratch." (Have I mentioned I love my new oven and my Betty Crocker cook book?)

Here they are fresh out of the oven:



(That black thing in the background is a Christmas gift I got myself, my Sunbeam Mixmaster series electric mixer. You know you're envious.)

A closer look:



I cooled for 10 minutes and then put the two nine-inch round cakes on the rack to cool for another hour:





Here's the cake with the chocolate buttercream frosting:



And a side-view:



I cheated when it came to decorating and just got those pre-made letters. Next time I might try my hand at piping, but for now I needed something that was easy and fast.





Those little heads are supposed to be Diego from Go Diego Go. Kiddo saw them yesterday and demanded they be part of his cake decoration (I was letting him pick out what he wanted on his cake.)

Here it is complete with five candles:



There you have it. I can attest that the cake batter and the frosting both tasted delicious. I can't wait to taste the whole thing.

If anyone wants the recipe, just leave a comment and I'll post it.