BIRTHDAY CAKE!!!

Last weekend was Chad's birthday, so I set to work whipping up a homemade cake for this amazing man I love.

I went about looking for a recipe in my normal fashion - surfing around some of my favorite food blogs, referencing endless cooking show tips and ideas, and eventually coming up with my own combination of all these things collectively - some times producing tasty things more successfully than others.

In terms of this cake, I just wanted something simplistically pretty. 

I chose a Vanilla Butter cake I found at CakeCentral.com, frosted it with a simple Buttercream recipe, and added some of my own decorational flair along the way.

Since I LOVE layered cakes (because what else is a birthday gift, but a projection of your own likes and dislikes?), I decided to do three 8" round pans and spread a simple raspberry seedless jam in between the layers to add some color.

As I added my layers, I applied a basic crumb coat of frosting to each - letting that first layer pick up all the crumbs and chill a bit before applying my (hopefully!) smooth top layer of frosting.

Also, I like to put parchment paper around and just slightly under my cake while frosting and decorating, that way I can get as MESSY as I want!

The final project presented to the birthday boy! 

Fresh raspberries on top to match our insides, and a bit of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips along the bottom rim.

Now don't get carried away!! We filled it with candles, lit it up and (I) sang Happy Birthday too! There is just no documentation of those obviously amazing moments.

And perhaps as a hint of birthday flattery, or because it perfectly worked with the number of raspberries on top, I only put 8 candles on anyway! 

But in the end, it was just an OKAY cake. Aesthetically, we both really enjoyed it but it tasted more like a cheaply frosted sheet cake than any one I've ever bought in stores.

 Also, as this final picture shows, I feel as though I probably added more raspberry filling than needed - only enough for a splash of color, but hopefully not enough to start dripping down your cake. 

Since the raspberries and cake were probably the best parts, you can find the Vanilla Butter Cake recipe here, but I definitely wouldn't recommend the Buttercream frosting to anyone. Thankfully, my boyfriend is sweet and said it tasted great!