Birthday Baking

Connor's 1st Birthday is tomorrow! I can't believe my little baby is going to be 1 year old. He's so grown up. ;..)

So to celebrate all of our family is coming in town. They never get to see him since we live San Antonio and they live in Houston and Baton Rouge. So I figured I wouldn't be able to do anything to creative this weekend except make Connor's cake! I don't have a lot of practice baking but I love to cook and have lots of inspiration:

My friend Angie has her own company Callooh Callay Creations where she's always making lots of yummy stuff.
http://twitter.com/calloohcallay09

 Or all the scrumptious cupcakeries here in town offer lots of eye candy as well.

Cupcake Couture

Or Saweet! Cupcakes

Anyway, I'm making myself hungry. What kind of mom would I be if I didn't atleast attempt to make my son's first birthday cake? I decided to use a recipe my mom gave me that I've had several times. The cake is so light and fluffy and the icing is to die for. I just hope I can make it the same way she does. Here's the recipe:

Vanilla Cake Batter

Makes about 6 cups. Prep 20 min.

(Add an additional 1/4 tsp vanilla extract if you don't have almond extract.)

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened

3 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. almond extract (I'm going to add a little more of each of these so its extra flavorful)

3 cups cake flour (I'm using Swans in the red box)

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup buttermilk

Directions:

1. Beat sugar and butter at medium speed with a heavy- duty mixer until creamy and fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until yellow disappears after each addition. Beat in vanilla and almond extracts.

2. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl; add sugar to mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat at medium- low speed just until blended after each addition. (Batter will be thick.)

I'm making cupcakes so I followed these directions:

Vanilla Cupcakes
Prepare basic Vanilla Cake Batter as directed. Place paper baking cups in muffin pans and coat with vegetable spray; spoon batter into cups, filling three-fourths full. Bake at 350 for 20- 25 minutes or until a wooden pick insterted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans or on wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove pans to wire rack and cool completely; about 1 hour (Seriously 1 hour!!!) Spread tops with buttercream frosting. Makes about 24 cupcakes

Phew that's a lot of words, I think I need some inspiration to keep me going.

That's better!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Makes about 2 3/4 cups; Prep 10 min

If you love frosting double the recipe

1/2 cup butter softened

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/8 tsp. salt

1 (16 oz.) package powdered sugar

3 to 5 tbsp milk

1. Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.

2. Gradually add powdered sugar alternately with 3 Tbsp milk, 1 Tbsp at a time, beating at a low speed until blended and smooth after each addition. Beat in up to 2 Tbsp additional mild for desired consistency.

Hopefully Connor's cupcakes will turn out as good as those pictures. I don't want him to look back at his first birthday pics and be embarassed! Must...Channel...Cupcake...Goddesses...

I also uploaded the full article I got this recipe from. It was from Southern Living and had a lot of variations on the batter and icing. Yum!! Happy Baking!

Cake Recipe

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