Friday, September 28, 2007

Meg's half-birthday cake


Meg's half-birthday cake, originally uploaded by bradandcheryl.

Today is Meg's half-birthday, and it's the day Brad comes home from househunting leave (should be back any minute! Yippee!) so we are having a party. Meg requested a chocolate cake with creamy white frosting, and here it is! I used the chocolate cake recipe from The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook, and wow...what a recipe! It's been ages since I've made a cake from scratch, and now I'm kicking myself for ever having done so. Cake mix cake layers end up totally peaked in the center, so I can either level them and end up throwing away half the cake, or stack them unevenly. UGH. These cake layers turned out beautifully, though, and were perfectly flat with no leveling necessary. Nice!

The frosting is a traditional boiled frosting recipe, made of hot sugar syrup drizzled into egg whites while beating at high speed. It's gloriously fluffy and shiny, and isn't as heavy and sweet as a buttercream -- which means we can eat that much more! ; )

I topped it with chocolate-covered strawberries. OMG, YUM! I can't wait to eat it!