Easter Cake

I decided Easter would be a good excuse to bake another cake! 

This is a yummy moist yellow cake recipe from my BH&G Anyone Can Bake cookbook. I recommend this book to anyone, it's full of great recipes.

The best part about this cake though, in my opinion, was the strawberry filling. Which was just leftovers from the strawberry topping we had with our pancakes but it was soo good in the cake I will definitely be using it as a filling again. Only next time I'd add even more strawberries. To do a filling for a cake that is not the same as the frosting on the outside of the cake (in this case, a fruit filling inside and a buttercream frosting on the outside) make sure to pipe a border of frosting around the cake to hold the filling in. See my lovely neat border above!

Spreading the cake with a thin coating of frosting will seal in crumbs. Let it sit for a while and then finish frosting and decorating.

I attempted to do a basketweave pattern on the sides of the cake which was easier and took less time than I thought it would. It looked OK too, well ... as long as you kept your distance. Up close you could see more of the imperfections! I tinted some sweetened coconut green for the 'grass' and stuck on a few Hershey's chocolate eggs which were swiped the moment the cake hit the table.

Yellow Cake

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk

1. Grease and lightly flour two 9 inch or 8 inch round cake pans or one 13x9x2 inch baking pan; set pans aside. In a medium bowl stir together the flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 375F. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Gradually add sugar, about 1/4 cup at a time, beating on medium speed for 2 minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until well combined after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Altlernatively add flour mixture and milk to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.

3. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan(s). Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes for 9-inch pans, 30-35 minutes for 8-inch pans, 25-30 minutes for 13x9 or until a wooden toothpick inserted neat the center(s) comes out clean. Cool layers in pans on wire rack sfor 10 minutes. Remove from pans and cool thoroughly on racks. Or place the 13x9 inch cake in pan on wire rack; cool thoroughly.