Homemaker Monday: A Moist White Cake With Fresh Strawberry Frosting

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YOURS: This week's "YOURS" goes to Sarah over at Mrs. D. Lightful, The Mommy Blog! It seems as though most of have debt to deal with after the holidays...


...and I am certainly no exception. This post moved me because it reminded me that it IS possible to pay down debt if you have a plan in place and it's wise to follow a budget. To read Sarah's tips, click HERE. Thank you so much, Sarah, for your tips and participation. This is something we all need to be reminded of every so often. And please feel free to take the "I Was Featured" button from my left side bar. Thanks again!

MINE: Sometimes the kids do things that utterly amaze me. The seven-year-old girl's birthday was on Saturday and, as usual, I hadn't even thought about where the cake was going to come from. As I've said before, it seems as though the only thing on my mind for the past year has been the twins. Enter the 13-year-old girl. As John was just about to leave for the big town to get groceries and a pinata for her party, the 13-year-old asked him not to get a cake because she would be making one. She then informed me of her plans, told me that the 7-year-old girl wanted a strawberry cake, because she happens to have a pretend strawberry cake, and got to work. Of course, as always, the first step was to go to allrecipes.com. She found a simple white cake recipe, which it turns out, does NOT taste simple, but rich, moist and delicious, and she found a recipe for fresh strawberry frosting. We altered it a little bit as follows, and it was one of the most strawberry-y delectable things I've ever tasted! Yes, I cheated just a little on my newfound veganism by trying a small piece of cake and frosting, but I couldn't resist seeing what my 13-year-old was capable of creating! This was, honestly, one of the best cakes I have ever eaten in all of my life. Here it is...


Simple White Cake

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Fresh Strawberry Frosting

4 cups confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1/4 cup mashed strawberries

To make the frosting: Place the strawberries in a blender and blend until smooth. In a large bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, melted margarine, blended strawberries. Beat until smooth.

To assemble the cake:

The 13-year-old girl laid the first cake layer on a pretty cake plate, then slathered the strawberry frosting all over the top. Because the 17-year-old boy had to do three hours of chores for me as a consequence for a poor decision, he had to cut up lots of strawberries into very thin slices and these the 13-year-old girl layered on top of the frosting. She then spread more frosting over those to make sure the top layer would stick to the bottom layer.

It was time to put the top cake layer on next, then slather the top and sides with the strawberry frosting. To top it off, she again, laid the sliced strawberries in a symetrical pattern over the top and placed a strawberry cut in half with the leaves still on in the center.

This cake would make a perfect cake to serve on Valentine's Day. Perhaps we'll make another for that day, which is also the twin's birthday! Maybe the 13-year-old girl will offer to make their birthday cake, too! One can only hope~!

OURS: Allrighty then, let's see what great ideas all of you homemakers have for us today. If you've never linked up with us, why don't you search your archives for a relevant post and join us today! Have a great Homemaker Monday!





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