Baking A Sweet Life

Sometimes simple is best.  Probably more often than not, right? I have had an itch to make a sweet and simple 6″ cake.  I thought an all-American classic of yellow cake with chocolate frosting would be perect! Unlike the past layer cakes I’ve done, I decided that this time I would bake three small separate layers.  This was so much easier than hoping I would be able to torte 3 slices out of one layer.  It worked beautifully!  Not only saving time, but it drastically reduced the crumbs that I had to battle with since there weren’t any created other than what happened to fall off the layers themselves. Each layer was just the right thickness.

Matt and I brought this cake over to a couple that recently moved into our neighborhood and just had a baby.  So, although I have no pictures of the inside, I hope they’re enjoying this as I type!

Both of these recipes came from Nick Malgieri’s Perfect Cakes.  This was the Golden Cake recipe, halved and placed into 3-6″ cake rounds, and the frosting was the Rich Chocolate Ganache that was cooled to spreading temperature and aerated slightly to smooth out.

I know this is a baking site.  This fact is not lost on me as I post this un-baked (savory, not sweet!) Thai coconut shrimp.  Charity and I are taking a hiatus from our SOB adventures and instead alternating picking ingredients and then making a recipe with that.  It can be sweet or savory, main feature or subtle flavor - the only rule is that the ingredient’s gotta be in there!

I was picking first, and I decided to go with coconut!  I love coconut - and ironically enough, that hasn’t always been the case!  I think its been in the last 2 years that I’ve come around.  I think it was helped along with Ina Garten’s Coconut cupcake recipe.  Hmm…
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