Praticing For a Happy Birthday

The other day I decided that it was time to start thinking of an idea for Hazel's first birthday cake and I found one on the Wilton Cake decorating site. Here is a picture of the cake that I will be attempting. When we went grocery shopping last week I found some of the icing tips and figured that I would test out my cake decorating skills. I used a White cake recipe that I found on allrecipes.com.

Heavenly White Cake

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt

4 egg whites

1 1/2 cups white sugar

3/4 cup butter

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:1. Measure sifted flour, baking powder, and salt; sift together three times.2. In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/2 cup sugar gradually, and continue beating only until meringue will hold up in soft peaks.3. Cream butter or margarine. Gradually add remaining 1 cup sugar, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add sifted ingredients alternately with milk a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Mix in flavorings. Add meringue, and beat thoroughly into batter. Spread batter in a 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan which has been lined on the bottom with parchment paper.4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. This cake may also be baked in two 9 inch round pans for 30 to 35 minutes, or in three 8 inch round pans for 25 to 30 minutes.

(all the reviews suggested that you add an extra 1/2 c. milk, which I did, and it turned out great!)

For the icing I just used Wilton's Butter cream Icing which was the smoothest icing I've ever used. The cake was very moist and the icing tasted like the icing that you would find on a cake from the store. I LOVED the cake but the icing was a little sweet.