I’m back on the baking wagon! Seriously, this weekend, I baked three different things. It was a big weekend. A wedding shower, a barbecue, and a cake order! Whew! I have to say, it was difficult to start back up again after vacation. I’m a little thankful for being pushed back into the habit.

A while back, I baked some cupcakes for a friend’s Chinese New Year party. They were such a big hit, I wanted to give them another try. This time, the cupcakes were for a friend’s bridal shower. I was so excited to be able to help, too. To top it all off, these cupcakes probably the girliest thing to come out of my kitchen next to those bright pink cupcakes covered in glitter. I even tried that rose top people have been trying lately. It is definitely growing on me.

The biggest part of this cupcake is the frosting. This frosting is my favorite buttercream with a little something special: Butter infused with Jasmine Tea. The  flavor of this frosting is almost floral, but not too much. It is a perfect accent to the raspberry cake beneath it.

Infusing butter with tea is fairly easy. The most important part I’ve found is using the correct bags. I’ve tried using loose tea leaves, but there’s always tea leaves no matter how much you strain them. Bleh. Paper bags won’t do the trick, either. They don’t impart near as much flavor as they should, from what I’ve seen. From the few times I’ve infused butter with tea, the best turnouts always come from mesh pyramid tea bags. I got mine from Central Market, but most stores will have them.

If you’re planning to make these cupcakes, give yourself some time. The butter will need time to come to room temperature. I like to make sure the it solidifies a bit in the fridge, too. I say do both of these things the morning of or the afternoon before you start baking. Recipe after the strip!

Raspberry Cupcake Recipe

Jasmine Tea-Infused Butter

• 2 sticks of butter
• 10-15 bags of Jasmine Tea Leaves

1. In a small sauce pan, slowly melt the butter over medium-low heat.
2. When the butter is fully melted and begins to steam a bit, keep it over the heat and place the tea bags into the butter to steep.
3. Let steep for about 5-7 minutes, making sure the butter does not burn. You will begin to smell the tea when your butter is ready.
4. Take the pan off the heat and pour the butter into into a small bowl or tupperware. Let it cool on your counter until close to room temperature and then put it in the fridge.You will want the butter to be slightly hardened so you can cream it with the sugar properly.

Jasmine Buttercream Recipe

• 1 lb unsalted butter, infused with Jasmine tea
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 bag (2 lbs) confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Completely cream the butter in your stand mixer.
2. Mix in the vanilla and salt and beat for 30 seconds. If you have food coloring that you are using, I recommend using it now.
3. Pour in about a third of the confectioners sugar and mix slowly until it is completely mixed in. Add in another third and mix, finishing with the last third.
4. Evaluate the texture of your frosting and add the cream to get the consistency you desire. I used the whole 1/4 cup. If the frosting becomes too soft for your liking, add in more powdered sugar and alternate with cream until you get the desired consistency.

I’ve been back from vacation less than a week now. I already miss the mountains and the ocean. Most of all, I miss the temperature. It was around 50-ish degrees everywhere we went, colder in some spots. Now, back in Dallas, my car thermometer hasn’t dipped under 100 at all during the day. Usually, it sticks around 115. UGH. As I make this post, I’m trying to put myself back on the deck of my cruise ship, watching ice and seals pass by while trying to warm my hands on my coffee mug. Ahhh.

There were so many great things about this cruise. I seriously want to go again sometime. The first day or so, a few people on the ship, myself included, were given a tour of the massive galley. The kitchens fit over 100 workers, who fed up to 3000 people per mealtime. As you can imagine, everything was made in bulk. Because of that (and also, I suspect, because of the cultural palettes of most of the kitchen staff), the food wasn’t all that amazing. But hey! It sure was pretty and they made darn good french fries. Anyway, this kitchen had tables and tables just for dessert prep (Pictured in the strip below), stand mixers dedicated to whipping about 40 pounds of butter at a time, and an awesome machine that took a round piece of dough and turned it into two dozen dinner rolls. The tour itself certainly gave me a new perspective on feeding mass amounts of people. What still drove me crazy was that this was all on a cruise ship. And the ship we were on wasn’t the largest in the fleet by any means.

Our first and favorite stop was Juneau, Alaska. There, Zack and I boarded a tiny float plane that flew us over five glaciers to an island lodge about half a mile away from a Glacier. You can see our plane flying away from the island with the Taku Glacier in front of it in my photo strip below.  Glaciers definitely my favorite thing about the whole trip. They made me feel so small, but seeing the amazing work they were doing and the patterns they took filled me with awe. About two minutes after we took the picture of the plane flying away, we found a friend. He’s in the last picture of the strip. He didn’t get any closer than about 20 feet, but I feel like we bonded. After saying goodbye to our friend, we sat down for a dinner of fresh-caught salmon, baked beans, and the most amazing herbed biscuits I’ve ever had. Our drinks had glacier ice in them! (Don’t worry, it is an advancing glacier!). The herbed biscuits were so awesome that I just had to get the recipe to share with you. More about those and the recipe after the strip.

These biscuits are the absolute best when they’re hot. Even microwaving them is better than eating them cold. We even made little sandwiches with them! I had never made biscuits before, so I was a little intimidated, but these were super easy and so very good. The only thing about this recipe that I wasn’t wholly familiar with was “cutting” butter into the mix. The butter is supposed to be as cold as you can get it when you cut it in, too. In order to keep the butter solid but distributed evenly, I grated it on a cheese grater, which worked out wonderfully for me. Please try these biscuits and taste a bit of Alaska when you do!

Alaskan Herbed Biscuits Recipe

Makes roughly 2 dozen biscuits

• 4 cups bread flour
• 3/4 cup powdered milk
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 1 tbsp each of type, parsley, tarragon, and basil
• 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
• 2 sticks of very cold butter
• approximately 1 1/4 cups of water

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Place all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and grate your very cold butter with a cheese grater (use the larger holes, if you’re using a box grater). Mix in the butter, but only enough to get the grated butter distributed into the dries.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the cold water. Work the dough with a wooden spoon and then with your hands until the dough is slightly sticky.
4. Place the dough on a floured board. Fold the the dough, turn it over and fold again. Do this about 8 times. You may need to add a little flour between folds if the dough is too sticky.
5. Pat the dough into a square about 1 inch thick. Cut into square biscuits.
6. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes.

As I write to you, I am standing in line to get on The Rhapsody of the Seas to go on a weeklong Alaskan cruise! You will see me again in two weeks!

This past weekend was the weekend of the New!

We’ve been in our new home for a few months now, and when we moved in, we tried to get our landlords to update the oven. It didn’t happen then, but after we tried out the oven for a while, we had them convinced.

With the hot spots, crooked heating coils, and broken oven light, I say “Good riddance!” I’m pretty sure that thing was older than me. 

It has now been sent off to oven heaven and I have a new oven to play with! It has convection, which I didn’t use this first time, but I’m looking forward to trying it out. Look how pretty it is!

Second in my weekend of New is actually the cake recipe and pan. I know I’ve mentioned a few times how big a fan I am of Shirley O. Corriher’s book, Bakewise. This lady knows her stuff. In her book, she has a few recipes that require bundt cake pans. “Require”? Yes! According to Ms. Corriher, some cake batters are so dense that if you baked them in regular pans, they would end up being burned on the outside and raw on the inside. Bleh. Who knew the hole was good for something, right?! Because the batter is so dense, the cake will almost always end up being full of moisture and will also contain fewer bubbles. If a cake isn’t moist, I won’t waste the calories on it. Lucky for me, I didn’t do any calorie wasting with this cake… wait. Anyway, I bought myself a bundt cake pan specifically for this book.

I know that right now, people are really into pretty layer cakes all covered in smooth frosting and sprinkles, but these cakes have nothing on this Iced Lemon Poundcake. I have never had something so wonderful in all my life… cake-wise. The cake is so moist and tender, but not too lemony. What makes this cake awesome is the glaze and icing. That’s right, people, I said, glaze AND icing. The glaze is a mixture of fresh lemon juice and sugar, brushed on while the cake is still warm. After the glaze has cooled, a simple icing is “drooled” on the cake. Shirley’s words, not mine. There were definitely two kinds of drooling being done this weekend, if you know what I’m saying. This was, hands down, husband’s favorite cake “evar”. I was specifically told that no sharing was to be done with this cake.

The only thing that really bothered me about preparing this cake were were the blanched ground almonds. I couldn’t find the things anywhere, so I had to start from scratch. If anyone tells you that blanching and then hand-peeling half a cup of almonds is fun, you slap them in the mouth, because they are lying hard. The next time I make this cake, the ground almonds will be omitted. Everything else, though, was totally worth the trouble. Imagine a cake donut, but cake… and tastier. Recipe for the cake, glaze and icing after the strip!

Iced Lemon Pound Cake

Makes one 12-cup Bundt Cake

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut in 2-tablespoon pieces
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 2 tbsp pure lemon extract
• Zest of 4 large lemons
• 3 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 large egg yolks
• 5 large eggs
• 2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup finely ground blanched almonds
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and coat your pan with shortening and powder with confectioners sugar.
2. Beat together flour, ground almonds, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl for about a minute and set aside.
3. With a stand mixer, cream the butter until light in color and then add the sugar. Cream the mixture until combined and light in color. Before continuing to the next step, make sure the bowl you’re using is cool. If it does not feel cool, stick it in the freezer for a few minutes. Continue creaming after you’ve taken the bowl out of the fridge.
4. Beat in the oil, lemon extract, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
5. On the lowest speed, with a minimum of beating, blend in the yolks and then the whole eggs, one at a time.
6. Continuing on the same low speed, blend the flour mixture into the stand mixer bowl in three additions, scraping down the sides every time.
7. In a cold bowl, with cold beaters, whip the cream into soft peaks. Stir about a fourth of the whipped cream into your batter and then slowly fold in the rest.
8. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth batter with a spatula.
9. Place the cake in the middle of the oven and bake for about an hour, or until your cake tester comes out clean, but moist. While your cake is in the oven, make the Lemon Glaze!
10. When you take the cake out of the oven, let it stand on a cooling rack IN THE PAN for 10 to 20 minutes. Invert the cake onto your serving platter to allow it to finish cooling. You’ll want to start glazing the cake with the Lemon Glaze.

The 4th of July has passed, but here is the cake that makes me wish it was still here. The past two weeks have been such a blur of busy that I can’t even think of a story to tell you about this cake. I don’t think I need to, though, because it is just awesome. So moist and flavorful… why don’t I have this cake in front of me right now?! Recipe after the strip.

Red and Blue Velvet Cake Recipe

Makes 2 6-inch rounds or one 9-inch round

Oh man, what a hard week. I won’t bore you with the day-to-day details. Even though this week was rough, when I come home, I have a wonderful husband who loves me and I have an amazing hobby that helps me relieve the stress from the week. This week’s post is special for two reasons: first, it is my first post with a smoothed cake, which was super fun. Second, this awesome cake plate! This 6-inch cake was made for the first party we held at our new home.

Last Christmas, husband got me a round of cake decorating lessons from one of the local bakeries. It was so much fun and I learned some really important basics and I wouldn’t have known otherwise. I so look forward to taking more lessons! One of the things I learned was how to smooth a buttercream cake. Now, the teacher said it could only be done with a shortening-based buttercream, but I’ve proven her wrong! It took me about an hour to smooth down this little cake and it was so worth the time.

As for the cake plate, I found it at a church garage sale for $2! When I saw it, it was all grubby, stained, and old. When I got it home, I mixed up a pearlized seafoam paint and went to town. I am so so happy with how it turned out! It is such a wonderful addition to my cake stand collection!

The cake itself is another recipe from my Bakewise cookbook. I love this book and I’m still learning a lot from it. It contains three recipes for yellow cake, all with different techniques. The first recipe was a traditional kind of creaming method, which I tried out with my Golden Cake and Strawberry Buttercream post. The second recipe dissolves the sugar in hot water before everything else is mixed together. That’s the one I used for this cake. The difference in texture is the most obvious. The density of this cake is very close to pound cake. I love it. You can’t tell from the pictures, but there were actually four layers in this cake. The middle filling was the buttercream I used to cover the cake. The other layer fillings had marshmallow filling. I can’t decide if it is unfortunate or not, but the marshmallow soaked into the cake, which made it that much more amazing. Recipes for all after the strip!

Moist Yellow Cake Recipe (Dissolved-Sugar Method)

Makes 2 6-inch rounds or one 9-inch round

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and coat your pan with shortening and powder with confectioners sugar.
2. Beat together flour and baking powder in a medium bowl for about a minute and set aside.
3. Heat water to a simmer and pour over sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat for a few seconds to dissolve the sugar, then beat in the butter, vanilla, and salt. Add the oil and mix on medium to blend.
4. Sprinkle one-third of the flour mixture over the sugar mixture. Blend in on low with a minimum amount of beating. Continue adding the flour until all of it is incorporated.
5. Stir in the egg yolks by hand, one at a time, then do the same with the whole eggs.
6. Place a bowl, whisk and the heavy cream into the freezer to chill for five minutes. Whip the cream until soft peaks form when the whisk is lifted. Whip just a bit beyond this stage. Stir about one-quarter of the whipped cream into the batter to lighten. Then gently fold in the rest of the whipped cream into the batter.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out clean, but moist.

When I started this blog, my intent was to post at the end of every week, but now, here I am, on a Sunday, and I haven’t finished my post yet. I can see how such a commitment can get difficult. I’m going to stick it out, though!

These cupcakes were an order for my first baby shower, the theme being polka-dots. I was pretty pumped about getting to make dots for the cupcakes, too. The polka-dots were made out of gum paste, not fondant. Every time I work with fondant, I have to let it dry for about a week before I can even stand it up. ick! This was my first time to work with gum paste. I definitely look forward to working with it some more, as I’m thinking that I could have done a few things a little better. In order to keep the paste from sticking to anything, I had to put more powdered sugar into it, which made the paste blotchy and unattractive. I ended up using a pastry brush to wipe a bit of water onto all of them, which did the trick, but it took a long time. So more work to be done with gum paste! In the end, the cupcakes tasted lovely (an adapted version of my previous chocolate cupcakes) and looked adorable. I think the lady loved them, too, which made me super happy. Recipe after the strip!

I seem to be getting more and more orders, which is a great thing to have. Because of the prospect of more business, I’ve started looking into the actual laws behind home baking in Texas. I’m not going to write a paragraph on my limitations, but at least I now know my limits. The biggest piece is that I have to be paid at home, either physically or by mail. No paypal… bummer.

I’ve decided that all of my profits will be going to classes at my local bakery, too. I’m looking forward to learning some new things!

Near Perfect Buttercream Recipe

• 1 lb unsalted butter, brought to room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 bag (2 lbs) confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Completely cream the butter in your stand mixer.
2. Mix in the vanilla and salt and beat for 30 seconds. If you have food coloring that you are using, I recommend using it now.
3. Pour in about a third of the confectioners sugar and mix slowly until it is completely mixed in. Add in another third and mix, finishing with the last third.
4. Evaluate the texture of your frosting and add the cream to get the consistency you desire. I used the whole 1/4 cup. If the frosting becomes too soft for your liking, add in more powdered sugar and alternate with cream until you get the desired consistency.

After performing a rather informal study, I have found that almost no woman can pass up a spoonful of Nutella. I’m sure there’s one out there, but I haven’t found her. For her, my heart breaks in advance. She is missing out. My near-inappropriate love for this spread is what initially got me inspired to make these cupcakes. I have to admit to you, this week was tough in the cupcake-making world. I had big dreams of pairing Nutella and Fig into a baked good, but became sorely disappointed when no one within a ten mile radius had a single good fig to spare. I took it in stride. Rather than filling the cupcakes with figgy goodness (which would have been great, I have to tell you) I made myself some marshmallow filling that was just as great, though maybe not as pretentious.

These cupcakes ended up being enjoyed at a good friend’s Anniversary Party, as well as at work (Those people are going to get tired of my stuff soon, I’m sure). It is always special to get to share my hobby with people that I love.

I used the “Perfect Chocolate Cupcake” recipe from one of my previous posts and threw some Nutella into the mix. I did the same thing with my favorite buttercream recipe. These cupcakes were, once again, unbelievably moist and tender. The combination of Nutella frosting and marshmallow cream was nothing short of comforting. I have to say, though, that I’ve had issues with this particular recipe sinking on me. I have a feeling it is because I tend to overfill the cups. So be careful when you’re filling up the cups! Shoot for a little over half-full every time. Recipe for cupcakes, frosting, and filling after the strip!

Nutella Cupcakes Recipe

Nutella Buttercream Recipe

• 1 lb unsalted butter, brought to room temperature
• 3/4 cup Nutella
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 bag (2 lbs) confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Completely cream the butter in your stand mixer.
2. Mix in the vanilla and salt and beat for 30 seconds.
3. Pour in about a third of the confectioners sugar and mix slowly until it is completely mixed in. Add in another third and mix, finishing with the last third.
4. Mix in the Nutella and let it mix for a few minutes, until the Nutella is completely mixed in.
5. Evaluate the texture of your frosting and add the cream to get the consistency you desire. I used the whole 1/4 cup. If the frosting becomes too soft for your liking, add in more powdered sugar and alternate with cream until you get the desired consistency.

Zack and I visited his family in Houston this past weekend. Because I am the way that I am, I wanted to bring some treats along that just screamed Summer. Well, I don’t know if you remember my Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes, but they were one of my favorites. I decided to take the cake recipe for those, switch out the citrus and the berries and come up with something different. I wasn’t disappointed. Though I like Cherry Limeades, I’m not a fan of Maraschino Cherries, which seemed to be an ingredient in almost all of the cake and cupcake recipes I found. There’s probably a good reason for it, like the syrup adding sweetness or something, but I just can’t stomach them. So the cherries that were folded in were thawed frozen cherries. With real cherries folded into the batter and a brave amount of fresh lime juice in the frosting, these guys are pretty awesome. I topped them off with a little Rainier Cherry, which turned out to be a good idea. I almost felt like going to Sonic and getting myself a Cherry Limeade to chase it with. Can you say sugar rush?

All in all, I was super happy with how these turned out. The cake was moist with a tender crumb and the tartness of the frosting complemented the sweetness of the cherries. So I arranged my cupcakes, took my pictures, had my fun and then put them in my cupcake carrier to hit the road. I figured that we were going to be in an air-conditioned car, so why worry about keeping the cupcakes cold for just a four hour trip? I can tell you that I learned a lesson this weekend. After four hours in the car, with the sun hitting the carrier for about half the time, these guys looked saaaaad. Cherries had slid off and toppled away and frosting was no longer in the pretty little swirls you see in the pictures. I barely said hello to my In-Laws before asking them to empty out the fridge so I could put my poor cupcakes in there to cool down. Even though they weren’t pretty, we ate them. And we were happy about it. One positive thing out of the frosting melting a bit was that the cupcake soaked some of it in and made the whole Cherry Lime taste even better! Oh well, lesson learned and blessings counted. I’ve got recipes for you after the stripe and a picture of what sadness looks like, too.

Cherry Lime Cupcake Recipe 

Makes about 16 cupcakes

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cake flour
• 1½ tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• one stick of butter
• 1 scant cup of sugar
• Zest of 1 lime
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp lime juice
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 cup thawed frozen cherries

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line your cupcake pans with liners.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, baking powder and salt.
3. In your stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar, and zest. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla and lemon juice.
4. Slowly mix in part of the dry ingredients, about a third. Next blend in a bit of the milk. Mix in the remaining dries and milk, alternating a couple more times, finishing with the dry.
5. Spin the cherries in a food processor for about five seconds, just long enough to chop them down a bit. Fold the cherries into  your batter carefully. Then fill your liners about 2/3 full. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until your cake tester comes out clean.

Lime Buttercream Recipe

• 2 sticks of butter
• 3-4 cups of powdered sugar
• 2 tbsp of lime juice (fresh, if you have some left)
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-2 tbsp cream, if needed
• Rainier Cherries for toppers

1. When the cream cheese and butter have reached room temperature, cream them together.
2. Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl and then mix in about a cup of the powdered sugar. Mix for about 5 minutes, then add in about another cup and mix in til blended.
3. Add in the lime juice and vanilla and mix well. From here, continue to mix in the powdered sugar until you’ve added in at least 3 cups of it. Feel free to go all the way up to 4 cups, if you want a firmer icing. I did use about 3 1/2 cups for this batch. Use the milk to thin out the frosting, if needed.

And now for a glimpse of what Summer did to my precious weekend project:

Summer makes cupcakes sad

I know that right now, everyone is making these crazy flavor combinations and being all avante garde with their cupcake push pops, cake on a stick, and cupcakewurst (yes, it is a thing), but I have a special place in my heart for the simple things: chocolate and buttercream. As I continue reading through my Redditgifts CookBook exchange gift, I keep coming upon classics that really should be the foundation of my baking from now on. I was so excited to try out Shirley Corriher’s recipe for Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake.

I seem to have busy weekends grouped together. Last weekend, when I made this cake, I had my mom in town. This coming weekend, we’re going out of town. I look forward to having a quiet weekend eventually! Don’t get me wrong, I very much loved having mom and her friend here and I can’t wait to see more family in Houston this weekend, but having nothing to do sounds great, too.When we started preparing for mom’s visit she told me she wanted me to bake something for her. That just happens to be something that I enjoy, so I was happy to oblige. I made a mistake and waited for the ladies to be in town and hungry before I baked the cake. By the time the frosting was ready, so were they, and so I had to frost as quickly as I could so we call could enjoy some cake. That being said (and I know I’m my worst critic) I feel like this was a bit of a rush job and maybe a bit old fashioned. I didn’t cut the layers evenly, the frosting wasn’t smooth, and I didn’t really have any kind of rhyme or reason to the actual decorations.

All that doesn’t change the fact that this was the best chocolate cake I have ever had, hands down. The frosting was a perfect combination of sweet and creamy, the cake was moist, chocolatey and had the most amazing texture I have ever seen in a cake. I usually eat the last cupcake or piece of cake while I write my blog, so I can describe the taste and gather my thoughts (or maybe I just like to eat cake), but this time, we ate an entire cake between the four of us over the course of a long weekend. It was just way too good. So now I am sadly empty handed as I write about this cake, wishing I had more.

If you bake this cake, be prepared to see it sink a bit, as it is extremely overleavened. I wouldn’t worry about it, though. Just cut off a bit or turn the cake upside down and you’re just fine. Recipe for the Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake and the vanilla buttercream after the strip.

Deep, Dark Chocolate Cake Recipe

Recipe from BakeWise, by Shirley O. Corriher

• 2 1/3 cups sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 large egg yolks
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup buttermilk

Bethany’s Buttercream Recipe

• 1 lb unsalted butter, brought to room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 bag (2 lbs) confectioners sugar, sifted
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Completely cream the butter in your stand mixer.
2. Mix in the vanilla and salt and beat for 30 seconds. If you have food coloring that you are using, I recommend using it now.
3. Pour in about a third of the confectioners sugar and mix slowly until it is completely mixed in. Add in another third and mix, finishing with the last third.
4. Evaluate the texture of your frosting and add the cream to get the consistency you desire. I used the whole 1/4 cup. If the frosting becomes too soft for your liking, add in more powdered sugar and alternate with cream until you get the desired consistency.