Why use a box when you can make homemade?

My youngest sister Kimberly turned 23 today. In an instant, my sisters and I became true stairsteps: ages 23, 24 and 25...well, until early April anyway. To this day, I still question my parents' sanity. 

I took the opportunity to make a cake for today's celebration. Kim's favorite kind of cake is funfetti. You know, the pre-made Pillsbury cake mix. It is basically white cake, but the "funfetti" part is a bunch of colored sprinkles that bake into the dough and form a confetti like appearance inside the cake. It's basically a party in a box. 

As for icing, she likes white. I prefer chocolate myself, but if the girl wanted white on white, she was going to get white on white.

Instead of simply using a cake mix and can of frosting, I decided to kick it up a notch. I tried two new (well, new to me anyway) recipes from my Joy of Cooking cookbook: White Cake and Seven Minute White Icing. I followed the basic cake recipe but added quite a few rainbow sprinkles to the batter to give it that Funfetti appearance.

All in all, the cake turned out pretty delish, despite not being as moist as I typically like my cakes. It had a heavier texture and reminded me more of a wedding cake. Not that there's anything wrong with that! 


The icing was really sweet; kind of had a marshmallow creme kind of consistency. Maybe I didn't beat it as long as I should have. But it tasted great just the same!

Cakes are not one of my favorites when it comes to baking and sweet making, but it was nice to get into the kitchen for a little baking session. Happy 23rd Birthday, Kimberly! 

Operation Cake: Ordered

We placed the order for our wedding cake this morning!

We decided on a four layer round cake from Brown's Bakery in Lexington. The bottom layer will be German Chocolate cake (a Brown's specialty and our favorite flavor), the next layer will be yellow, the third layer will be white and the top layer will be chocolate. And, of course, the entire cake will be smothered in a yummy chocolate frosting!! Tasty!

The design/texture on the cake will look something like this cake (on right). We have not decided on the cake topper at this point, but I am going to look into flowers or a monogrammed "K." I wonder what kind of flowers would look best on a chocolate iced cake?

Not only will we get to enjoy the deliciousness and decadence of a Brown's cake on our wedding day, but we are having it made by our dear old friend, James Brown. To make it even more sweet, James gave us a discount on the cake! So exciting!