Blue-Eyed Baker: Evan's Pre-School Graduation Cake

Last night my littlest brother, Evan, graduated from pre-school.  Now I know it's not really that big of a deal but he asked for a cake a few days ago and this was a good excuse to make one.  I don't really like making cakes just out of the blue because I feel the need to decorate them and I like to have a theme going.

However I didn't really keep to a graduation theme because he asked for Manny from Ice Age to be on it.  So I did my best and here's the result.

Not my best work but I did all right.

I used the "Cake Boss's" recipe for a vanilla cake.  I haven't tried a vanilla cake recipe that I loved just yet so hopefully this will be the one.

Buddy Valastro's Vanilla Cake
Yields: 2-9 in cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil or 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup whole milk

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, sugar, butter or oil (I used oil), vanilla and salt.

Mix the ingredients on low until combined.

Increase the speed to med-low and beat for about a minute.

Decrease the speed and add the eggs one at a time.

Add milk 1/2 a cup at a time with the mixer still running.

When the batter is fully mixed (no more lumps) divide it into your greased cake pans.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes.

 Let cool and Enjoy!

The icing I used was a vanilla butter cream.  I'd never tried it before but it had a nice consistency.  You can find the recipe here.

I'm writing this post on Thursday so the cake hasn't been eaten yet but I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Friday and Happy Baking!