Saturday, June 14, 2008

Accepting my limitations

The more I bake, the more I come to learn my strengths and weaknesses. I make fantastic brownies and muffins. My cookies are usually delicious. And I have a few serious kick-ass cupcake recipes. However, making cakes from scratch is apparently not my thing. The first cake from scratch I ever attempted turned into quite the ordeal. Then there was the German chocolate cake debacle, and most recently the Mother's Day mess. From these experiences I've determined that from now on the majority of my cakes shall come from a box. I never seem to have a problem with those. The icing, however, I'll make from scratch. I seem to be pretty talented at beating together butter and sugar ;) I made this cake for a Father's Day celebration at my parent's house. I used a boxed carrot cake mix and added in golden raisins and walnuts. For the frosting, I utilized this recipe from All Recipes. I love cream cheese frosting (just ask my uncle, who makes carrot cake every Easter and often hands me an extra sidecar cup of frosting with my slice) and this one is tasty. It's not as sweet as some other cream cheese frostings but it's a nice compliment to the rich cake. And it went off without a hitch!

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners' sugar. Store in the refrigerator after use.

No comments: