A Week of Birthdays: Spice Cake

Unfortunately I can't take credit for the beautiful handwriting, that was all my roommate

Birthdays always seem to come in packs. Growing up, August was the busiest month with my dad's, mine, and my brother's birthdays all about a week apart. Although it was probably a pain for my mom having to plan three parties and buy gifts, three birthdays in one month meant one very important thing: cake for breakfast all month. Yes, this now dietetic student grew up eating birthday cake for breakfast. Some how my mom managed to give me the nutrients I needed while still letting me be a kid and enjoy the luxury of having cake for breakfast (and the occasional chocolate chip cookie, dipped in milk of course).

Bill Cosby's monologue on cake for breakfast

Although August is a pretty awesome month for birthdays, November comes pretty close, especially in college. My roommate and one of my closest friends both had birthdays this week. Yes, the birthday girls got the perks of presents and free birthday dinners, but I have to say that I enjoyed their birthdays almost as much for one crucial reason: an excuse to bake TWO cakes. I didn't feel guilty filling my shopping basket with cream cheese, sugar, butter, white chocolate, or raspberries, since after all MY grocery budget doesn't apply since I'm not making anything for myself. Right?

Layer 1 out of the oven. So far success

First up was my friend A's birthday. One of the sweetest, most comforting people I know, I knew her cake had to be exactly that: sweet and comforting. I ended up making her a two layer spice cake with cream cheese frosting.
Results: The flavor of the cake was PERFECT, exactly what a spice cake should be, but the texture was a bit dry and not as moist as I was hoping for. I'm guessing that this is due to me not the recipe since I ran out of brown sugar and had to do 1 cup of white sugar instead.

Placing parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pan makes getting the cake out 100% easier

What really stood out was the frosting. Absolutely delicious. And that is saying something. I really don't like frosting. I'm that weird person who if you give me a cupcake, I'll scrape ALL of the icing off then eat it. But this frosting? This frosting is GOOD! The cream cheese keeps it from being too sweet, while the powdered sugar keeps it from being too tart. Perfect. It is a very thick icing, but I'm sure you could thin it out with a bit of almond milk.

Moist, Tender Spice Cake recipe from AllRecipes

Cream Cheese Frosting
(I'm sure there's an original source, but cream cheese frosting is one of those that I know off the top of my head, so I don't know who to give credit to besides my obsession with reading recipes)

Ingredients:

• 4-oz 1/3 reduced fat cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened 
• 2 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 T vanilla extract

Because we're cheap, K and I don't own a mixer. So this recipe took a bit of time and a lot of arm muscle, but it can be done! If you do have a mixer, then just cream the cheese and butter together for about 1-2 minutes, then gradually add in the sugar and the vanilla until it's nice and creamy. This made enough to put a layer of icing between the two cake layers and very lightly cover a 2-layer cake. If you like a lot of frosting, I recommend doubling the recipe.

Now I'm going to be mean and make you wait until next week for cake 2 -- hint it involves white chocolate and raspberries!

In honor of A's birthday, here's one of my favorite Bollywood Songs (and one of the few Bollywood songs I actually know. . .)

--Kelli