Let them eat cake!

I love cake. Yesterday was my birthday. I didn't get any cake yesterday. I was sad.

So today, I made me my own birthday cake. I know, I'm lame. I don't have a problem with box cake mix, I get box cake mix. It's easy, predictable, always tastes reasonably good and it gets the job done pretty quickly. I don't have a problem with box cake mix. But I have a huge problem with canned frosting.

Canned frosting is an abomination and an insult to any and all baked goods. Canned frosting isn't even really a food! I can't pronounce the ingredients in canned frosting. It's the nastiest nasty that ever nastied. Here's my philosphy when it comes to frosted cakes: if you're gonna do the crime (and eat it), take the time to make real frosting. Really. It's not that hard.

Tonight I whipped up some chocolate buttercream frosting for my cake and it was fantastic! Next time you make a cake, frost it with this...eat it, and be fat and happy.

Buttercream frosting:
1 1/2 sticks butter, softened (If I forget to take the butter out to soften ahead of time, I unwrap the sticks and put them in a bowl and set it on top of the stove while the oven and cake cool. The warmth of the oven is enough radiant heat to soften up the butter.)
1 t vanilla
2 c powdered sugar
3 T milk

Cream butter in bowl, add in vanilla. Sift in powdered sugar and whip together. Add milk slowly to reach desired consistency for spreading. To chocolafy, add in 4 T cocoa powder when you sift in the sugar.

This takes all of 5 minutes and it's SOOOOO worth it!