the best yellow cake and buttercream frosting

To celebrate Christmas, I made a birthday cake for Jesus's birthday. I found this recipe on Bakerella. I tweaked the recipe to my own taste/liking. This cake turned out great and tasted so good!! I highly recommend this recipe.

yellow cake

1 cup (2 sticks) of butter (room temperature)
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs (room temperature)
3 cups of sifted self-rising flour (White Lily)
1 cup of whole milk (room temperature)
1 t pure vanilla extract (McCormicks)
1/2 t butter flavoring
1/2 t almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour (3) 8 inch cake pans or cut out parchment paper to place in the bottom of the pans.
Using a mixer, cream butter until fluffy.
Add sugar and continue to cream for about 6-7 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time. Beat well after each egg is added.
Add milk and flour, beginning and ending with flour.
Add vanilla, almond and butter flavoring to mix; until just mixed.
Divide batter equally into three cake pans.
Hold each layer about 3 inches above your counter and carefully drop the pans flat onto counter several times to ensure release of any air bubbles. This will help you have a more level cake.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes (depending on your oven) until done.
Cool in pans for 5 – 10 minutes.
Remove and immediately wrap each layer in plastic wrap to seal in moisture. Cool completely on wire racks.
Once cooled, you are ready to assemble your cake.
Cut off the top layers to make sure the cake is leveled.


buttercream frosting

1 cup (2 sticks) butter (room temperature)
1 t pure vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract
1 1b. 10X powdered sugar
1-3 t half and half
Pinch of salt (this will cut out the sweetness)

Using a mixer, cream softened butter and vanilla until smooth.
Add sugar gradually, allowing butter and sugar to cream together before adding more.
If you want your frosting a little creamier, add a teaspoon of half and half at a time and beat on high until you get the right texture.
Then, just use icing colors to tint the frosting the color of your choice.
This is usually just enough for a 2-layer cake, so I would recommend doubling this for a three layers.


I also made mini blueberry muffins for Christmas morning!

cookie decorating & family fun

Spending time with my family is my favorite, so this weekend has been the best. We made mom's homemade sugar cookies tonight and had a decorating contest. My cousins are the judges, so we will see who wins! Mom's recipe is below:

white velvet cut outs

Cookie:
1 cup butter
1 pkg. 3 oz. cream cheese
1 cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1/2 t vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour

Icing:
1 cup of powdered sugar
1 T water
1/2 t lemon juice
Food coloring

I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas with their loved ones!

Isaiah 9:6

pesto chicken pizza..yum!

My sweet best friend, Sarah Green, used to make this pizza in college for all of our friends. We always loved it and asked her to make it! She is seriously the best cook/baker with the best recipes. Well...I decided it was time for me to learn how to make this yummy pizza. It was so easy and everyone always loves it!

ingredients:

pizza dough (whole foods has the best pizza dough)

olive oil

pesto

tomatoes

onion

spinach

mozzarella (the more the better!)

rotisserie chicken

directions:

preheat oven to 400

roll out the pizza dough onto a floured pan

spread on olive oil and pesto

bake dough in the oven for 10 minutes

pull off chicken and place to the side

take pizza dough out of the oven

layer spinach, tomatoes, onion, chicken and cheese

the pizza stays together better if you spread cheese across each layer

sprinkle garlic salt on top of the pizza

bake until cheese is melted (about 15 minutes)

my delicious strawberry cake sarah made me for my 21st birthday celebration she threw!

sarah and i at bettola!

the best day of my life...04.21.12

april 21, 2012...

the day i finally got to marry my best friend!! it was the best week/weekend surrounded by my precious family and friends. andrew and i have truly been blessed with the greatest families/friends and we thank God daily for our blessings.

we had been waiting for this day for a long time! we were long distance for so long, the thought of living in the same city, let alone same home, was the best feeling for both of us! it has been an incredible first 3 months for us. we have had a lot of ups and downs in the first few months, but we are reminded daily how blessed we are to have each other to get through it all.

i wanted to share some photos from our special day! everyone who helped us through this was so wonderful! christina gillion, the baisdens, myrtie blue, dine by design, be true designs & so many more helped pull off the perfect day for us:)!