The Best White Birthday Cake…SERIOUSLY!

It has been a great birthday week! I will have to share the details with you later. The birthday cake is the priority here. And while some people may take issue with baking their own cake, I'm not one of them. I love making cake...I'm also a fan of eating it. I guess I have a tendency to choose more extravagant cakes to make. You know, the kinds with filling, frosting, and ganache. More than one flavor. That kind of thing. But I also think there's something quite lovely about a simple white cake with buttercream frosting. And I wanted a really classic birthday cake-cake. I found the perfect recipe from Add a Pinch.

I cannot tell you how good this cake is. It's seriously amazing. I wish there was enough to share with you! It has a great texture. Perfectly moist. Excellent white cake flavor. The buttercream frosting compliments it beautifully. Although, white-cake-purists be warned: this recipe uses whole eggs (not just whites) and regular vanilla (not clear). Still, it's the best white cake EVER. Seriously. 

I jazzed it up a little by adding sprinkles! I mean, nothing says 'birthday cake' more than sprinkles, right? There's probably a better way of doing it, but I made my own stencil of sorts to get the numbers on the cake and leave space for the candles on the edge. It makes for a pretty fun cake. But sprinkles are to baking as glitter is to crafting, and I'm pretty sure I will be finding sprinkles in the kitchen for the rest of my life.

• To get the recipe for the cake, click here.
• To get the recipe for the frosting, click here. (I made 1 1/2 times the recipe and had just enough)

PBC Cake

Peanut Butter. Chocolate. Cake. Three of my most favorite things in one seriously scrumptious dessert! I have been dying to make this since I located it on Pinterest last month. Fortunately, there was a birthday in the family this weekend. Perfect occasion for such a cake. In all honesty, the only thing I could think about during classes on Friday was that I was going to finally make this cake... Disclaimer: this cake is HORRIBLE for you. Super delicious. But you might want to have some extra insulin and antilipidemics handy. Kidding...kind of. Definitely get in some P90X or something once or twice BEFORE eating it. But really, this is the BEST tasting worst thing you can eat. Definitely worth it. Even the brother who doesn't like peanut butter, poor unfortunate child, ate this cake up. I would recommend making this for a crowd so you're not munching on leftovers :)

The recipe is from Tara at Smells Like Home. I thought about maybe making some healthier substitutions, but, really, with a cake like this, what's the point? There's just not a great way to do it. You can, however, control the quality of the ingredients that go in (i.e. natural/organic). Don't get too natural with the peanut butter though! JIF or Skippy Natural (creamy) are fine, but don't use anything that separates. That would be no good. Also, I only had 9" cake pans...so if that's you too, just know that you'll have a wider, shorter cake and will need to adjust the baking time. Click on the link above to get the recipe for this sweet thing!