Yellow Cake

I don't really like yellow cake.  I think it has more to do with my love of chocolate cake than any antipathy towards yellow cake.  But it's also usually crumbly and fairly tasteless.  Until now.

I have a favourite chocolate cake recipe that I stole from what used to be RecipeZaar (now Food.com).  It is an amazing recipe, that I have had to do no tweaking to (almost unheard-of in my kitchen).  When people have requested a yellow cake, I've always gone with a boxed mix, since I didn't have a good recipe other than this chocolate one.  I decided last weekend that it was finally time to find a non-chocolate recipe good enough to serve with pride.  And rather than wade thru all the possibilities on all the websites, I thought: 'Why not go with what I already know is good?'.

So I converted my chocolate cake recipe to a yellow cake recipe.  I took out the cocoa, added more eggs and vanilla, and substituted butter for the oil, all in an attempt to add richness and flavour.  I made the recipe into cupcakes for a family reunion, but I had Arvid test them before serving them.  They were awesome!  I can't believe they turned out so good on the first try!  I was fully expecting to need a few more attempts to get it right, but they were perfect  - moist, rich, yummy, yellow cake goodness.

I no longer dislike yellow cake.

Sorry no pictures - it was a crazy weekend and I didn't have time.  I'll make them again and post pictures.

Here's the recipe:

Yellow Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups Sugar

2 ½ cups All-purpose Flour

1½ tsp Baking Powder

1½ tsp baking Soda

1 tsp Salt

4 Eggs

1 cup Milk

½ cup Melted Butter

4 tsp Vanilla Extract

¾ - 1 cup Boiling Water (¾ cup works in Calgary)

Directions:

1 – Preheat oven to 350°F.

2 – Grease (with shortening only!) and flour cake pans (or line cupcake molds with paper liners).

3 – In a large mixer bowl, stir together dry ingredients.

4 – Add eggs, milk, butter, and vanilla.  Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

5 – Stir in boiling water by hand.  Batter will be thin.

6 – Pour into prepared pan(s) – no more than 2/3 full or they will overflow.

7 – Bake:   30-35 minutes for 9-inch round pans

                35-40 minutes for 9x13 pan

                15-20 minutes for regular size cupcakes

                1 hour 15 minutes for 9” Pyrex bowl (cover for final 20 minutes)

        Until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.

8 – Cool 10 minutes in the pans.  Remove from pan to wire racks and cook completely before icing.

               

Makes:      2 - 9” round cakes, OR

                   1 – 9x13” rectangle cake, OR

                   24+ regular cupcakes, OR

                   1 – 9” Pyrex bowl cake, OR

                   1 – 8” round cake AND 12 cupcakes

                            

        DO NOT fill cake pans or cupcakes more than 2/3 full – they will overflow!

Baby

I wrote the beginning of this post about a month ago, a few days after Henrik was born, but didn't get to finishing it until today.

So, I had a baby.  Again.  This time it was a boy.  So now I have a son.  How weird is that?!  A son.  As I write this, he's sleeping away in his cot in the NICU at the PLC.  He's not super sick, just needs some help getting his blood sugars sorted out before he can come home.  But I don't really feel like his mother, yet.  I know it will come, but it's a little hard to feel like all I have is a 6 inch scar and no baby in the room upstairs.

Yes, a 6 inch scar.  I haven't actually measured it, but that's about what it is.  I had another c-section.  I haven't posted much about my journey leading up to Henrik's birth, but most of my few readers will know that another c-section was on the top of my list of things to avoid.  I planned, fretted, planned, argued, planned some more, and still I ended up giving birth by c-section again.  But I'm OK with it all.  Why?

I'm ok with it because I feel like I got to choose - sort of.  I would love to have been able to choose to give birth naturally, with no interventions, but that is apparently not in the plans for me.  My babies are big.  And though I'm not a small woman, I guess I'm just not big enough in the right places.  With Bryn, I laboured with an epidural for about 20 hours, until the doctors and nurses gave up on us and sent me to the OR for a c-section.  I felt like I wasn't given any choice, and I certainly wasn't given the chance to discuss risks and benefits or options with anyone. I don't even remember signing the consent form.  

But with Henrik, the doctors and nurses discussed with us the challenges we were facing along with our options.  And when it was time to decide, they left the room quietly (at my request) to allow Arvid and I (and our Super Doula, Jenny) to discuss their recommendations and pray for guidance. In the end, my two babies' births were almost identical (about 9 hours of pain med free labour with Henrik, followed by a c-section), but what a difference it made to be respected by my 'team'!  To be treated like I not only had the right to make the decisions, but was intelligent enough to do so was amazing.  I'll never go back to the first hospital for another birth, but the second hospital was great. 

So here he is:  Henrik Blaine, born April 11, 2011 at 6:23 AM, about 21 hours after my water broke, 12 hours of walking to try to get my labour started, about 9 hours of induced labour, and a c-section.  9 pounds, 9 ounces, 54 centimetres long. 

Special thanks to Jenny for taking the pictures - I'm going to insist on having a photographer in the room when I have my next baby (if there is a next one).