Seriously, It's All About the Cake

Growing up, birthday cakes were a big deal in my house.

While many of my friends dreamed of Dairy Queen cakes and fancy grocery store sheet cakes... I did not.

Growing up in my family, we always joked that if you were really "loved," you got a homemade cake. To this day, I hate overly-sugared grocery store cakes and ice cream cakes just don't hold a candle to a fabulous homemade cake.

This year, my dad wasn't too excited to make a big cake for the two of us to eat... but we convinced my brother to come home from college to eat cake with us.

So our typical cake is a boxed cake mix - any flavor. This year I used traditional white cake (feel free to freak out - but I don't really like chocolate cake).

So I mixed up the batter and then decided to get a little crazy with food coloring.

And so I ended up with these. I split the batter into 3 rounds instead of 2, so I reduced the cooking time a bit.

After baking them, I frosted it up. The frosting is actually the thing that makes this cake special to our family - it is SOO tasty.

And the final product?

Delicious!

First off, I have to say that I was a bit inspired by this post when I decided to create colorful layers. I am not that creative on my own.

Second, the frosting recipe. It's the most important part of the cake!

Ingredients:

• 8 oz Cool Whip
• 1 Box Instant Pudding (I use White Chocolate).
• 1 Cup Cold Milk
• 1/4 C Powdered Sugar

To make the frosting, just mix up all the ingredients except Cool Whip in a mixer for a minute or two. Gently stir in the cool whip and voila - delicious frosting. It's a bit runny when you first mix it up, but it firms up as it refrigerates.

So there you have it... MY special birthday tradition - the good cake. Cakes from the store just aren't the same.

And I guess it's only fair to say that I took a 4-ish year hiatus from this type of cake for cheesecake. And since I'm the only one in my family who likes cheesecake.... I would end up eating a 12 inch cheesecake by myself. In about a week. Seriously, it was a sickness. Which is why we had to go back to regular cake.

So I want to know... what kind of cake do you have for your birthday? Do you have any other special birthday traditions?

And most importantly... want to share a piece of it with me?

P.S. Remember that every comment you leave this week enters you to win a copy of The Middle Place. Comment away!

P.P.S. Go wish Sarah (not me Sarah, a different Sarah) a Happy Birthday!

And last but not least.... I just wanted to let you know that Whiter Image is running a 15% off promotion through the month of October with the code Image1. Also, if you use that code they will donate 10% of all sales to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Ok, now I'm really done! Happy Tuesday!