Adventures in Baking: My Birthday Cake

Happy birthday to me!  I turned the big 28 this week.  I simply cannot believe how close I am to 30.  I remember, when my youngest sister was born, thinking to myself, "I'll be 30 when she graduates from high school!  That's so old!"  Well, 30 is now breathing down my neck and it doesn't seem so old any more.  Funny how that happens.

Anyway, I haven't had a birthday cake in years.  Partially b/c I'm a perpetual dieter, but partially b/c, well, I don't really know why.  But this year I wanted one.  Specifically something strawberry shortcake like.

I had some heavy whipping cream and a box of french vanilla cake mix hanging out, so I thought I'd use those.  I ran to the store and grabbed a box of strawberries, so obviously out of season with their $5 price tag.  Ouch.

I also wanted my cake to be kind of fancy and, to me, a layer cake is always fancy.  I'm high class, you know.

So into the oven my two round cake pans went, and out came this:

Poor Spencer was beside himself with anticipation.  So much so that, once I turned them out to cool, I came back to a mysterious little hole in the side of one.  Wonder how that happened.

I mixed up the whipping cream with some sugar and a touch of vanilla (the real stuff only, no imitation in this house).  I used to hate whipping the whipping cream, but my new mixer has really made things easy.  Love it.

I placed one cake on a plate, put a layer of my grandmother's strawberry jam down (yum, she should really sell that stuff), a layer of whipped cream, another cake, another layer of whipped cream, and then placed strawberries around the edge on the top.

 

 

Yummy

This is some serious goodness.

As thrilled as Spencer was about this cake, I don't think he really liked it too much.  He ate maybe half a piece and hasn't asked for another.

I love it, though.  My waistline will be happy when it is all gone.