Buttermilk Yellow Cake and Buttercream Frosting

My friend made this for her daughter's birthday cake and it was so delicious. It was like wedding cake, you know, where it is a little denser than boxed cake? And the buttercream frosting was delicious. I am going to use this cake recipe from now on, especially for birthday cakes because it was so easy to frost and didn't fall apart when you start cutting into it! I don't even like cake and I kept sneaking back to this one for more!

Buttermilk Yellow Cake
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter softened
4 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup buttermilk or sour milk(1 Tbsp vinegar to l cup milk)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
dash of salt

1. Cream butter and sugar till smooth.
2. Add one egg at a time while blending on low speed.
3. In a separate bowl add baking powder to flour.
4. In another bowl add baking soda to buttermilk.
5. Alternate adding dry and wet ingredients to sugar mixture ending with dry ingredients.
6. Add vanilla to all.
7.Bake in greased and floured pans at 325 degrees. Two round pans cook about 20-25 minutes, 9x13 pan cook about 45 minutes.Frost with whatever you want. My friend used the Wilton's vanilla buttercream frosting. (Recipe below)

The Buttercream Icing recipe is perfect for spreading or decorating. Follow our instructions to make it the ideal consistency you need.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract (or regular, it just adds a little color)
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
2 tablespoons milk
Makes: About 3 cups of icing.

Instructions(Medium Consistency)In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

For thin (spreading) consistency icing, add 2 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk.

For Pure White Icing (stiff consistency), omit butter; substitute an additional 1/2 cup shortening for butter and add 1/2 teaspoon No-Color Butter Flavor. Add up to 4 tablespoons light corn syrup, water or milk to thin for icing cakes.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

For some reason I totally forgot about these cupcakes. I made them last year for some picnics and barbecues and they were gone within minutes. They are very easy to make and the lemon taste is very light, so they aren't too sweet. I got this off the Kraft website- you can't go wrong with them! It makes 24 regular size cupcakes.

Lemon Cream Cheese Cupcakes

1 box (2 layer size) white cake mix
1 box (3.4 oz) Jello lemon flavor instant pudding
1 cup water
4 egg whites
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1- 16 oz package powdered sugar
1- 8 oz brick cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened
2 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Heat oven to 350ºF. Beat cake mix, pudding mix, water, egg whites and oil in large bowl with mixer on low speed until moistened. (Batter will be thick.) Beat on medium speed 2 min. Spoon batter evenly into 24 paper-lined muffin tins.

Bake 21 to 24 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min.; remove to wire racks. Cool completely.

Meanwhile, beat sugar, cream cheese, butter and juice with mixer on low speed until well blended. Frost cupcakes. An option is to add 1 tsp lemon zest to the frosting for an extra zing, but I don't like the texture of the zest so I don't do that.

Enjoy!