Yellow Layer Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting {Blog 1st Birthday!}
So, did you notice the single pink candle atop this yellow layer cake with chocolate buttercream frosting? Truffles and Trends turned 1 this week! Woooooohooooooo! Happy first birthday to Truffles and Trends!
Birthday cake, anyone?
Oh, and there's a mound of mini chocolate chip cookies on top of the cake too. I'll explain below.
I honestly can't believe it's been a year. It feels like it's been just a couple months since I started this little blog.
One year ago, on the fateful day of February 1st, 2015, I hit "publish" on my first blog post. And I haven't looked back since.
Well, okay, I've looked back a couple of times. Fine, a couple hundred times. Because being the perfectionist that I am, I've agonized over every word written on this blog, every photo taken and edited and published, every aspect of the web design, every recipe shared, every social media post, every comment response - everything.
And once I finally settled on a sentence, on the amount of saturation and shadows and exposure in a photo, on my response to an email, on an outfit post, and on a font size, I wasn't done. I went back. And analyzed - err - overanalyzed all of it.
Whenever I go back to an old post and read it, I shudder a little bit. "Gah, how did I let myself post that? It's so terribly written... It's such a corny line... It's such an awful photo... It's such a dull fashion collage... It's such an imperfect cake..."
But I try to tell myself that everyone starts somewhere. The first time I used a DSLR camera and attempted taking a food photo was a couple weeks before I published my first recipe. I had no idea what I was doing. I still don't.
And while my photos have improved since my first recipe post (the pictures are blue. Blue! How did that escape me??), I'm well aware that my photos are still nowhere near the professional level of many of the bloggers I follow. And they may very well never be. Which is something I'll have to learn to accept. Sigh.
Before going public with the blog, I read countless photography tips from fellow bloggers, obtained a lesson from a local photographer, and slowly taught myself the basic camera settings and simple photo editing techniques.
Then I scoured through hundreds of food and fashion blogs to expose myself to different food styling methods, writing styles, and web designs. And slowly, I began designing my blog.
Again, I had no idea what I was doing. I won't bore you with the details of the process, but let's just say it was quite tedious. And time-consuming. And involved me copying and pasting HTML codes from google because I had and still have no background or knowledge in coding and web design. FUN.
Well, a year has passed since I began Truffles and Trends. Running the blog takes a lot of work. And a lot of time. But I enjoy it. Because I get to immerse myself in my two passions - fashion and baking.
And a simple comment from a reader saying that she enjoyed a particular recipe or style guide makes it all worth it. For real.
Especially when the comment is "these really are the best chocolate chip cookies." Because then I'm like, "I know, right??"
But seriously, I know that I will only post a recipe on the blog if it's amazing, and I'm especially proud of the recipes that I've developed myself and labored over till they were perfect. But it's always a relief to know that others love the recipes as much as I do.
So please, leave comments if you make something from the blog. Or enjoyed a fashion post. Or have any suggestions for future posts. Or have comments or criticisms on past posts. But go easy on the criticisms, cuz I'm pretty sensitive.
But enough about me. And the blog's 1st birthday. Let's talk about cake. This cake. This yellow layer cake with chocolate buttercream frosting. It's incredible. So. So. Good. I. Can't.
This is the best yellow cake. Fact. And I thank the recipe creator, Mel, for developing it. Eternally grateful.
I only tweaked the recipe slightly. I cut down on the sugar just a bit, because the cake was slightly too sweet, especially with the frosting. I also upped the vanilla extract amount, because hellllooo, vanilla! And I added a 1/4 teaspoon more baking soda. To get three fluffy 8-inch layers. And I wrote a different amount of flour in cups (but it's the same amount in weight), because I always measure my flour by dunking the measuring cup into the flour and leveling it out, as opposed to lightly spooning the flour into the measuring cup. Semantics.
This yellow cake recipe is perfect. It's just the right amount of sweet. And moist. And soft. And fluffy. And full of vanilla flavor. Like I said, it's perfect.
And then there's the chocolate buttercream frosting. It's a basic chocolate frosting. No cream cheese. No sour cream. Just good old butter. And cocoa powder. And confectioner's sugar. And the other stuff. It's rich and creamy and velvety and chocolaty. And it pairs flawlessly with the yellow cake.
About the mini chocolate chip cookies. I said I would explain. Although, if you've been reading the blog for a while now or have been following me on Instagram, I really don't have to. Because you already know about my obsession with 1 - chocolate chip cookies, and 2- miniature paraphernalia. So, combine my two loves and what do you get? Yes, that's correct, mini chocolate chip cookies. Very good.
Well, now you understand that the birthday cake for Truffles and Trends had to be topped with a mountain of mini chocolate chip cookies. I mean, duh. The recipe I used for these cookies is my favorite no-butter chocolate chip cookie recipe. It also happens to be the most viewed recipe on the whole blog.
So, let's summarize: the best yellow cake. Three fluffy layers of it. Filled with generous slathers of an amazing yet super simple chocolate buttercream frosting. Topped with adorable, mini chocolate chip cookies. And mini chocolate chips, if you really want to go all out. Or, if like me, you just have a few chocolate chips left over after you used them for your mini chocolate chip cookies, and you don't know what to do with them. So you sprinkle them on top of your yellow layer cake with chocolate buttercream frosting and mini chocolate chip cookies and a single birthday candle. And call it a cake. A birthday cake. A blog '1st birthday' cake.
Thank you. For reading this. And for visiting the blog. And for your support. And for trying my recipes. And for your comments. And for sitting through my sad attempts but ultimate fails at funny or witty lines (I'm not funny or witty, I never was, but this is a fact I've never been able to accept).
Thank you for stopping by. I hope you'll visit again sometime. I'd love to have you.
Yellow Layer Cake with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting
Yellow Cake Adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe
Yield: Three 8" round layers (1 cake)
2 sticks butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 whole eggs + 2 egg yolks (room temp.)
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 2/3 cup packed cake flour (9 oz.)*
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk (room temp.)
1/2 cup sour cream (room temp.)
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting:
2 sticks butter
1 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5-6 cups confectioner's sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk + more if needed
Mini chocolate chip cookies recipe here and here
Yellow Cake: Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and line three 8-inch round pans (alternatively, make two thicker 8-inch layers).
Cream together butter and sugar for a few minutes till light and fluffy.
Add in the vanilla extract, then the eggs + yolks one at a time, beating between each addition. Beat till light and fluffy again. Batter may look curdled - that's okay.
Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt (don't skip the sifting) and then stir to combine. In another bowl, stir together the milk and sour cream.
Alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk mixture to your machine running on low-medium speed, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix till just combined.
Divide batter into the prepared pans evenly and smooth tops. Bang pans against counter a couple times to remove air bubbles.
Bake cakes for 18-25 minutes, until the edges are golden and a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs. Don't over bake.
Let cakes cool 5-10 minutes in pans before running a knife around the edges and flipping onto a cake rack. Peel off parchment paper and let layers cool completely before frosting.
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting: Melt the butter in a pot or microwave. Stir in the cocoa powder. Add mixture to a machine fitted with a whip attachment.
Add in the vanilla extract and salt and beat, then alternate adding 5 cups of confectioner's sugar with the milk till smooth and fluffy. Add more confectioner's sugar if you want frosting sweeter, and more milk if you want it thinner.
Assembly: Place one layer upside down onto a cake plate. Spread a large dollop of frosting evenly till the edges. Place a second cake layer on top and press down lightly. Spread another dollop of frosting over the second cake layer evenly. Top with the last cake layer, pressing down lightly. Frost the top and side of the cake with the remaining frosting. Design as desired (smooth, rustic, spiral etc.)
Garnish with mini chocolate chip cookies if desired (don't pile cookies too high on any one side because cake will be weighed down and topple or shift to that side.)
Mini Chocolate chip cookie recipe and instructions here.
Serve right away or store until ready to serve under a cake dome in the fridge.
*Note: If you don't have cake flour, substitute 210 grams of all-purpose flour and 45 grams of cornstarch. Sift the two together twice, and then add to the rest of the dry ingredients and sift once more.
On a completely unrelated note, and he does CrossFit:
photo from dump a day dot com
