Ok, so. I’ve been trying to Etsy like mad, but I feel a little burnt out. I was thinking I’d come home and zip through more listings, but I was grumpy as heck all day today!! No idea why. After dinner I’ll tuck up into bed with the laptop and edit some photos I took this weekend. The non-stop Etsy-ers are super impressive! I come home from work and all I want to do is…
…bake a cake.
So I did! I called my mom and asked for her recipe, but looking at it, and knowing her baking habits, I thought it could be modified. So I did. HOLY COW. BEST CAKE EVER.
Super simple, super old fashioned, gold cake.
In bowl #1:
2 1/3 cup flour (I used all purpose & some whole wheat.)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon grey sea salt (do not put in a tsp of regular salt or you will be sad.)
1 1/4 cup sugar
Fork mix all this together. I don’t own an electric mixer, it’s all Anne of Green Gables up in here.
In bowl #2:
2 teaspoons very softened Earth Balance
6 teaspoons very softened butter
1 1/4 cup milk
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
Beat the heck out of this. Then slowly add the flour mix, beating all the while.
Bake at 350 until done. Like, 20 mins? I dunno. I don’t measure very accurately, either. I made one layer & 3 tiny heart cakes with this. So good, super moist and spongy and ummmm I need to go eat another piece.
Icing
1/2 cup butter
4 teaspoons earth balance
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cream
4 cups confectionary sugar (I used Fair Trade Certified!)
1/3 cup cocoa (also Fair Trade)
SO GOOD. I just ate a tiny heart one for pre-dinner and S. is now making cheeseburgers. Wedding diet? I can start that like, a month before the wedding, right? Shhhhh.
In other news, my pre-mother-in-law keeps sending prizes. It’s pretty crazy! Today she sent a lovely glass pitcher when she heard we didn’t have one for lemonade, a strange old shoeshine kit, a copper pan, several glass bottles, and various odds and ends. Oh dear!
What else! Today in Goodwill I found this 1970s crochet dress – possible wedding dress?!?! I’d make the neck scoop neck and shorten the sleeves!
Ok! That is all! Happy Monday! Go bake a cake! I totally made myself sick with cake eating! Awesome!! Maybe you only have one or 2 slices and not 3 plus a tiny cakelet, OK?
P.S. Sorry for the photos, I almost never take photos in the darkness, I am no good at them!
Nokomi
1 year ago
Beautiful lady! Thanks for the cake inspiration. It’s getting all wintery goodness down here in the Antipodes and a cake is the perfect recipe (literally!) for the grey, windy, rainy weather we have going on at the moment! One question though: what on earth is “earth balance”?
Love, love, love.
verhext
1 year ago
It’s vegan butter! It’s not as gross as shortening or margarine, but I use it to cut the sheer amount of dairy happening in this cake. http://www.earthbalancenatural.com/
nath
1 year ago
oh, that all looks cosy and fine. i am not eating wheat at the moment in order to combat catastrophic hay fever, which means NO cake. but as soon as the danger passes and i can get my hands on some mystery Earth Balance, yes you’re going to have to spill the beans on that, what IS that, then i am going to celebrate with some cake.
the dress looks super-promising! and i think S and his mother were made for you indeed!
verhext
1 year ago
I keep forgetting about wheat and allergies, I just keep eating allergy meds. I bet this cake would be phenomenal with almond flour.
Mathyld / under the pyramids
1 year ago
Three things :
1/ Your photos are good
2/ The first image of the cake reminded me of my mother’s cake, the one she bakes after her mother’s recipe, and which has been our bday cake since we (my brother & I) were little.
http://encorepetite.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/a-little-crumb-of-summer/
3/ That dress ! Looks perfect !
Would be perfect with scoop neck (& three-quarter sleaves, maybe) ?
x x x
___m___
verhext
1 year ago
Yes, that’s what I was thinking with the sleeves! I’ll probably fix up 348738 vintage dresses and stash them and decide the day of. Then have a giant wedding Etsy sale in November. Haha.
nath
1 year ago
i just had to write again – your parcel just arrived. i opened it all after much admiring the wrapping and oohed and aahed at the contents. thank you dear, so much. we love elsa beskow. and the teeny bird bell is darling. everything is perfect. the tiny garlands!
oh! thank you again, i’m pink with pleasure.
verhext
1 year ago
I’d never heard of her!! I bought like 10 of the books for everyone I know with kids. Oh dear. SO CUTE. I’m glad you like it!! Did you try the tea?
Windsor Grace
1 year ago
I know what you mean with the Etsy. I have plans for my shop and then I get home and just want to watch Seinfeld. And play with digital scrapbooking stuff on the computer. Those hardcore people are awesome.
Amy
1 year ago
The dress is really sweet and would probably be amazing with the modifications you’d make. So pretty.
vivi!
1 year ago
anne of greene gables up in here! made me laugh
a classic yellow cake with chocolate frosting is so great. you should make the wedding cake! not really, it’d add more stuff to the list of stuff to do. i didn’t forget i’m bringing cannolis…
verhext
1 year ago
Holly who works for Miette Cakes is making it!! AMAZINNGGGG.
zincink
1 year ago
I made a cake yesterday too but I gave it to my next door neighbor! I will make one for myself at some other point when not bloated heheh. OOoo that dress is uber deluxe. yes yes!
Becca
1 year ago
I was at the office until 9pm last night, jealous about your cake tweets. In the time it took me to write a report you’d found a recipe, baked it, (apparently taken some scrumptious photos) and eaten delicious cake. I really must find time to learn to bake. These photos are lovely, and I want to spend more time in the kitchen. I love the kitchen. Sigh.
lyn
1 year ago
That’s it. I’m ganking this recipe and trying it just as soon as I find some Earth Balance. I LOVE BAKING.
Is the E.B. a straight substitution for butter? Like, when you used 6 teaspoons of Earth Balance, was it replacing 6 teaspoons of butter? Also, did you spoon the flour into the measuring cups or pack it?
Um, sorry for the barrage of questions. I want to mimic your technique thoroughly.
verhext
1 year ago
Oh dear, please don’t mimic my technique!! Flour: dumped over measuring cup, spilling into batter. I’m not a precise baker, by any means. The EB was actually subbed for SHORTENING (yikes) but butter would work too.
It really did turn out well, though, one of my coworkers (I brought in the remainder after eating 1/4 of the cake) said it was the most moist spongy cake he’d ever had.
hannah
1 year ago
my mouth is watering at that amazing cake!! and holy cow, what a great find! simply gorgeous dress. i think a scoop neck will be lovely (is there an easy way to do that?) but keep the sleeves long! they are so dainty..
nath
1 year ago
yes, i will make that cake with almonds, i’m craving cake rather badly. and the tea is lovely! i have had it unsweetened, which was nice, but then with a spoonful of honey which really rounds out the rose. yum. thanks. X
Elissa
1 year ago
This is crazy! My friend sent me this link a few months ago and I made this cake (though in cupcake-only format) for a friend’s going-away party. They raved about how good it was. Fast-forward to a few weeks ago, when Kate Miss retweeted your rant on jerks on the internet, and I decided I loved you and we became twitter friends.. not realizing that I’d made your cake already… I’d already forgotten where the recipe had come from. Now, trying to find the recipe again, I find that your cake genius and your other genius are combined. My mind is blown. This makes me like you even more.
/probably not as awesome to you as it is to me, so long comment is long
verhext
1 year ago
this is totally awesome. 1. it’s amazing that my convoluted recipes work for other people 2. i was so excited about this cake 3. what the heck, so random.
maybe i should make a cake and no-jerks cookbook.
Elissa
1 year ago
Haha, okay, I actually misread the butter measurements the first time I made the cake, so I used about 3x as much better as was required… but no matter, right? Butter makes everything better! I made this cake again last night for a birthday party. This time I followed all of the instructions to the letter (swapped milk for soy milk) and they came out amazing! I have half a bag of icing in my fridge that I may just eat with a spoon. You’re the best