Birthday Baking!

We just celebrated Aiden's 10th birthday this past week and I made his birthday cake for the first time ever. Actually, it's my first cake ever. I like to cook but I am not a baker. I have 2 friends that I usually order his cake from and they are amazingly beautiful and delicious...but they were both out of town this year when I needed a cake. I have never bought a store bought cake and didn't want to this year, so I figured I could do it! How hard could it be, right? Well, let me tell you how easy and delicious my cake turned out. It may not be as pretty as the ones I have had in the past but it was just a yummy!

I took a little trip to Hobby Lobby for some cake baking supplies, because I didn't even have cake pans. That aisle was a little overwhelming so I contacted another friend who bakes and she hooked me up and told me exactly what I needed to do to make my cake delicious! She even gave me a super easy recipe for the icing. It's still a box cake, but with some added extras to make it fluffy and moist. One of Aiden's friends said it was the best ever and I think it was even better a couple days later. So moist and yummy.

White Cake Mix

Instant Vanilla Pudding mix

Yes, club soda.

Yummy!!

With butter cream icing.

Vanilla Cupcakes/Cake

1 box white cake mix

1 box instant vanilla pudding

1 cup club soda

1 cup vegetable oil

3 eggs

Bake at 350 for 15 - 20 mins. Makes about 20 cupcakes or 1 cake in a 9x3 pan.

Butter Cream Icing

1 cup butter (softened, not melted)

pinch of salt

1 tsp. vanilla

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Mix with electric mixer. Spread on cook cakes and cupcakes.

You guys just don't know how proud of myself I was after finishing up my baking for Aiden's birthday. I wasn't able to decorate my cake fancy, but that didn't even matter. Aiden helped me ice it and he loved the cake. He even asked me to stop bragging about it to all our family. Haha! I bought cake pans but used borrowed ones from my friend. I was going to return the ones that I didn't use, but decided I kinda liked baking that cake so I am going to keep them and keep practicing my cake baking. I can only get better!