Here a Cake, There a Cake

Hello, my name is Andie and I am a yes-er.  For those of you who are wondering what that is, a yes-er is the term I've come up with for a person who says "yes" to pretty much anything someone asks them to do regardless of what's going on in their life.  Worse than that, I'm a volunteer yes-er in that I don't actually wait most of the time for people to ask me but volunteer my services up in advance.  This usually involves me overloading myself, stressing about whatever it is I'm doing and (of course) setting those wonderfully high expectations that everything I make needs to look like it came out of the pages of Food and Wine magazine.  When times like this come up, the hubs usually rolls his eyes at me and shakes his head.  He used to ask me "why do you do this to yourself?"  But after a while, he learned that didn't curb the problem.  So now he just steps out of the way and sits on the sidelines as the madness ensues.

As of today there are exactly 9 days before we leave the country.  To see that we have hit single digits makes me want to crawl up in a ball and find my happy place.  What I SHOULD be doing right now is taking my time to get things in order, making sure the essentials are packed and the necessities of home are taken care of.  That should be enough to get me through the next 9 days.  But, true to form, I've added a few more little gems to my plate. 

One of my best friends in the world is pregnant.  I couldn't be happier for her...except...she's delivering in December, and I won't be here.  So Sunday, myself and some other friends are throwing her a baby shower.  I've taken up the reigns on doing all the food and the cake...for 35 people.  I'm happy I can do something for her and the baby before I leave, but even she thinks I'm crazy for this one.  But, it doesn't stop there...

Since out of town friends will be in town for the shower, I thought it a perfect time to get everyone together for one last dinner before we leave.  What wonderful restaurant in town have I picked for this celebratory occasion you ask?  My house.  Friday night, one week exactly before we leave, I will be hosting a wine dinner for 20 of our closest friends.  I finally settled on a menu this past weekend, which is anything but simple, but hey...got to go out with a bang...right?  Oh, and one more thing...

My nephew turned 6 this past week.  His birthday party is on Saturday...and I'm doing his cake.  When I asked him in the beginning what he wanted on his cake he informed me that he wanted a picture of his face wearing a party hat with his name written across his forehead.  I don't know who this kid thinks I am, but if I even attempted that it's liable to look like something out of Picasso's worst nightmare.  He's getting a soccer cake.  Done.

So today was cake day and here's what the final product of all the different cakes looks like.

Front to back we have chocolate cake, yellow cake and spiced chocolate sponge cake.  The chocolate cake is for my nephew, the yellow cake for the baby shower and the spice cake for the dinner.  I got the chocolate cake recipe from Food and Wine Magazine, March 2013 addition.  It's super moist and oh so chocolaty.  Perfect for any kids birthday!  The spiced chocolate cake came from Johnny Iuzzini's cookbook Dessert Fourplay.  If you've never checked out Johnny Iuzzini, DO SO NOW!!  I want to be him when I grow up.  Some recipes may be a little tricky for a beginner, but it's worth the extra effort. 

My favorite of the bunch was the yellow cake.  My friend told me her favorite cake was yellow cake with chocolate frosting.  Since I've sworn off the boxed stuff forever, I was happy when I ran across this little nugget in Bon Appetit.  It will change your mind about yellow cake forever!  If you're a fan of the boxed variety, try this once.  I would be willing to bet my favorite knife that you won't ever want to go back...even if you do take a shortcut now and then.  Here's what you'll need:

Nonstick vegetable spray
4 c cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c buttermilk
1/2 c vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c sugar
1 c unsalted butter; room temp
1/2 c brown sugar; packed
1 vanilla bean; split and scrapped (or 2 tsp extract)
6 egg yolks
3 whole eggs

1 - Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray and flour 3 x 9 inch cake pans and shake out excess flour. 
2 - Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3 - In another bowl, combine buttermilk, oil and vanilla.
4 - In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, butter, brown sugar and scrapped vanilla bean.  Beat mixture until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  Add yolks and eggs one at a time, beating to blend between additions and scraping down the bowl often.  Beat 5-6 minutes until mixture has doubled in volume and is very light and airy.
5 - With mixture still on low, add dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with buttermilk mixture. 
6 - Divide batter evenly between pans and bake 30-40 minutes until cake is spingy in the middle and tester come out clean.  Cool in pan for 30 minutes then on wire rack until completely cooked.

So what goes with cake...