My little sister turned 16 today! She is such a beautiful young woman now! Not to mention she is smart and completely hilarious. I love my little sister!
From this…the buried one..
To this…almost licensed and ready to drive…
I’m on the left and Allie’s on the right. She is my little mini me. We look a lot of like! I’m pretty happy we look alike, though, because I think Allie is so gorgeous!
To celebrate her 16th birthday, Allie requested I make her a special cake. I made a spice cake with spice frosting and decorated it with sliced almonds, blueberries, and raspberries. Gotta get your antioxidants in with your cake right? And as an added bonus, red and blue are 4th of July colors. This cake would work perfectly for any 4th of July celebration. Anyways, I’m super happy with how this cake turned out. I hope Allie loves it as much as I do. I wish her many more wonderful birthdays to come!
Spice Cake
via allrecipes.com
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup milk
- 3 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened until easily spreadable
- 2 cups dark brown sugar
Directions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a metal or disposable foil 9-by-13-inch pan. Whisk dry ingredients and spices in a large bowl. Mix milk, eggs and vanilla extract in a 2-cup measuring cup.
- Beat softened butter into dry ingredients, first on low, then medium, until mixture forms pebble-sized pieces. Add about 1/3 of the milk mixture and beat on low until smooth. Add remaining milk mixture in two stages; beat on medium speed until batter is just smooth. Add the sugar; beat until just incorporated, about 30 seconds. Pour batter into cake pan.
- Bake until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the cake’s center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Set pan on a wire rack; let cool for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the pan perimeter and turn cake onto rack. Let cool.
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 to 1 Tablespoon whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Blend butter, sugar and spices. Stir in cream and vanilla. Beat until frosting is smooth, light and fluffy. Add additional sugar and/or cream until icing has the desired taste and texture.
What a pretty birthday cake! Happy Birthday to your sister, Allie! Hope yall have a wonderful birthday weekend, and also have a Happy July 4th!
Awwww…my best wishes for Allie on her birthday too
I really miss my sister now, who’s been avoiding me for a year now…. I truly hope you will get to spend an amazing day with her!!
Fabulous cake Jamie!!!! Glad we were there to enjoy;)
AWESOME CAKE, Miss Jamie! Who knew the super skinny super model would be a baker…..go figure…lol
This looks fabulous! Im sure your sister will be elated with it, you must have put so much effort into decorating it so beautifully
I am definitely going to try out the frosting recipe if not the entire cake/frosting combo, both sound gorgeous!
What a gorgeous cake! I love the berry and almond “flowers.” Happy birthday to Allie!
I just love how you decorated this cake. I bet she absolutely loved it. I have a sweet treat linky party going on at my blog till Monday and I’d love it if you’d come by and link your cake up. http://sweet-as-sugar-cookies.blogspot.com/2011/07/sweets-for-saturday-25.html