Editor’s note: I started writing this post two weeks ago when Matt was still in France. Then I picked it up and finished it a week ago after my family left town except I never hit publish. Please forgive me for the segmented nature of the following excerpts. Just further proof of my struggle as a halfway blogger.
They say introverts relish in quiet time alone. That spending too much time in a loud setting with lots of activity and people can cause them to shut down in an effort to conserve energy. That downtime is not a waste of time but rather necessary and satisfying.
I am not an introvert.
So you can imagine how an extremely extroverted person deals with their spouse being away on a work trip for 12 days?
- First and foremost, she has a lot of conversations with her dog.
- She also shops because well, shopping, but also the majority of retail workers are also extraverts and she finds comfort in random musings with strangers.
- She spends equal amounts of time at the gym and fresh kitchen.
- She bakes.
Yes, you read that correctly. She bakes. She finally throws some flour and sugar in a bowl a bakes a flippin’ cake. Remember when this blog actually had photos of cakes in regular rotation?
Much to the delight of both my mother and mother-in-law, I did not spend Easter alone. Which is good, because it would have been incredibly awkward to eat this entire cake by myself while binge-watching Fuller House* on Netflix. Instead, I took it over to my co-worker’s house in celebration of both Jesus and she and her husband’s birthdays that weekend. The spouses birthdays and Jesus houdini-ing himself out of the tomb of course.
I appreciate the concern of my mother(s). After all, I do mention nearly every month that [insert holiday] is my favorite holiday so I can understand their sympathy calls and flight searches at the thought of me spending one alone. Fortunately, both seemed happy to hear that I was bribing my way into someone else’s home with four layers of sugary sunshine and the return of Matt and a visit from my sister just a few days later.
*Let’s discuss the awkwardness that is Fuller House another time
Easter Layer Cake
- 1 1/2 C unsalted butter, softened (can substitute 1/2 C vegetable shortening if you want)
- 3 C sugar
- 5 eggs
- 3 C flour (sifted)
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 C whole milk
- 1/2 C buttermilk
- 2 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350. Ideally this is the time to grease and flour all four of your cake pans. Oh you don’t have four cake pans? Me neither. I somehow only have three so grease and flour what you have and set aside.
In a stand mixer, whip butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar 1 cupat a time. Add eggs one at a time until each is combined.
In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt.
In a liquid measure, combine milk, buttermilk and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients into wet one cup at a time, alternatingbetween milk mixture and flour. Try not to overmix.
Place four medium bowls out on your counter. Divide batter into each bowl evenly. For me it was just under 2 cups of batter per bowl. I like to use gel food coloring as I find it’s a little more accurate. For this version, I just used my pastel set of gel colors and added them separately to each 2 cup bowl.
Once your layers are colored, pour the first two into your two baking pans andbake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. These layers are thin so they will cook relatively quick.
Remove from oven and let cool on rack for 5-10 minutes. Add a layer of parchment or wax paper to your rack before you flip them out of the pan to make turning easier for you when they are cool.
Buttercream Icing
Once your second batch is out of the oven and cooling you can start on your buttercream icing. This stuff is indulgent so I usually keep it pretty thin. That being said both times I’ve made this cake I’ve had to make extra buttercream icing to get it covered so go ahead and make a bunch.
Buttercream Icing
- 3-4 C powdered sugar (sifted)
- 1 1/2 C unsalted butter
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 3-4 TBL whipping cream
Sift the powdered sugar into a large bowl. Cream butter in a stand mixer and add powdered sugar slowly so as not to go all King James on your kitchen. Add vanilla and cream and whip it until peaks form. Refrigerate it until you are ready to ice the cake.
Once your layers are cool, wrap each of them in plastic wrap and freeze them for a few minutes. this will make the icing process much easier. Do a rough ice and then finish it off with, you guess it, more buttercream.
Top it with a little toasted coconut and Cadbury mini eggs and your ready to go! 
Simply Social Blog 
I, too, felt bad about your abandoned Easter. You’ve worked that pretty hard, I must say. I reference the oft-quoted, long-dead NY sportswriter Red Smith, who said, melodramatically and drunk I can only assume, that writing a column (or blog, I guess) “is like opening a vein and letting the blood out a drop at a time.” Also, do not post where I can see just PICTURES of the famous Sarah cake. Or put tick black lines over it, like they once used on naked bathing beauties.
Father of the Blog