A great empire, like a great cake....

I made my favorite cake last weekend. 

From scratch. 

I never realized how much my generation truly depends on boxed cake for birthday/celebrations. I haven't made many cakes in my life from scratch as the magic and ease of a boxed cake mix has always been at hand. But in an effort to eat clean and make things I haven't made before, I decided that Yellow cake was a great choice. I took this cake recipe from Pinterest Pin: http://www.serenabakessimplyfromscratch.com/2014/01/moist-yellow-cake-with-mocha.html     

                                                                                                                   

Perfect Moist Yellow Cake 

Ingredients

3/4 cup Cold Butter, Plus More For Pans

1 2/3 cup Granulated Sugar

1 whole Egg Yolks

3 whole Eggs

1 tablespoon Vanilla

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Sea Salt

2 1/4 cups All-Purpose Flour

2/3 cup Vanilla or Plain Yogurt 

1/2 cup Milk

Method 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 2 (8") Cake Pans with butter and line bottoms with parchment paper, butter parchment paper.

Cream cold butter and add sugar. Beat until light and fluffy on medium speed.

Scrape sides of bowl and add egg yolk and eggs one at a time beating well between each addition. Scrape sides of bowl as needed.

Add vanilla, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until well combined. Scrape sides of bowl.

Add flour, yogurt and milk. Mix on medium low speed just until combined being careful not to over mix.

Divide batter evenly between cake pans and bake for 26-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and cool for 10 minutes in pans. Then invert onto a cooling rack and finish cooling to room temperature.

I ended up making 12 cupcakes and a small 5X7 cake since cupcakes are much more easily taken and eaten at events in my opinion. I also got a little extra creative, as per usual. I sunk a dark chocolate caramel candy into the center of the cupcake. It turned out to be an excellent choice. 

Until the next dessert...

**From the great mind of Benjamin Franklin comes today's title: A great empire, like a great cake, is most easily diminished at the edges.**