Cherry Vanilla Cake with Pink Dream Icing

It's a double whammy today...Easter dinner with the family and a celebration of two lovely young girls' birthdays...So what could be more appropriate than vanilla cake with maraschino cherry bits and a fluffy pink icing with pastel Mini Eggs?
When K was just three, she had a book called 'EAT YOUR DINNER, BA'...where a stubborn little bear had trouble eating his dinner...until his Dad pulled out dessert - 'a honey cake with pretty pink icing and cherries on top'....suddenly his appetite came back!  K loved that book and was so taken with the cake image that she requested this cake for her 3rd birthday.  I made one similar, but this is the grown up version...with the cherries in the cake!  So twelve years later, we re-create a favourite!  Happy Birthday to my lovely, sweet niece and my baby girl....

Cherry Vanilla Cake
(adapted from Chatelaine)

3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
4 eggs (room temp)
4 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 - 375 ml jar maraschino cherries, drained well, dried with paper towel and chopped (save some of the juice for tinting the icing)

Preheat oven to 350F

Spray 2 round 9 inch cake pans with oil and line with parchment circles.  Spray circles.  Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Beat 1 cup of butter in a large bowl, using an electric mixer beat until creamy, about 1 min.  Gradually beat in sugar, then eggs one at a time.  Add vanilla.  Gradually beat in the flour mixture, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, scraping down sides of bowl, if needed.  Repeat, ending with flour mixture, beating just until blended.  Stir in cherries.  Divide batter between pans and bake in centre of oven for 25 - 30 mins or until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean.  Cool in pans 15 mins, then remove cakes to wire rack and cool completely.

Fluffy Icing 

This is an excellent icing.  Beautiful to show and easy to make.  It makes a glossy white frosting, which can easily be tinted with a bit of food colouring, or in this case some of the juice from the maraschino cherries.  

1 cup white corn syrup
2 egg whites, room temp
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla

In a small saucepan, bring corn syrup to a rolling boil.  Meanwhile beat egg whites and cream of tartar to stiff moist peaks.  Beating constantly at high speed on electric mixer, gradually add the hot syrup in a thin stream.  Continue beating until frosting hold stiff shiny peaks.  Beat in vanilla and/or food colouring.  Makes enough to frost an 8 - 9 inch layer cake.  Decorate as you see fit!

Sweet 15 - Sticky Buns

Someone turned 15 in our house today...So the best of the best for a fifteen year old girl was brought out this morning...waking up to 'Fifteen' by Taylor Swift (there is a 'song count' on today...how many times can you listen to the same song in a day....we were up to 7 by the time she left for school)...having sticky buns, hot chocolate and bananas with sugar and milk for breakfast...does it get any better than that?  The grin on her face as she was sitting down to eat, was worth the price of admission!

So these sticky buns are from the secrets of my lovely Jill.  They are THE breakfast in our house for birthdays, Christmas, cottage stays...actually any event will do.  Last year when Z's hockey finals landed on K's birthday, we actually took a big pan to the arena with us and shared the bounty at 8 am on a Saturday!  They never get tired.

The real beauty is how easy they are...make ahead the night before and pop them in the oven in the morning.  They make you look like a rock star for very little effort.  Thanks Jilly.

Sticky Buns

2 loaves frozen bread dough (or pizza dough)
Instant butterscotch pudding (1 box)
1/2 cup butter (melted)
1/3 cup brown sugar.

Thaw dough and cut dough into bite sized pieces.  Arrange pieces evenly in a greased angel food pan.  Mix butter and brown sugar together.  Sprinkle the butterscotch pudding mix over the dough then pour the butter mixture over the top evenly.  Cover lightly with waxed paper then a tea towel.  Let rise overnight.  Bake at 350F for 20 mins.

Confession:  I sometimes increase the butter and brown sugar.  I find that you need to cover the pudding mix pretty well with the wet mixture or else you'll just get dry powder on the top when it's baked.  Try to cover the dough with the wet mixture and add more butter, as needed.