Ultimate Birthday Cake

My family has a lot of birthdays in the month of September. Within a week period, my mom, my aunt and my grandmother all celebrate their birthday. And then 6 years ago, my sister had to throw her boyfriend Joe into the mix with the same birthday week. So it always feels like I'm baking a birthday cake a day in September. I have a catalog in my mind of all my friends and family's favorite kind of cake so I can prepare it for their birthday, but whenever I'm uncertain, I fall back on my favorite: vanilla buttermilk cake with vanilla frosting. It's simple, but classic.

When I was a kid, the best thing for me was to sit in my grandmother's kitchen, watching her make the cakes for various occasions. The cake itself was always prepared from a box (I wasn't introduced to truly "from scratch" baking until I started exploring that on my own), but the frosting was her own recipe. After patiently watching her frost the cake, my brother and I would be each granted one beater blade to lick clean and induce a sugar frenzy. That buttercream was and still is the perfect birthday cake frosting: sweet without being cloying, homey, and delicious. My grandmother taught me the trick to it years ago, a bit of cream cheese and a pinch of salt. Both cut the sweetness without altering the flavor.

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake with Raspberry Filling

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake

makes 2 9" cake layers or 24 cupcakes

2 sticks (8 oz) butter, room temp

2 c (15 oz) sugar

5 eggs room temp

3 c (13.5 oz) all purpose flour

1 1/2 Tbsp baking powder

1 tsp kosher salt

1 c buttermilk

1 Tbsp vanilla extract + 1 vanilla bean, scraped (optional)

• Using a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes
• Add eggs, one at a time, until well-incorporated.
• Whisk together the dry ingredients.
• Alternate adding the dry and wet ingredients to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the dry (3 additions of dry, 2 of wet), being careful not to overmix. Scrape down your bowl between each addition.
• Portion into Pam-sprayed cake pans, bake at 350 degrees until cake is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Vanilla Frosting

3 sticks (12 oz) butter, softened

1/4 c (2 oz) cream cheese, softened

2 lbs powdered sugar (use the Domino brand, trust me)

pinch salt

2 tsp vanilla extract

• With a mixer, cream together the butter, cream cheese, and salt. 
• Slowly add all of the powdered sugar, mixing well before each addition.
• If the frosting is too stiff, you can add a tablespoon of milk at a time to reach the desired consistency. 
• Add vanilla extract. Beat on high for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.