Hello. We are back from our second wedding this month, and my third plane trip in as many weeks. It was so fun to spend these past two weekends with so many great long-time friends and family members. And it was full of good food and good beer. We got back at a decent hour Sunday night and are spending it doing normal things and trying to get back into Pacific time – which always feels right, but our eating schedules are off.

I didn’t do a lot of blogging during either weekend – usually almost all of my shooting is done in natural sunlight on the weekends, because it is usually too dark to shoot a decent photo by the time dinner is ready (except during the summer, which is SO nice) So I might kind of be in a weird, hurried tempo the next few days preparing posts.

This one is actually a recipe I made a while back – it was a coworker’s birthday and we planned to surprise her with a cake at our weekly soup club.

Basically the only thing that could make soup club MORE awesome is having a dessert alongside the soup.

I like this recipe because there aren’t too many ingredients. Yellow cake is one of the most simple cakes out there – which, I think, is a strength. Here’s what you need:

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature
3 cups AP flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups milk

Preheat the oven to 350 and prepare two 9-inch cake pans. Spray each pan with nonstick cooking spray, Line with a circle of parchment paper and then spray the parchment paper as well.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl and stir lightly.

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time with the mixer on low, and finally add the vanilla. Mix until combined.

With the mixer on low again, add the milk and flour mixture in alternating portions (I did 3 of the dry stuff, two of the liquids). Pour into the pans and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes on a wire rack, then invert and peel off the parchment paper onto the wire rack and allow to cool.

The cake recipe was adapted ever-so-slightly from The Sisters Cafe.

I used a chocolate buttercream – the same one I always use from Sweet Savory Life to frost this. I made 1 1/2 times this recipe, and it was more than I needed, but my frosting layer ended up being thinner than I thought it would be. So if you like a lot of frosting on your cake, make this times 1 1/2. I wish I had put more on the cake.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder
Large pinch kosher salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 tablespoons heavy cream

Cream the butter with a stand or hand mixer in a bowl for a few minutes, and then add the sugar, salt and cocoa powder. Mix on very low for several minutes (it will take a while) until the butter has absorbed the sugar and cocoa – it will eventually form clumps. Add the vanilla and heavy cream in, and kick up the speed for 3-5 minutes (depends on how whipped you like your frosting to be).

Frost the cake when it is completely cool – THEN AND ONLY THEN – and then cover with sprinkles.