Culinary Capers Ingredient of the Week: Cherries

{ Technically, Robin and I made this last week. 

But I'm blogging about it this week. }

Cherry-Vanilla Layer Cake

I've been wanting to bake a cake with my buddy Robin. When I ran across this little beauty on Pinterest, I thought it would be perfect for us. I liked the bold colors, and I knew that Robin liked to "pipe". 

The cake recipe called for 2 seven-inch baking pans. Which apparently don't exist. I suggested that we use 1 eight-inch pan and 1 six-inch pan as an alternative. (Seemed mathematically feasible...) We kept a close eye on our layers as they baked, and were successful in not under-cooking or burning either. 

 The icing recipe called for 1 pound of butter, which grossed us out. But we made it anyway. And it still grossed us out. We both agreed that the cake would be better with a more moderate icing. Robin thinks cream cheese, I think basic butter-cream with less butter.   

The "from scratch" cherry cake batter was over-the-top flavorful. It called for a whole jar of maraschino cherries (finely chopped) and 1/2 cup of maraschino cherry juice. It also called for 2 teaspoons of almond extract (yum). We liked it!

{ lessons learned }

1. Sometimes imitation vanilla is better.

2. The little layer is not supposed to be taller than the big layer.

3. Friends like Robin are awesome! (Actually I didn't learn that one, 'cause I already knew it.)

{ quote of the day }

Robin: Wow. That was involved.