Being domestic

So I know that I said Sean would be doing most of the cooking and I would stick to just eating, but I  baked a cake last week! I'm not a great cook, but I have always enjoyed baking. I pinned this Southern Style Strawberry Cake a couple of weeks ago because it looked sooo good. And I think it's the first thing that I've actually made on this board I created on Pinterest. 

ingredients!

The recipe for this cake (from Joy the Baker) is fairly simple. It calls for boxed white cake mix and strawberry jello mix. The recipe calls for self-rising flour (which I didn't have) but I just used all-purpose flour and added a generous pinch of baking powder and... there were NO disasters!

I also cut the amount of sugar used in half (I used only 2 teaspoons). I figured with the cake mix and jello it wouldn't hurt, and in the end it was fine. Although, I think I made up for it with the amount of powdered sugar I used in the icing... oh well!

cake batter

The recipe makes enough batter for 3 8-inch cake pans. We only have 2, so I had to make the first two layers and then re-use a pan to make the third. This was my first time ever making a 3-layer cake and I'm proud of how it turned out!

fresh from the oven

The cream cheese icing was a little tricky. I'm still learning to get the right consistency for homemade icing. I thought it was going to be too runny, so I added probably more powdered sugar than I needed. But I put it in the refrigerator before putting the cake together, and it turned out ok... it was a little sweet for me (but I'm not big on icing anyway... a little goes a long way).

check out my icing skills ;)

We didn't have any food coloring to add to the coconut on the top, but I still think it looks pretty!

the finished product!

In the end, I think everyone who had a piece enjoyed it, and it was a great recipe! Here's the link again if any of you feel like giving it a shot... I highly recommend it!