Let me tell you this I drive a good 35 miles one way to work. And I have got so used to this 70 miles of driving every day that I kind of look forward to it. It’s my time to reflect and catch up on my thoughts. Now the self-reflection has ended up in me getting traffic tickets too, a couple of times but that’s not what this blog post is about. I was driving back home the other day and very randomly something came to my mind and it is very profound. As a mom, I always have a feeling that I am not good enough. I always feel I could have done way more than I am doing. However, there are a few instances, very rare, though like the one I am going to narrate today, that assures me that things are not bad as I think. I may be doing a few things right.
A few years’ back we had gone to Las Vegas with another friend and her family. My friend is the most generous soul and has two equally warm-hearted daughters. One would be a couple of years older than G and the other would be about 3 years younger. In between the different things we did during our stay, the girls had spent some time playing some arcade games. And there was one game where every time your ball made it through the hoop, you would get a soft toy. My friend’s older daughter was a pro and had won probably 10-12 of those.
The younger one and G were struggling and could not win any. G stood with a long face and insisted on keeping on trying. After a point, I realized that she would not win any and I stopped her. She was very upset and threw a fit. She started crying and my friend tried to pacify her saying that she could keep some of the toys that her older daughter had won.
I too thought that this would be a good way to distract her and would make her happy but she dug her face into my shoulders and kept on insisting that she tries again. She was about 8 or 9 then and I still remember what she said, “No I want to get it myself”. My friend who was standing next to me said, “She wants to earn it herself. She is mad as she is not able to do so.”
G is a single child and totally understands that we as parents are more available for her than families with multiple children. However, something in her always propels her to achieve things on her own. Many times she is obstinate and does not even pay heed to my advice and suffers for it. She would be wasting time on something, which if I gave a hand could save her a lot of time and effort. I get impatient with her keeping on trying things without listening to us. But somewhere I also feel immensely proud too that she has been introduced to the euphoric feeling of working towards a goal and then achieving it by dint of her own merit. When you discover that feeling and that is what drives you and takes you forward, even failures make you stronger and even more determined. An honest confession: there are only a few things where G has that level of sincere diligence. However, I am glad that at least those few things evoke some sincere effort from her.
And today when I was driving back, I was reliving this memory. And something in me told me to make a cake. There’s nothing more celebratory than a cake. I had wanted to try a naked cake for the longest time now. So finally made it. This is a plain vanilla sponge cake with buttercream frosting. I made the cake and the frosting from scratch and I even took it to a Sunday BBQ party that my friend was hosting and it was loved by all. So here is my little cake (or maybe not so little, it has 5 good sized layers) and the precious memory, which led to the cake.
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Print [4]
Vanilla Naked Cake with Fresh Buttercream Frosting
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 35
- Total Time: 55
Description
A very basic layered vanilla cake with fresh buttercream made from scratch.
Ingredients
For the Cake
- Butter – 1 stick (1/2 cup), room temperature
- Vegetable Oil – ½ cup
- All-Purpose Flour – 3 cups, sifted
- Baking Powder – ¾ tbsp
- Sugar – 11/2 cups
- Salt- ½ tsp
- Eggs – 4
- Vanilla Extract – 1 tbsp
- Heavy Cream – 1/4 cup
- Milk – ½ cup
For the Frosting
- Powdered Sugar – 3 cups, sifted
- Butter – 1 stick (1/2 cup), at room temperature
- Vanilla Extract – 1 tsp
For Sugar Syrup
- Sugar – 1 cup
- Water – 1 cup
Instructions
- In a bowl, cream butter, vegetable oil, milk, cream, vanilla extract, eggs and sugar.
- In another bowl, mix flour, salt and baking powder.
- Pour the wet ingredients in the dry ingredients and mix lightly. Don’t over-mix.
- Grease two 6-inch cake pans and pour the batter evenly. I had some batter left for another thin layer which I baked once the two cakes were done.
- Pre-heat the oven at 350 degrees F.
- Bake the cakes for 35-40 mins till the top looks golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
For the frosting
- In a bowl, take the butter and whip it for 2-3 mins.
- Add the sifted powdered sugar, vanilla and mix it in until you get a spreadable consistency.
For the Sugar Syrup
- Boil the sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool.
To assemble the cake
- Using a serrated knife, cut off the top and level the cakes.
- Using a cake leveler or serrated knife, slice the cakes in equal halves. So I had 4 cake rounds from slicing the two cakes and one thin-layered cake. Basically, I had 5 layers.
- Soak the layers using the sugar syrup before you start working with them.
- Place the base layer on your cake board. Use a little buttercream to secure the base to the board.
- Pipe a border along the edge of the cake with buttercream. Fill in the space with this border with more buttercream. There will be a thick layer of buttercream.
- Now carefully place another layer on top of the first layer. And repeat the same for all the layers.
- Now cover the cake ( like a crumb coat) with the remaining buttercream sparingly so that some part of the cake is uncovered especially along the edges.
- Let it rest for 20 mins. Then decorate it with fresh flowers.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 12
- Calories: 792
- Sugar: 139
- Sodium: 40
- Fat: 14
- Saturated Fat: 8
- Unsaturated Fat: 5
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 164
- Protein: 6
- Cholesterol: 93