Friends don’t let friends buy their own cake…or do they?!

Disclaimer: I started writing this post before Alice’s birthday. I promised her a birthday dessert then fell down on the task because I was shooting a short that weekend an couldn’t make it to the home party-I did make it to the dinner but that was at Cafe Gratitude and Alice was looking forward to the vegan desserts and told me not to worry about bringing a cake.
Alice has parties, because she is that awesome and requires more than one event to see all her friends. It’s true.
So I’m a jerk who fell down on the cake task for her.
But before that when I wasn’t working I held onto(and when time permits will continue to hold on to) the belief that no one should buy their own cake.
And now the post I wrote before I became a total hypocrite:

“omg! The restaurant closed. Stress! Gotta go buy a cake!”
Oh noooooo you didn’t! No one should buy their own cake. Really. I can maybe entertain the idea of making my own but…
When my darling Rebecca’s venue for her birthday fell through I had to stop her in her Gelson’s-bound trax.

Normally they’d be tracks, but Rebecca is a hottie so she makes trax.

Trax to Oldfield’s, a west side bar I think is just smashing.

A slightly less blown out shot(Oldfield’s was dark!):

True story about this cake. I was a bit surprised that Mz. Trax requested a vanilla cake with white frosting. So…vanilla.
But vanilla in all it’s simplicity can be perfection so I turned to the masters of perfection, Cook’s Illustrated for a recipe.
But I wanted to make it somewhat special and told Rebecca she was getting a pink cake,
So I buy my happy lil’ multipack of food coloring at the store.
At home I open it and someone had filched the container of red.
Of all the packages, of all the colors they took red out of the package I picked.

Somewhere in LA an ass was eating red velvet, I bet. Evil. Pure evil.

I decided yellow was probably Trax-y Lady’s next pick and made a yellow cake. Pink candles though. I do try.

White Cake with Butter Frosting from Baking Illustrated(halved recipe)
1 c. + 2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 c. Almond milk, room temp
3 egg whites, room temp
1 tsp. almond extract
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
14 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp.baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. butter(I used half-fat cause…that’s what I had), softened but cool

Frosting:
1/3 c. Butter, soft but cool
1 1/3 c. Powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla almond milk
For the cake:
Mix egg whites, almond milk and extracts in a 2-cup measuring cup(not necessary, but helpful for the part where you add it to other mixtures in increments). Beat butter into flour, sugar, salt and baking powder until it is crumbly, then beat in all but 1/4 cups of the milk mix. Then beat in the rest. Bake in a 9 inch tin at 350 for about 20-30 minutes-when a toothpick comes out clean it’s done.
For the frosting: Just beat it(beat it!) and spread it. Yah.