First Forever Football Cake

Making my first cake, I remember like it was yesterday. I was eight years old and had just pulled my cake out of the oven. Now for the chocolate icing. I followed the recipe carefully. Unfortunately, I didn't know that the confectioner's sugar called for was not the granulated sugar I'd baked into the cake. I added granulated sugar to the chocolate and melted butter. And what came out can only be compared with wet sand, sweet wet sand. We ate it anyway. But I learned a valuable lesson. One that stayed with me forever, not unlike my first love (at fourteen).

First Forever (coming soon to Amazon), the story of how Blythe Alexander met and fell in love with Alec Harmon, is the prequel to Second Chances.

Alec, a big, strong young man, captures her heart as she captures his. Blythe loves to bake (as do I) so she makes him a cake in honor of his favorite pastime- football.

Here's her recipe (and mine).

Cake Recipe:

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups milk (I use local Happy Cow whole milk)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 8 to 9 inch pans. Beat all ingredients in large bowl on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter into pans.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool completely.

Chocolate Frosting Recipe:

4 sticks unsalted butter, softened

5 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat butter and 1 cup sugar with a mixer on medium speed until combined. Reduce speed to low and continue to beat, gradually adding remaining 5 cups sugar, 1 cup at a time. Raise speed to high. Add vanilla. Beat until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes more.

To add laces to the finished cake, I used marshmallow fluff. Just add a few tablespoons to a plastic sandwich bag, cut off one corner, and squeeze.

Hope you enjoy making this delicious cake that's as fun to make as it is to eat!

Enjoy! 

-Tina