Who doesn’t love a homemade birthday cake? Certainly not anyone I know! 🙂 This is a recent occurrence though. When I was growing up, I wasn’t the biggest fan of cake. True story. I would eat a piece at birthday parties and dinner, but I would never request it as a dessert of choice. Some years I asked for a “cake” of cheesecake instead. In fact, 9 times out of 10 I would rather eat fruit than chocolate. However, as I’ve gotten older, my tastes have changed. I still looooove fruit [and am LOVING the summer berries right now!], but I do enjoy cake and other chocolate-ly sweets too! In fact, here I am on my last birthday:
Wowsers. What a flattering photo! 😉 Anywhoooo, now that I like cake, I’m always on the lookout for cake recipes. Mixes in a box are good, but the real good stuff is always homemade [with the exception of brownies. The best brownies I’ve ever had are from a box. Anyone care to remedy that? Just let me know!]. The following recipe is one I made a few months ago for husband’s birthday. It was fairly simple to make and the cake was divine–a delicious mix of buttery yellow cake and sweet chocolate and butterscotch chips, almost like a cookie in cake form. Yum! The frosting was good too, but I might have had better results if my cream cheese hadn’t been funky. Yeah… ugh. This cake was inhaled… so don’t say you weren’t warned. Without further ado…
Butterscotch & Chocolate Yellow Cake
adapted from OddMom
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup butter, softened [if using unsalted butter, add 1/2 teaspoon salt; otherwise, omit salt]
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/4 cups milk
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus more for garnishing
- 1 cup butterscotch chips, plus more for garnishing
- cooking spray
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, gently combine the flour and baking powder. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one by one, thoroughly mixing each in individually. In a liquid measuring cup, add the vanilla tothe milk and whisk until combined. Add half of the milk into the butter mixture, and then add half of the flour mixture. Mix well, and repeat. Using a spatula, fold in the butterscotch and chocolate chips.
Grease and flour [generously, so the cake doesn’t stick–keep a pastry brush on hand to remove flour from a cooled cake prior to frosting it] 2 9″ round cake pans. Using a greased measuring cup, fill the 2 cake pans evenly. One thing I like to do is alternate the pan I am filling up [1 cup of batter in pan A, 1 cup in pan B, etc.] to help ensure that the layers will be equal and not uneven. Cake surgery is not my forté!
Bake for approximately 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cake should be golden and springy in the middle. Allow to cool in the pans for about 7 minutes, and then carefully remove to cool completely on wire racks.
While the cake is cooling, prepare the ingredients for the frosting.
Frosting
- 8 ounces 1/3 less Fat “Neufchâtel” cream cheese [husband loves to say “Neufchâtel!”], softened
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 1/2 cup cocoa
In the bowl of an electric mixer or food processor, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar and cocoa and then add in 1/3 cup increments to the butter and cream cheese, beating until creamy.
After cake is cooled, place one layer of the cake on a cake stand or serving platter or plate. Frost the top only, then place the second layer on top of the frosting, forming a cake sandwich. Continue to frost the cake, working from top to bottom until cake is frosted. Garnish with butterscotch and chocolate chips on top.
Serve to a hungry birthday husband [or wife or friend or mom or dad or sister or brother or cat… just kiddin’!], and be the hero of the night!
And if you have to transport the cake across town, then rig up a super cool contraption using blankets, a seatbelt, and a Captain Morgan box in your car to protect the yummyness!
Or use something practical, like oh, a cake carrier. I’d like one… [hint hint!]
Okay, off to dream of cake…and cake carriers…
The Pajama Chef 
So you’re dropping hints for me in your blog now? Uh-oh. I personally think that Sheba would very much enjoy that cake. She’s gotten bigger, but she’s still nowhere near a fat kitty. NEUFCHATEL!!!!
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The sad thing is we use that Captain Morgan box all the time, and yet I didn’t benefit from a single drop of its original contents.
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