Snow-ed in Cake

Here in Minnesota, we never know what kind of weather to expect. Sure, we know winter=cold and summer=hot, but those are seasons. Day to day, we really have no clue what's going to come our way. So last Wednesday we were informed (quite late I might add) that we had no school because of the massive snow storm. Well, the notification was sent out so late that I actually drove to school. So yes, I drove in one of the worst snow storms in Minnesota's history. What should have been a 15-minute drive turned into half an hour. One way. So I reached school, realized no one was there, checked my phone to see that I had received about 8 messages just minutes after I left my house, and turned around to go back home. So it was a pretty bad start to my morning.

Luckily I had a lot of time on my hands that day, being home alone. We also had many ingredients to make a cake just sitting in our cupboards. So, that's what I did! Oh, and great news...we got a Kitchen aid mixer! YES, no more using our junky old hand-held mixer! It was a big deal for me. I even took a picture.

Oh, just look at it in all it's glory! Look at that mixer go! Now I truly feel like a real baker! (Ha. Ha.) Anyway, I used a simple vanilla cake recipe that came in the mixer booklet. However, I didn't just want to do a vanilla cake, so I added some almond extract (I know daring, huh? Going outside of the recipe--whoa!). Then I did a simple chocolate buttercream frosting in the middle layer and on the outside of the cake. 

The cake itself had a really nice flavor with the almond extract. It tasted kind of like almond pound cake, but not as dense. However, the cake was a little crumbly. I may have possibly over-cooked it? Otherwise, I like to blame it on the recipe. The frosting was just right for the cake though. And overall it was pretty delicious!

Yum, yum, yum!