Me and my Cakes

I absolutely love to bake. I would always bake the occasional cake when I was in my teens but somewhere along the way the love of baking sneaked up on me. Sometimes I'll just, for no apparent reason, get the urge to try a new recipe. Now, with this love of baking you'd think I'm a cake-a-holic. Far from. I really don't like the stuff at all. In fact I'm not really a fan of anything sweet. I've got tasters though. My mom, my brother, my cousins and friends will usually tell me how the cake went. I do taste the cakes to make sure they aren't too dry, too clammy, too sweet, make sure the texture's just right but you wouldn't see me eating an entire slice. I'm just not a cake eater.

I'm in love with the process. The mixing and creaming and blending and beating all to create that perfect finished product, which doesn't always come out perfect mind you. I've had MANY disasters. Like the time I made the perfect chocolate nut cake...and forgot to grease the pans.

I've become really serious about baking over the last two years and I've been turning out birthday cakes, valetine's cakes, anniversary cakes...any occasion cakes, just to practice the art of cake baking. Along the way I've learned a thing or two.

• I ALWAYS sift the flour and depending on the recipe I'll sift it twice. I've discovered self-rising flour (thanks to my aunt).  It's a joy. I no longer use that other stuff.
• When I first started my kitchen would be topsy turvy at the end of a session. Now I try to measure all ingredients and put them aside and I wash up as I go along.
• Betty Crocker is my best friend. If you didn't know it there are product recipes on their website and since goldmedal flour is one of their brands you can find some really good scratch baking recipes on there.

I recently tried their Peanut Butter Marble Cake for my friend's birthday and the best response I got was from her brother who said  ''this is the best cake I've ever had" so if you like the combination of peanut  butter and chocolate, you can give the recipe a try.  I made one slight alteration when I iced the cake. I put chocolate chips in between the two layers for that extra chocolatety taste. Here's the finished product. The link the recipe is below.

Peanut butter marble cake by Betty Crocker. Try it and let me know what you think