what's cooking wednesdays: birthday decadence

i celebrated my birthday on sunday with all manner of food decadence.  a homemade brunch from my mom,  a sonic trinity lunch with the beau {hellllloooooo, cheeseburger, tots, and diet cherry limeade!}, and a fresh-from-the-garden eggplant parmesan.

via

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but the piece de resistance was the homemade birthday cake my mom made.  yellow cake with chocolate buttercream.  oh yeah.  i don't have much of a sweet tooth and i have a crippling fear of store-bought frosting, but just like my granddaddy, a yellow cake + chocolate frosting combo gets me every time.  here's the recipe to bring people to their knees:

yellow cake
serves 12-16
3/4 cup butter, room temp
3 eggs, room temp
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 cups milk

preheat oven to 375 degrees.

butter and flour one 13x9x2-inch baking pan.  in a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.  in a mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  gradually add sugar, beating until well combined.  beat 2 minutes more.  add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  beat in vanilla.  alternately add flour mixture and milk, beating on low speed after each addition until just combined.  spread batter into prepared pan.  bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  cool on wire racks for 10 minutes.  remove cake from pan and allow to cool thouroughly.

chocolate buttercream
3/4 cup butter, softenend
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
8 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla

in a very large mixing bowl, beat butter and cocoa powder with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. gradually beat in 2 cups powdered sugar until well combined. gradually beat in milk and vanilla until well combined. gradually beat in 6 cups powdered sugar. if necessary, beat in additional milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, to reach spreading consistency.

consider yourself warned: this stuff is highly addictive.  i took a container full of leftover cake to work yesterday.  as of this morning, this is all that remained:

hopefully the last crappy bb pic ever!

don't say i didn't warn you...