cherry blossom birthday.

Apparently I've been on a cake craze recently.

Last Thursday was my birthday and, of course, I wanted to make my own cake. Since every other cake I've ever made in my life (two) has been fun or childish-looking, I decided to do something a little more simple and elegant(ish).

The answer? A vanilla cake with lemon filling, topped with cherry blossoms.

It was really yummy! Basically, it was a Pillsbury Classic Yellow cake with lemon Snack Pack pudding for the filling. Since I'm such a picky person, I decided that if I'm going for the elegant look, I would need a square cake. So I did the obvious thing that anyone would do: I went out and bought two 8x8 pans. (yay! My future kitchen has a few more items in the cupboards.)

Ok. Back to the story. So basically, I baked two 8x8 square cakes, let them cool, then cut the tops off so they aren't all uneven on the top. Then comes the filling.  Here's what I used:

Personally, I don't really like the flavor by itself, but it tasted delicious with the cake! A little trick I learned a while back was to put some icing around the edge of the cake before adding the filling. It keeps the pudding from oozing out the sides.

I used two of those individual cups of pudding, but I can't remember the exact amount, because I think I ate some of the pudding beforehand. But anyway, I then placed the other cake upside down on top of the cake with icing and filling. (remember? I cut the tops off of the cakes, exposing the inside. It's a lot easier to ice the cake if the crumbly inside of the cake is not on the outside).

Next I iced and decorated it.. I decided that since I didn't make the cake mix or the filling, I should probably make the icing from scratch.. so I did. And I added some of those lemon packets that you add to water to make it yummy (my dad's idea). So yep. that's it. Here's an up close picture

aaaannndddd.... last picture. a view of the cake after it was cut...