Oh Dear!!! Sweet 16 and 20 (no longer a teenager)!

It has been several weeks since we celebrated two of my kiddos birthdays. My daughter turned a sweet 16 and my oldest is no longer a teen. Talk about a sad momma!
Good thing birthdays lead to baking which makes me very happy. For both birthday cakes I opted to bake semi-homemade cakes. All in the name of saving time and energy. These days being a wife and mom while juggling a full time job when you have a chronic disease is the pits! Talk about being tired all the time! So semi-homemade is the way to go.
My sweet 16 girl requested a yummy chocolate cake and my now 20 year requested a red velvet cake. I used Ducan Hines Super Moist cake mixes. They baked up very moist!
These are the recipes that I used for the icing on my daughter's chocolate 2-layer cake and the icing that I used on my son's 2-layer red velvet cake.
Butter Cream Icing
Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter or margarine, room temperature (use vegetable shortening when pure white icing is needed)
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla or other desired flavoring
2 pounds confectioners' sugar
Directions
Combine all the ingredients in large mixing bowl and mix at slow speed until smooth. If stiffer icing is needed, or if the weather is very warm, add a little extra sugar. This recipe is enough to cover and fill a 9 by 13-inch sheet cake or 2 (9-inch) layers.

Cream Cheese Butter Cream Icing
1(8oz) package of cream cheese-room temp.
1 stick of unsalted butter-room temp.
1 lbs. of powered sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in large mixing bowl until smooth.

These cakes turned out so good. I even had a lady tell me that everything looked beautiful. She then asked if I had bought my daughter's cake that morning from the local bakery or the day before because they were closed when she had gone earlier  to get cupcakes. I said, "No, ma'am. I baked this cake myself."

Here's to celebrating birthday's and eating CAKE!

XOXO

Josie

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