Cinnamon-Sugar Cake

I know that I can't make frosting. I have successfully done it once, on the Irish cream brownies I made for St. Patrick's Day, but everything else was too runny.

The caramel frosting on a cookbook recipe required melting butter and I didn't let it cool long enough. I forgot the shortening in the tequila sunrise cupcakes I found online. I don't even know how I managed to make a frosting into flavored water when I tried to follow another book recipe, but I guess even great bakers have problems.

My dad said I just needed to practice, so I looked through all my marked recipes to try it again. This recipe was found in a Taste of Home book my mother found at the checkout back in 2012, 'Cake Mix Treats' on it.

This was my first time making a layer cake, but I knew I could handle the baking part. With the frosting, I messed up in the other direction this time, forgetting the cinnamon and making fondant instead. That was not good for a layer cake, but fortunately, I had my dad with me, and he knew how to fix it.

The result tasted great. It feels wrong to be putting a recipe directly copied from a book online, but I can break the rules just once to show off my first time making a layer cake. I didn't write the directions exactly as the book did, so it's kind of mine. Right?

RECIPE:

(Cake)
- 1 package white cake mix
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 6 tablespoons melted butter
- 3 eggs
- 2 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

(Frosting)
- 1 cup softened butter
- 5 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350

Combine all cake ingredients at once.

Spray 2 round 9-inch pans.

Pour cake batter into pans.

Bake 20-25 minutes.

Let cake cool.

Fluff butter with a mixer.

Add other frosting ingredients and mix. If you're like me, get someone to help with this part.

Spread frosting between layers of cake and frost the rest.

Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

This was before I sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar, but of course it was after Dad helped with making frosting and showed me how to use an icing knife.

And this is what it looks like inside.

My personal cookbooks are printed and handwritten pages, not my cooking blog. This was something new to me, but I might break my personal rule again sometime.

Even though it did make my post too long.

UPDATE: I made the cake again, and I made perfect frosting by myself. This cake was taken to my grandparents when my mom's cousin and his wife came to visit. Everyone loved it, especially my grandfather. He told me to call it "Grandpa's Favorite."