Lina-bo-bina's Birthday Cake

I love Lina. But she has a short memory. I asked her what kind of cake she likes, and she said, "I don't know, I like your cake." So I say, "which cake?" She says, "that one you made, raspberry something or other, so delicious." I'm thinking, I've made several cakes for work, and she picks the last one I made! which was actually for my birthday- a white cake with raspberry filling and raspberry buttercream. Hey, it's my fave, so I'm not complaining! It just means I am not even close to starting on my plan.. why couldn't she say, "Triple Layer Mousse Cake!" :o)

I thought I had this recipe down, but apparently not. I had a tremendous raspberry buttercream fail, which is why you will not see any pictures of that part. Not that I'm scared to show you my failures, I just panicked and forgot to document... conveniently! Honest... Long story short is my raspberries were a little too wet, and we all know the saying about oil and water. I wasn't using oil, but I suppose butter also applies. It was a globular meltdown no good disaster. I butterscreamed. Well, I spread it on the cake anyway, and it looked OK, but I couldn't serve it with a smile. So I made a second batch of plain vanilla buttercream which came out great, and I spread it on top of the raz. Lavryn would say, "too many flavor profiles!" and I'm sad she can't try it. Monch! I'll let you know what people say tomorrow. I'm excited!

making the raspberry filling:

eggs and milk, soon they will become one:

this recipe is interesting, because instead of creaming the butter and sugar first, you mix all the dry ingredients together then add the butter to create "wet crumbs." i don't like saying "wet crumbs," do you?

the batter, which smells heavily of almond extract. the recipe calls for two teaspoons, but one is enough.. the other teaspoon of vanilla sets it off:

a big L for Lina. her birthday is the day before v-day, so i added hearts to remind her that holiday birthdays are special... or something. truth be told my dern piping bag had the biggest tip on it and i couldn't change it out with something smaller. i just don't think thick lettering on a cake is cute, and monograms are kind of cool anyway: