What's Baking: Birthday Cake!

Today's post is a work in progress -- a birthday cake for D! I based this cake off of a delicious-looking recipe on Smitten Kitchen. (For the cake itself, I followed a recipe for white cake offered by the New Mexico State Cooperative Extension Service -- these recipes are meant for those living at higher altitudes.) Pictured above is my cake after I put it together . . . it is now sitting in the fridge, allowing all the flavors to meld together. More later when it's serving time!

The finished product:

I still need to figure out a good recipe for the cake; it didn't really turn out as well as I hoped. The texture and flavor was a bit off -- I was hoping for a light, super, um, dare I say it, moist cake; this one was a bit too dense and the flavor was anything but light. So . . . back to the drawing board! Not to say I didn't eat a slice (or two) -- the filling and icing definitely makes up for (many, if not most of ) the cake's shortcomings.