cherry vanilla cake

the last few years, my birthday cake has been a labor of love. two years ago, when i turned 29, it was all about pistachios and last year, for the big 3-0, it was all about salted caramel and chocolate. this year, it's cherry overload. 

i usually start thinking about my birthday cake, and narrowing it down to a couple recipes, around christmas and i have the recipe chosen by the time i return to work after new years. this year, i had a hard time deciding exactly what i wanted. the pistachio and chocolate masterpieces were both from the baked cookbooks. in hindsight, i should have stuck with one of them, but i wanted something different. something with fruit. if you love maraschino cherries, this cake is for you.

i had high hopes for this cake and was actually disappointed. while i finally tackled swiss meringue buttercream - it really is easy and isn't nearly as sweet as buttercream, but has a flavor all it's own - the filling and buttercream had too much butter in them. too much butter?! i know, madness! but true. the cake itself is delicious. with a few tweaks, i bet these would be great as valentines cupcakes, topped with the cherry filling (made with less butter) instead of the buttercream.

what to do with all those leftover egg yolks? make ice cream, of course.

cherry vanilla cake
one 8 or 9 inch three layer cake that serves 16

annie has great instructions and i followed them perfectly, so click to get the recipe from annie's eats.