Chabela Wedding Cake

Today the book is Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. This is a beautiful book, but it does get a bit racy at some points, so be aware of that. I loved the tall tale aspect of it and the recipes. Not only does the inclusion of the dishes make the book have more meaning and depth, but it also gives you a lot of wonderful Mexican dishes to try out. However, because this book isn't a regular cook book it does make following the exact recipe very difficult. I made the Chabela Wedding Cake, but did take some liberties with the recipe. So here it is!

Chabela Wedding Cake

 For the cake:
3 cups of cake flour (I used whole wheat, but I wouldn't suggest it)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 cups buttermilk
5 eggs 
1 1/2 cups white sugar, granulated
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°.
Prepare 3- 9″ round cake pans by lining the bottoms with parchment paper and then greasing the bottoms and sides. Set the pans aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla extract, and then the sifted dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk.

Divide the finished batter evenly among the three prepared cake pans and smooth the tops of each filled pan.

Bake the cakes for 23-26 minutes

Finished cakes will be golden at the edges with a cake tester inserted in the center of each coming out clean or almost clean. Set the finished cakes aside to cool in the pan for about ten minutes before frosting.


For the glaze/ frosting
option 1 (for stacking cakes): Make a cream cheese frosting or use your favorite glaze and cover the cake in these. BEFORE you frost/glaze the cake put a layer of apricot jam in between the layers of cake.

Option 2 (for single cakes): Make a cream cheese frosting and mix about one small jar of apricot jam into the frosting. Cover the cake in this.

Finally, EAT THE CAKE!!!!!! YAY!!!!

Cream cheese frosting (this is a good recipe)

Ingredients 

Original recipe makes 3 cups Change Servings

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream together, then refrigerate.