Sweet Treat Tuesday- Vanilla Bean Dinosaur Train Cake

Another one of my boys birthdays has come and gone. Saturday, we celebrated my oldest turning 4 years old. Where does the time go?? We had a Dinosaur Train themed birthday party. If you have kids, and you've never seen this show, you should, it's very cute. I attempted the cake again this go around, like I did here in July for my youngest son's birthday party. It turned out pretty well. This one was definitely a little harder, but it was all worth it to see the excitement in my 4 year old. I used a vanilla bean cupcake recipe for the cake, butter cream frosting, and marshmallow fondant for the accents. Since the cake was a "cupcake" recipe, it was actually a little too much for my cake pans, I yet again had a mess on the floor of my oven. But, I have pretty short cake pans, I think that if you have at least 2 inches or higher cake pans (9 inch) then you would be just fine. If not, you may want to remove a 1/2 cup or so of the batter, making sure not to fill your cake pans too high.

Our Dinosaur Train cake!

 Mr. Conductor

 volcano

Vanilla Bean Cake

adapted from Annie's Eats

Ingredients:

3 cups cake flour

1 Tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon Vanilla extract

16 Tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature (If you don't have unsalted butter, just omit the salt.)

2 cups sugar

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1¼ cups buttermilk, at room temperature

1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Spray the inside of your cake pans with nonstick spray with flour in it.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the cake flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk together and set aside. Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, until light and creamy in color. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for one more minute.

Add the sugar to the butter mixture, about ¼ cup at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Mix in the eggs one at a time until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Combine the buttermilk and the vanilla extract in a liquid measuring cup. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients alternately with the wet ingredients, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients and mixing just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds longer.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Do not fill more than half full or you may have a mess on your hands. Bake 18-24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Frost cooled cakes as desired.