Nothing says, "Happy Birthday", like a homemade cake.

Happy Birthday Dad. That's right today is my dad's birthday and I made his cake for the low price of a dollar. That's right a dollar. I needed to buy the cake mix, but I made the frosting. I followed a recipe my mother gave me (source again unknown) that uses 4 ingredients most people have stocked in their kitchen: butter, brown sugar, milk and powdered sugar.  My father's favorite cake, according to my mother, is yellow cake with carmel frosting...so that's what I made. 

I whipped up the cake mix according to the box and baked two 8-inch cakes in order to make a double-layered cake. Making the frosting was very simple, the hardest part was being patient while waiting for the butter and brown sugar to boil...on low. You know the saying, "A watched pot never boils." Well that kept running through my mind while I was stirring constantly waiting for it to boil. I kept myself occupied with Words with Friends though until the boil occurred. 

When I layered the cakes I forgot to flip the bottom cake so the top was touching the plate and the bottoms of the cakes were together. So when icing the side of the cake the icing didn't exactly lay as I thought it would. BUT when it is all said and done, the cake still looks good and will taste good too. I tried a little of the leftover frosting and boy is it delicious. It was a little rich, but delicious. With suggestion from my mother, I topped the cake with some red, orange, yellow and brown leaf sprinkles which helped make the cake look perfect for a fall birthday. I hope everyone will enjoy the cake tonight when we celebrate Dad's birthday. 

Carmel Frosting

Ingredients

1/2 c. butter or margarine

1 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. milk

2 c. powdered sugar

Directions

1. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

2. Stir in the brown sugar. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

3. Stir in milk; heat to boiling. Remove from heat. Cool to lukewarm.

4. Gradually stir in powdered sugar; beat until smooth.