I am an AUNTIE! Well, an adopted Auntie. My lovely neighbors had their baby and I got to hold the little cutie pie yesterday.

SO ADORABLE! I digress…

In celebration of a gorgeous 3 day weekend, and a new baby, I decided to bake a cake worth sharing, and eating. Yes, it is another Vanilla cake, but these are my favorite! You can do so much to them.

Vanilla Bean Cake Batter (I have my own recipe, you can find it here)
1 1/2 cups, white granulated sugar
3 cups, white flour
6 eggs
3 cup milk
3 sticks unsalted butter
3 vanilla beans
4 tbsp baking powder
1 1/2 tbsp salt
4 tbsp vanilla extract

You will also need:
1 1/2 tbs ginger powder
Homemade Caramel (this is the softer kind, aka make the candy and add butter)
Candied Ginger

Since it was only a few of us sharing, I split my cake recipe in half. I also decided to use individual dishes so everyone could indulge in their desert, plus it looked pretty.

Preheat the oven to 350. Make the cake recipe above, or one of your favorites, but don’t forget to add the ginger powder.

Pour the cake into a loaf pan, or like I did, into individual dishes. Use butter to line the pans so the cake doesn’t stick.

Bake the cake for 40-45 minutes if in a loaf pan. If they are smaller sizes, like above, 20 minutes should do it. The same goes for cupcakes, about 20 minutes. In the meantime, dice about 8-10 pieces of candied ginger into slivers. Set aside.

Once the cake is done, set aside and let cool It is time to start the caramel, which should take about 10 minutes.

Once the caramel is complete, and the cake has had time to cool, pour the hot caramel on top of the cakes.

Add the slivered ginger and you are done!

Oh… and don’t forget, ENJOY!

Probably my favorite way to procrastinate from studying is to make cakes and the like… I have a final Wednesday; go figure. Here is a little montage of my weekend to celebrate the amazingness that is CA weather in winter!