Pretty Pretty Princess Cake

Every year my dad asks for a cake on his birthday, and again on Father's Day. He likes one very specific type of cake, no substitutions. I like to call it his "Pretty Pretty Princess" cake because it happens to be the cherry chip boxed cake mix with the cherry chip store-made frosting. The entire cake and frosting are bright pink (thank-you red #40) and not terribly good for you. While I appreciate my dad's love of (artificial) cherry flavoring, I wanted to make him a healthy alternative this year. Here's what I did and how it turned out...

I bought cherries, which I pitted and cooked on the stove with aguave syrup. Some ended up in the cake, some in the filling, and some in the frosting.

I pureed the cherries to make a filling for the middle of the cake.

I then sliced one of the layers in half, making three layers total. I spread frosting and filling on each layer.

Lastly I frosted all of the layers and placed one cherry on top.

And voila! One homemade cherry-chip cake for Father's Day. :) Well, actually, it was a total bomb. The cherry flavor was subtle and absolutely nothing like the boxed mix. Turns out Dad doesn't give a crap about how healthy the cake was...he wanted his Pretty Pretty Princess Cake! The cake was also dry - the recipe called for egg whites and I discovered (yet again), that egg whites and altitude don't mix. Than said the cake was tasty, but I noticed he didn't eat too much of it either. I'm not sure what the lesson here is - I plan to practice a few more times and hopefully someday wean Dad off of his princess cake. Happy Baking!