Birthday Cake!

Yesss, this is the cake i made for Z's birthday. Doesn't look like much but that's because it was only meant for him and also the fact that he's got loads of other cakes i'm sure. Z's not a real cake enthusiast and so i decided to stick to the basics which is a rich buttery vanilla cake complete with royal frosting. Mmmm are you drooling yet?
The cake turned out good BUT i think could be better with a little bit more oven time. This caused the texture to turn out incredibly moist. I know that may seem to be a good thing but not for this cake. I prefer to feel a little texture from the cake rather than a melt in your mouth experience. But taste is fantastic :) As for the frosting, it's my first time ever trying out royal and i don't think i quite got it yet. The frosting never hardened! Taste was there, texture was there, colour was right but it just didn't hardened, it stayed soft even till the next day. Anyone knows why?

Rich Buttery Vanilla Cake

250g butter, softened
3 tsp vanilla extract
11/2 cup castor sugar
3 eggs
13/4 cup self-raising flour
1/3 cup plain flour
3/4 cup milk

1.Preheat oven to moderately slow 160C. Grease a deep 20cm square cake pan, line base and sides of pan with baking paper bringing paper 5cm above the sides of the pan.
2.Beat the butter, extraxt and sugar in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at the time, beating until just combined between additions. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and fold in combined sifted flours and milk in two batches. Spread mixture into prepared pan.
3.Bake for about 50 mins (or longer) until cooked when tested. Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool.
4.Cut into desired shape if required, in my case i used a huge heart shape cookie cutter and just press through.
5.Frost with your choice of frosting.

Source: Adapted from Women's Weekly Magazine (date unknown)

I'm not writing down the frosting recipe as it didn't turn out how it should. I'll definately be making this butter cake again and hopefully with a better recipe for royal frosting.