Cherry Chip Cake with Cherry-Vanilla Frosting

I made a cherry chip layer cake a few weeks ago that I want to recreate for my birthday next week.  Now I just have to remember how I made it...  I got the cake recipe from completelydelicious.com. 

I came up with the maraschino cherry frosting recipe by looking at lots of different cherry frosting recipes, trying one, and then fixing it by making it more like the vanilla buttercream recipe on the site where I found the cake recipe.  If you reserve the juice from the 10 oz. jar of maraschino cherries, it should be enough to make the frosting. 

Ingredients

For the cake:
• 1 10 ounce jar maraschino cherries
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (I never buy unsalted butter.  I use salted for literally everything.  It's fine.  I usually cut the salt in half for the rest of the recipe though.)
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 4 large egg whites (save the yolks! I toss mine in the freezer and, when I have 8 yolks total, make ice cream)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 cups cake flour (I don't buy cake flour since I use it so rarely.  I substitute 2 cups minus 4 tbs AP flour + 4 tbs corn starch instead.  Just make sure to mix it up really well.)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cup buttermilk
• 2 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice 

For the buttercream frosting:
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 5 tablespoons maraschino cherry juice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp almond extract
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk, or as much as needed (or cow's milk -- it hardly matters -- but almond is what I keep on hand)

Directions

To make the cake: 
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter (I use Pam spray instead) and flour two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. (FYI: the secret to getting a cake out of its pan without destroying it is cutting non-stick parchment paper to fit in the bottom.  I cannot get a cake out of the pan in tact any other way.)
2. Drain the maraschino cherries, reserving the juice. In a food processor or with a sharp knife, finely chop the cherries. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand-held mixer, beat the butter and sugar at high speed until light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes. Scrape down the bowl and add the egg whites one at a time, mixing after each. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix until combined.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a smaller bowl, combine the buttermilk and maraschino cherry juice. Add the flour mixture to the mixer in 3 additions, alternating with the buttermilk mixture. Mix after each addition and scrape down the bowl as necessary. Stir in the chopped maraschino cherries.
5. Divide the batter evenly between the cake pans and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, about 30-35 minutes. Let cool in the pans 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

To make the frosting:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. 
2. Gradually add 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well. 
3. Beat in maraschino cherry juice, vanilla extract, and almond extract. 
4. Gradually beat in additional powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, alternating with small amounts of milk, until frosting reaches desired consistency.  Remember you want it to be spreadable.

Simran's 2nd Birthday

Simran's second birthday is coming up, and I'm planning to throw another little party at home like we had last year.  We're doing a teddy bear theme because bears are her favorite.  The menu will closely resemble last year's with some small variations, such as changes in icing flavor and the addition of fresh ice cream.

The problems with last year's food were too-thin chocolate buttercream (I stopped adding sugar when it tasted good instead of fixing the texture and taste at the same time -- my frosting-making ability has improved significantly in the last year, thankfully) and too-sour lemonade (should not have brushed my teeth before making the lemonade -- made it impossible to tell when it was sweet enough).  Easily correctable mistakes, but I'm not planning to use either of those recipes this year anyway.  Here is what I'm planning to make:

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Dark Pink Macarons with Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
To preserve freshness as well as my sanity, I plan to make the macarons a few days in advance and freeze them until Friday night or Saturday morning.  According to the internet, they will be better that way than if I try to refrigerate them for 48 hours.

Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Ice Cream
I might only end up making one of these, but I think I can make both without much ado if I make them a day in advance.  I've made the chocolate ice cream before and it was the best ice cream I've ever had.  Even the stuff sold "fresh" from creameries doesn't taste as fresh as homemade.  The chocolate ice cream also provides an outlet for all those egg yolks leftover from the macarons.

Fizzy Fruit Punch -- I kind of have to make this up.  My mother used to mix equal parts Hawaiian Punch and 7up for party punch, and I'd like to make something with a similar flavor but with actual fruit juice.  I haven't found an applicable recipe, so I plan to try a couple 100% juice fruit punch blends (maybe something featuring cherries) from Whole Foods, choose the best, and mix it with an equal amount of sugared lemon-lime soda.

We'll also be having a variety of cheese cubes and crackers, cut fruit, and crudites with Homemade Ranch Dressing.