I was in full study mode: comfy sweatshirt, baggy sweatpants, reading glasses resting on my nose, Jirachi laying next to my feet, and books sprawled all over our dining room table. I was squeezing in a few hours for my upcoming law school finals when I received a text from my friend Jennifer. She asked if I wanted to help cook/serve for the residents of Shelter, Inc., a local homeless shelter. She promised she would assigned us all easy food items to contribute to the dinner we were making.

I have a soft spot for feeding people so I told her that not only was I in, but Grant and Sean would help out as well. This time I asked them before I enlisted their services. They were cool with it, knowing nothing of what to expect at the shelter or of what we signed up for.

I went in blindly, too. I assumed that we had no say in the food we were feeding the shelter residents so I reluctantly complied with my assigned task. I was supposed to bring 4 cans of store bought cake frosting. Frostings sold in cans are disgusting (to me). I prefer to make my own frosting from scratch any day.

Grant, Sean and I braved a rough rainstorm to get to the shelter and we had the best time ever. We served, met and ate with five families who currently lived at the shelter. Most of them are women and children who can’t afford to pay the high cost of rent in the Bay Area. Even though I was not happy with the food we were serving to them, I enjoyed getting to know the residents there. It made me want to go back again and make them really good food.

The highlight of my evening was that I got to hold and play with baby Grace, who was turning one in a week. I asked her mom if I could come back on Grace’s birthday with a homemade cake for her birthday. She happily accepted.

• Here is the recipe for Grace’s first birthday cake. It is a recipe from Gesine Bullock-Prado, except instead of folding in sprinkles to the batter I sprinkled them all over the frosted cake. My friend Jennie introduced Gesine’s cookbooks to me when I helped Jennie make a wedding cake last month.  I am now obsessed with Gesine. Gesine and I have a lot in common. She lost someone she loved to cancer, studied law, and is a self-taught baker. (I love her sis Sandra on the big screen.)

White Party Cake

• unsalted butter or baker’s nonstick spray for pans
• 2 3/4 cups/326 g unbleached cake flour
• 1 2/3 cups/333 g granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup / 170 g unsalted butter, very soft
• 4 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 1 cup / 227 ml whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles

(1) Preheat oven to 350.

(2) Butter or spray the bottom of two 8 inch uncoated round cake pans and line with parchment paper and spray the paper.

(3) Whisk the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the butter in pieces and mix on low speed until the mixture resembles damp sand.

(4) Add the egg whites, one at a time, then the whole egg, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beating for 30 seconds between each addition.

(5) Add the milk and vanilla in 3 additions, mixing for 1 minute after each addition, until fluffy. Divide batter evenly in pans and bake 20-25 minutes or until cake just springs back when touched with your index finger.

 

Swiss Vanilla Buttercream:

• 5 large egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons / 233 g granulated sugar
• Generous pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 pound / 453 g unsalted butter, at room temperature

(1) Place the egg whites, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Whisk together and place over a pot of simmering water to make a double boiler. Whisk constantly until the sugar has completely melted and the mixture is hot to the touch and reaches 170 degrees F on a candy thermometer.

(2) Immediately transfer the bowl to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on high until the meringue holds stiff peaks and the bowl is cool to the touch. Very important that bowl is cool to the touch before adding the butter!!! Add extract.

(3) Add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time until it is thickened and smooth. Continue whisking on high for 2 to 3 more minutes. Scoop 1/2 cup of frosting to a small bowl and squeeze in 2 drops of red dye from Whole Foods for the lettering on top of the cake. Frost cooled cake immediately because buttercream will set once refrigerated making it hard to spread on the cake. Sprinkle cake all over with the rainbow sprinkles.