Celebration Cake with Godiva French Buttercream

Ingredients

1 boxed cake mix (Butter flavor, yellow or white)
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup canola oil
2 tsp vanilla flavoring
1 3/4-ounce box of instant vanilla pudding
3/4 cup creme de cacao liqueur

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put all ingredients in a large bowl. Turn your mixer onto Low to blend the ingredients. Then turn it to Medium High (or High if you have a small mixer) and blend it for a full three minutes.

While the cake is being blended, you can prepare your angel food cake pan (funnel pan). Spray the pan with baker's spray to keep the cake from sticking. When the mixing is done, pour the batter into the cake pan. Bake 55 minutes to one hour at 350 degrees. Test for doneness with a clean toothpick. If nothing sticks, the cake is done. Don't be tempted to open the oven before the 55-minute mark or the cake may sink a bit. Even if it does, you'll still be fine. Turn the cake onto your platter after it cools down.

Godiva French Buttercream Frosting

Ingredients

1 cup butter softened at room temperature (Use real butter.)
1 bag (2 pounds) confectioners' sugar
1 pasteurized egg (If you can't get pasteurized eggs, you can use egg substitute.)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla flavoring
4 Tbl Godiva chocolate liqueur (If no alcohol is preferred, use flavored creamer.)

Put this all in a large bowl. With a sturdy mixer, blend the frosting until smooth. The frosting will not be brown because of the chocolate liqueur. It will be a warm off-white color.

This recipe makes enough frosting to fill the hole in the middle of the cake, frost the cake completely and have enough left over to pipe decorative borders at the top and bottom.

If it's really warm (especially if you plan to serve outdoors), store the cake in the refrigerator and take it outside about 30 minutes before you want to serve it. Buttercream can "melt" if it's too hot outside.

Tips : don't worry, the alcohol cooks out during baking. The creme de cacao gives it a really different taste. If you don't want the Godiva in the frosting, just substitute flavored creamer.

Enjoy the school year! It's coming soon! Cheers!