January Birthday Cakes

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January is generally a quiet and cozy month here.  We settle into resting up after the holidays and new year organization.  It's the only month that I really give in to the early sunset and snuggle up in pj's and quilts and watch too much TV. This third week of the month, though, is always time to celebrate a January birthday for the husband. The kids like to make the dinner plan, and I like to make the dessert! 
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In December, I spotted a caramel frosted cake that looked delish, but I totally lost the link and had to put my own best ideas together to hopefully get it right today.  I decided on my favorite Southern Living Buttermilk Pound Cake and Caramel Icing.  Alas, in my attempt to bake the recipe in two rounds rather than the bundt, I left the cakes in the oven too long and felt they were too brown and smelled a bit burnt. One can't give a burnt birthday cake, so I decided to make another cake but different recipe (I didn't have another six eggs!), see below. Meanwhile, I trimmed off all the too-brown edges and bottoms of the pound cakes - mustn't waste the beauties.  I made the cooked caramel icing, so easy!, iced cake #2 with the glazey stuff, and then I added about a cup or more of powdered sugar, more butter, and milk to the rest of the icing and changed it to a frosting for the pound cake layers.  Wow!  Dense, rich, and marvelous!  
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Cake #2 is the Buttermilk Birthday Cake with the Caramel Icing.  The recipe looked like it would make a nice moist cake, and it did.  It's really a just-the-right size cake, not too big, and nice and fragrant.  In my excitement over the pretty cooked caramel icing just made, I didn't trim the top off the bottom layer, so the top layer slipped a bit.  Sheesh!  I was so busy working all last year with practically no homemaking that I obviously lost some baking skills.  A few well placed tooth picks stopped the sloping.  Let's just call it rustic happiness.   

Camille and I made quick little flags in my studio to decorate the cakes.  Fabric rectangles folded and glued over wooden skewers thanks to Posie Gets Cozy. Sweet!  Just right for Dad and a cheery simple embellishment.