Happy Birthday, Erika!

After months of staring at the beautiful desserts featured on Smitten Kitchen, I finally found enough confidence to try one of her recipes. If you haven't already noticed, I'm easily intimidated. When I saw the Pink Lady Cake, I knew my friend Erika would love it. And not just because it's pink, even though she is such a girly girl. Erika's favorite cake is strawberry and she also likes cheesecake. And, the timing couldn't have been better; Smitten Kitchen posted this cake a few days before Erika's birthday.

I had to make her a two-layer cake instead of three because I have only two 9-inch cake pans. I put the leftover batter in an 8-inch cake pan for us to try. Hey, if I'm going to make something from Smitten Kitchen for the first time, I want to try it, too! Well, I don't know if I did something wrong or if the frozen strawberries weren't quite right, but the cake wasn't as moist as I would have liked. Also, the cream cheese frosting was decent, but not as good as Barefoot Contessa's. That is the best icing ever (but what would you expect with nearly 2 pounds of cream cheese and butter?).

Poor Erika. She said she loved it, but I'll have to make it up to her somehow. Feliz Cumpleanos, Erika! (That's happy birthday to my English-speaking friends.)