Glued into my memory is the kind of lazy cake that I now completely understand as a busy parent. If you have the time to bake several cakes, make fillings and frostings, and construct them like a house of dreams, go for it. If you don’t...you throw batter in a sheet pan and boom: cake.
My favorite combo was always the bright yellow “vanilla” cake with chocolate frosting and the cheapest, most flavorless sprinkles possible. Here, I’ve used milk chocolate for the frosting to avoid any sort of dark bitterness (admitted non-chocoholic), and the cream cheese adds to the tang. Adeena (the most badass co-author I could ever ask for) made the comment that the cream cheese also ensures you get that neat little tooth mark in the frosting after each bite. And you know when frosting has that “coolness” to it? Not the hip type of cool but actual cold, chocolatey chilliness when it hits your tongue? It’s weird, but it speaks to me. Immediately after mixing, I use a butter knife to gently swipe frosting across my entire tongue, achieving maximum icy coolness.
Reprinted from Cravings: All Together. Copyright © 2021 by Christine Diane Teigen. Photographs copyright © 2021 by Alex Lau. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Random House.
