Small Birthday Cake

It's even crooked!

So, it's the little guy's birthday and there are only three of us and there's a party in two days for which I'm already baking cupcakes. I'm no baker, but I know you're not just supposed to half a baked good recipe and call it a day, so I set out in search of a recipe for a small cake. I found this one. Again, I'm no baker, but I started out to make this and had a heart attack. 1 1/2 sticks of butter?? 1 cup sugar?? The full size cake I made for MDH last month didn't have that much butter and just had that much sugar. But, there I was with the oven preheating and so I did what I always do when I disagree with a recipe and adjusted it as I saw fit. Remember, I'm no baker, so I was a bit terrified.

The result was really quite tasty. The crumb was a little dense, but it was delicious. I can't really figure out how I screwed up the icing. It should have just been a simple buttercream, but it turned out too thin. That part I know how to fix. The weird thing was that it was also a bit gritty. I don't know how something becomes gritty with butter, milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla.

Thoughts? Save me from the internet research - What did I do to my frosting that would make it gritty? Do you have a recipe for a small cake? Have you seen an uglier cake?

Small Birthday Cake

1 cup AP flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

approximately 1/3 cup milk

Butter and flower two 1 quart round Pyrex baking dishes. In a small mixing bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter. Add sugar and mix until fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time (At this point, I needed to stop and scrape down the side of the bowls) until well incorporated. Add vanilla. Add the flour mixture slowly (don't be like me - turn down the speed on the mixer before you start). Once I had the flour incorporated, my batter looked more like a dough, so I started adding milk a little bit at a time until your batter looks battery (yeah, battery. What else would I call it?). Split batter between the containers and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Check with a toothpick. Let cool for five minutes in the baking dishes and then remove and let the cakes cool on a cooling rack before icing.