Pollyanna Cake Baking Volume 2

I thought it would have been my engagement. Then a year later, my wedding. Perhaps our honeymoon or even the big move. Nope, no such luck.

Completely out of left field, the most popular post on my blog popped up. It's title - 'Pollyanna Cake Baking.' About 70 people per week search for 'Pollyanna cakes', find this article and read it. So over the past year, it has racked up quite a score on my analytics report. And until yesterday, I had no idea why.

After receiving a comment about this well trafficked post, and then doing some Pollyanna cake research, I figured it out. That is, that I am not the only one - that there are in fact many others out there who have had love affairs with the carnival cakes in Pollyanna - others that have the same cake fantasies as I do.

However, of all the cooking and baking and cocktail shaking bloggers out there, and of all the layer cake recipes that I went through, no one seems to have published a recipe for a good looking, simple, straight forward, no nonsense Pollyanna cake. And that sweet simplicity is the very essence of what makes Cook's cakes so appealing.

 

So yesterday morning, I decided I would put some time and energy into making a pure Pollyanna cake to improve the search results for these illusive masterpieces. And this time, I played by a set of rules.

• I threw out thoughts of almonds and hazelnuts, curds and custards, fondant and fudge, because Pollyanna cakes only come in three flavors: white, yellow and chocolate; and they are topped with three kinds of icing: white, milk chocolate and dark chocolate. 
• There are only three layers in a Pollyanna cake, don't go sky high with it.
• Cook's cakes look as light and fluffy as can be, and despite my amateur baking status, I've discovered that using a combination of confectioners sugar and granulated sugar in the batter makes the cake a little lighter. 
• Simple butter cream icing is the way to go, but add more milk than you are told. I would say double it. Cook's cakes don't have really thick icing on them.
• Don't think about making it fancy or writing on it. A Pollyanna cake should be cake in the purest sense of the word.
• Even if there isn't a carnival coming to town, make your own event where a piece of Pollyanna cake would fit perfectly. 

Last night, jumping from Disney movie to Disney movie, Peter and I celebrated our very merry unbirthdays and cut ourselves big pieces of my second Pollyanna cake - Three layers of browned butter cake, topped with milk chocolate icing. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

And the best part, was when I put it in the refrigerator, I felt like it matched our house perfectly - a vintage cake, in our vintage house, which keeps looking better every day.

   

(The roses are even starting to bloom.) 

Lo.