Cinnamon Cake

I've been developing a new recipe this week: cinnamon cake. So far, I've made two batches and I think that I am very close. The flavor is there and really good, but it's still a little dry. So, I'll be baking another batch very soon!

Above is a picture of the finished cake, made with two 6-inch cakes (one from each batch), filled and iced in vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream. Yum! Here is the slice. See the cinnamon swirled in there? Kind of makes you want a piece, right? :)

It was sooo good with a cup of black coffee!

If you look closely at the slice, you can see the difference in the two batches. The first batch is the bottom two layers of cake. See how the crumb is smaller and the cake more crumbly? The top two layers are the second batch. The crumb is a little bigger and it held together a little better.

Here is the inspiration for the design. It's a pillow from the West Elm catalog. My first attempt at piping it on made it look more like a Christmas tree than anything else, so I turned the cake around and did it again on the other side. That's the good thing about having a cake just for my family! It turned out a little better the second time, but I clearly still need practice with buttercream! I would love to perfect that skill and be able to pipe all the intricate designs on perfectly-smoothed buttercream cakes! Someday...