This cake is black. Like really black. Like the cake batter itself is black, in addition to the icing. It’s kind of morbid. And I think a little unnerving. Better yet, the cake is vanilla flavored and the icing is chocolate. But it’s all black.

Why did I make a black cake may you ask? Because someone asked me to. And, in case you didn’t get it, it’s for a 50th birthday. Terry’s 50th birthday. And it sure is nifty.

Terry is one of my coworkers. Have I mentioned my coworkers are delightful? They are. Plus, they eat just about anything. And anything usually includes many of my baked goods. They are also pretty fond of rather extravagant displays of ridiculousness. So Terry’s birthday was the perfect opportunity to do this:

It looks so festive and fun! But (mostly because we didn’t plan so well) as you dug through the balloons the colors started to fade away until all you could see were black ones. So many black balloons. And because we are engineers, it was calculated just how many balloons were needed to fill that office. The final number was around 500, but we stopped around 375 because we ran out of hot air (ha! not likely!). We then let Terry figure out how to clear out her office.

Oh, and back to the cake (being that this is a food blog and all…). It’s a vanilla cake, with A LOT of black food coloring. I use those little tubs of gel food coloring that you can get at your local craft store. I think the icing had 2.5 tubs of black gel and the batter for the cake had 1 full tub. And the recipe? A cinch.

Vanilla Butter  Cake Recipe

makes 2 10-in cake rounds and 2 6-in cake rounds. It’s a lot of cake.

• 24 oz unsalted butter
• 16 oz of granulated sugar
• 1 1/3 tsp salt
• 10 eggs
• 30 oz of all-purpose flour
• 7 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 30 oz of milk
• 3 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add each egg one at time, making sure they are completely mixed in before adding the next. Finally, add the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in thirds, alternating with the milk and starting and finishing with the dry ingredients. Mix until fully incorporated. If you want to make it some wacky color, now is the time to add the food coloring gel.

Grease and flour 2 10-in pans and 2 6-in pans. Divide the batter amongst the pans.

Bake in a 350º oven for 40-50 minutes.

Let cool and remove from pans.

Stack and ice as you please.