It is, I am pleased to report, birthday month for me (yes, I don’t just celebrate my birthday day or even birthday week, I like to make the celebration last for as long as is humanly possibly. Actually last year birthday month stretched joyfully right into February!)
But, I digress (imagine), we were talking cake, birthday cake. Just the phrase “birthday cake” makes you smile. Go ahead; try saying “birthday cake” out loud while keeping a straight face. You can’t do it, no way, inconceivable. Really, the only point of debate is what constitutes the perfect birthday cake. Do you want the same cake year after year? Or do you have two or three standards you’re apt to choose from? Perhaps you throw caution to the wind and go with whatever you’re craving when the big day rolls around?
My childhood favorite was a quarter sheet cake from what remains my favorite grocery store to this day. The cake had to be yellow with vanilla butter cream decorated with butter cream roses (only the rose color changed from year to year). As an adult, I grew to prefer my Mom’s orange cake, so that’s the choice if Mom is geographically accessible for my birthday (we live in different states now, so this limits my options for Mom’s orange cake.)
Once I got married, my sweet husband cheerfully took over the birthday cake duties and made a 9 x 13 white cake with milk chocolate frosting. Actually, knowing my love of milk chocolate frosting, he would double up the frosting part of his creation. That’s the mark of a good husband, don’t you think? Any man who will prepare and serve your birthday cake with a ridiculous amount of your preferred frosting is definitely the marrying kind.
Last year, my older daughter by association (the one of sweet potato fame) presented me with an amazingly decadent chocolate layer cake with chocolate frosting. The year before last my dear friends Dan & Dixie beautifully addressed the white vs chocolate issue by gifting me with a marble layer cake (chocolate/vanilla swirl) with chocolate frosting from a fantastic local bake shop. And the year before that, I baked myself a pan of the Barefoot Contessa’s Outrageous brownies (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/outrageous-brownies-recipe3/index.html) because that’s just what sounded good to me. At my office we generally get a dozen assorted cupcakes when we celebrate birthdays, that way, there’s something for everyone.
My point, and I promise, I did have one when I started writing this, is birthday cake is a very delicious, very personal matter. And sometimes, birthday cake isn’t birthday cake at all (like my year of the brownies.) I have a cousin in North Carolina who’s husband prefers pie to cake and his family gladly indulges him in this break from tradition (hi Kim and Olyvia, thanks for following me!) And, hard as it is to believe, some among just don’t have a taste for sweets and would prefer, say, an extra rack of ribs by way of celebration, rather than a confection.
So, tell me, when it’s your day and the choice is totally yours, what says “birthday cake” to you?
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2 comments:
Every year I ask my mom (yes, even though I'm 40, my mom still bakes me a cake every year - not to mention Easter baskets & Valentine treats...etc) to make the lemoneyest lemon cake she can come up with... and not sweet lemon - tart lemon... it is a little different each year, because she just wings it every time... but it is always fantastic and always the perfect birthday treat!
Birthday cake definitely makes me smile :) And dad's pie is something we all look forward to on his birthday! As for me, I usually choose cheesecake every year - an assorted kind so everyone gets a piece they like. This talk of cake is making me want some now!
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