Happy Birthday to ME

Every year.  Every birthday.  No exception.  My family will celebrate it.  We get to request our favorite foods for our dinner or lunch and we always get a birthday cake or other dessert.  If we are lucky we may get a few gifts.  It is a true blessing to have such a wonderful family who values our time together.

For the past few years I have made my own birthday cake along with everyone else's.

This was the very first birthday cake that I made for myself.  Yes, I know.  It. Is. Bad.

It tasted good though.  That counts for something, right?

I made a big mistake on this cake but I just went with it.  Instead of carving the number "30" out of cake, my hand slipped and I made a slight boo-boo.  Instead of a "30" it ended up being a "50."  There was no time to make more cake so I just had to let it be.

Like I said...it tasted good.

This was my second 50th  30th birthday cake.  I had two cakes that year.

And yes, I know.  It. Is Really. Bad.

This one also tasted bad.

After enjoying my very first fondant covered cake for several days, it went into the trash.  One day I may re-make this cake because I still love the colorful design.  I think I could do a little better now.

Last year, I made a few improvements, ventured out and made myself a tiered birthday cake.

 

I know, I got a little carried away with the awesomeness of it all.  I mean, why not?  If you are going to have to make your own birthday cake, you can do whatever you want to do, right?

I took full advantage of that.

The top tier was chocolate on chocolate on chocolate.  Yes.  And it tasted very good.

The bottom tier was banana cake and it was filled with dark chocolate buttercream.  It was like totally covered with chocolate ganache.  The decorations were modeling chocolate.   This tier also tasted really, really, really good.  Well, actually it tasted awesome.

I was happy with this cake.  I was extremely happy with the cakes before this cake too even though they were bad.  I just didn't know it at the time.  I thought they were beautiful.

That brings us to the current year.  My birthday was last week and we went away for the weekend.  There was no one around to make me a cake.  I splurged and had some reese's cups and some "party cake" flavored PEEPS.  Ho hum.

It wasn't the same without a birthday cake.  I could have made one when we returned but things got a little crazy and I didn't have enough time.

Sigh.

We had my family birthday party the week after our weekend out of town.  I was happy to stretch out the celebration for another week.  It totally works for me.

"The Mommy" had asked if I was going to make myself a cake this year.  When I told her that I probably would not make one, she mentioned a "store bought cake."

GASP!

I immediately fell to the floor and kicked and screamed.

Once I picked myself up off the floor and wiped away my tears, I suggested that just maybe my niece, Emily, would make me some cupcakes.  She said she didn't know.  We left it at that.

I was secretly hoping that Emily would make me some birthday cupcakes but I really didn't expect it.

The day finally arrived for my family birthday party.  I was so excited.

When I walked into to my sister's house I saw this....

"H-E-L-L-O" SWEET THING!

To be honest when I first saw the cake, it wasn't missing that slice.

There was no time to get a photo.

There was no waiting until after lunch.

No blowing of the candles.

And certainly no singing of the happy birthday song.

Just cake.  Cake at it's finest.

I was so surprised and I so needed some cake that I had to have a piece immediately.

YUM-YUM-YUM.

My niece and sister made this cake for me.  I don't think they have ever made a cake of this magnitude.

She told me it took "all day long" to make this.

Crazy.  Talk about "love stuff."  Oh my.

It was so labor intensive that they disposed of the recipe after the cake was completed never to be made by them again.

I was extremely honored.

Fortunately, due to numerous request, they somehow managed to dig the recipe out of the trash.

The complete recipe along with a photo tutorial is available here The Best Strawberry Cake EVER!

Since my family birthday party was on Easter Sunday we ended the day with an Easter egg fight.  Both the hubster and my sister cheated.  He covered his egg with duct tape and felt pads.  She covered her plastic egg with lime green duct tape.  The rest of her eggs had three coats of nail polish on the ends.  

"The Mommy" won.  

She didn't cheat.

And with that....I will leave you with the hubsters "Egginator."

Happy Birthday to me and Happy Easter to you!

Have you eaten an egg salad sandwich lately? 

Just don't touch the Egginator.

Have you ever made your own birthday cake?  Did you have fun with it?  I would love to know!

Donna

xo