The Belated Birthday Post

Brother-Bug turned 5 a month ago today. We were in Seattle with his Godmommies for the celebrations. Papa-Bug was supposed to bring a box with him when he drove up to meet us on Friday. In said box were 'Cars' cake decorations, the cake pans, the birthday banner, our special birthday plate... oh yeah, and all the presents. He didn't bring the box. Whoops.

My plan had been to make a 2 layer cake, and frost it with a road, then drive our 'Cars' toys all over it, as three-dimensional decorations. But the toys were at home and the cake had to be made.

I ended up doing this:

Take one blank white sheet cake...

Trace out the basic outline with a toothpick, and start to outline it with the red icing. Choose not to think about the chemicals and dye numbers that made that icing so very red.

Red - completed. On to the details!

Headlights, eyeballs, and etc.

Finish off with black outlines and other decorations.

 I have to shout out a tremendous "THANK YOU!" to whoever put the drawing instructions online. That was a real life saver in the midst of a very quick plan-change. We added some candles, including a glittery number 5, and had a great celebration. Brother-Bug was thrilled that he had a Lighning McQueen cake. And I was (am) pretty darn proud of myself for pulling it off so nicely.

Ready, Sing, Blow!!!

Flavlorful, Yet Still Tasteless

I'll just open by stating categorically that my family has an off-the-hook sense of funny. And we'll leave it there.

Last weekend it fell to me to make the birthday cakes for a birthday party for both brothers. They were both in town on the youngster's actual birthday, and the elder had his about 2 weeks prior. So the whole family gathered in a local park and celebrated with fish tacos and cheesecake.

At the library, Brother-Bug and I were perusing the children's cookbooks. We found this excellent book, Gross-Out Cakes, and just had to bring it home. Parts of it are truly disgusting.

I lean more toward wanting to make the Oozing Brain or Severed Arm. I'm not sure I could even begin to stomach eating the Kitty-Litter Cake.

We read through it several times, and finally settled on the Road Kill Cheesecake. We thought it was the least likely to offend anyone who wouldn't find stuff like this hilarious.

One chocolate cheesecake, some icing and sprinkles, a little Lingonberry jam, and a toy deer later...





It was a complete success. Everyone loved it and it was so yummy!

And I highly recommend the book to anyone with kids who love the silly, macabre, or downright disgusting.

Recipe: Chocolate-Chocolate-Cherry Cake

Most chocolate cakes I have made have been less than satisfactory. Too dry or light. I like chocolate cake that is rich, rich, rich. If you're going to go there, you might as well go all the way.

With my mother's birthday recently on the calendar, it fell to me to make the requisite cake. She said she wanted chocolate. Very chocolate

So I dipped into old recipes and made her the chocolate-cherry cake my dear friend and midwife has made for me in the past. I have never had this recipe fail. Always a keeper of a cake. Hats off to my midwife!

Zuchinni Chocolate Cake

3 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups zuchinni (if using frozen zuchinni, thaw well and press out some of the excess liquid)

1 1/4 cup flour
1 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder

Beat the first four ingredients together. Mix the final four dry ingredients and add to the wet mixture. At this time you can fix it up a little. Brother-Bug likes to add some chocolate chips for an extra chocolaty treat. I think some chilies might be fun. Or nuts. Or ??? Add those in now.

This should make 2-3 nine-inch cake pans, depending on what additions (like chocolate chips) you were inspired to mix in.

Put the batter into greased cake pans. Bake at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool and decorate.

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The classic that I love best with this is shown above. Simple and elegant. Cherries (a mixture of frozen cherries and cherry jam, heated with a little cornstarch to thicken it) and whipped cream. Real whip for my mom, no sugar.

You can decorate and stack it how you like. Toffee? Raspberry? Espresso? Frosting? Gnache? It's just the basic of basic fine chocolate cakes.

And you can feel good about eating it... because after all it has zuchinni in it, so it's like a vegetable, right?