Happy Birthday To Me!

It is a well known fact among those who know me that I take my birthday very seriously. I do not believe that I should have to do anything that I don't want to on that special day and I still, to this day, have trouble sleeping the night before. The occasion of my 27th birthday was this past week and I decided that I was going to make the cake for my party. When I mentioned this plan approximately 9,000 people said the exact same thing: "Laura! You can't make you own birthday cake!" To which I said, "Too bad, I'm doing it. So there." A few times I stuck out my tongue. Did I say 27th birthday? I meant 8th.

My birthday party was on Saturday night and happened to fall on the same weekend as my gorgeous friend Jenn's sister's bridal shower. She had asked me months ago to make a cake for the party and I was delighted (and only mildly annoyed that I didn't get to have a bridal shower too.) What that meant, however, was that I had a lot a baking to do in a short period of time. Jenn needed the cake early on Sunday so I decided that everything needed to be done by Saturday afternoon.

So Friday evening rolled around and Kevin was out so I turned up my IPod to a deafening level, made sure that there were plenty of Britney songs on the playlist and prepared to bake all the cakes that I needed. I used my favorite red velvet cake recipe and quadrupled it, so the whole baking thing took about 3 hours. Now, that's all well and good, but the unfortunate part was that each layer of my own cake crumbled as I tried to take it out of the pan to cool. I have no idea why, but it was late and I was too annoyed to start over so I decided that I needed to try to put it all back together with frosting and create some thing that mildly resembled a cake. I tried to patch all the holes and missing parts and what I ended up with was a very crooked, very lumpy, very bumpy birthday cake. I stayed up til 2am trying to make it look even a little presentable, but all I could see were all the mistakes.

Here is what it looked like at the party:

I was only partially happy with it and disappointed that I didn't love my own cake. There was originally a third tier but I threw it away and didn't let anyone look at the back. And because I am the daughter of Catherine and the granddaughter of Ida, when people complimented it, all I could do was point out everything that was wrong with it. And Kevin's cousin Jaime just looked at me and said, "And THAT is why you can't make your own birthday cake."

Luckily, nothing can take away how much I love it when everyone sings for me. LOVE it.

So my own cake was a learning experience. Jenn's sister's cake, however, was a horse of another color. Which is a phrase I have never used before and don't think I will again. Anyway, I was out of parchment paper, which I will use from now on to avoid more disasters like the previous one, but I did a much better coating and flouring (can flour be used as a verb? It can, right?) the pans, so each layer came out perfectly.

I waited until the next morning to begin decorating, as I felt maybe that night was cursed, and Jenn and our friend Lindsey (and her baby girl Isabel) came to help. They made the flowers that you saw if you scrolled down to look at the pictures before reading what I took the time to write. Way to be patient.

Anyway, her wedding colors are cream and bright blue, so we used those colors to make flowers. We used three sizes of sugar pearls and a sheer cream ribbon. Jenn said her mother bought a cake topper of two intertwined hearts, so we left the center open for that. I haven't really had a chance to chat with her about it, but I got a text that said that the cake was a hit. So I'm pretty happy about that.

When the time eventually comes, I think maybe I'll have someone else make my bridal shower cake. Any volunteers?

Nests and Courts

Some of you out there have never had the pleasure of meeting my boyfriend, Kevin. Here he is with half of our cats. (Did you know we have too many cats?)

For those people I have compiled the following list of 10 important Kevin facts.

1. He hates tomatoes. (Hates them with the fire of a thousand suns.)

2. He alphabetizes all his CDs, DVDs, and books. (The books are also organized by genre.)

3. He will only own cars with manual transmissions. (Which I have no idea how to operate.)

4. He loves the movie "Bring it on." (Seriously.)

5. He's obsessed with reading Bill Simmons' column on EPSN.com. (And also reading it aloud.)

6. He hates Tyra Banks. (I know this based on the amount of cussing at the TV that occurs when I watch America's Next Top Model.)

7. He enjoys music of the hip hop persuasion. (And often raps along with it.)

8. He loves Dr. Pepper. (Or Mr. Pibb in a pinch.)

9. He laughs at all his own jokes. (Laughs a lot.)

And most importantly...

10. He is a diehard, rabid Suns fan. (For those of you who don't know...that's basketball. I didn't know this until I lived here for at least 6 months.)

Kevin turned 30 last month and on this very special occasion, I decided to make him to following cake:

Here's a picture of the court at US Airways Center for reference.

Yes, I know the lines are a little shaky. I have a really hard time keeping my hand steady. I'm working on it. Whatever, I still think it's pretty cool and he loved it.

The next cake that I made was for my dear friend Jenn's housewarming party. She and her husband have spent the past bazillion (approximately) months gutting and rebuilding a house for themselves. It was a very long process, but they are all moved in and the place is GORGEOUS. I'm extremely jealous.

Anyway, they had a housewarming party this weekend to show off the results and I made a cake for the party. It looks like this:

The birds are the only inedible part of the cake. I was not delusional enough to think that I could sculpt birds out of fondant or gumpaste, so I hit the artificial flower aisle of my local Michaels and picked up some birdies. Don't judge. I'd like to see you make a sugar bird. Actually I would, so that I can learn.

Anyway, although I wanted the branches to be thick, I think in the future I'll make them a little more delicate. Kevin pointed out that they looked like poo. He's so sweet, always knows just what to say.

I'm pretty proud of this cake. It was the first one that I've done in which the fondant came out pretty perfectly with no bumps and bulges. I'm getting pretty good at this...

On last comment...I took Kevin to Seattle for his birthday last month and, among other things, we went to the INCREDIBLE cupcake shop "Cupcake Royale." Kevin had red velvet and I had salted caramel. To. Die. For. Here's me in front of the shop.