Happy Birthday to ME!

For the last three years, Doug has volunteered to bake my birthday cake.  I think it is the only thing he cooks inside the kitchen all year long, honestly.  Outside the kitchen, actually outside the house, the man can cook, or grill.  Whatever.  He can grill a mean burger or some killer ribs, but that skill doesn’t translate indoors for some reason, probably just lack of practice.  I blame myself.  I have a nasty habit of kicking him out of my kitchen when it’s time to prepare a meal.  Yes, it’s my kitchen.  If he wants to cook something, he’ll have to just go outside.  :)  Of course, I’m kidding, a little, but back to my birthday cake.  With what little practice he has, the man makes awesome cakes.  The first year, he made a chocolate layer cake.  Last year, a two layer carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  This year was italian creme cake.  oh yum!

 

Some pictures of my husband in action:

separating eggs.  He didn’t really know how to do this properly, but his improvisation was very effective.  Break the egg in a bowl, and carefully lift the yolk out with your fingers… not bad.

The kids LOVE to help in the kitchen.  Tanner didn’t even want to walk away long enough to get a stool, and he’s such a monkey that he just climbs up anyway.  Tanner loves to dump ingredients into the Kitchenaid for his daddy.

Timmy got the stools, and they both helped Doug with the recipe, which really means that they got in the way and made it harder for Doug, novice baker that he is, to figure out what to do next.  What did I do while the boys slaved in the kitchen?  Well, you can tell from the picture that I didn’t help much.

Sorry for the blurry photo.  Out of three takes, this, sadly, was the best.  In one take, Doug is mid-sneeze.  In the other, all three of them have their eyes closed.  So, blurry wins…  Sorry.  I just love these guys, so I just had to put this picture in.  :)

 

Are you curious about the end result?  So was I!  This was, by far, the most challenging recipe Doug has ever tried.  But he did a great job, and my cake was awesome! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And don’t even think about counting the candles.  I’m definitely too old to be concerned with the accuracy of the candle count.  And, one box of candles doesn’t cut it anyway.  What?  Once you turn 25, you become SO SPECIAL that it takes more than one box of candles to grant you a birthday wish?  I wish that I could get by with one box of candles for my birthday.  Wish not granted.  Bummer.

 

:)