My Birthday! :)

Today was my birthday.   :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)

I got this postcard from my friend Jen. 

I LOVE birthdays.  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)

I mean, USUALLY I use three smiley faces when I am overly excited. Today it was SEVEN! 

I do, I love my birthday.  And holidays.  I like getting stuff.  I like the attention.  I LOVE the love... as in the whole 'we love you' aspect of it.  I think that's why I like doing things for people- baking & such.  I like knowing that they feel as good as I do when someone goes out of their way for me.

My birthday is technically today.  Sunday.  But my rules are that if your birthday is on a weekend, then you get your birthday for the whole weekend.  It's only fair!  So, Saturday, I made myself some Grilled Chicken Penne a la Vodka.  If you remember from my very 2nd blog (it was a masterpiece- truly) it is my favorite meal & can be found at The Raindancer in Amsterdam, NY. 

This, however, was the 'poor man's version.'  It was more like Sauteed (Because Tim Has Yet To Clean Our George Foreman) Chicken Macaroni & Multigrain Rotini (Because That's What We Had In The House) Pasta A La Spaghetti Sauce With Whipping Cream & Onion Salt (Because We Have No Onions And Very Little Vodka).  It was pretty dang good regardless!  We had some Charles Shaw because... well, that's what you do for poor man's Grilled Chicken Penne. I also substituted Mozarella for the fancy shmancy Italian Blend.  Sacrilege!  ;)

I also had a moment to search through the Williams Sonoma bundle I got from the Sweet Lovin' Man.  It's AMAZING!!!

Mini muffin pans, 3 8-inch cake pans, a blow torch (hells yeah!), a cupcake pan & an ice cream maker!!  He also made me a mix CD (*swoon, swoon*).  He's overly good to me.  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)  :) :) (TEN smiley faces). 

Then, on my birthday-birthday, I made a birthday cake for someone else.  HA!  So, I'm not sure who you are, but I hope you had a fantabulous birthday, Birthday Dude. 

Chocolate Raspberry Cake.

It was a disaster.  They always are!??  I feel like I can't put together a normal cake these days.  That it needs to fall apart before I save it.  Just call me 'The Cake Whisperer!'  Talking to cake demons before I'm back to my basic ingredients again.  *sigh*

In this case, the plan was:  three layers of dark chocolate cake brushed with a raspberry brandy.  The layers were supposed to be filled with a super thin layer of chocolate frosting, fresh raspberries & chocolate mousse. 

That's how the bakery I work for primarily does it & I was excited to see how mine would turn out.  Wellllll... Note to self:  If you put mousse in a cake, you need to make the layers thinner. I NEVER remember this.  I'm always so afraid the cake is going to turn out too small & people are going to feel like they're not going to get their money's worth.  So the layers were too thick.  Therefore the mousse didn't stay fluffy, it came out the sides due to the weight of the other layers.  THEN the sides started to crumble bigtime.  This is when the headache began.  YAY!!!

Bummer #2 came when  the brandy liquer (that you boil down with water & make into a sugar syrup to brush on the cake to keep the layers moist) that I used was fairly tasteless.  So long story short, it tasted like a chocolate cake with random raspberries in it. YES!  That's exactly what I wanted!!!  NOT.

FAIL.

To remedy this I whined half-dazed to my roommate, "Frozen raspberries.  Demon cake. Raspberry Sauce. Fundraiser.  I Like Ike. Why can't I do anything right? I have a headache I'm going to bed."

So I went to bed.  When I woke up, guess what was in my freezer?  :)  :)  :)  :)  :)

FROZEN RASPBERRIES!!!!

I LOVE my roommate.  She understands my headache-babble.

Guess what I found on my cake stand!???

She understands my heartache-babble, too. :)

And no, that is not MY box of Krispy Kreme.  What?  It's NOT.  I wouldn't lie to you guys!!  Sinceriously.

They are hers.  My roomie's.  :)  Reason #4,384,495 why she's awesome.

But I am SOOOO excited for this book!  I'm going home to upstate New York in a week or two & this is going to be my best friend!!  I LOVED Julie & Julia and I'm dying to read Julia's book about Paris!!  Ahhhh!!! She rules.  The Julie's and my roomie.  And the Sweet Lovin' Man! And Birthday Dude!

But not me.  Or this cake.

So I make a raspberry sauce out of two bags of frozen raspberries.  You de-thaw them, boil them with 4 tsp of cornstarch & 1/2 cup of sugar.  Press it through a sieve (which takes quite a bit of time) and ba-da-boom.  Raspberry Sauce!

Added some raspberry brandy to chocolate buttercream (which surprisingly DID taste like berry) and that gave it some kick.  Frosted the cake. Added the sauce on the top. Chocolate sprinkles on the bottom.

Thankfully it came out all right. 

And then finally, I wrote in the raspberry sauce with white chocolate.

Holy Matrimony, I'm glad it's done.  :)

On Wednesday I'm helping my friend Dawn with a fundraiser for her theater group called 'The SpyAnts' at The Ford Theater.  I get to make a gadzillion mini desserts in a 1950's theme!  I REALLY get to dress like MandiCrocker fo' reals!  How fun!  Can't wait-- I'll be sure to share pictures.

See you soon!  Happy Baking!  :)