Following the rules

"Place one layer meringue-side-DOWN on cake plate."

It breaks my heart every time to flip that pretty crackly stuff upside down where it will be crushed to death by another layer of yumminess.



It's a rough life.

Titus is 2!

Somebody turned 2 yesterday, and all he wanted was a blue cake and a jumbo jet.

I managed the blue cake (complete with lots of bowl and beater licking):

... but we're still working on that jumbo jet. Maybe for Christmas, Titus. :)

(Oh, and now if you ask him how old he is, he will respond "I'm a wild boar." Hmm... I wonder why...)

Happy Half Birthday

What - you don't celebrate your half birthday? Well, your real birthday must not be 7 days before Christmas. Perhaps your real birthday is in the summer, and you have two exciting events to look forward to throughout the year: your birthday and Christmas, rather than the two just blending together. Your real birthday party has probably never been rained out or held in the dark even though it is only 4 pm. Your piñata candy probably hasn't fallen into a puddle of rain water. You have probably never had the Noro Virus during your real birthday party because your party is not held at the peak of flu season. If you had experienced these real birthday woes, you would definitely have started celebrating your half birthday by now.

Just in case you decide to start, I have to tell you that no half birthday celebration is complete without half of a birthday cake and 4 1/2 candles (or however old you are). Oh, and a kite from your Aunt Cindy makes things even better. Just in case you decide to start. :)

Miracle Meringue Cake

Yesterday was Brett's birthday, which meant my once-yearly attempt at making this cake. It is my Grandma's recipe and, like all her recipes, only has some pretty non-specific instructions on how to make something really complicated. Last year I totally messed the whole thing up, but this year I think I mastered it! I'm even more proud because I did it while holding a very fussy baby and taking care of a feverish 3 year old at the same time. Happy Birthday Brett!!!

CAKE BATTER:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup rich milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cake flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Cream butter with sugar very thoroughly. Add 4 yolks, beating well after each addition. Then add milk and vanilla, beat well. Add sifted dry ingredients. Beat for 2 minutes more after all ingredients are combined. Spread in 2 greased 9 inch cake pans and set aside.

** I did this last year and found that the above recipe only made two VERY thin cake rounds, so this year I doubled the cake batter recipe and it turned out much better - thicker cakes. It didn't even affect the baking time!

Make the meringue...

MERINGUE:
4 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup chopped pecans

Beat egg whites till stiff. While the mixer is still running on high speed, add the sugar slowly (seriously - go SLOWLY because otherwise your meringue will turn to taffy) in a trickle until it is all added. Add vanilla slowly in the same way. Beat another minute after all ingredients are added. Spread meringue on top of the batter in pans. Do this lightly so that it is in uneven peaks and touches sides of pans. On one layer sprinkle the nuts. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes.

Set baked cake layers aside to cool in their own pans. Make filling:

FILLING:
1/2 pound dried apricots
2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream

Simmer apricots in water for about 25 minutes or until tender. Add sugar and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and mash. Put in fridge to cool. Whip the cream in a mixer and fold into the apricot mixture once it is cooled to at least room temperature.

Assemble cake: Place the non-nutty cake layer meringue-side-down on a cake plate. Spread 1/4 of the apricot filling on top of this layer. Place second cake layer meringue-side-up on top. Spread remaining apricot filling around outside of cake.

Take it from me: your messy kitchen will totally be worth it. Enjoy!!!

Another Manly Post...

Can you even tell what this is? I spent about a half hour trying to take a good picture of this and then realized "I just took 45 pictures of candy." So I gave up. :)

This is what the party favors look like for an important upcoming event. My husband and his best friend since childhood are turning 30 within the same month, so us wives are throwing them a joint birthday bash. The theme: Delta Force. If you don't know these guys, that will mean nothing to you other than the fact that it is the title of a low-budget action film that came out in the early 80's. But that movie was the theme of my husband's entire childhood (who are we kidding - he's still living the dream), and there is a box of weapons under my bed to prove it.

So until this Thursday night, all I will be able to focus on is military-inspired table decorations, what shape the cake should be, and how to keep 50 bags of gummi army men from melting in my car. It's actually been pretty fun - good thing I have 3 brothers!