Birthday cake: Need I say more?

I think birthday cake is the best food in the entire world, and my son would agree. We had our friends over for dinner last night and made a nice Italian feast - chicken piccata, risotto, grilled vegetables and homemade focaccia. Recipes to come someday, but in the meantime, I'm focusing on dessert.

Jack was ready for cake as soon as the dinner plates were cleared. It was our friend Steve's birthday but I couldn't take my eyes off of my son. That pure joy of watching the dancing light of the candles and singing along with everyone else - I wish I could bottle that sweet moment. That's why I do what I do. Food is great and nourishing but it's really the moments around the table - the memories created that make cooking so special for me.

Jack helped me make this cake; it really is so simple you might throw your Duncan Hines away:

Chocolate birthday cake
Adapted from The Barefoot Contessa

Butter, for greasing the pans
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pans
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk, shaken
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup freshly brewed hot coffee

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (8-inch) round cake pans. Line with parchment paper, then butter and flour the pans.

Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and mix on low speed until combined. In another bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, eggs, and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry. With mixer still on low, add the coffee and stir just to combine, scraping the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Pour the batter into the prepared pans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool in the pans for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a cooling rack and cool completely.
Place 1 layer, flat side up, on a flat plate or cake pedestal. With a knife or offset spatula, spread the top with frosting. Place the second layer on top, rounded side up, and spread the frosting evenly on the top and sides of the cake.

Now, as we know the Barefoot Contessa can be a vixen. Her complementary frosting recipe calls for one egg yolk. I wasn't going to go there so I instead used my mom's time-tested buttercream recipe that she has used for years and years on our family's birthday cakes:

Mom's buttercream frosting
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 t. almond or clear vanilla extract
4 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup half and half

Cream shortening and butter; add extract.  Gradually add powdered sugar and then half and half.  Scrape down sides of the bowl (add a few more drops of half and half, if needed). Beat on high until light and fluffy (about five minutes).

Jack and I dyed the frosting blue - I was going for manly blue, but we got Tiffany blue, which still looked very beautiful against the dark chocolate cake layers. Yummy!

A civilized ending to an otherwise crazy week

It's Friday afternoon, and the temperatures are cooler out. The window and sliding glass door are wide open, and Jack is pushing his trains around the wooden tracks. He's got colorful washable marker streaks up and down his arms from a recent art project. Roscoe the cat is asleep in the sunlight, and he has one orange streak on his fur from aforementioned art project. And I'm finishing up some computer work for the week while planning our Sunday dinner menu with guests. My cookbooks are spread across the kitchen island. I'll go searching for ingredients tomorrow morning at the Green City Market, The Spice House, and, yes, Costco. Happy Friday!

Sunny post

It's 1 p.m. so I say this cautiously: I am having a good day.

I feel like I've been using this blog lately as my therapy to complain about how tired and busy I am. But today is good. Two loads of laundry done this morning before work; set out the cleaning supplies for the cleaning lady (yes, it's my dirty little secret, I have a cleaning lady AND setting out my supplies does make me feel like I've achieved something AND Jack knows her by name and knows she comes when "Gack's house is dirty"); and was able to stop by the farmers' market on my way into the office. (This is my most favorite time of year for local produce - August tomatoes and squash, coupled with the early fall offerings of apples).

Got word my friend had a baby...yea! And having a good day at the office. We learned we got a nice grant for general operations (very rare these days in the funding world), and I had a funder call to see if they could give MORE for a project they're already funding. And just heard from Maria and am getting a good-behavior report on Jack. Thank you!

Fingers crossed and thanks to above for a good day so far. And tonight's taco night...