Happy Birthday!

It was Nick's birthday last week (well, closer to two weeks now), and the sad thing was that we were all sick that week. And even if we had felt up to celebrating, we had no money for a cake. So we waited, and on Sunday we had a big party. I made a cake (more of which below); we went over to his parents house and spent the day with his family. It was much fun. The guys all threw a football, the younger ones played with our boys and I played with my camera while I talked with my mother-in-law.

For dinner, Mom had made a wonderful Beef and Mushroom soup and hummis with pumpernickle bread—I will post the bread recipe, 'cause I have it! We brought salad to round it out and a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz that complemented the whole meal perfectly.

Then I pulled out the cake. I'm very happy with it. This is the first cake that has come out exactly the way I wanted it to. EXACTLY!

I found the recipe for it here and when I saw it I knew that I had to make it for Nick. He grew up on a very Japanese based diet and loves sushi. He learned how to make it, and he introduced me to it. And this cake fits with his sense of humor. In a word, it's perfect. I have waited in gleeful anticipation until the day when I could shop for the ingredients and the day after, when I could make it. Now, Nick didn't know what the cake was going to look like, I planned it as a surprise. The only request he had was that there were M&M's somewhere on or in it. So I mixed them in with the batter, put them in between the layers and used them for the carrots on the top.

Anyway, back to dinner: Nick's sister had given Dad a bottle of raspberry wine from Gettysburg and he served that with the cake; and I made a small speech and toasted Nick. The day ended with a roaring fire, and all of us together in the living room.

Happy Birthday, Darling!

--Zizi