Celebrate Good Times...

I have a reputation at work for asking, any time there is an event, if there will be cake. Growing up, I had amazing birthday cakes for many years - a beautiful butterfly, my favorite My Little Pony, Cheer Bear from the Care Bears...the list continues. At a certain point, though, I stopped having cakes. In recent years I've returned to the idea of celebration being marked with cake.

This weekend we celebrated a birthday in our house, and I made a birthday cake. After inviting a few friends to enjoy the cake with us, I discussed the plan - a lovely chocolate cake and a rich vanilla buttercream frosting. After poring over a number of cookbooks, I settled upon Lisa Yockelson's Velvety Chocolate Cake, from Chocolate Chocolate. Using so much butter, I knew it would be rich.

After the layers cooled, I decided to go for broke, and split each of the two layers in half. I made a bittersweet chocolate ganache and filled the layers with the chocolate. Then I made a simple vanilla buttercream and constructed the entire cake. Sometime during this time, the household "taste tester" came in and sampled the frosting. Deeming it worthy, I finished the cake.

While we only got through half the cake last night with our friends, the rich, sumptuous dessert seemed a fitting end to a celebratory weekend - a little more indulgent than necessary, but fun! There is something so lovely about a homemade cake on a cake stand that I just love. It looks ready to celebrate. The time it takes to make it is a labor of love, and to me means that the celebration is special - deserving of both the labor and that level of indulgence, of excess. Something beautiful and fun to share with those you love. Cake makes every occasion a little more fun, a little more special, a little sweeter.