March is birthday month in my family. Two immediate family members, my wife and my son share March birthdays only two days apart. Jamie, a sister-in-law, also celebrates her birthday in March.
When the time came to select the date for the caesarian birth of my son, the doctor asked if we had any special dates on which we’d like the birth to occur. With a straight face, I indicated that I was hoping the baby could be born on my birthday.
When the time came to select the date for the caesarian birth of my son, the doctor asked if we had any special dates on which we’d like the birth to occur. With a straight face, I indicated that I was hoping the baby could be born on my birthday.
“When is that?” the doctor asked.
“November 1st,” I replied.
She didn’t crack a smile and simply turned to my wife.
So, they could
have shared birthdays, but we decided that Matt should have his own special
day. Up until recently that meant
his own special cake, too. In the
last few years, we’ve become wiser, opting for less cake in our lives, and have used
a combo cake.
When this year's big day was imminent, I suggested a Jewish Apple
Cake for the celebration. That was
overruled in favor of a cake with real, honest-to-goodness frosting. As a result, I combined two previously
posted Dad in the Kitchen recipes
into one really great cake, (if I do say so myself). I decided to make a triple-layer chocolate cake using the
Wacky Cake recipe I’ve made since junior high school, and frost it with Nancy
Ruoff’s Peanut Butter Frosting.
You’ll remember that Nancy is the cafeteria manager at RoyersfordElementary School.
For the project, I bought new non-stick round cake
pans. The cake batter had to be
made in two batches as I only had two pans. When I made the third layer from the second batch of batter,
I used the remaining cake batter to make cupcakes.
I discovered that even non-stick bakeware has to be
seasoned, as the first two layers stuck slightly to the bottom of the new
pans. I also learned that it takes
a lot of frosting to coat a three-layer cake. A double batch of Nancy’s frosting was also required, with just enough left over to keep
everyone happy. I pulled my dad's icing spatula out of retirement to apply the frosting. It hadn't been used in almost 40 years! I have to say that it felt "at home" in my hand...not that I did as good of a job as he could do. Practice makes perfect, right?
Here are the links to the Wacky Cake and Peanut Butter
Frosting posts. The Wacky Cake
post was my very first post, blogged a year ago this month. On the icing/frosting post, I recommend the frosting, not the
icing, as two recipes are given.
If you’d prefer just the print versions of the recipes, here
they are:
Enjoy!
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