B-day Food Times

It was my birthday over the weekend and of course lots of food was consumed for the occasion. My sister surprised me by traveling from Halifax to visit me and celebrate. Good times were had by all. Lots of candy and chocolate always help.

This is what 31 looks like. Yeah, not too happy. This was pre-sister surprise...I was a lot happier a few hours later.

I still had (and have) lots of school work to do, so it was decided that my sister and friends would do the cooking for me. Sweet. I went to the Mile End library and worked on my paper, then when it closed I went to Cagibi for coffee/work.

I requested my beet cake recipe and my wish was granted. The beet cake was quite the ordeal and as a result of hilariousness and distraction I now have enough leftover batter for 2 more cakes. My sister, who was "in charge" of the cake misread the instructions and tripled the amount of liquid in the recipe. We also spent ages boiling the beets and mincing them, then sticking them in the blender to puree. By the end of all this, I had joined in the cooking game and we were all sick of dealing with the beets. So all the beets, oh roughly a whole blender full, also went into the batter, although the recipe called for 3/4 cup. Needless to say there was a lot of re-jigging of the recipe. I used my critical thinking skills and did some stuff. I emptied about 1/3 of the batter into tupperware for future use/re-jigging. Then we added more of everything except liquid, and kept tasting it until we were satisfied. Finally we threw it into the oven and hoped for the best. I knew if all else failed, if I made buttercream icing it would make even the worst cooking fiasco taste acceptable. We eagerly awaited the results.


The beet cake batter BEFORE we realized our mistakes.

Clearly not impressed with the execution of this recipe.

In the meantime, my dinner was being made.
Sauteing portobello shrooms, leeks and onion for the risotto.

Goofing around...

Tada! My delicious birthday meal. Cornmeal and sweet chili crusted cod, black sesame crusted tuna, amazing herb and mushroom risotto and my salad. So good. This meal involved a lot of butter, which is perfect for those special occasions.

As for the cake, it turned out great!

Here it is in the process of getting iced. As I mentioned, buttercream icing saved the day. It was sweet and rich, just like I like my men icing. Butter, icing sugar, cocoa, shredded coconut, vanilla, almond milk. Delicious! Could have used a bit more cocoa though.

Mmmm...double layers....drooooool.

Icing the cake was almost as good as eating it.

I ate some for breakfast the next day.