Today is my birthday.

I'll even tell you which birthday it is.

Today is my 35th birthday.

So this year, my husband actually remembered that my birthday was coming up. Last week he commented to Alison that he needed to go to the grocery store. I kind of looked at him funny and then realized that he meant he needed to order me a birthday cake. So he asked me what kind I wanted. I told him he knew what kind I wanted and that it just wouldn't be the same coming from the grocery store bakery. Then he said that he could buy a box mix and a can of frosting and make one that way. Yeah, that's true, but it still wouldn't be the same. And somehow it just didn't seem fair that Alison gets a homemade cake for her birthday (even if it is is just a chocolate cake) and he gets a Mississippi Mud Pie for his birthday and the only way I would get my favorite cake for my birthday would be to make it myself.

So for the last week, Kevin has been making plans to bake a Red Velvet Cake with Ermine Frosting....from scratch. They got hit with a (computer) virus at work last week, so he spent just about every free moment all weekend at work fixing computers so no chance to make a cake. Therefore, today was the day of the Great Cake Bake.

Alison had PT this morning, so he came home after we left and got started. I gave him some efficiency recommendations (do the cooking part of the frosting first, then mix the cake and the frosting should be cool enough to finish when you're done). Still, as I'm sitting and watching Alison go up and down the hallway on a scooterboard, the phone suddenly rings. "Where is the cocoa powder?" So I tell him and he's good to go. About 5 minutes later, the phone rings again. "I don't see any more flour and I'm a little bit short." Well how short are you? Since he was only half a cup short, I told him to use the white whole wheat flour and it would be fine. Crisis averted.

When we got home from PT, the cooked portion of the frosting was cooling and he was in the midst of mixing the cake. I just left him to his work and got Alison a snack. I did notice, at one point, that he was mixing the cake with a teaspoon, which I thought was a little silly, especially when there were plenty of mixing spoons in a crock on the shelf, but I didn't say anything. When we were ready to leave for dance class (about 20 minutes later) he was just putting the cake in the oven and getting ready to finish the frosting.

When we arrived home from dance class, he had gone back to work. The cake was done (sitting on the top of the stove to "cool" -- I did move it to a rack on the counter for him) and the frosting was waiting in the fridge. Alison wanted to help "decorate" the cake, so the two of them went to work on it after lunch (I got the cake out of the pan and onto a cake board for them.....the scraps that stuck to the cake pan tasted pretty good.). Kevin's not used to baking, and he's really not used to having a "helper," but he did let her do a little and the cake is sitting on the counter right now. It actually looks pretty good. :)

Can't wait for tonight to be able to eat my homemade, from scratch and not by me, Red Velvet birthday cake with Ermine frosting. :)