My Birthday Cake

Well, its gone and happened again.  I'm a year older now, and I guess I'm supposed to be a bit wiser than I was at this time last year.  I don't know about that, but I do feel like I've learned alot about baking and cooking in the past year and I've had so much fun learning from and meeting other bloggers who share baking interests.

Last year I made a 10" blueberry tart for my birthday, so this year I figured I was due for a nice big layered birthday cake!  I couldn't wait and I knew just what book I wanted to pick the recipe from.  I'm quickly falling in love with at least one of Nick Malgieri's cookbooks, The Modern Baker.  So far I've made the blueberry muffins, the incredibly moist chocolate cupcakes, the strawberry shortcake, and now the Devil's Food Cake with Fluffy White Icing. 

I made a white cake with a lemon filling for my hubby's birthday last July, so I decided a chocolate cake was in order this time and the icing that went with Nick's Devil's Food Cake intrigued me.  I'd never made an icing with egg whites and sugar before. 

I usually don't cook dinner on my birthday, and since my mother-in-law sent me a little something in the mail, I decided we were going to go out for pizza.  So the afternoon was spent relaxing and having fun making my birthday cake.  This cake was so simple and it came together without any problems.  I used buttermilk instead of plain milk, since I had some in the fridge that needed used.  I just had to fish out the ice chunks before I measured it (the jug had gotten a little too close to the back of the fridge).  For the icing, it didn't take any time at all for the temperature of the egg whites and sugar to get to 130°.  I let it get to about 135° before I took the bowl off the pan with simmering water in it.  I used my stand mixer with whisk attachment to whip the egg white mixture after it reached the desired temperature.  I wasn't exactly sure what speed to use, but it worked fine and I just watched it til it looked fluffy and white.  Of course, I had to do a taste test, just to make sure it tasted good before icing the cake with it ;)

Hubby was impressed when he came home and saw my cake.  I was proud of it and I tried to make it look like the picture on the cover of the book as much as I could.  Hubby tasted the icing from the stand mixer bowl too.  He loved it.  I was relieved, because he normally does not like meringue anything.  We both thought it tasted like marshmallow fluff. 

The cake tasted awesome!  We shared some with the neighbors, although I don't know what they thought of it yet.  Hopefully they liked it too.  Hubby doesn't like to sing, so we skipped that part, but I did blow out my candles, though there were definitely not 43 of them on the cake.  I hope my wish can still be granted without the correct # of candles.

All in all it was a beautiful day and I got some cool new things, like my first banneton, a pizza peel, a large pot to use for canning, and a veggie grill basket.  I just wish I could've invited everyone over for cake!