Feliz Cumpleano, John!

I have been obsessed with the idea of chocolate stout cake for weeks. I can't seem to shake it out of my head -- not too chocolatey, and perfectly moist. And since today is John's birthday, I can't think of anyone who would appreciate beer in birthday cake form more.

This is a luscious photo from Annie's Eats recipe for Irish Car Bomb cupcakes. They've been on my to-do list for awhile. (And they still are, John, so don't expect to see them at your party tonight).

Chocolate stout cake with Bailey's ganache filling and frosting (probably should sneak some Jameson's in there to be perfectly legit). Talk about the right way to amp up the celebration factor!

Birthday Party Recap

The Tie Dye Birthday Party was a resounding success! Proof: I fell asleep with my shoes on. Thanks for coming out and for braving that hellacious downpour later.

My picture here is supposed to demonstrate the complete color wheel that we achieved for that party -- and it would if the lighting wasn't so bad and if the iPhone was an actual quality camera. C'est la vie. Going counterclockwise from the top: roasted tomato salsa, yellow iced rainbow birthday cake, corn and roasted red pepper salsa, mango salsa, salsa verde, crema fresca (out of order, but where does white go?), K-ster's fab guacamole, blue corn chips in the middle, shredded red cabbage.

The grilled tilapia and the corn tortillas aren't pictured because they were probably on the grill when I took this picture. The fish tacos turned out tasting exactly like ones in Baja and I am so so so happy! We made leftovers yesterday and all the salsas were really delicious, even

without the positive influence of watermelon margaritas and mojitos!

Here's a pic of the rainbow cake once it was sliced (after an unplanned performance of "Happy Birthday" wherein I had to "blow out" a lighter). The colors ended up staying in line more than I anticipated or I would have swirled it up a bit more. But you get the idea. Honestly, not too shabby for my usual baking forays. Although we did come to the bizarre realization that blue corn chips combined with the birthday cake tasted just like Cap'n Crunch. Still not sure if that was a good thing.

Birthday Cake Contestants

Contestant #5 is a Coconut Cake.

I mostly picked this one because Coconut Cakes are so classic and beautiful -- I'm not sure this would be in my top ten favorite flavors, but it's about what it represents. This cake is some kind of feminine ideal and it is a complete mystery to me. I have absolutely no idea how those flakes stick to the sides. I can imagine the disaster I would have on my hands if I tried to replicate this. I can't even get cakes out of pans, much less layer them in such a delicate and ladylike way.

It makes me wish for the day (however nonexistant it may be) when I have mastered some baking skills a la Ina Garten, live in a well-kept and well-stocked house, and actually own a cake plate. It makes mewant to toss away 50 years of feminism and throw on an apron and pearls! Or more accurately, order one online from a local baker and pick it up on the way home from a high-powered equal-pay job.

Tie-Die Birthday Cake

Maybe it was the concurrent Top Chef marathon, but the birthday cake turned out pretty well last night. Only problem was trying to get them out of the pans. Why is there not a technologically advanced way to do this yet? I won't lie, the top layer has some fault lines.

I will hopefully have a beautiful slice to take a photo of and post after the party tomorrow. Until then, here's all the prep pics. No recipe really required-- I used a box mix (Pillsbury Moist Deluxe butter yellow because it was on sale for 99 cents). Separated them into bowls and added food coloring. That was the best part because it was just like mixing colors on a palette, but not so difficult since I was only going straight primary/secondary. So more like finger paint, really. Oiled and floured two 8 inch round pans. Put one scoop after the other in the ROY G BIV order (only used red, orange, green, blue and purple because again, no one cares about indigo and yellow is kinda stupid when the cake itself is yellow). Reverse order in the other pan. Baked 34 minutes at 350 (after preheating which the Boy was very adamant on that taking at least twenty minutes).

For the cream cheese icing I used the ratios in our old school Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. 1 pkg cream cheese to 1/2 stick butter, 2 tsp. vanilla, then slowly add in 2 cups powdered sugar. Made the icing yellow (though the iPhone doesn't do the color justice) to make up for neglecting it in the rainbow cake. Now we just pray it doesn't meet some horrible fate between now and the party tomorrow. My added stress for wanting to get it out the way in case another unholy baking disaster befell me, and I had to resort to buying a replacement cake. So it's not gorgeous or very tall, but when the only thing you tweak is just putting flavorless food coloring in it, you really can't go wrong. Well, whenever I have to bake anything, actually, it's astounding what all can go wrong. But this time it didn't. I just hope it got all whirly inside and looks cool despite it's somewhat Lilliputian proportions.

Oh and we saw Bobby Flay lose a fish taco "takedown" because he grilled his mahi mahi. Thinking about making some of the fish beer-battered to be more legitimately Baja...

Birthday Contestant #4

So, my philosophy in the dessert world, in case you haven't guessed by now, is "go big or go home."

This Chocolate Praline Cake fits wonderfully with my Epicurean credo. Take something truly sinful, like pralines (sugar, butter, nuts) and do something spectacular like add a dense chocolate cake under it.

It should come as no surprise to many of you that this recipe originated in Southern Living -- the Southern ladies bible. Thinking back, SL was the first food porn and general guide on living the good life I used to salivate over each month. And my mom must have 30 of their cookbooks. Before Foodgawker and Tastespotting, even Martha Stewart, there was SL.

Birthday Cake Contestant

Contestant #3 is bringing the nostalgia factor. These ice cream cone cupcakes from Papery and Cakery are like the ones my mom made for us and our preschool friends for day care birthdays. I have been trying to remember favorite birthday cakes in the past, but kept coming up blank (except for home churned ice cream) until I saw these guys. And I'm now realizing this entry and contestant #1 may prove that I actually prefer the ice cream to the cake...

Birthday Cake Contestant

Contestant #2: Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake

Clumbsy Cookie posted this a few months ago and it certainly seems to be the new acme of deliciousness. Cheesecakes are my hands -down favorite kind of cakes, though making them tends to cause me the greatest amounts of stress. I'm not partial to this one's graham cracker crust (the boring yet popular standard), but at least there's cocoa powder mixed in. Ferrero Rochers and Baci are my two favorite Italian chocolates, and Nutella was a major staple of my diet whenever I visited Europe (and makes occasional, albeit dangerous, cameos in my cabinets here).

I fell off the hazelnut wagon a few years ago when I bought a huge bag of 'em at Trader Joe's and kind of OD'ed. The memory of hazelnut buter still makes me a little green. But I think this cake could revive my love for the hazelnut and send me spiraling into a birthday chocolate-Nutella-cheesecake dream state. My hippie party has suddenly gotten a little more psychedelic.

Birthday Cake Contestants

So I've already got two birthday cakes in store for me come the 21st. But there are so many other delicious contenders in the world that I thought I'd just put one up a day for the next week or so.

This ice cream cake just caught my eye on One Perfect Bite because it's so super-easy, yet I've never seen anything exactly like it before. You just mix some peanut butter, melted chocolate and Rice Krispies together, then mix the hardened candy into softened ice cream and refreeze in a springform pan. It comes out looking so much more sophisticated than it really is, and you can use almost any chopped candy and any flavor ice cream. Plus, as a July birthday, I've had my share of ice cream cakes and I never like the block hard ice cream next to the stiff, dry, flavorless cake. This one is like the perfect solution!