A Baked Birthday

We have a Birthday trifecta in our house. during the months of December and January, all three of us celebrate our Birthdays.  My husband and our daughter are a mere 6 days apart.  Needless to say, there are many Birthday cakes baked and consumed during these celebrations.

This year my daughter had a woodland theme for her Birthday.  I found some little wooden mushrooms and a moss table runner at ACME Party Box Company and covered the walls in mushroom decals from Single Story on Etsy.

While I was baking the cake I realized that I had a definite go-to cookbook for special occasion cakes.  It was a gift from a friend for Christmas one year and after making the majority of the cakes in it, I can safely say they are delicious!

Image courtesy of bakednyc.com

Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito are the owners of Baked in Red Hook Brooklyn. Their mission was to open a "...great American bakery that is not a cupcake shop".  They both write that they really, really enjoy dessert, and it shows.  The recipes offer a new take on old classics like Grasshopper cake, German Chocolate cake and Red Velvet.

Last year's Salted Caramel cake was delicious but this year she chose the Red Hot Red Velvet.  The recipe acknowledges that, while the original cream cheese frosting for this cake is delicious, they felt that it could be updated by making a cinnamon buttercream instead and adding Red Hots.  The result was delicious.  It made a large three-layer cake, big enough to freeze the left-overs and enjoy some after the Birthday celebrations have ended.