Happy Birthday Jason!
Jason's birthday is Sunday!
We were going to wait until the weekend to make his cake but Alex saw the recipe I had printed out and demanded that we have it today. I'm a bad enough mother that I find it easier to have a party 3 days early than listen to my toddler whine about not having cake all weekend long.
While I was making the cake Alex held the recipe, which included a photo, and made sure mine looked exactly the same. I was doing fine until it was time to put the second glaze on, which was white. (First glaze was chocolate.) For some reason mine soaked in instead of staying op top of the cake. Alex was crushed. When Jason first saw the cake Alex sadly said "I made you a cake daddy. But it has no white on it. Mommy did it wrong." lol
The cake turned out amazing, might just be one of the best cakes I've ever made.(Though one year I did make him a 5 layer chocolate fudge cake with pumpkin frosting and rolled in slivered almonds.) Jason loves the flavor orange and in Belfast they had lots of chocolate candy with orange in it and he was so happy with that combination. So I found a chocolate orange cake online and loosely followed the recipe. (Of course, have you ever known me to follow a recipe exactly?)You could really taste the orange in the cake, and it was so moist and rich!
This is the recipe, please don't ask me how I changed it as I just start throwing random things in the bowl until it looks right.
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/12/chocolate-orange-cake.html
I'm very proud that mine turned out just as pretty as hers, minus the white glaze.
After Alex and I made the cake I asked Dorothy if she had any party decorations. (It does not matter what I ask her for...she has had it - every single time. It's amazing.) She dug out this huge box of decorations that she's been collecting for....well forever as she never, ever, throws anything away. Ever.
Inside were a bunch of decorations from Jason's 13th birthday!!! It was a football theme party and she had the cake decorations, cups, plates, etc! Rebecca thought this was so funny and asked if we could use them so we did! Dorothy even got out the pic from his 13th party! lol
19 years later and the decorations are still looking good! (Note the finger prints from where Alex was testing to make sure the glaze tasted ok.)
Jason was amused with the whole ordeal, sort of like déjà vu.
It's like one of those highlights "spot the differences" puzzle. Even the plates in the china cabinet in the background are the same.
Thanks Dorothy and Gaylord for helping us make Jason's birthday so special!