what do you do, hotshot?

[fakely_mctest]

Like Speed only far, far boringer.

I'm doing a birthday dinner again this year since last year's was so much fun. I need food suggestions. Last year I had:

appetizers

• cheese and crackers
  
• grapes
  
• hummus with pretzel sticks

main dishes

• vegetarian gumbo
  
• rosemary/lemon marinated broiled chicken skewers
  
• red beans and rice
  
• green salad
  
• vinegar cucumber

Comments

[snarkycomments]

Ooh, the strawberries and cream cake sounds amazing.

[fakely_mctest]

I know! That's why it's so hard to choose! And everything is made from scratch and it's good. But, alas, I cannot get both.

[saharawi]

yeah, but there should always be a chocolatey option for dessert.

[fakely_mctest]

What can I say? I'm a non-conformist. Chocolate is mostly too much for me.

And plus, Cakelove's vanilla gives new meaning to the word "vanilla." New, non-boring meaning.

[fakely_mctest]

Don't get me wrong, their chocolate cakes are good too:

Neil's Hat Trick: 3 chocolates shine in this tall, serious cake. White and dark chocolate cakes sandwich vanilla buttercream and fresh raspberries under a glaze of chocolate ganache. A fantastic party cake.

New German Chocolate: This moist, smooth, chocolate &cream cake is filled with a rich coconut-vanilla infused buttercream & decorated with a simple dusting of powdered sugar...now topped with toasted coconut!

My Downfall: If chocolate is your downfall, then gleefully take it in stride. Buttery dark chocolate cake smushes wide layers of vanilla buttercream, below a rich chocolate ganache.

Toffee Crunch: Featuring homemade toffee chips, rich caramel buttercream and layers of soft chocolate cake. Also available with vanilla cake.

Chocolate on Chocolate: Soft chocolate chocolate buttercream with rich chocolate butter cake. Straightforward and simple, this classic combination is a popular favorite.

But I think I like chocolate from afar. The same way I like cheesecake.

[fakely_mctest]

Maybe that's the solution! I'll just have cakes and vodka for my birthday...

After all, a person has just so many chances to order a cake for themselves.

I mean, you're welcome to come, unless that's too weird...

Re: not weird!

[fakely_mctest]

It's at my apartment next Sunday night (June 12) at 8 PM.

[rries]

not that I'll be there or anything (because I don't really know you), but vanilla on vanilla cake rocks my socks so hard. I wish that it would be at every birthday I have from now until forever.

[fakely_mctest]

Well I'm glad SOMEONE understands. Chocolate doesn't do it for me. The vanilla Pilsbury frosting with the colorful confetti pieces in it on the other hand...

Or vanilla ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.

And with that, I've messed up my appetite for the whole.damn.day.

[rries]

ohhhh.. yes. My aunt calls that "rainbow bit cake", and we have it for EVERY family birthday.. and by that, I mean that everytime anyone in my family has a birthday, we have rainbow bit cake. I even make it at holidays sometimes, I love it that much.

[fakely_mctest]

Do you make the rainbow cake too? I like that part okay, but I'm all about the frosting. I like it as cupcakes too.

Oh my god, rainbow bit cupcakes...I just drooled on myself.

And I don't usually do the cake mix/canned frosting thing at all. My friends who don't go for it either also love the rainbow frosting. I think it's laced with...something addictive.

[edanielrya]

You could go entirely with appetizers and desserts. I've done a few parties like that, and it's gone quite well. I think it's the opportunity for more variety.

[fakely_mctest]

I would think it would also be an opportunity to take a lazy girl approach to party planning and just buy a boatload of Trader Joe's frozen appetizers.

I have to say, something about living by myself that I've just now discovered (because I am a freaking genius) is the fact that, if I want to eat some of that Ben & Jerry's frozen yogurt right out of the carton for breakfast, well, I have that power.

Autonomy to make weird food choices is underappreciated in my opinion. I remember some years ago when there were these series of ads selling VWs or something and my favorite was this guy kind of panicking because he was afraid he didn't have the authority to be a dad because he still believed in the five second rule but, as a parent, he wasn't supposed to let his kids eat off the ground. All the time he was thinking, "You can eat that cookie. That cookie is still good."