Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Birthday

Today's my birthday. Thank you, blogger profile, for noticing that I am one year away from a decade change. Bastards.

It's also Eleanor Roosevelt's birthday, and National Coming Out Day (purely a coincidince, I'm sure).

To celebrate (my birthday, not coming out -- not that there's anything wrong with that), I'm updating my blog pic. I thought it appropriate to have a picture that was taken in the past five days , as opposed to the past five years. (Heavily photoshopped, but recent.) It's bigger than I'd like, but if I shrink it down I'll look freakish, and that's not a look I strive for. Typically.

My goal for the day is to bake two birthday cakes: one for Shane (his birthday is tomorrow, as is our anniversary) and one for myself, but I'm not sure I'll actually get that far. While baking a birthday cake for yourself is a lot less pathetic when you're a foodie, I'm not sure that makes it completely unpathetic. If nothing else will give me a chance to consume sugary calories while practicing cake decorating techniques.

Here's what we did last night in cake decorating class:


I don't think Martha would deign to make it, but Kian and Sadie liked. And, it gives me practice using a star tip.

UPDATE: To assemble this cake, you'll need two 5-inch cake rounds. Each round should be level, so trim as necessary. Flip each round so that the bottom becomes the top. Sandwich icing between the layers.

Slice the cake vertically a bit off center.

Place cake halves perpendicular to each other.

The horizontal part of the "T" will be the dog's face, while the vertical part will be the dog's body. Starting in the middle of the dog's back and using a star tip (I used Wilton #21) pipe frosting down and away, trailing a bit onto the plate beneanth the cake. Continue piping until the cake is covered with frosting "fur." When the entire cake is covered, pipe on ears, a tail, and muzzle.

Take a small bit of leftover buttercream and tint pink and black, respectively. Place separate frosting colors into small plastic bags and snip a small corner off of each bag. Use the pink frosting to create pink bows by the ears and tail. Pipe black dots onto the dog's face for its eyes and nose.

Congratulations -- you've created a kitschy dog cake!

7 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

Hey, you look great, and FWIW, 29 is *really* young.

Anonymous said...

Your cake was wonderful. I enjoyed every bite of it. You can bake for us here at HWS anytime.
Late Happy Birthday

Bette Martin
IT Services
HWS

Anonymous said...

Happy belated birthday, Laura!

Lis said...

Happy Birthday to my most favorite New Yorker of all time!! I love the updated picture.. so pretty =)

That maltese is adorable! You did a fantastic job, it - seriously - looks professional. I want one! :D

I hope your birthday was wonderful- and happy birhtday to Shane as well! *hugs*

PS - Uhh... your "turn of the decade" birthday is so not old, lady. In November I'll be 12 years shy of the 1/2 century mark, so shuttit! teee! :D

Laura Rebecca said...

Thank you for the birthday greetings, ladies!

While I'm very aware that 29 is not old (if for no other reason that my parents are 25 and 27 years older than me, and they're not old) my birthday does make me reflect on where I am, where I was, & where I'm going.

I feel that in many ways, I've been largely defined by my age (if I had a nickle for everytime someone said "God, you look so young!" or "You're so with it/ mature for your age" I'd be very rich). So as I become less young, the way I'm defined will certainly change, and obviously, I'll be changing as well.

That's not to that the way I look at myself is shaped solely by the way others see me. But I am keenly aware of the effects of perception, particularly as it relates to age, and I've been reflecting on that a lot lately.

I keep in contact with a handful of friends from high school (Thank you MySpace!) and the majority of them aren't living in the situation that I am: I can only think of one who is married with kids, and his youngest is still in elementary School, where as I just went to a middle school (aka Jr. High) Open House last night. It's very different, and while it's always what I've wanted (that is, to be happily married with kids and a job that I love) I can't help but wonder about the "Road Not Taken."

In short, the Talking Heads' "Once In a Lifetime" has been playing in MY head quite a bit:

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful Wife
And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?

Laura Rebecca said...

Lis, I'm going to explain how to assemble that cake on the above post -- thank you for making me think of that!

Alanna Kellogg said...

Happy Birthday! And the cake is too fun!