birthday cake for my forever young mom

We celebrated Mom’s birthday today. I’ve been making her birthday cake for forty two years. Since the year that she taught me to bake. As I carried her cake into the dining room while singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, I smiled at how much I love having young parents.

When I was a little girl, I wanted my mom to be old. She didn’t look like other mothers. She had long blonde hair, wore bikinis in the summer and went to exercise class long before women worked out! The other kids in my neighborhood would tease me because my mom looked like my older sister.

I remember walking home with a little girl who tortured me constantly about one thing or the other. As we were coming across the field behind my house, we saw my dad kissing Mom while they were standing in front of the kitchen window. I was horrified! I could hear the taunts behind me as I ran the rest of the way home.

I burst through the backdoor in tears and promptly asked my parents to stop kissing and in fact to never kiss again. They scooped me up in their arms to find out what all the fuss was about. There was no way that I could ever explain how terrible it was to have such young parents.

How blessed I am…

Triple Decker Coconut Cake

Preheat oven 350*F

Grease and flour 3 – 8” round cake pans

5 eggs, separated
1 cup butter, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 cup milk
1 cup flaked coconut

Mix vinegar and milk together and set aside.

Beat egg whites until stiff then set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light then add yolks and vanilla – beat well.

Sift flour with salt.

Mix baking soda into soured milk. Working in thirds, alternating dry ingredients with soured milk until well blended.

Fold in coconut.

Fold in egg whites.

Divide batter between pans

Bake for 30 minutes or until cake tester comes out of cake cleanly.

Cool on a cooling rack for ten minutes then remove cakes from pans.

Return cakes to cooling rack and cool completely before filling and frosting.

THE LOVE: Take your time when folding in the egg whites. You want to leave as much air as possible.

printable copy

one year ago: Giant Globe Artichoke with French Vinaigrette

Thanks for reading.