Let's Celebrate!

This past Wednesday marked an important day for us - a celebration of Molly's birth. Though her day was filled with a bit of sadness worldwide at the passing of Apple's founder Steve Jobs, we pressed on and ate our way through the day as a way of celebrating her 27 years here so far!



I surprised Molly in the morning with the standard Happy Birthday pennant and a homemade meal of migas, a delicious blend of black beans, tomatoes, onion, garlic, bell peppers, and a serrano chile. On top I placed two fried eggs and a side of whole wheat toast. The smell filled the apartment and our bellies with a big "HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!"



I suppose the real star of the day was the 4-layer chocolate cake with espresso buttercream and chocolate ganache. I started this concoction on Monday after Molly had selected the item from the cookbook Baked Explorations. It had many steps, a great deal of ingredients and baking techniques, and almost too much butter. I mean, we're talking Paula Deen quantities of butter. I felt judged b a nearby couple picking up the three pounds of butter at Whole Foods earlier this week.



After returning home from a delicious meal at Delancey--a local and delicious pizza joint that served us perfectly salty Castelvetrano olives and a crispy sausage pizza with pickled fennel and freshly grated Grana Padano cheese--we had a few friends over to help tackle the monstrous cake I had created for Molly's birthday. This thing must have easily weighed 10 pounds. Molly leaned close to blow out her candles, after which I cut slices for all and topped with homemade vanilla bean ice cream.



There's much more cake to be eaten. At least half. So please let us know if you'd like to come over for a slice. I'll have a bit more to share about the birthday celebration and details about making the cake next week!
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Eric
Eric Lovelin Photography