Happy Birthday To Me!

Yes, I am well aware my birthday has come and gone. I share my special day with Christina, and this year she was away at Senior Retreat, Nic was in Colorado and so it was Scott and I. We had ice cream cake early to celebrate Christina's birthday, but an ice cream cake doesn't qualify for my birthday cake. So I baked my own cake, then got caught up in the day, and ended up freezing it, and never even got a taste or a glob of frosting on it. Now I have had flourless chocolate cakes, ganaches, vanilla bean genoise, I have baked or tasted it all. So what do I want when I want cake? The humble angel food cake with sticky frosting. Straight from my childhood.

Many years ago, I sold Duncan Hines Cake Mix. Proudly the only layer cake mix on the market at that time without beef tallow (a nice name for cow fat) or lard (that would be pig fat). Blech! Duncan Hines taught me to be a label reader. Nowadays, the trans fat cops do a lot of the work for you. Also back in the old days, Duncan Hines made a two-step angel food cake mix, and it was divine. But no, the American housewife felt like two steps was a step too many. So the new and improved mix hit the market and the little old ladies were, quite frankly, a little pissed. At least in Iowa. The new mix didn't really taste home made to them, I wouldn't know. But alas, even I would agree it is a LOT easier than home made. I love egg whites, I love beating them into glossy peaks, baking the meringue, folding them in batters, but I have never baked an angel food cake from scratch. Sue me. There are some things I shortcut, not many. Maybe on that day when I have a dozen eggs begging for a job to do, I'll whip one up, maybe someday soon. But on my birthday, time was of the essence and I made a Duncan Hines Angel Food Cake, and still didn't have time to frost or eat it.

So on this brutally hot August day, my belly declared it was tired of all the raw veggies and vinegar I seem to be eating so much of. I need a sugar fix. So I defrosted the cake and made Seven Minute Icing . Honestly, I could put this stuff on rice cakes. I could eat the entire fluffy bowl of goodness. So I piled it on to high heaven. Plugged up the hole in the middle of the cake, and plopped a candle for the lonely little birthday that came and went. Don't be feeling sorry for me. You should be very jealous. This is heavenly!