I'm turning thirty, which when written out like that makes me kind of queasy, so I'll refrain from doing that again. I'm not at all daunted by it and feel ready to leave behind my 20s, and to welcome in the new decade I'm trying to find the perfect cake recipe. Yes I will be making my own birthday cake, it's one of my great pleasures in life, and this way I get to choose.
There have already been two birthday celebrations (and three birthday cakes) in the last few weeks, and since I've provided all three of them (happily), I kind of want to pull out all the stops for my own. Cake #1 was chocolate with peanut butter frosting, cake #2 was David Leibowitz's carrot cake, and cake #3 was gluten-free, chock full of dates and ground almonds and a LOT of chocolate - it was fudgy and soo good that I had to request my sister take the remainder out of the house because I was justifying eating it for breakfast, lunch and snacks (you know, because of the dates, it was healthy...).
Right now I'm torn between two routes: do I make the outrageously sugary and delicious-looking (and -sounding) pumpkin s'more cake that I've been eyeing since the fall or one of Babycakes' cupcakes, which is more in line with my new baking philosophy - also delicious-looking, but requires a slightly revamped pantry. I'm borrowing the Babycakes cookbook right now, and every one of her cupcake recipes is calling my name. I have no idea what half of the ingredients are and what they do (xanthan gum?!) but I love baking with coconut oil and almond milk, and am trying to eliminate sugar (so far fairly successfully, aside from the above cake list) and since Erin Mckenna, Babycakes founder, is the queen of vegan and sugar-free baking, and also so darned cute, I'm set on one of her recipes in the hopes that it will make me more like her.
I'm leaning slightly towards Babycakes' carrot cake, but am super anxious about the frosting. There's always a lot riding on the frosting, and in this case, being free of icing sugar and butter (eeek!) it could go either way. Updates and recipes to follow. Fingers crossed.
