Valentine's Day and my birthday celebration

 The Birthday Cake I made - GF and LC

My hubby's family celebrates pretty good.  We all get together, have a great meal, there are lots of presents, and we always have fun.  I thought these poppers were cute and brought these for the first time to our party.  We will try these again, but through a different maker.
The cake I made was another variation of this one I had been contemplating Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese

I doubled this cake:

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake 

• 1/2 cup almond flour, firmly packed
• 1/3 cup coconut flour, firmly packed (usually this amount is doubled if sifted instead of packed)
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp  baking soda
• 3/4  cup  honey
• 5  eggs
• 1/2 cup  butter, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1/4  cup  strong brewed coffee, hot
• dash of salt

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Whisk together wet ingredients, except coffee.
3. Add dry ingredients. Combine well.
4. Whisk in coffee.
5. Pour into greased pans or cupcake tin lined with wrappers.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes for cupcakes or until cake tests clean with toothpick.
7. Remove from pans, cool completely before icing.

* This recipe can also be used in a 9×13 pan, 2, 8-9inch round cake pans, or 1 dozen cupcakes

With Cherries on top

I used the canned cherry pie filling to layer in between each of the layers, and home made whip cream.

Dinner - a Crab Feast! This is my favorite birthday of the year, and it is my brother-in-laws favorite as well.  I hope that we can do a crab feast every year to celebrate my birthday!

a Balloon bouquet from my mother-in-law

I love Star Gazers

My niece decorating her uncle, He's so patient with her

presents and the cake

The cake looked better before our drive to my mother-in-laws house, in this picture it just looks like it's bleeding to me. My sister-in-law also brought a Boston cream cake, another favorite.

The Family

The Birthday Loot

I received lots of wonderful things, and have been having a great time putting all of these to great use.  That is a real Wizard of Oz lunch box, the metal kind large and pretty.  I had to take it to work to show it off. 


On my birthday, I did have to work.  Luckily my boss believes in celebrating birthdays.
My office was decorated and the party was set for lunch.

My office space decorated

Birthday lunch Celebration, the pink hat is mandatory for the festivities

along with my gift, I was presented with this and the compliments that are pasted on the board now.

My weekend of celebration was wonderful.  We had a great time with family, I had a lovely work party, and we got to spend the night dining together to celebrate both my birthday and our Valentine's day together.  Everyone celebrates holidays and birthday's in different ways, but what ever your celebrations look like, enjoy them.  Savor every moment, life is to short not to enjoy these moments.

Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

I'm having an interesting revelation today.  I made these recipes yesterday, and loved them. I shared with my co-workers and they too loved them.  I know that sharing this cake recipe with you is something wonderful and you will enjoy this chocolate cake recipe as well.  My epiphany came when I was thinking of post it, I got the pictures and the recipe, but then I was not going to say much else.  I've noticed that I have been doing that lately, it's not that I don't feel the need to talk, but I do this every so often.  It seems that there are dark times that I go through, I'm not sure if others go through this in the same way, but I decided to share.   When I go through these times, I seem to grow silent, I'm sorry.  I will try to make these times few and far between.

I have another fun little tidbit for you all, I have lots of almond flour and coconut flour to use. I generally bake in between Halloween and Christmas, and then I only bake for birthdays and for guests.  I have 5lbs of almond flour to use! eek!  I've also wanted to make a moist lower carb gluten free chocolate cake, and this recipe looked like it would fit the bill.  I was not disappointed, in fact I was delighted with the results.  Keep in mind that gluten free baked goods do not rise like their gluten infused counterparts, so fill the cup cake things about 3/4 full, or a little more. 

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake 

• 1/2 cup almond flour, firmly packed
• 1/3 cup coconut flour, firmly packed
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp  baking soda
• 3/4  cup  honey
• 5  eggs
• 1/2 cup  butter, melted
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 1/4  cup  strong brewed coffee, hot
• dash of salt

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Whisk together wet ingredients, except coffee.
3. Add dry ingredients. Combine well.
4. Whisk in coffee.
5. Pour into greased pans or cupcake tin lined with wrappers.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes for cupcakes or until cake tests clean with toothpick.
7. Remove from pans, cool completely before icing.

* This recipe can also be used in a 9×13 pan, 2, 8-9inch round cake pans, or 1 dozen cupcakes

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8oz Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 Cup butter, softenend
1 Cup confectioners Sugar (more can be added if you want it sweeter)
1 1/2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Delicious Birthday wishes!

I had to share my birthday well wishes from Cooking Light Table Talk, it was to good looking not to share. Of course I will most likely be making some further adjustments to the recipe, but I think I will have to try this one. Dear Dawn,   The Cooking Light Table Talk Team would like to extend our wishes for the happiest of birthdays. May the upcoming year be full of personal and culinary delight and discovery. Thank you for continuing to mix, dish, and decide with us! Happy Birthday, Cooking Light Table Talk

Black Forest Cherry Cake

Ingredients
Filling:
2/3  cup  sugar
2/3  cup  cranberry juice cocktail
1/4  cup  water
3  tablespoons  cornstarch
2  (14.5-ounce) cans pitted tart cherries in water, drained

Cake:
7.75  ounces  all-purpose flour (about 1 3/4 cups)
2  cups  sugar
3/4  cup  unsweetened cocoa
2  teaspoons  baking soda
1  teaspoon  baking powder
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1  cup  nonfat buttermilk
1  cup  fat-free milk
1/4  cup  canola oil
1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
2  large eggs
Cooking spray
2  cups  frozen reduced-fat whipped topping, thawed
1  tablespoon  kirsch (cherry brandy)
1/2  ounce  dark chocolate curls
Preparation
1. To prepare filling, combine first 4 ingredients in a large saucepan; stir until cornstarch dissolves. Heat pan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Cook 1 minute or until sugar mixture is very thick, stirring constantly. Remove sugar mixture from heat. Stir in cherries. Cool completely; cover and set aside.
2. To prepare cake, preheat the oven to 350°.
3. Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 5 ingredients (through salt) in a large bowl; stir with a whisk. Combine buttermilk, milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs in a bowl; stir with a whisk. Add buttermilk mixture to sugar mixture; beat with a mixer at medium speed just until well blended (batter will be thin).
4. Pour batter into 2 (9-inch) round cake pans coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.
5. Place 1 cake layer on a plate, and spoon half of cherry mixture (about 1 1/2 cups) evenly over the top, leaving a 1/4-inch border around edges. Combine whipped topping and kirsch in a small bowl. Spoon 1 cup whipped topping mixture evenly over cherry mixture. Top with remaining cake layer. Spoon remaining 1 1/2 cups cherry mixture onto cake layer, leaving a 1/2-inch border around edges. Spoon remaining 1 cup whipped topping mixture onto cherry mixture, leaving a 2-inch border from the edge of the cake layer. Garnish with chocolate curls. Cover loosely, and chill until ready to serve.

Yield

16 servings

Nutritional Information

Calories: 295 Fat: 6.4g (sat 2.3g,mono 2.5g,poly 1.2g) Protein: 4.4g Carbohydrate: 58.2g Fiber: 2.1g Cholesterol: 27mg Iron: 1.9mg Sodium: 259mg Calcium: 70mg

I am considering trying this recipe for the cake instead, and then using the filling for the rest of it.  I'm considering using the applesauce and honey one reader used instead of the sugar, it should add a bit more moisture as well as having less processed sugar.  I'm ready to celebrate my birthday in style.

Photo by Jeremiah Shilhavy

Coconut Flour Chocolate Cake

• 1 cup butter - softened
• 1 2/3 cups sugar (white or brown, Sarah recommends the whole sugar)
• 10 eggs (at room temperature)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups coconut flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/3 cups whole milk or half n’ half
• Coconut oil

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9 inch or 8 inch layer pans with coconut oil and dust with cocoa powder.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter and sugar, and beat together for about 2 minutes. Add eggs in one at a time and beat high speed for about 3 minutes. Add in the vanilla while beating the eggs and butter mixture. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients together and add alternately with the milk to the butter mixture. Beat batter for about five minutes on high speed. Spoon batter into the two prepared cake pans and smoothen out tops.

Bake in preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or until toothpick inserted into the center of cake comes out clean. Place pans on wire rack and cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans. Cool cakes completely before frosting. Use your favorite frosting to frost the cake.

Peppermint Chocolate cake variation: add 1 teaspoon peppermint extract to batter before pouring into pans and mix well. Frost cake with peppermint frosting or frosting of your choice.

Cupcakes: Make recipe as directed but spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for about 26-30 minutes. Frost after cupcakes have cooled completely. Makes about 24 cupcakes.

recipe by Sarah Shilhavy