My sister and I, and her daughter have birthdays all within the same week. So of course we refer to this as Birthday Week. There is a lot of cake baking activity. And though my family are far away, I have nearby friends with birthdays this week, too, and I try to keep up the tradition of baking all week long.
Starting with Lawrence who turned “closer to 100 than to 50” on Monday the 25th. I baked him a pie, since he prefers that to cake. As a Georgia boy, his preference is always peach. That’s a challenge in winter, but I sourced some rare frozen peaches this year. Yay! Happy birthday, Lawrence!
My niece’s 32nd birthday is today. She’s married and owns a house and is generally doing all the grown-up things but I still think of her as a very young woman. Ever youthful! It is also Shimizu-san’s birthday. He’s also ever youthful, even though he’s turning 73 today. Last week we built the patio together. Today I’ll made him a cake and deliver it as a 3:00 snack during his workday.
My sister’s birthday on Friday coincides with two local friends. Susan in Tokyo is a fire horse, like me, so my elder by three days. And Ushimura-san at Oyama Senmaida also shares my sister’s birthday; she’s about to celebrate her kanreki. Good people are born on March 29th. I have a baking plan for black bottomed cupcakes. I haven’t had them a long time; I hope they are as delicious as I remember.
[3/29 UPDATE: the black bottomed cupcakes completely failed, so I baked a reliable favorite from my 1930s baking book and topped them with ganache and candied orange.]
My birthday on the 1st will also have a cake, though I haven’t quite decided what I will make. Something lemon-y, perhaps, using the lemon curd Ashley gave me.
We wind up birthday week (it’s a slightly extended week) on April 2nd with the celebration of Maura and Fritter’s 5th birthday this year. They will be enjoying a tuna confection of some sort, no baking required.
With all this cake making in the next few days, I think I’d better get some extra flour when I go shopping today!
