Weekend mornings are my quiet time. My reflection time. My list-making time. And on this weekend, the first of the new year, my list is long. Today, I find myself in the quiet of the house thinking about the things I had wanted to accomplish in 2020, and spend time moving of few of those goals over to the 2021 column. While I desire to put the mayhem of holiday celebrations behind me, and move confidently into the new year, I know deep down inside that I’m not yet done with the celebrating.
The Celebrations Keep Coming
It is an exhausting time of the year. In addition to the holiday celebrations, 3 of our 4 children celebrate birthdays. The twins’ birthday falls in the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve – so its more presents, more cake, and finding a way to make their birthday special in the midst of all the holiday madness. At 14, and my babies are full-fledged teens. They’re peas in a pod, but also branching out and truly finding their own way.
As I sit here, exhausted, and preparing for a new work week – a busy one, especially after the holiday break, I know I’m not done yet. One more birthday to go. This time around, I’m in the stages of planning a 16th birthday celebration for my dear, Nicolina.
Each year it is the same story: I’m exhausted and just want to get back to the mundane of every day living. But, I plow through that desire and set out to ensure my daughter’s birthday is special. Her early January birthday is the caboose in the long stretch of end-of-the-year celebrations that is filled with so many yearly traditions.
Of course around here, food is always a part of our family celebrations. It binds us together and brings us around the table to enjoy and create those special memories. And, as my children continue to move through their teenage years, I’m ever more aware that this togetherness is fleeting, as they will soon be out on their own.
A Production Line of Food
The December holidays brings on a production line of preparing traditional foods: baking holiday cookies using our hand-me-down recipes, multiple batches of marshmallows for cups upon cups of hot chocolate, getting our homemade ravioli production line going for the Everage family Christmas Eve meal, and ordering Joe’s Stone Crabs shipped from Miami for New Year’s Eve dinner.
We just blew through the twins’ chocolate cake in less than 24 hours. Am I really ready for more cake after all the cookie and sweets baking in the month of December? Honestly, I just want to eat a bunch of leafy greens and healthy meals for now.
Yet through all the exhaustion and my expanding waistline, I’ll be planning ways to make Nicole’s day special. My kids are beyond those themed cakes I baked when they were younger, (i.e. no need to bake another a mermaid cake) but rest assured, there will be a homemade cake.
I take another sip of my coffee, grab my pen, and cross off my “stop eating sweets” note from this week’s To Do list. For the next few days, I’ll peruse my cookbooks and recipe binder in search of a cake that will be the perfect backdrop for celebrating birthday #16 for my sweet young lady.
If you’re looking for a delicious cake regardless of whichever you shape you fashion it into, check out this
Easy Chocolate Buttermilk Cake Recipe
- 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cups unsweetened cocoa
- 1-3/4 cups sugar
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1-1/4 tsp salt
- 1-1/2 cups buttermilk
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 large eggs
- 1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, or 10-inch Bundt pan. Dust pans with cocoa.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
In a medium bowl, with wire whisk, mix buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla until blended. Add buttermilk mixture to flour mixture and whisk until smooth.
Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 30 minutes for 9-inch layers, or about 40 minutes for Bundt pan. Cool in pans on wire racks about 10 minutes, then run a thin knife around layers to loosen from pan, and invert onto rack to cool completely.
Frost away — I prefer a Classic Butter Frosting.
