The coral-red confection stood—well, teetered a bit, actually—almost a foot tall and had my name across the top in bright blue decorator frosting. An overenthusiastic “e” was filled in to look like an “o” and the “l” was a bit shaky, but who could criticize such a gift?
I mean, he could have just bought a birthday cake, right? But at some point before my birthday, I had told my then-boyfriend, now-husband about a revered family tradition in the Hulin household.
For each birthday-person in the family (including, eventually, each in-law and grandchild), my mother would make the specific cake requested by the birthday boy or girl. This may seem like a small thing, but there were seven of us: five kids, a stay-at-home mom, and a dad who supported us all on a college professor’s salary. So, we were the kids whose birthday parties involved playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, rather than miniature donkey rides in the front yard.
That was fine with us, because our parents managed to make each of us feel celebrated and cherished on our birthdays.
A Birthday to Remember
One component was the aforementioned cakes. Over the years, we enjoyed dozens of different variations: German chocolate cake and lemon meringue; angel food and devil’s food, fresh coconut cake and carrot cake; cookie cakes, checkerboard cakes, and a butterfly-shaped orange cake.
My personal favorite, which Mom made every year that I was home to enjoy it, was a luscious affair with both red velvet and vanilla-almond layers, coconut filling, and fluffy white buttercream frosting. She decorated the edges with piped red frosting and artfully wrote my name in blue. The candles were a mix of red, white, and blue. The cake had five thin layers: red, white, red, white, and red.
When I confessed to my beau Jim that I was sad that I wouldn’t be going home to Louisiana for my birthday that year, he hatched a plan. He called my mother and got the many recipes required to make my cake. She explained that each cake flavor had to be made separately, and that the batters had to be well-beaten. She detailed that the cake had to be five layers of red-and-white stripes, and that he should portion the batter accordingly.
source - https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-leaning-tower-of-birthday-cake-that-became-a-family-legend_3105370.html
I mean, he could have just bought a birthday cake, right? But at some point before my birthday, I had told my then-boyfriend, now-husband about a revered family tradition in the Hulin household.
For each birthday-person in the family (including, eventually, each in-law and grandchild), my mother would make the specific cake requested by the birthday boy or girl. This may seem like a small thing, but there were seven of us: five kids, a stay-at-home mom, and a dad who supported us all on a college professor’s salary. So, we were the kids whose birthday parties involved playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, rather than miniature donkey rides in the front yard.
That was fine with us, because our parents managed to make each of us feel celebrated and cherished on our birthdays.
A Birthday to Remember
One component was the aforementioned cakes. Over the years, we enjoyed dozens of different variations: German chocolate cake and lemon meringue; angel food and devil’s food, fresh coconut cake and carrot cake; cookie cakes, checkerboard cakes, and a butterfly-shaped orange cake.
My personal favorite, which Mom made every year that I was home to enjoy it, was a luscious affair with both red velvet and vanilla-almond layers, coconut filling, and fluffy white buttercream frosting. She decorated the edges with piped red frosting and artfully wrote my name in blue. The candles were a mix of red, white, and blue. The cake had five thin layers: red, white, red, white, and red.
When I confessed to my beau Jim that I was sad that I wouldn’t be going home to Louisiana for my birthday that year, he hatched a plan. He called my mother and got the many recipes required to make my cake. She explained that each cake flavor had to be made separately, and that the batters had to be well-beaten. She detailed that the cake had to be five layers of red-and-white stripes, and that he should portion the batter accordingly.
source - https://www.theepochtimes.com/the-leaning-tower-of-birthday-cake-that-became-a-family-legend_3105370.html
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