A tall cake for the tall birthday boy

I have three younger brothers:

• the first one is a year younger than I (more on him later)
• the middle one has the same birthday as I do, only six years later (I think this is why we can get along the best when things are on the up and up– because we share the same kind of interests and for the most part have similar qualities. On the flipside, we also have the worst kind of fights.)
• the youngest one is my sweetie pie, because he is the sweetest little boy I know

I’d be lying if I said we all got along perfectly fine, but I’d also be lying if I did not admit that a big reason why I love my life is because of these three doofuses. I’ve talked about my middle brother before because we inevitably make joint decisions on birthday cakes given that we share the same birthday, but today let us focus on brother number 1.

It was his birthday last Saturday, and of course I made him a cake. After singing him his birthday song, I let him cut the cake and he went, ‘Whoa! This is a tall cake!’

So I told him, as if I did it on purpose, ‘Well, your cake is supposed to be as tall as you!’

Let me tell you something about this birthday boy: He is a darling. All six feet and three or four inches of him may at first look kind of intimidating, but inside he is really a teddy bear just waiting to come out. This is probably the same discovery people make about him, which is why he has even more friends than I do. He is a bit of an Einstein, geeky but endearingly so, and although he spends a lot of time in front of the computer (he is a computer whiz, after all) he finds a way to be there when you need him.

My brothers and I do this little sibling meeting sometimes and he provides the comic relief for when we’re all getting tense about a certain subject. I have to be honest, I can’t imagine my life without any of my brothers– and him especially since he’s been there right from the beginning, being born a year after me and all.

There is this photo of us as wittle kids, toddlers really, where I have practically deformed his face squeezing him so tightly into a hug. Sometimes I wish I could still do that, but even being as tall as I am at 5 feet 10, I only stand up to his shoulder. And shoulders are not something you can wrap your arms around and squeeze without hurting yourself.

There is really just one thought in my head at this point as I stare at the photo, ‘My goodness, time really flies by fast!’ I can’t even remember the time he was this little; let alone I was this little! Time is such an odd thing to grasp.

Happy 20th birthday, Kev!

This is my first yellow cake, and it certainly will not be the last. I just have a teensy issue with this particular recipe: It came out a little too dry. I do think it is because I over-baked it, since I followed everything else except for the baking time. I must’ve went about 15 minutes past the instructed time because the middle of my cake layers weren’t baked through. I should have squeezed both my pans into the centre rack together (I later found out they fit) instead of going two layers in the oven. The heat did not circulate evenly I suppose.

In any case, I still recommend this cake, because it tastes absolutely fantastic! The yellow cake has such great flavour, and coupled with the slightly sour, slightly tangy, deliciously chocolatey frosting, it tasted just perfect. Just don’t go over-baking now!

I think I officially like yellow cakes a lot better than white ones. I couldn’t keep away from this even though I found it dry and slightly crumbly, mostly because it tastes really good. Kev doesn’t seem to care about the texture much either because he says it’s yummy anyway (he pretty much eats and appreciates everything I bake). I probably wouldn’t have believed it had I not craved for and consumed several slices of this myself. And I’m not even a cake person.